Highlights
- Former Friends staff revealed that the cast deliberately ruined jokes they didn't like, causing stress for writers and delaying tapings.
- The show creators, David Crane and Marta Kauffman, were intimidating to work for with their high expectations and critical nature.
- The cast was tired of being on the show and lacked enthusiasm, making it difficult for writers to please them and resulting in missed opportunities for storylines.
You cannot always get by with a little help from your friends. According to a former Friends staffer, the cast used to mess up certain jokes on purpose. A move that would not only stress out writers but could delay the weekly taping as well.
Former Friends staff writer, Patty Lin revealed in her book, End Credits: How I Broke Up With Hollywood, that being hired to work for Season Seven of the hit sitcom was not all it was cracked up to be. Initially, she was thrilled to be working for such a high-profile show. But that excitement wore off quickly, especially as Lin realized the cast would ruin jokes they did not like.
"At first, I was excited about table reads because I got to be in the same room as the cast, who were Big Stars," Lin explained. "Plus, there was a catered breakfast buffet. But the novelty of seeing Big Stars up close wore off fast, along with my zeal about breakfast."
Lin went on to say, "They all knew how to get a laugh, but if they didn't like a joke, they seemed to deliberately tank it, knowing we'd rewrite it. Dozens of good jokes would get thrown out just because one of them had mumbled the line through a mouthful of bacon. David [Crane] and Marta [Kauffman] never said, 'This joke is funny. The actor just needs to sell it.'"
"Everyone would sit around Monica and Chandler's apartment and discuss the script. This was the actors' first opportunity to voice their opinions, which they did vociferously," Lin stated. "They rarely had anything positive to say, and when they brought up problems, they didn't suggest feasible solutions."
In addition to the cast going out of their way to "deliberately tank" jokes they did not like, David Crane and Marta Kauffman were some of the hardest show creators and producers to work for.
David Crane And Marta Kauffman Were Scary To Work For
Crane and Kauffman have worked together to create and produce several shows over the course of their careers, with Friends being the most successful of the bunch. However, their success and work ethic could be intimidating, which Lin found out as soon as she joined the writing team.
"I was scared of them both, for different reasons. David, an impossible-to-please workaholic, was always looking for a better line or joke. Behind his soft-spoken demeanor, he seemed to be judging everyone with eagle eyes," Lin explained. "He was the most genteel person in the room, becoming visibly pained whenever the conversation turned blue—which happened often."
Lin went on to state, "Marta was the Oscar Madison to David’s Felix Unger. She had a booming voice and a laugh that could rattle windows. She would kick her bare feet up on the conference table and do needlepoint while we worked. An outspoken liberal, Marta took the diversity program seriously, and I suspected she had more to do with hiring me than David did. Still, I would do anything to avoid being alone with her and having to chitchat, which always felt stilted."
To make matters worse, after being on the series for so many years, the cast was tired of being on the show. Because of this, writers had a hard time pleasing the cast.
The 'Friends' Cast Was Tired Of Being On The Show
As the cast of Friends was becoming more successful, the more job offers they were getting outside the show. As such, by the time Season Seven rolled around, there was a lack of enthusiasm to be there which was palpable to the writers.
"The actors seemed unhappy to be chained to a tired old show when they could be branching out, and I felt like they were constantly wondering how every given script would specifically serve them," Lin explained according to Time.
Lin went on to say, "Seeing themselves as guardians of their characters, they often argued that they would never do or say such-and-such. That was occasionally helpful, but overall, these sessions had a dire, aggressive quality that lacked all the levity you'd expect from the making of a sitcom."
Because of this, the hours of working on scripts and rewrites for the sake of laughs and to appease the actors took its toll and put an end to ideas like Joey and Monica dating before they could even get off the ground.
At the end of Season Seven, Lin was not asked to return to Friends because executives wanted a "joke writer." Not having her option picked up was a relief for Lin, who never pursued a job in sitcom writing again.
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