Back in the ‘90s, Friends captured lightning in a bottle with its six main cast members, creating one of the best sitcoms of all time that lives on through syndication and HBO Max subscriptions. Seeing how popular the show remains today, it’s impossible not to wonder what would have happened if those specific actors hadn’t been cast, and it turns out NBC didn’t leave at least one of those decisions to chance. A former NBC scheduler admits they got another Jennifer Aniston series canceled so she’d be available to play Rachel Green.
It’s no secret that the entertainment industry is cutthroat, but this stunt that former NBC strategist Preston Beckman said they pulled at the time is nothing short of diabolical. Back before Friends’ 1994 premiere, Jennifer Aniston appeared on CBS’ Muddling Through. However, execs must have been pretty confident Friends would be a hit, because Beckman told THR they made an intentional move to free up Aniston’s schedule, so to speak. He said:
