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:
When we picked up Friends, Jennifer Aniston was in second position. She was on a CBS comedy, Muddling Through, and they had six episodes of it. We heard that they were putting the show on Saturday nights while we were in a current meeting.
Second position is the term used when a series hires an actor who’s already booked on another show. This is typically only done for pilots, but Jennifer Aniston was NBC’s clear first choice to play Rachel, so when they learned of CBS’ scheduling plans for Muddling Through, they took action. Preston Beckman continued:
I remember [NBC entertainment chief] Warren Littlefield turns to me and said, ‘Kill it!’ So I did. The first one or two weeks that it was on, I put original Danielle Steel movies against it. We wanted to make sure they weren’t going to pick up more episodes just to be spiteful.
Airing romance novelist Danielle Steel book-to-screen adaptations opposite Muddling Through stole CBS’ female audience, effectively killing Jennifer Aniston’s show. Not only did the sitcom not get more episodes, but CBS only aired nine of the 10 that were filmed. Aniston made the move to NBC, and Friends premiered on September 22, 1994 — just two weeks after Muddling Through’s final episode on September 7.
The rest is history, and while Friends fans are undoubtedly happy with the way things turned out, I can’t help but wonder what Stephanie Hodge and the other stars of Muddling Through think of the ex-NBC scheduler’s admission. Are conniving moves like this just business as usual in Hollywood?
Jennifer Aniston and the rest of Friends’ main cast — Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer — will always be known as those characters, and it’s strange to think about if things had worked out differently. For instance, Jane Sibbett originally auditioned for Rachel, while Jessica Hecht read for Monica. The actresses’ chemistry is undeniable, so it feels like fate that they were cast instead as two of Friends’ most beloved side characters, Carol and Susan.
Pour one out for Muddling Through the next time you catch a Friends rerun, with all 10 seasons available to stream on HBO Max.
