TV

Jennifer Aniston's Career Failed Two Times In a Row Before Friends Came Into Play

Jennifer Aniston's Career Failed Two Times In a Row Before Friends Came Into Play
Image credit: Legion-Media

She probably was very relieved to see Friends live past season 1.

Looking at Jennifer Aniston 's incredibly successful acting career today, it's hard to imagine her struggling to make it in Hollywood.

However, despite coming from a family of actors and having some advantages and connections in the industry, she had to go through a lot before making a name for herself.

As we all know, the actress found her first success with the role of Rachel Green in the iconic 90's sitcom Friends.

However, Friends wasn't the first time she tried her hand at sitcoms, nor was it the second.

Aniston landed her first regular television role in 1990 when she signed a contract to portray Courtney Walker on the TV show Molloy.

Unfortunately, the show wasn't successful enough to continue production. In fact, it performed so poorly that it was canceled during the entire first season, with only 4 of 7 episodes airing on Fox.

What's interesting about this project is that the lead role of Molloy Martin was played by another sitcom celebrity, Mayim Bialik.

As bad as the failure of Molloy was, Jennifer Aniston did not let it affect her and moved on to another show.

Ferris Bueller, which premiered the same month Molloy was canceled, was hardly more successful, although it did air for at least one full season.

It quickly ended after 13 episodes, leaving the actress free to explore other opportunities. Her long-awaited success would come four years later when Friends began airing on NBC in 1994.

Already much more cautious and wise from her previous mistakes, the actress actually auditioned for other projects and was offered a spot on Saturday Night Live, but had to turn it down in favor of Friends.

Luckily, the sitcom took off this time, becoming even more popular than anyone could have imagined in the beginning.

If you're feeling a little nostalgic and want to re-watch Friends, you can stream Friends on Netflix or MAX.