Even if she didn’t love every part of the show, Jennifer Aniston will always be remembered for her signature role as Rachel Green on NBC’s “Friends.” But, the executives over at the rainbow network almost didn’t get her for the beloved sitcom. To help solidify that iconic talent lineup on “Friends,” NBC decision-makers actively conspired to derail a CBS series that Aniston was performing on at the time.
NBC’s scheduling strategist at the time, Preston Beckman, was given marching orders from his bosses at NBC to ensure Aniston would have full availability for “Friends” when it was discovered that she was already signed on to another program. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Beckman revealed, “When we picked up ‘Friends,’ Jennifer Aniston was in second position. She was on a CBS comedy, ‘Muddling Through,’ and they had six episodes of it. We heard that they were putting the show on Saturday nights while we were in a current meeting.”
The practice of hiring actors already cast in other on-air shows is called “second position.” But while second position actors are typically only cast for a pilot, the network felt confident enough in “Friends” becoming iconic that they decided to eliminate the problem of her previous contractual obligation entirely.
Read more: 15 Seinfeld Episodes That Have Aged Terribly
Counter-programming helped kill Muddling Through
Rachel with a shocked expression during a a call in Friends. – NBC
With NBC suits desiring Aniston for the role of Rachel in “Friends” above all others, Beckman and company were under pressure to ensure that the actress’s calendar was freed up. To do so, the network went head-to-head with CBS’s “Muddling Through” with some clever counter-programming.
“I remember [NBC entertainment chief] Warren Littlefield turns to me and said, ‘Kill it!’ So I did,” Beckman admitted. “The first one or two weeks that it was on, I put original ‘Danielle Steel’ movies against it. We wanted to make sure they weren’t going to pick up more episodes just to be spiteful.” By re-airing the television film adaptations of the famous romance author’s works in the same time slot as “Muddling Through,” NBC managed to capture the sitcom’s target demographic.
As a result of the subsequent low ratings, the CBS show wasn’t able to secure more episodes, and bowed out with only nine making it to broadcast. The strategy also had the desired effect of getting Aniston a spot on that iconic TV couch from 1994 to 2004. It’s hard to imagine “Friends” and its many essential episodes without Aniston, and they possibly wouldn’t have come about without this scheme.
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