"Friends" Writer Says Stars Would "Deliberately Tank" Jokes, "Rarely Had Anything Positive To Say"

[Ubiquitous]

A former “Friends” writer says that her time on set was less than ideal due
in part to the behavior of the sitcom’s top stars.

Patty Lin described what it was like working on the hit NBC series in her
book, “End Credits: How I Broke Up with Hollywood.” An excerpt recently
appeared in Time.

Lin said she wasn’t sure about joining the writers on season 7 of the show
because she was new to the industry and didn’t have comedy experience. But
because “Friends” was so popular at the time, the writer said she would have
been a “fool” to “pass up the chance.”

“Friends” ran for ten seasons from 1994 until 2004. The comedy starred
Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green), Courteney Cox (Monica Geller), David
Schwimmer (Ross Geller), Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribiani), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe
Buffay), and Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing).

“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 said. “Plus, there was a catered
breakfast buffet: fluffy scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, pancakes, waffles,
pastries of all kinds. On the way to the table reads, I would start
salivating like one of Pavlov’s dogs.”

She continued, “But the novelty of seeing Big Stars up close wore off fast,
along with my zeal about breakfast. 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 went on to claim that the show’s leads would intentionally sabotage jokes
they didn’t like.

“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,” Lin explained.
“Dozens of good jokes would get thrown out just because one of them had
mumbled the line through a mouthful of bacon.”

She partly blamed the show’s creators for not stepping in to help. “David
[Krane] and Marta [Kauffman] never said, ‘This joke is funny. The actor just
needs to sell it.’”

Lin said there was a lot of negativity on set. “Everyone would sit around
Monica and Chandler’s apartment and discuss the script,” she said. “This was
the actors’ first opportunity to voice their opinions, which they did
vociferously. They rarely had anything positive to say, and when they brought
up problems, they didn’t suggest feasible solutions.”

“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,” she continued.

She also described the rest of the show’s writers room as “cliquey” and said
she “felt like an outsider.”

“In theory, ‘breaking’ stories on ‘Friends’—plotting out an episode’s scenes
—should’ve gone faster than on dramas, since sitcoms are only half as long
and have fewer story beats,” Lin said in her book.

“Even so, there was a lot of sitting around the table in silence. Trust me,
any show that makes it to season 7 is hurting for ideas. Much of the time,
the writers’ room was like an endless cocktail party where we had run out of
polite things to talk about. And so we talked about sex. Constantly.”

Lin said she was “relieved” when her option wasn’t picked up for the
following season, which she said is the writer’s equivalent of being fired.
She went on to work for other popular shows, including “Desperate Housewives”
and “Breaking Bad.”

Her overall thoughts on “Friends” is that it taught her an important lesson.
Lin said she “didn’t learn that much, except that I never wanted to work on a
sitcom again.”

“But the choice had been clear at the time,” she said. “And, for better or
worse, ‘Friends’ would remain my most recognizable credit.”

--
Let's go Brandon!

[BTR1701]

In article <uca54v$jkg$9...@dont-email.me>,
Ubiquitous <web...@polaris.net> wrote:

> A former FRIENDS writer says that her time on set was less than ideal due

> in part to the behavior of the sitcom's top stars.
>
> Patty Lin described what it was like working on the hit NBC series in her

> book, "End Credits: How I Broke Up with Hollywood". An excerpt recently

> appeared in Time.
>
> Lin said she wasn't sure about joining the writers on season 7 of the show
> because she was new to the industry and didn’t have comedy experience. But

> because FRIENDS was so popular at the time, the writer said she would have

> been "a fool to pass up the chance".
>

> FRIENDS ran for ten seasons from 1994 until 2004. The comedy starred

> Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green), Courteney Cox (Monica Geller), David
> Schwimmer (Ross Geller), Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribiani), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe
> Buffay), and Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing).
>
> "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 said. "Plus, there was a catered
> breakfast buffet: fluffy scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, pancakes, waffles,
> pastries of all kinds. On the way to the table reads, I would start
> salivating like one of Pavlov's dogs."
>
> She continued, "But the novelty of seeing Big Stars up close wore off fast,
> along with my zeal about breakfast. 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."

Yes, it must have been so exhausting making $20 million or whatever per
episode.

"I hate being on this show but I never want it to end."

[trotsky]

I would imagine questions of money vs integrity get you confused like
this all the time. And no, "integrity with the white supremacists"
isn't really a thing.