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Quick Links Being a Barista Secured James Michael Tyler's Role on Friends Although a Side Character, Gunther Influenced Plot Lines Tyler Didn't Think Friends Should Ever Come Back

Television is inundated with sitcoms with something to tickle everyone's fancy. What's less common are the shows that have been popular for decades, even after they've finished airing. Friends managed to hit a sweet spot, but it was only by chance that some of the most beloved actors found their way onto the show and landed a key role. The series became a springboard for the cast's careers, launching the star actors into what seemed like overnight fame. The lead six were granted one last trip of anonymity to Vegas before their lives were about to change forever. Whilst viewers now know the likes of David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston as Ross and Rachel, not all of them started in the roles they ended up with.

Did a producer tell Jennifer Aniston Friends won’t make her famous? (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Long before Friends became a global phenomenon, Jennifer Aniston faced a harsh reality check from a TV producer. The warning? Friends wouldn’t make her a star. During her struggle between the two shows, she got unsolicited advice that would ultimately shape her career.

Back in the day, Aniston was juggling some severe TV drama. She’d already filmed a few episodes of Muddling Through, which was in a head-to-head battle with her role as Rachel Green on Friends. Things got so heated that producers were even thinking about recasting her. In a recent chat with Gayle King, Aniston confessed that she knew Muddling Through wasn’t her vibe: “I love this other show that I’m doing,” she told the producers, basically asking for a get-out-of-jail-free card.

But here’s where it gets interesting...

Did Jennifer Aniston almost get written off Friends? ( Photo Credit – Instagram )

Friends has become one of the most iconic sitcoms in TV history. But did you know it almost lost its leading lady? Jennifer Aniston’s role as Rachel Green was nearly cut short in Season 1, and it was a wild ride to keep her on the show.

In 1994, Aniston was on the hustle. She had just filmed five TV pilots, praying one would stick. Then came her chance with Friends. But before locking in her role, she also shot six episodes for a new CBS sitcom, Muddling Through, where she played Madeline, the daughter of a recently released ex-convict. With Friends knocking at her door, Aniston was caught in a sitcom tug-of-war.

The stakes were high: Aniston would have to bail on Friends if Muddling Through got a full-season pickup. Imagine a world without Rachel Green! Per Saul Austerlitz’s book Generation Friends,...

Fargo and The Handmaid’s Tale producer Warren Littlefield predicts that the turmoil in the global TV industry won’t end for another two years.

During an interview at the Edinburgh TV Festival, the former NBC President of Entertainment was commenting on how to survive as an indie producer, and he gave an assessment that many are expecting the current commissioning downturn to end faster than it will.

“The difficulty now is that fewer things are getting made,” he said. “A lot of people are saying, ‘Stay alive ‘til ‘25.’ I think we’re probably two years out from getting through this particular challenging time – two years from seeing the end of the tunnel.”

While he acknowledged that streamers and networks are ordering shows at a slower rate than in the past, Littlefield said the fact that streaming shows usually are released in full was a positive step on from the network cancellation model.

• Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green was a major risk for the show, but her casting paid off and helped make Friends a huge success. - Friends captured the young adult experience and made audiences laugh with its memorable characters and their quirks. - The cancellation of Muddling Through gave Aniston the opportunity to play Rachel, which not only helped Friends but also launched her career as a renowned actress.

It's hard to imagine Friends without Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green, and though the casting definitely paid off, it was one of the show's biggest risks. Since it's release in 1994, Friends has become an entertainment and pop culture staple. The sitcom's premise is simple: six 20-something friends living in New York City and navigating their adult lives. Despite what seems like a classic premise, Friends was able to become one of the most watched TV shows of all time.

Ross and Rachel's relationship,...

Can you imagine anyone else playing Rachel Green besides Jennifer Aniston? Well, according to the Friends star, that was actually almost the case.   The Just Go With It actress recently shared the surprising fact during an episode of the SiriusXM show, Gayle King in The House. Aniston revealed to host Gayle King when she auditioned for the role of Rachel that Friends director James Burrows warned her that the 1994 series she was already appearing in, Muddling Through, would get picked up for another season "just to spite this show." If the series did in fact, get picked up, it put her casting as Rachel in serious jeopardy.   "Sure enough, they [the show] actually...

For Jennifer Aniston, walking back onto the set of Friends after a decade for the reunion was a nostalgic and emotional experience.

“It was a sucker punch in the heart in a way,” Friends’ star Aniston told Gayle King in an interview on King’s SiriusXM show, Gayle King in The House. “We were very naive in what we were expecting. It was excitement. ‘This is going to be so fun to walk onto the set and they’re bringing all of the sets out from storage and putting it all back together.’ Every, I mean, down to the shelves and the little chotchkies details …. We romanticized it, but you also have to remember we haven’t been there. And that time was a very specific time when we were saying goodbye to something that we didn’t want to, we cared deeply about, but we knew it was the time to say goodbye.

The thought is almost too wild to entertain, but there exists a parallel universe in which Rachel got written off — or worse, recast — in “Friends.” The New York-set sitcom that defined the 1990s and ran into the early aughts, created by Marta Kaufman and David Crane, will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its pilot episode this September. To mark the occasion, culture historian Saul Austerlitz has written a book, “Generation Friends,” detailing the history of the show, from inception to grand finale. Advance excerpts of the book obtained by EW reveal the potential casting snafu.

Apparently Aniston had already shot a few episodes of an unaired CBS sitcom titled “Muddling Through” when she was cast in “Friends.” If the series had been picked up, Aniston would have had to leave “Friends” halfway through the first season.

Here’s the relevant excerpt:

“‘Muddling Through’ had already shot a half-dozen episodes, none of which had aired,...

It's hard to imagine anyone besides Jennifer Aniston playing Rachel Green on Friends.

But according to the actress, the producers were almost forced to replace her before the show even aired.

"Friends came when I was off doing Muddling Through," Aniston explained at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Friday, referencing CBS's short-lived 1994 sitcom. "So there was a period where I had to stand out of the photographs for the group shots, and I had phone calls from girlfriends saying, 'I'm auditioning for your part in Friends.' "

While Aniston, 45, had signed on for Friends, she was also already appearing on Muddling Through,...

It's hard to imagine anyone besides Jennifer Aniston playing Rachel Green on Friends. But according to the actress, the producers were almost forced to replace her before the show even aired. "Friends came when I was off doing Muddling Through," Aniston explained at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Friday, referencing CBS's short-lived 1994 sitcom. "So there was a period where I had to stand out of the photographs for the group shots, and I had phone calls from girlfriends saying, 'I'm auditioning for your part in Friends.' " While Aniston, 45, had signed on for Friends, she was also already appearing on Muddling Through,...

It's hard to imagine anyone besides Jennifer Aniston playing Rachel Green on Friends. But according to the actress, the producers were almost forced to replace her before the show even aired. "Friends came when I was off doing Muddling Through," Aniston explained at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Friday, referencing CBS's short-lived 1994 sitcom. "So there was a period where I had to stand out of the photographs for the group shots, and I had phone calls from girlfriends saying, 'I'm auditioning for your part in Friends." While Aniston, 45, had signed on for Friends, she was also already appearing on Muddling Through,...

Jennifer Aniston certainly let the cat out of the bag during the Television Academy's An Evening Honoring James Burrows in Los Angeles earlier this week. She revealed that she was asked to sit out of cast photos for Friends in case she didn't end up playing the character Rachel Green, Us Weekly reports. According to Burrows, the hit series' director, Aniston had shot five other pilots before landing her big breakout role. Aniston was originally signed on to star in the CBS sitcom Muddling Through when she met with Burrows for an audition. "We took her in second position," he explained about hiring the 44-year-old actress. "So [when] that show was cancelled,...

Teaching fans that persistence pays off, Jennifer Aniston talked recently about "Friends" being her sixth TV pilot.

During the Television Academy presents An Evening Honoring James Burrows at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences on Monday (October 7), the 44-year-old actress shared personal stories about the director of the hit show.

After Burrows explained that they were only able to snag her after her sitcom "Muddling Through" was canceled, Jen explained the confusion during prep for the show.

For the now-famous opening, she explained, "When we were shooting the first grouping of cast photos [of Friends] in front of that fountain, I was asked to step out of a bunch because they didn't know if I was going to be still playing Rachel."

In another awkward moment, Jen recounted how a man on set asked her who she was and she replied, "Well, I'm doing a bunch of pilots and this is just...

Because another TV pilot died, Jennifer Aniston's role on Friends got to live. During the Television Academy presents An Evening Honoring James Burrows at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences on Monday, Oct. 7, the 44-year-old actress recalled landing her breakout role as Rachel Green on the 1994 NBC sitcom Friends after shooting five other TV pilots. When Friends director Burrows had his first audition with Aniston, she was on CBS sitcom Muddling Through at the time. "We took her in second position," he explained of [...]...

It's hard to imagine "Friends" without Jennifer Aniston, but during a recent visit to "Conan," Aniston admitted that she was almost replaced as Rachel before the show began airing.

“They actually had girls auditioning because I was double-booked on a television show," Aniston told Conan O'Brien. "I was doing another show, and then CBS picked that show up to sort of spite ‘Friends’ for three episodes.”

The show in question was CBS' "Muddling Through," which lasted only 10 episodes in 1994. According to Vulture, "'Muddling Through' was such a bomb that even though Aniston was under contract to the show, [NBC entertainment president Warren] Littlefield cast her in 'Friends' anyway, so certain was he that 'Muddling Through' would soon be cancelled." And the rest is history!

Courteney Cox was also apparently offered the part of Rachel, but wanted to play Monica instead, and Aniston was initially considered for Monica, while Matthew Perry...

Casting actors in "second position" on pilots has been on the rise during the past few years.

The process -- in which actors in on-air series are cast in pilots -- also has become increasingly aggressive, with broadcast networks even going after actors whose shows have not yet premiered.

This pilot season, Kyle Bornheimer and Alyssa Milano, stars of ABC's upcoming comedy series "Romantically Challenged," and Tyler Labine, star of Fox's upcoming comedy series "Sons of Tucson," were pursued for pilots. After fielding several offers, Bornheimer signed on as the lead in CBS' hot comedy pilot from "How I Met Your Mother" creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas.

Overall, more than a dozen actors on existing series already have been cast in pilots this year.

Casting executive Marc Hirschfeld, who cast one of them -- "Numbers" star Rob Morrow, in ABC's drama pilot "The Whole Truth" -- is not surprised.