Ex 'Friends' Writer Reveals Cast Difficulties Including Deliberate Joke Sabotage
Highlights
- Former Friends staff revealed that the cast intentionally ruined jokes they didn't like, inflicting pressure for writers and delaying tapings.
- The show creators, David Crane and Marta Kauffman, had been intimidating to paintings for with their high expectancies and critical nature.
- The cast was once uninterested in being on the display and lacked enthusiasm, making it difficult for writers to thrill them and resulting in missed alternatives for storylines.
You cannot all the time get through with a bit of assist from your pals. According to a former Friends staffer, the cast used to reduce to rubble positive jokes on objective. A move that may now not best tension out writers but could extend the weekly taping as smartly.
Former Friends workforce writer, Patty Lin printed in her e-book, End Credits: How I Broke Up With Hollywood, that being employed to work for Season Seven of the hit sitcom was once now not all it was once cracked up to be. Initially, she was delighted to be operating for the sort of high-profile display. But that pleasure wore off quickly, especially as Lin realized the cast would ruin jokes they did not like.
"At first, I was excited about table reads because I got to be in the same room as the cast, who were Big Stars," Lin defined. "Plus, there was a catered breakfast buffet. But the novelty of seeing Big Stars up close wore off fast, along with my zeal about breakfast."
Lin went on to say, "They all knew how to get a laugh, but if they didn't like a joke, they seemed to deliberately tank it, knowing we'd rewrite it. Dozens of good jokes would get thrown out just because one of them had mumbled the line through a mouthful of bacon. David [Crane] and Marta [Kauffman] never said, 'This joke is funny. The actor just needs to sell it.'"
"Everyone would sit around Monica and Chandler's apartment and discuss the script. This was the actors' first opportunity to voice their opinions, which they did vociferously," Lin stated. "They rarely had anything positive to say, and when they brought up problems, they didn't suggest feasible solutions."
In addition to the cast going out in their method to "deliberately tank" jokes they didn't like, David Crane and Marta Kauffman were one of the toughest show creators and manufacturers to work for.
David Crane And Marta Kauffman Were Scary To Work For
Crane and Kauffman have worked together to create and produce several displays over the path in their careers, with Friends being the most a hit of the bunch. However, their success and work ethic could be intimidating, which Lin came upon once she joined the writing staff.
"I was scared of them both, for different reasons. David, an impossible-to-please workaholic, was always looking for a better line or joke. Behind his soft-spoken demeanor, he seemed to be judging everyone with eagle eyes," Lin explained. "He was the most genteel person in the room, becoming visibly pained whenever the conversation turned blue—which happened often."
Lin went on to state, "Marta was the Oscar Madison to David’s Felix Unger. She had a booming voice and a laugh that could rattle windows. She would kick her bare feet up on the conference table and do needlepoint while we worked. An outspoken liberal, Marta took the diversity program seriously, and I suspected she had more to do with hiring me than David did. Still, I would do anything to avoid being alone with her and having to chitchat, which always felt stilted."
To make matters worse, after being on the collection for so many years, the cast was once bored with being at the display. Because of this, writers had a hard time enjoyable the cast.
The 'Friends' Cast Was Tired Of Being On The Show
As the cast of Friends used to be changing into extra successful, the extra process offers they had been getting out of doors the show. As such, by the point Season Seven rolled around, there was a loss of enthusiasm to be there which was once palpable to the writers.
"The actors seemed unhappy to be chained to a tired old show when they could be branching out, and I felt like they were constantly wondering how every given script would specifically serve them," Lin defined in step with Time.
Lin went on to say, "Seeing themselves as guardians of their characters, they often argued that they would never do or say such-and-such. That was occasionally helpful, but overall, these sessions had a dire, aggressive quality that lacked all the levity you'd expect from the making of a sitcom."
Because of this, the hours of working on scripts and rewrites for the sake of snickers and to appease the actors took its toll and put an end to ideas like Joey and Monica dating ahead of they may even get off the bottom.
At the tip of Season Seven, Lin was once not requested to return to Friends because executives sought after a "joke writer." Not having her choice picked up was once a aid for Lin, who by no means pursued a job in sitcom writing once more.
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