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Friends creators, Marta Kauffmann and David Crane, were friends and partners (creatively that is) since they were students at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachussets. After they graduated, the two moved to New York and worked with the off-Broadway musicals, A...My Name Is Alice and Personnals.
It was some time later that the broke into the world of televsion with the very popular, but under-rated HBO comedy series, Dream On and it was while working on the pilot in 1989 that they met their third partner in crime, Kevin Bright. Together, the three worked on Dream On, creating one of the funniest adult comedies on television! They also pooled their thoughts and talents for the less successful The Powers That Be for NBC and Family Album for CBS.
Then, after meeting with executives from Warner Bros. Television, they pitched three new sitcom ideas to the networks for their fall 1994 season. Twi didn't pass, but NBC eventually did sign on with a show called Friends Like Us (almost called Insomnia Cafe, Six of One or Across The Hall), a story about six people in their twenties and their trials and tribulations while living in New York City. Incidentally, it was a year before the pilot itself that the three envisionned the show, and lent their own experiences of living in New York at that age to their creative vision.
Once the idea was in place, there was the task of finding the right actors and actresses to bring their ideas to life. Casting director Ellie Kanner and the three creators worked hard to find the actors to breathe life into their characters-Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Ross, Chandler and Joey. For each role, the Friends team saw close to one hundred actors, but were looking for the special qualities they knew would send their show over the top.
For Monica, they decided to go with Courteney Cox, the only known name in the cast that was later assembled. Courteney, who was better known for her stint as Alex P. Keaton's girlfriend on Family Ties, was also quite recognized as the gal Bruce Springsteen pulled on stage to boogie with at the end of his Dancing In The Dark video. She then starred in the series The Trouble With Larry with Bronson Pinchot and in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective with Jim Carrey, just before her Friends gig came to be. The funny thing was, once the producers saw her, they believed Courteney was more suited for the character of Rachel than Monica, but Courteney convinced them otherwise. She truky wanted to be Monica, and they eventually agreed with her.
The Rachel role, which eventually went to Jennifer Aniston, ended up becoming the breakout character in the series. From the pilot episode, where Rachel ends up at the gang's hangout, Central Perk, wearing her wedding gown and veil and exclaiming how much she didn't realize how much her fiancé looked like Mr. Potato Head until their wedding day, everyone fell in love with her! Jennifer is the daughter of long-time show-business actor (and Days Of Our Lives villain) John Aniston and the goddaugther of television's Kojak, Telly Savallas. She chose from a young age to be an actress and even attended the High School for Performing Arts in New York, the school the film Fame made famous. After graduation, she won a part on the series Molloy, Ferris Bueller, Herman's Head and the comedy show, The Edge. She was also in the triller film, Leprechaun.
Lisa Kudrow, who was chosen to play Phoebe, was selected early on in casting. Prior to her comedy training, she worked with her father, Dr. Lee Kudrow, a world-famous headache specialist. She was later a member of the improvisational theater group, The Groundlings in 1989, and soon, was turning up on the series' Cheers, Coach and Newhart. She also played ditsy waitress Ursula on Mad About You, a role she continued to keep throughout several of her first week on Friends. There was even a point where the two characters met on the show for two episodes "The One With Two Parts", where Joey fell in love with Ursula, but because their relationship made Phoebe too upset, broke it off.
Speaking of Joey, his portrayer, Matt LeBlanc, was always a familiar face to television viewers, but you couldn't recall his name! Matt made a living in comercials and soon, we saw him on Married With Children and the spin-off that soon followed, Top Of The Heap. When Top didn't take off, the show was retooled and renamed Vinnie and Bobby, but unfortunately, that too also did poorly. after, Matt won a role on the very saucy Red Shoe Diaries, where he acted in a very memorable lovey-dovey elevator scene, and later, made the feature film Lookin' Italian, never released in the U.S.A. While Matt has made a living out of playing a character that always seems to have misplaced his marbles, in real-life, he is a very smart man with varied interests.
His best friends on the show and comrade, Chandler is brought to life by the talented Matthew Perry. Funny by nature, Matt got his start in show business at a young age in the series Charles in Charge, Second Chance, Boys Will Be Boys, Beverly Hills 90210, Growing Pains and Sidney. Matt also appeared in the movies A Night In The Life Of Jimmy Reardon and She's Out Of Control. A highly ranked tennis player in his native Ottawa, Canada, Matthew came to Los Angeles to initially be a tennis star, until he realized that everyone in California played tennis !
Finally, to round out the best of Friends, was the character of Ross, played by David Schwimmer. Not thinking this vulnerable type of guy would ever generate the king of publicity and adulation from the show's female fans, the writers created Ross to be every-guy, with the problem to spare. Apparently that took off with fans, who found Ross' vulnerability to be charming to say the least, and the character soon became the show's heartrob. David is son of two lawyers and surprised his folks with his choice to act. He attended Northwestern University in Chicago and earned his degree in speach-theater. David starred on the short-lived series Monty with Henry Winkler and returned to Chicago shortly thereafter. it took the pursuing of the producers to get him to return to California to try his hand at a sitcom again.
One of the draws of this series is that although Friends shows young people living their lives on a daily basis, you are not inundated with their everyday jobs. No one wants to watch a show where all you see are people at work and griping about how much life stinks. They can get that on their own! (Although, much of the show's action takes place at the Friends hangout, Central Perk, where Rachel works as a waitress.) Everyone would rather watch them interact with one another about seemingly muindane situations, for that's what makes the show so much fun ! Life really lend its hand to a funny line or two ! The other draw, other that the great situations and acting, are the guest stars. More so in the second season than the first, Friends is the place to be if you're looking to stand out from the acting crowd. Some big names who have shown up at the Friends door are Morgan Fairchild, Elliot Gould, Marlo Thomas, Jill Goodacre Connick, Tom selleck, Julia ROberts, Brooke Shields, Chris Isaak and Jean Claude Van Damme to name a few. For a show only in its second season and going into its third, that's quite a coup !
Some memorable episodes that Friends fans still talk and laugh about are (just to warn you, all of them begin eith the title, "The One With..." or "The One Where...") "TOW The Sonogram At The End" where we meet the Ugly Naked Guy across the way for the first time. Also where we all get to see Ross' ex wife Carol get her sonogram for their child with her girlfriend, Susan.
"TOW The Butt" gave Joey his first-ever starring role in a movie, as Al Pacino's butt double. Sadly anough he was fired, because he and the director disagreed on the motivation of what the butt should be in the shower scene. again Chandler came up with a quick sip, saying, "After all your strugling, you've finally been able to crack your way into show-business !"
"TOW The Blackout" introduced Chandler's problem with women up-front, when he got locked during a blackout in a bank ATM machine with Victoria's Secret lingerie model, Jill Goodacre and didn't know how to talk to her ! Meanwhile, the gang was back at the apartment, lighting a Menorah, so thay can see in the darkness (Joey's roomate before Chandler was Jewish) and Phoebe telling Joey that Monica had a creush on him when he first moved in.
"TO After The Superbowl" brought all our famous friends to Ross' former sidekick, Marcel's movie debut on the streets of New York, where Ross tried to reunite with his monkey buddy, Chandler got involved with Julia Roberts, who played a friend of his from grade school, monica and Rachel fought over Jean Claude Van Damme and Joey continued to use Phoebe on the set as a fellow 'actor' so he could show the director his talent.
