We love it when we're watching a show, and recognise an actor from one of our other favourite shows (and who hasn't got IMDB open at all times when they're watching TV?!). That's what has happened with Friends and Succession, and we're here to explain it for you.
Hugo Baker, loyal Waystar Royco employee and senior vice president of communications, has been on the show since series one. He's played by Fisher Stevens, an American actor and director known for his performances as Ben in Short Circuit and Short Circuit 2, Chuck Fishman on the 1990s TV show Early Edition and Eugene in Hackers. Oh, and a little show called Friends.
Yes, that's right Hugo from Logan Roy's comms team played Phoebe's weird psychiatrist boyfriend in Friends, as one fan so astutely pointed out on Twitter.
In season one, episode 13 of Friends, Fisher played Roger, 'a shrink who analyses the gang'. Roger digs into each of the friends and hits them with some unwelcome home truths ('I hate that guy!').
One fan who noticed this vintage crossover said, 'How did I only JUST learn that Hugo from Succession is the douche psychologist Phoebe dated in season 1 of Friends?!' While another Twitter user said, 'How many of you #succession fans have realized that Hugo was the same actor who played Phoebe’s psychologist boyfriend in #friends?' Someone else added: 'I was trying to figure out where I know Hugo from Succession from and of COURSE it’s a random episode of Friends from 1994.' Good memory!
Safe to say, Fisher's role in Succession is a touch more memorable and a little bit more likeable. In the most recent episode of the fourth and final series of the hit HBO show, Hugo was involved in handling communications in the wake of Logan Roy's death. As the gang gathered at Logan's house to determine who will take over the company, delivering that message was in Hugo's hands.
However, at the end of the episode, Kendall (who was voted as Logan's successor alongside Roman) asked Hugo to spin the message without Roman's permission to suggest they had been pulling the strings for a long time. How this will play out in the next episode remains to be seen, but we can imagine things are going to get pretty ugly. Could we BE anymore on the edge of our seat?!