Celebrity News

‘Friends’ was nearly farce

Hit show “Friends” nearly starred Nancy McKeon from “The Facts of Life” in Courteney Cox’s role as Monica, with Cox in Jennifer Aniston’s role as Rachel and journeyman TV actor Craig Bierko playing Matthew Perry’s part as Chandler. Perry, meanwhile, was almost stuck doing a bizarre show called “LAX 2194,” about baggage handlers of the future, instead of the NBC smash that ran for 10 seasons. Vanity Fair’s “Oral History of ‘Friends,’ ” in its May issue, also reveals the series originally had a much different title. “ ‘Six of One’ was the name of the show during the pilot,” says former NBC exec Karey Burke. “Then [series creators] [Marta] Kauffman and [David] Crane came back with ‘Friends,’ which we thought was such a snore. Some people thought the show was too Gen X, way too narrow.” Matt LeBlanc also says the cast rebelled when Aniston’s character fell for his. “It felt wildly inappropriate,” he tells VF. “[The cast] got super-defensive about the whole thing.”