after Rachel and adopting a preg-
nant woman who would end up
giving birth in her apartment. Monica
dreamed of becoming a mother
but first found herself in search of a
man to have children with.
The One With
the Character
Who Never WasThe six friends almost had a
seventh comrade.
NBC was mostly hands-off after
ordering [Marta] Kauffman and
[David] Crane’s pilot, with their
notes running to such minor mat-
ters as the beige-toned color
of the couch in the coffeehouse.
(They preferred a less repellent
shade.) The one major suggestion
the network had for Crane and
Kauffman was the addition of an
older secondary character. NBC was
concerned that if all the main char-
acters were in their twenties, it would
distinctly limit the series’ breakout
appeal. An older character—even
one that made only occasional
appearances—could convince hesi-
tant older viewers to check in
with Friends Like Us. Perhaps, the
network thought, there might be an
older acquaintance they ran into
at the coffeehouse who could give
them advice about their lives?
It was a poor idea, and while it
would not sink the show, it would
undoubtedly weaken its spell. Kauff-
man and Crane reluctantly agreed,
and began trying to wedge the char-
acter, whom they referred to as
“Pat the Cop,” after an older police
officer who used to hang out in
the movie theater where Dream On
writers Jeff Greenstein and Jeff
Strauss used to work in Somerville,
Massachusetts, during college,
into their next script. The writers
made a good-faith attempt, even
casting the role, but hated the
resulting script so much that they
pleaded with NBC to drop the idea.
If only NBC would kill Pat the Cop,
they promised, they would give their
six protagonists parents in notable
supporting roles, and find older
guest stars to attract a more mature
audience. NBC gave its permission,
and Pat the Cop was no longer.The One Where
Jo ey Wa s
From ChicagoMatt LeBlanc’s character was
originally written as a “smug”
lothario from Illinois.
Crane and Kauffman initially pic-
tured Joey and Monica as the central
romantic couple for the show. Joey,
the perpetual horndog, would be
lured, and possibly tamed, by the
warm, affectionate Monica. In this
initial version, Joey was less dim-
witted than he would eventually
become, with an emphasis on his
ladies’-man style and his city-boy
attitude. Initially, the casting search
was for more of a leading-man
type. Crane was taken aback to findthat this approach led Joey to feel
more boring than they had expected
him to be. None of the actors they
brought in to audition conveyed the
charm they had in mind. As it stood,
Joey felt as if he did not belong
in this particular circle of friends.The One With the
Casting ConflictThe team wanted Jennifer Aniston
for the role of Rachel but she had
already shot several episodes
of an unaired CBS comedy, Muddling
Through. If the CBS series was
picked up, Friends would lose Anis-
ton midway through its first season.
Muddling Through had already
shot a half-dozen episodes, none of
which had aired, and CBS, after
some dithering, ultimately chose to
put the show on its summer sched-
ule, in the relative dead zone of
Saturday nights. Hearing the news,
[Warren] Littlefield turned to [Pres-
ton] Beckman, NBC’s scheduling
guru, with a two-word order: “Kill it.”
Beckman returned with a crafty
suggestion for eliminating Muddling
Through’s prospects. Beckman was
sitting on a trove of unreleased origi-
nal TV films adapted from Danielle
Steel novels. They were practically
guaranteed to attract a substantial,
and substantially female, audience.
If they were to be scheduled oppo-
site Muddling Through? Well, no
show about an ex-con motel man-
ager and her daffy family was likely
to provide stiff competition for
Steel’s glamorous romances.
Beckman would schedule the
Steel movies for the first few Satur-
day nights Muddling Through was
on the air, with repeats scheduled
for the weeks that followed. It
was a necessary sacrifice, giving
up some of the ratings the movies
might have garnered on another,
more attractive, night in exchange
for eliminating a rival to potential
future Thursday-night success. �↑ The gang gathers
for a Central Perk
catch-up session↙ From Left Aniston
and Schwimmer in
the Friends pilot;
LeBlanc and Cox;
Generation Friends
book jacket