Ever wonder what could have been different in your favorite sitcom? From secret relationships to dramatic plot twists, join us as we explore the fascinating storylines that were planned but never made it to air in this beloved series. These behind-the-scenes revelations will change how you watch the show!
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00:00And we end up talking and laughing and connecting and Chandler ends up cheating on Monica with my
00:05character. Welcome to Ms. Mojo. And today, we're looking at the Friends storylines that never saw
00:11the light of day or that the show simply forgot to wrap up. No, I want you to stand there and
00:16wait for the whole place to blow up. Step back inside, please. Emily's return to New York.
00:23Ross and Emily's marriage was effectively destroyed the moment he said the wrong name
00:27at the altar. Despite his efforts to salvage their relationship, they were never able to reconcile.
00:43The abrupt nature of their divorce wasn't the original plan. Emily was supposed to return to
00:49New York. However, Helen Baxendale's real-life pregnancy forced her to film her scenes alone.
00:54Baxendale also disliked the tabloid attention surrounding the role and chose not to return.
00:59Ross, take me off speakerphone.
01:02Hi.
01:03How could you do this to me? I thought I'd made my feelings about Rachel perfectly clear.
01:09Originally, Ross and Emily were supposed to give their marriage a shot before things fizzled out.
01:13According to director James Burroughs, Emily was written out because of the lack of chemistry
01:18between Baxendale and David Schwimmer.
01:20Well, I guess that's it. What happened? My marriage is over.
01:26Pat the Cop
01:27While Friends features many notable recurring characters, the six main characters are the
01:31heart of the show. In the original draft, though, a seventh friend was planned to be a visible
01:36presence. NBC, wanting a more mature presence in the group, asked the showrunners to add an older
01:42character.
01:43Okay, Mr. Heckles, we'll try to keep it down.
01:44Thank you. I'm going to rejoin my dinner party.
01:48David Crane and Marta Kaufman came up with Pat the Cop, a police officer who would occasionally
01:52hang out with the group. Although never intended to be as central as the main cast, Pat was meant
01:57to be a regular part of their world.
01:59Hi, I'm Eric. I'm going to be Chandler's new roommate.
02:01Unenthusiastic about the idea, the showrunners compromised by expanding the role of the friend's
02:06parents, scrapping Pat the Cop entirely.
02:08My agent at the time, I didn't think that I should do it, but I saw that Jim Burroughs
02:15was the director and I'd worked for his father, Abe, who had directed the original production
02:19of Guys and Dolls, so I had to do it.
02:22Ben's disappearance
02:23Roz was never the most attentive parent, but Ben does make frequent appearances.
02:28You don't feel like you're going to throw up, do you?
02:30No.
02:30Well, I do, so let's...
02:31After Emma arrives, however, Ben mysteriously disappears from the show, save for a few passing
02:38mentions. Despite fans' hopes to see Ben meet his baby sister, the show never gets around
02:43to it. The most likely reason is that Emma became central to Ross and Rachel's storylines,
02:48leaving little room for Ben, whose relationship with Ross continued off-screen. Jane Sibbett
02:53and Jessica Hecht, who played Carol and Susan, jokingly suggested that Ben was sent to boarding
02:58school after the family moved to England.
02:59It was truly our baby, because I just loved her, but I didn't have anything to do with
03:05creating that baby. And I thought it was so advanced of everybody to consider it our baby.
03:12Cole Sprouse, on the other hand, thinks Ross was never, quote, a present father to begin
03:17with.
03:17I was like one of those little working actors that sort of just popped in and out and left.
03:23So it's funny that I've been asked so much about it, because it's one of those things
03:26and I was like, yeah, I mean, I had kind of a part on the show.
03:31Joey and Phoebe's casual relationship. The Rachel-Joey romance is one most would rather
03:36forget. But imagine the reaction if Joey and Phoebe had been an item all along.
03:41In an interview with People magazine, Matt LeBlanc and Lisa Kudrow revealed they pitched
03:45a wild retcon, a series of flashbacks showing Joey and Phoebe's secret fling over the entire
03:5010 years of the show.
03:52No, I just feel like being by myself for a while. All right, I'll see you guys later.
03:55Thanks.
03:58Oh, poor Phoebs.
04:00Hey, you know what, you guys? I think I'm gonna go walk her home.
04:04These moments, woven into some of Friends' most popular scenes, would have completely changed
04:08the nature of their relationship.
04:10If that's one thing you can cross off your list.
04:14Oh, yeah.
04:15While the actors found the idea hilarious, the showrunners retained the pair's platonic bond.
04:21Preserving their friendship the way fans know and love.
04:23I would have me some Phoebe. She's very bent.
04:26Monica and Chandler's airport detainment.
04:28We just got married. We're going on our honeymoon.
04:30Oh, really? Congratulations. You know what? Let me see what I can do.
04:38There was a cancellation. I can bump you into first class.
04:41Wow, thank you. See, if we'd gotten here earlier, those seats might not have been available.
04:46Compromise works.
04:47Monica and Chandler's honeymoon plans were originally set to take a much darker turn.
04:52Through a series of misunderstandings, the newlyweds are detained by airport security,
04:57and each attempt to explain themselves lands them in deeper trouble.
05:00This is the first time we're traveling my way, so it's very important that we make this flight.
05:05See, it's one of those her plan versus my plan kind of things.
05:08What do you mean by plan?
05:09You really should just ask me yes or no questions.
05:14While played for laughs, the storyline was pulled from the air as the episode was broadcast two weeks after the events of 9-11.
05:20Since the original plot was so soon after the tragedy,
05:24showrunners replaced it with a lighter one of Monica and Chandler competing with another couple.
05:28As a wedding gift to you, the hotel would like to give you the honeymoon suite.
05:32No! You have been screwing us all day!
05:36Who are you?
05:37Who are you?
05:38Just ten seconds later!
05:40The original scenes were later released as part of the Friends deleted scenes collection.
05:44Elizabeth's pregnancy.
05:46Season 7 ends with an absolute bombshell.
05:48Rachel is pregnant.
05:49And they're gonna have a baby.
05:54Uh-huh.
05:55While that twist was always planned, the original arc was far longer and much more complicated.
06:00Initially, the sixth season was supposed to end with Ross's girlfriend Elizabeth announcing she was pregnant with his child.
06:07After dealing with this for the entirety of the following season, Ross would have discovered he wasn't the father.
06:13Just when he thought he was in the clear, he would have been blindsided by Rachel's pregnancy.
06:17I'm pregnant.
06:23Ross.
06:25However, the show never went through with this plan, and Elizabeth was written out by the end of the sixth season.
06:30Had the original vision panned out, fans would have had two seasons of essentially the same storyline.
06:36I don't know.
06:37I don't understand.
06:40Um, how this happened.
06:42Chandler and Rachel's romance.
06:45Ross and Rachel are easily among TV's most iconic couples, but they were never meant to last.
06:50Initially, the plan was to pair Rachel with Chandler, a storyline that never saw the light of day due to a lack of fan interest.
06:57I think I need to just have some meaningless sex, you know, with the next guy I see.
07:11Excuse me, I seem to have dropped my ball.
07:14Showrunners tested their chemistry with season 3's The One with the Flashback, where the two interact in a flashback.
07:21While they have a steamy fantasy sequence, the episode's reception was lukewarm at best.
07:26Don't say anything.
07:29I don't want to speak.
07:30I don't want to think.
07:32I just want you to take me and kiss me and make love to me right here, right now.
07:38As a result, Chandler's romance was pivoted to Monica, permanently altering the course of the show.
07:46But it was such a powerful moment that we knew we had to explore it more.
07:51We expanded it from just a one night in London thing to, this could be a thing.
07:57If things had played out as envisioned, Chandler could have turned the Ross and Rachel romance into a full-blown love triangle.
08:03Chandler cheats on Monica.
08:04Amidst all the drama surrounding Ross and Rachel, Chandler and Monica were friends' happiest and most stable relationship.
08:11But it could have all gone horribly wrong, had Matthew Perry not stepped in.
08:16Originally, after an argument with Monica over her meeting with Richard, Chandler was set to cheat on her with a hotel employee in Vegas.
08:23There's not going to be a next time. You cannot see him ever again.
08:26I cannot see him? I mean, you can't tell me what to do.
08:30That's so funny, because I think I just did.
08:31Oh, you know what? If you're going to be acting like this all night, I don't even want to be around you.
08:36Fine with me?
08:36Fine. Happy anniversary.
08:38Lisa Cash, the actress cast to play the character, learned the storyline had been cut the day of filming.
08:43We had rehearsed it and everything, and then the day before we were shooting in front of a live audience,
08:48I was told that Chandler went to the writers and said the audience will never forgive him for cheating on Monica, which he was probably right.
08:55Concerned that audiences would never forgive Chandler's betrayal, Perry convinced showrunners to abandon the plot.
09:02Chandler and Monica's relationship was thankfully spared, while Cash ended up playing a flight attendant on Ross and Rachel's plane to Vegas.
09:08Thanks, may I help you?
09:09Yes, I'm sorry, miss. Do you have any extra pants? My friend seems to have had a little accident.
09:16Gunther and Rachel become roommates.
09:17After Monica and Chandler decide to move in together, Rachel finds herself in a bind.
09:22Torn between choosing Ross and Joey as potential roommates, she ultimately moves in with Phoebe.
09:27Hi, everybody. It's Rachel and Phoebe's plead.
09:32Wait, how did you do that?
09:34What?
09:36Oh, you're no ordinary roommate, are you?
09:38But if the showrunners had their way, Rachel would have been forced to live with Gunther instead.
09:43While the idea might have created a hilariously awkward situation, neither Jennifer Aniston nor James Michael Tyler was on board.
09:50I was going to offer you my apartment.
09:54Why? Where are you going?
09:57I don't know.
09:59In an interview with Metro, Tyler shared that he and Aniston convinced David Crane and Marta Kaufman to drop the storyline.
10:05Despite the opportunity for more screen time, Tyler believed the plot, quote,
10:09felt contrived, and didn't live up to the show's, quote, organic standards.
10:14It was like a simpler time, per se, where people actually talked to each other in coffee shops and they had real lives.
10:21And these friends were like, that's when your friends become your family, right?
10:24So people, you know, connect with that.
10:27Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
10:31Chandler's trip to Yemen.
10:32Janice seems to be the only one who remembers his ill-fated trip.
10:35I know what you all are thinking, but Chandler is in Yemen.
10:39Chandler's visits to an exotic dance club.
10:42Matthew Perry shot this idea down pretty soon.
10:45There was a storyline on Friends where Chandler went to a male strip joint because he really liked the sandwiches.
10:53Right.
10:54And I called up and I said, let's not do this one.
10:56Right.
10:57And did you prevail?
10:58Yeah, I did.
10:59Tag's job.
11:00Why did he stop working at Ralph Lauren after breaking up with Rachel?
11:03This is a work environment.
11:05She's your subordinate.
11:06But it was okay when you slept with your old assistant, Tag?
11:10That is totally different for two reasons.
11:14One, I didn't know that you knew that.
11:17Phoebe's parents.
11:18We never hear from them again despite their reunion.
11:21I'm not very good at this, so...
11:23Well, I am.
11:26Not yet, no.
11:34Drake Ramore's brain transplant.
11:37Wasn't he supposed to be Jessica in Drake's body?
11:39Apparently your brain transplant was not entirely successful.
11:43It seems your body is rejecting Jessica's brain.
11:46Is it serious?
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12:03Moving to Minnesota.
12:04Chandler briefly moves to Tulsa in Season 9, balancing life between two cities before returning
12:10to New York.
12:11We're moving to Tulsa.
12:11According to Saul Osterlitz's book, Generation Friends, which explores the show's behind-the-scenes
12:23events, Chandler was meant to relocate to Minnesota during the fifth season.
12:27In an even bigger twist, the entire gang was set to follow him.
12:31Well, how long do you have to go for?
12:33Well, they said it could be up to a year.
12:34Oh my god!
12:35Do you have to go?
12:39Well, I kind of have to, don't I?
12:41Because of this stupid thing.
12:43The show would have chronicled the Friends' adventures as they tried to adapt to the Midwest,
12:48including a brand new intro and a replacement for Central Perk.
12:51Ultimately, showrunners realized that Friends just wouldn't be the Friends that fans loved
12:56without the New York City backdrop.
12:58Still, the radical overhaul remains one of the most intriguing what-ifs in the show's history.
13:03You can't move.
13:04You just, you just can't.
13:05Rachel's right.
13:06This is where you guys belong.
13:08Which of these storylines would you have liked to see the most?
13:10Let us know in the comments.