These four Friends storylines that were axed by bosses would have made the show completely different
1 October 2019, 17:41 | Updated: 28 February 2020, 15:09
As it’s revealed the Friends storyline Matthew Perry turned down, we take a look at the other scripts that were axed – that we know of.
Friends ran for 10 series between 1994 and 2004, and still remains to this day one of the best American sitcoms of all time.
Now, with the celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the show in full swing, secrets from behind-the-scenes have been revealed.
In new book Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show that Defined a Television Era, writer Saul Austerlitz revealed the one storyline Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing) said no to.
Here are the four alternative Friends storylines that were axed – including the one Matthew would not film:
Chandler sneaks into a gay club
In Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show that Defined a Television Era, writer Saul Austerlitz says that Matthew Perry said no to a storyline for an episode that saw Chandler sneak into a gay club because he loved their tuna melts.
In the book, Saul writes: “Perry said no, and the story was shelved.”
Phoebe and Joey end up together
While Phoebe and Joey were best friends throughout the 10 series, many fans wanted the pair to end up together.
And while Phoebe ended up with Mike, and Joey remained single, the actors – Lisa Kudrow and Matt LeBlac – wanted to see the couple become more than friends.
In 2016, Matt told People: “Towards the end we actually pitched the idea that Joey and Phoebe had been having casual sex the entire time.
“We’d go back and shoot all the historical scenes and just before a moment that everyone recognises, there’s Joey and Phoebe coming out of a broom closet together. But they were like, ‘Nah’.”
Chandler and Monica’s original honeymoon
The scenes of Chandler and Monica heading on their honeymoon at the airport had to be re-filmed and re-scripted following the tragic 9/11 terrorist attack.
In the season eight episode, The One Where Rachel Tells Ross, Chandler and Monica were originally scripted to get into trouble at the airport after Chandler starts making jokes about bombs.
The scenes – which were filmed before the attack – were understandably re-filmed, and instead saw the couple argue with another pair on their honeymoon during their travels.
Rachel moves in with Gunther
One of the longest storylines throughout the Friends series was Gunther’s obsession with Rachel Green.
James Michael Tyler, who played Gunther, recently revealed that in an idea which never made it to filming, Rachel was meant to move in with Gunther.
Talking to Metro, he said: “It never went through but they were going to have Rachel move in with Gunther. I remember reading the first draft of that script and thinking, 'Oh man, they're never going to make this work.'
"It just didn't read, even to me. I was not ungrateful that it didn't work. Through no fault of Jennifer or myself or the writing, it just felt contrived and everything else that happened in the series, and continues to be, was quite organic.
"Nothing was contrived – let's put these two people together for no reason. Everything happened naturally and I think it's for that reason it's still loved to this day."
