How Friends' Cast Made Sure Writers' Job Was A Living Hell
No one was actually there for them.
You might think that being a writer on an iconic show like Friends, filled with so many timeless lines and character quips, must have been the experience of a lifetime. And it was: no one expected the show to explode like it did and carve out a place in television history. But the closer it got to the end, the worse the working conditions became.
It wasn't just the money, it was the toxicity that built up on the set as the actors got tired of their work. Just as no one expected such a huge success, no one expected the show to last as long as it did. With so much recognition and publicity that each of the main cast members had received, it was obvious that they were ready to move on.
The change in the overall atmosphere on the set made the working environment much worse for the writers, as they believed this was the time when some of the lines were sabotaged during table reads simply because the actors didn't feel them.
In the column, taken from the book End Credits: How I Broke Up with Hollywood, published by Time, writer Patty Lin, who joined the Friends staff in the show's sixth season, recalled her experience:
“The actors seemed unhappy to be chained to a tired old show when they could be branching out, and I felt like they were constantly wondering how every given script would specifically serve them. They all knew how to get a laugh, but if they didn’t like a joke, they seemed to deliberately tank it, knowing we’d rewrite it”.
According to Lin, dozens of jokes didn't make it into the show not because they weren't funny, but because the talent didn't feel up to it. None of the eliminated jokes were ever defended by showrunners David Crane and Marta Kauffman.
Unfortunately, working on Friends wasn't the best possible environment for both young and experienced writers. As Lin admits, there was nothing to learn on the set except not to join another sitcom team. The only good thing that came out of it was a timeless TV show that still tops sitcoms in the hearts of many viewers.