EW The Ultimate Guide to 90's TV

By The Editors of Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly Magazine presents The Ultimate Guide to 90's TV.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Entertainment Weekly
• Release date: Aug 2, 2019
• ISBN: 9781547849734

Book preview

comedy.

1994-2004

Friends

THEY WERE THERE FOR YOU FOR 10 HILARIOUS SEASONS OF MUST-SEE TV. NOW CASTING DIRECTOR ELLIE KANNER REVEALS HOW SHE FOUND AMERICA’S SIX FAVORITE FRIENDS—AND WHY THEIR CHEMISTRY WAS UNDENIABLE FROM DAY 1. By Jean Bentley

From left to right: Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matthew Perry and Jennifer Aniston

IT WAS QUITE LATE IN 1994’S PILOT SEASON when newly promoted casting director Ellie Kanner was handed the script for a show called Friends and told to cast the gang of twentysomething Central Perk coffee-shop regulars. Luck of the draw, she tells EW of her fateful assignment.

In a matter of weeks she and her colleagues had to find six actors with the chemistry of lifelong, well, friends—ones who, fingers crossed, could carry a sitcom for a decade. Luckily we all know how that turned out. At the height of its success, the series averaged 25-30 million viewers per week, and its 2004 finale drew more than 50 million viewers. (To put that into perspective, the 2004 Oscar ceremony only drew around 44 million viewers)

"The most challenging thing about casting Friends was that the material was so good, it was so funny, that it was harder to tell who was right for the role, says Kanner. Most actors did really well because it was just strong material, so it took a lot to finally find the one person that comes in and you turn to each other and you’re like, ‘They can do this. They’re right for it.’"

So how did Kanner and her team make the magic happen? Here’s The One with All the Casting Stories . . .

Courteney Cox • Monica Geller

The network and casting department had offered the role of Monica to Janeane Garofalo, with Nancy McKeon and Leah Remini also in consideration. Cox, meanwhile, had auditioned for the role of Rachel—and Kanner and her colleagues were about to give it to her. But Cox pushed to read for Monica instead and ended up blowing them away as everyone’s favorite neurotic, ultra-­organized chef.

We said among ourselves, ‘Well, let’s have her audition for the role of Monica, but then we’ll just offer her Rachel,’ Kanner reveals. But then Cox nailed it. We all kind of looked at each other, like, ‘Uh-oh. What are we going to do now?’

The producers took a walk and decided that Cox should be Monica instead. [Cox] was right from the beginning. She knew. Sometimes you just have to trust actors—they know what they’re capable of, and they know what they’re most right for because they’re most comfortable in that skin, whatever that might be.

Could Garofalo, McKeon or Remini have been a top-notch Monica? Sure—but there was something about Cox that fit the best. It’s like a puzzle, Kanner explains. You put together the puzzle, and then sometimes there’s a part that just doesn’t quite fit. But then when everyone fits, you have your complete picture and hopefully some success.

Jennifer Aniston • Rachel Green

With Cox locked in as Monica, Kanner and her team had to go back to the drawing board to find the spoiled runaway bride. Téa Leoni passed on the role, and because the project was being cast later in pilot season, many of the actors they would’ve loved to cast were already booked—including Aniston.

"Even though we all loved Jennifer and were interested in her from the beginning, she was attached to this other project for CBS, called Muddling Through," Kanner says. Though they knew Aniston wasn’t really available, they brought her in anyway. Naturally Aniston was the perfect Rachel—so they cast her and hoped the other project wouldn’t get picked up.

Spoiler: It did. "While I was leaving for vacation, I got a call from NBC telling me, ‘By the way, Muddling Through got picked up, so you’re going to have to come back and recast Jennifer Aniston.’ "

After much discussion, the team decided to make it work. And thanks to an unconventional deal, it did. "They made the deal between CBS and NBC that she could work on both shows, which was highly unusual. But she ended up doing that for the first couple of episodes, and then finally Muddling Through, thank God, only did a handful of episodes and then they were canceled."

Lisa Kudrow • Phoebe Buffay

WE READ A LOT OF ACTRESSES FOR [PHOEBE], AND LET ME TELL YOU: THAT IS NOT AN EASY ROLE

The flightiest member of the gang was one of the harder roles to cast until sitcom pro Kudrow walked in the room.

We read a lot of actresses for that role, and let me tell you: That is not an easy role, Kanner says. "[Kudrow] had done something a little similar on Mad About You, so you could kind of see it in her. In the first meeting we were all fans, meaning the producers and the network."

Kudrow had been recast as Roz in the pilot of Frasier because producers decided to go in a different direction with the character. That episode was directed by Friends pilot helmer James Burrows, so Kudrow felt a little iffy about her chances for the role.

She came in and of course was wonderful in the part, and we couldn’t imagine anyone else doing it after we heard her read it, Kanner says. She made the right choices for her, and it meshed with the character perfectly. . . . When she walks in and she says those lines, you just kind of know. You’re like, ‘Yeah. She’s Phoebe.’

David Schwimmer • Ross Geller

David had had a not-so-great experience in television the season before, so he was very reluctant to do another television show. He was not interested. He was actually in Chicago doing theater, Kanner recalls.

But Friends creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane and executive producer Kevin S. Bright had worked with Schwimmer before, and they knew he’d be perfect in the role. Of course when he read the script, and he knew it was Marta, David, and Kevin, who he had just worked with, he came out. I read with him, and again, it was one of those things where you just know that he was the best person for the part.

In an alternate universe, Patrick Fabian, Peter Spears or Eric McCormack could’ve played must-see TV’s foremost paleontologist. Craig Bierko was offered the role of Ross or Chandler (and eventually declined)—but it was Schwimmer the producers wanted from the beginning, and it was Schwimmer they got.

Matthew Perry • Chandler Bing

When producers were casting Friends, Perry was booked on a pilot called L.A.X. 2194, about Los Angeles baggage handlers in the future (no, seriously, that’s what the show was about). But once an executive at Warner Bros., the studio that produced Friends, mentioned that Perry’s other show wasn’t going to get picked up, Kanner and the team brought him in immediately. The TV veteran had done a memorable arc on Growing Pains and had costarred in a slew of one-season sitcoms, including Boys Will Be Boys, Home Free and the Valerie Bertinelli vehicle Sydney.

There were a few other people who tested, but Matthew just brought the right cadence and comedy to the role like no other, Kanner says. The role took longer to cast than most of the others, but it was Perry’s delivery more than anything else that ­Kanner credits for his breakout status.

" ‘Could I be any funnier?’ Whatever that line was in the pilot, I mean, that cadence really said it all, she said. To the writers’ credit, they actually wrote for the actors. They started with a script, but the actors gave them a direction to go in, and they wrote for the actors’ strengths. And that’s what helped elevate it and just make it stronger and stronger."

Matt LeBlanc • Joey Tribbiani

[MATT] WAS PERFECT FOR JOEY IN THAT HE WAS SWEET, AND HE WAS ADORABLE, AND HE WAS SORT OF UNAWARE

Sweet, goofy soap opera star Joey was a slightly easier piece of the puzzle to fit.

Matt was someone that had, I think, the least amount of experience, Kanner said. I preread him and thought he was terrific and brought him back. Every time he auditioned he got better and better, and we just fell in love with him. He was perfect for Joey in that he was sweet, and he was adorable, and he was sort of unaware, which I think lends itself to Joey.

The moment of truth finally came once the actors got together and read the script as a sextet