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Friday March 29, 2024

When Jennifer Aniston almost left iconic sitcom ‘Friends’

There came a time when Jennifer Aniston had almost left the iconic sitcom 'Friends'

By Web Desk
December 28, 2019


It is hard to believe but the truth is that there came a time when Jennifer Aniston had almost left the iconic sitcom Friends.

As reported by Refinery29, this happened because Jennifer had already committed to another project when she was cast in the legendary character of Rachel Green in Friends.

Not only this, the actress had also filmed six episodes of an unaired CBS sitcom called Muddling Through before Friends and if that show saw the light of day, Jennifer would have left Friends halfway.

However, it was revealed that the makers of the show and the studios were not ready to let Jennifer go.

Saul Austerlitz covered the conflict in his book, Generation Friends and said, “CBS, after some dithering, ultimately chose to put Muddling Through on its summer schedule, in the relative dead zone of Saturday nights. Hearing the news, [Warren] Littlefield turned to [Preston] Beckman, NBC’s scheduling guru, with a two-word order: ‘Kill it.’"

NBC then made a decision to release TV films adapted from Danielle Steele novels at the same time Muddling Through was airing.

Saul added, "They were practically guaranteed to attract a substantial, and substantially female, audience. ... no show about an ex-con motel manager and her daffy family was likely to provide stiff competition for Steele’s glamorous romances."

The films then crushed Muddling Through and Jennifer continued appearing on Friends which established her as one of the highest-paid actresses of all times.