TMC
09-20-2019, 08:35 PM
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/friends-25th-anniversary-marta-kauffman-david-crane-inside-secrets-character-that-never-was-200305916.html
No one told them life was going to be this way. When Friends (https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/why-friends-feels-outdated-in-2019-213441603.html) creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane saw the initial audience test scores for the show’s pilot episode in early 1994, nothing in the numbers suggested that they’d still be talking about the series a quarter-century later. “The pilot tested OK,” Crane tells Yahoo Entertainment about those early reports, in which a significant portion of viewers expressed ambivalence about spending a half-hour every week in the company of the show’s sextet of New York City twentysomethings. “There was a certain resistance from test audiences, who weren’t necessarily onboard with these kids. We told the network, ‘You can’t listen to test audiences.’ I mean, virtually every show that’s done well has tested horribly and we were among them.”
Instead of the test audiences, the duo listened to their hearts, which overflowed with affection for the characters they had created on the page, and the cast that brought them to life in front of the cameras. Even though Kauffman admits that their memories about the show’s early days can be spotty — so much so that they’d easily lose a Friends trivia contest — she’ll never forget the feeling of watching Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer assemble for their first rehearsal. “I got chills up and down my spine. At that moment, David and I both knew. We didn’t know that the show would be successful, but we knew there was something very special there.”
Success came quickly when the show premiered on Sept. 22, 1994. More than 21 million viewers tuned in for the first episode, and by the end of the season that number swelled to 31 million, putting Friends in the same company as NBC ratings powerhouses like Seinfeld and ER. The series remained towards the top of the Nielsen charts for the next 10 years, as those carefree “kids” Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler and Ross experienced various triumphs, setbacks, loves and losses on their way towards adulthood. Twenty-five years on, a whole new audience has taken that journey with them as Friends has turned into one of Netflix’s most popular binges thanks to ongoing storylines that were written during the syndication era, but play even better during the streaming era when audience expect serialized storytelling. (The series will move to HBO Max, WarnerMedia’s new streaming service, next year.)
“At the time, the network was nervous about arcs, but we felt strongly about them,” Kauffman says. “And they help with the streaming services now. You can get involved in a story, and not suddenly be in a whole new episode where they dropped that thing that was happening with Monica.” Adds Crane: “We were just telling stories that we liked. But when we did pursue arcs, it really helped the show because Marta and I really cared. We cared because it had to be funny, but also because we were both very invested in how much you cared about these characters, and you needed ongoing stories to really be able to do that.”
If you care about Friends — and we know you do — Yahoo Entertainment is there for you with these five behind-the-scenes stories just in time for the show’s Silver Anniversary.
4. That time that Joey and Rachel were a thing
Speaking of storylines that raised eyebrows, Joey and Rachel (https://people.com/tv/reasons-rachel-should-have-ended-up-with-joey-on-friends/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=peoplemagazine&xid=socialflow_twitter_peoplemag&utm_source=twitter.com)’s ultra-brief romance in the show’s final season is often cited by even the most hardcore Friends fans as a near shark-jumping moment. But the creators are ready to leap to the defense of the doomed pair. “We liked it,” Kauffman says. “It felt real. That’s what happens in groups of friends and it was vulnerable for both of them.” Besides, the fact that it felt so wrong to so many viewers is what made it feel right to the writers. “It was wrong in a really cool way,” Crane enthuses. “You get to see them come to that realization, and it let Joey show some emotional colors that he hadn’t up to that point. We liked it because it was dangerous. We knew people would go, ‘You can’t do that!’ and that was one of the selling points for us.” Funnily enough, among the people who went, “You can’t do that!” were Aniston and LeBlanc. “They were a little nervous about it,” Crane admits. “And we had to say, ‘Everything you’re nervous about is exactly why we should do it.’”
That said, they didn’t try to push the actors out of their comfort zones as a rule. “We tried to really listen to them,” Crane says. “If there was something they weren’t comfortable with, we would usually defer to their instinct unless we could really defend it. We were really ruthless with ourselves [in the writer’s room] and threw out a tremendous amount of material, either stuff within stories or whole stories. I’m sure we lost things that were probably better than we thought they were at the time, but that was the journey we were on.”
No one told them life was going to be this way. When Friends (https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/why-friends-feels-outdated-in-2019-213441603.html) creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane saw the initial audience test scores for the show’s pilot episode in early 1994, nothing in the numbers suggested that they’d still be talking about the series a quarter-century later. “The pilot tested OK,” Crane tells Yahoo Entertainment about those early reports, in which a significant portion of viewers expressed ambivalence about spending a half-hour every week in the company of the show’s sextet of New York City twentysomethings. “There was a certain resistance from test audiences, who weren’t necessarily onboard with these kids. We told the network, ‘You can’t listen to test audiences.’ I mean, virtually every show that’s done well has tested horribly and we were among them.”
Instead of the test audiences, the duo listened to their hearts, which overflowed with affection for the characters they had created on the page, and the cast that brought them to life in front of the cameras. Even though Kauffman admits that their memories about the show’s early days can be spotty — so much so that they’d easily lose a Friends trivia contest — she’ll never forget the feeling of watching Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer assemble for their first rehearsal. “I got chills up and down my spine. At that moment, David and I both knew. We didn’t know that the show would be successful, but we knew there was something very special there.”
Success came quickly when the show premiered on Sept. 22, 1994. More than 21 million viewers tuned in for the first episode, and by the end of the season that number swelled to 31 million, putting Friends in the same company as NBC ratings powerhouses like Seinfeld and ER. The series remained towards the top of the Nielsen charts for the next 10 years, as those carefree “kids” Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler and Ross experienced various triumphs, setbacks, loves and losses on their way towards adulthood. Twenty-five years on, a whole new audience has taken that journey with them as Friends has turned into one of Netflix’s most popular binges thanks to ongoing storylines that were written during the syndication era, but play even better during the streaming era when audience expect serialized storytelling. (The series will move to HBO Max, WarnerMedia’s new streaming service, next year.)
“At the time, the network was nervous about arcs, but we felt strongly about them,” Kauffman says. “And they help with the streaming services now. You can get involved in a story, and not suddenly be in a whole new episode where they dropped that thing that was happening with Monica.” Adds Crane: “We were just telling stories that we liked. But when we did pursue arcs, it really helped the show because Marta and I really cared. We cared because it had to be funny, but also because we were both very invested in how much you cared about these characters, and you needed ongoing stories to really be able to do that.”
If you care about Friends — and we know you do — Yahoo Entertainment is there for you with these five behind-the-scenes stories just in time for the show’s Silver Anniversary.
4. That time that Joey and Rachel were a thing
Speaking of storylines that raised eyebrows, Joey and Rachel (https://people.com/tv/reasons-rachel-should-have-ended-up-with-joey-on-friends/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=peoplemagazine&xid=socialflow_twitter_peoplemag&utm_source=twitter.com)’s ultra-brief romance in the show’s final season is often cited by even the most hardcore Friends fans as a near shark-jumping moment. But the creators are ready to leap to the defense of the doomed pair. “We liked it,” Kauffman says. “It felt real. That’s what happens in groups of friends and it was vulnerable for both of them.” Besides, the fact that it felt so wrong to so many viewers is what made it feel right to the writers. “It was wrong in a really cool way,” Crane enthuses. “You get to see them come to that realization, and it let Joey show some emotional colors that he hadn’t up to that point. We liked it because it was dangerous. We knew people would go, ‘You can’t do that!’ and that was one of the selling points for us.” Funnily enough, among the people who went, “You can’t do that!” were Aniston and LeBlanc. “They were a little nervous about it,” Crane admits. “And we had to say, ‘Everything you’re nervous about is exactly why we should do it.’”
That said, they didn’t try to push the actors out of their comfort zones as a rule. “We tried to really listen to them,” Crane says. “If there was something they weren’t comfortable with, we would usually defer to their instinct unless we could really defend it. We were really ruthless with ourselves [in the writer’s room] and threw out a tremendous amount of material, either stuff within stories or whole stories. I’m sure we lost things that were probably better than we thought they were at the time, but that was the journey we were on.”