Angela Visser, who plays the beautiful blonde named Samantha, was Miss Holland in 1988 and Miss Universe in 1989.
During the end credits, Joey, Chandler, Phoebe, and Monica are reminiscing about high school. After Joey tells them how much he enjoyed it, Chandler informs them that he "went to boarding school with 400 boys." Prior to moving to Los Angeles at the age of 15 to live with his American father, Perry lived with his Canadian mother in Ottawa, Canada for several years, during which time he actually did briefly attend Ashbury College, a boarding school with an actual enrollment of approximately 400 boys at the time.
The soap opera Rachel is watching is actually NBC's Another World (1964) but the character names she mentions are fictional and do not match who we see on screen.
It is revealed in the bloopers of the scene with Marcel and Rachel watching "Murder, She Wrote" just before the scene where Marcel pushes the pillow off the couch, that the monkey's name in real life is Katie.
While Ross was trying to get Marcel back from Mr. Heckles, Joey asks if he can have the big magnifying glass. He asks again if he can have it on The One Where Heckles Dies (1995).