“Friends” changed the world. Seriously. It has been voted one of the best television shows of all time. It has been up for countless awards, and it has made even the manliest of men shed a tear. The theme song. The gorgeous, sexual, group of friends. The romance for God’s sake. Is there anything better than tension between Ross and Rachel? The longing between Richard and Monica? And the feeling of completeness when Monica ends up with Chandler? No. There’s nothing better than that, because it’s perfect. According to a recent article by Cosmopolitan, however, one of the best romances in the history of television was never supposed to happen.
Co-creator Marta Kaufman recently revealed that while Monica and Chandler are the dream couple, they were never supposed to be a thing. She broke the news at the ATX Television Festival this past weekend.
From Cosmo,
“We had no idea what response that was going get,” Kaufman said at the ATX Television Festival. But the big turning point, was this moment in “The One With Ross’s Wedding, Part 2”
The studio audience were so shocked, they actually had to break from shooting the scene. “We had to stop [taping] the show because people were screaming.”
She added, “We thought it was going to be funny and we were going to get rid of it.
“Suddenly the audience told us they had been waiting for that and we had to rethink how we were going to keep going and change the relationship. But that wasn’t a person — it was an entire, immediate expression of joy.”
But the shock and confusion doesn’t end there. She went on to reveal who Monica was actually supposed to end up with.
Kaufman has said before that the main love interest was never meant to be Ross and Rachel or even Monica and Chandler — it was originally going to be Monica and Joey. “They just seemed the most sexual of the characters.”
I’m sorry. What the actual fuck? Monica and Joey. No. It’s not okay. Thank God a studio audience was there to screw up the entire story line of the series. I mean, without that, we wouldn’t have had this…
Not only is this fascinating for the show, but it’s fascinating for life. Thanks for changing the story for us Kaufman, and proving that sometimes true love doesn’t fit the path that was set. Things change, people evolve, life keeps going. One day you might wake up and realize that you have to rewrite your own ending. That happily-ever-after isn’t with the person who you thought was meant to fill the spot, but it’s with the person who’s been in front of you the whole time. Love isn’t scripted. No matter how hard you try to make it, you can’t deny true, powerful, all-encompassing love. Or great energy between actors. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have something in my eye..
[via Cosmopolitan]
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