Friends: Chandler’s Most Hilarious Love Story Was Meant for One Episode, Stayed for 10 Seasons
One thing Friends was always great at was reading fans’ reactions and changing the show accordingly — and this Chandler’s love story is the perfect example of that.
Over the course of ten seasons, each of the main characters in Friends switched a plethora of love interests and partners. Most of them were only there for an episode or two; others were recurring throughout the entire duration of the show.
The second category includes some of the most beloved partners that were not meant to be, like Richard and Monica, for instance.
But if in this case, Richard was initially designed to be a recurring character in the series, another popular love interest involved with Chandler Bing was only meant to be there for a single episode.
Janice, one of Chandler’s earliest love interests, was never meant to become a recurring character.
The game plan for her changed on the go as both the writers and the audience absolutely fell in love with this charming woman, and against all odds, Janice became one of the most important recurring characters in Friends.
“It was just supposed to be this one scene and one episode, so fortunately for me, the writers fell in love with Janice and they continued to bring me back and write her into episodes and seasons. It was just the best continuing unfolding surprise,” shared Maggie Wheeler, the actress who played Janice.
One of the main reasons Janice became so loved in the first place was her iconic laugh — and, apparently, Maggie designed it on the fly since she was too scared of laughing in her own voice on the set when Matthew Perry would do something funny.
"I needed to find a way to laugh because Matthew Perry is so funny. Working with him, I knew right away, I thought, 'This guy's gonna make me laugh on set, I've gotta be prepared. What am I going to do?' So I created Janice's laugh just as a safety measure for when Matthew made me laugh,” Wheeler explained to This Morning.
Thus, Matthew Perry’s sense of humor and Maggie Wheeler’s unorthodox laughter created the most hilarious love story in Friends: Chandler and Janice. Their off-again, on-again relationship was the ultimate highlight of every episode it resurfaced in, and thankfully, Maggie had as much of a blast off it as we, the viewers.
Source: This Morning via YouTube