Friends Studio Execs Objected To Monica’s One-Night Stand Plot

To mark 30 years of Friends, two of the show’s creators, David Crane and Marta Kauffman, have been reflecting on the hit sitcom, revealing some surprising tidbits along the way. In a new interview with The Times, the duo recalled a plot line from the show’s pilot episode and shared that studio bosses were worried fans wouldn’t be too fond of Monica Geller, played by Courteney Cox, for a reason that smacks of misogyny.

In the show’s first-ever episode, which aired in September 1994, Monica sleeps with her co-worker “Paul the wine guy” on their first date. Although Paul claimed he hadn’t had sex in two years, it is later revealed that he lied so Monica would sleep with him.

“The guy who was in charge said, ‘We’re not going to like Monica because [in the pilot] she sleeps with a guy on the first date,’” Crane told The Times. However, he and Kauffman pushed back on their feedback, and argued that Monica’s storyline “makes her sympathetic.”

“The network, in trying to prove that the audience wouldn’t like Monica if she sleeps with a guy on the first date, distributed a little questionnaire to the audience at our dress rehearsal,” he added, revealing that the studio’s questions were “so skewed.”

Crane continued, “The question was like: ‘When Monica sleeps with a guy on her first date, is she a) a slut or b) a harlot?’” Despite the network’s framing of the questionnaire, “People wrote in saying: ‘No, it’s fine.’”

Monica And Chandler’s Original Plot Line

In the same interview, Friends co-creator Kauffman revealed how the audience influenced another of Monica’s storylines — her relationship with Chandler Bing, played by the late Matthew Perry.

Speaking to The Times, she explained that Monica and Chandler were initially going to have a brief fling, but fans’ overwhelming reaction to the couple changed their approach.

“We thought it would be a one-night stand,” Kauffman said. “But they received such a strong reaction from the audience in London that it actually altered where we were going with the storyline.”

Friends aired for 10 seasons (1994-2004), and along with Cox and Perry, starred Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and Lisa Kudrow. The year 2024 marks three decades since the show’s debut. Despite being off the air for 20 years, Friends remains one of the most beloved sitcoms of all time.