The Friends fandom is still divided over Ross and Rachel’s “they were on a break” storyline. It definitely marred some of the charms of the ‘will they, won’t they’ couple who were the It-relationship goals in 1990s television for a while.
Rachel finds out that Ross slept with someone else the very night she asked for some distance over his clingy behaviour, leading to one of the rare, heartbreaking scenes on the show that later saw another golden pair coming together—Chandler and Monica. And, apparently, the writers wanted to repeat the same storyline. Thankfully, Matthew Perry stepped in and stopped that from happening.
One of the central romances in the series is the enduring relationship between Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry) and Monica Geller (Courteney Cox). However, in a surprising revelation, it has come to light that Perry took a stand to protect this love story by urging the show’s writers to scrap a cheating Chandler storyline.
The inside scoop comes from Lisa Cash, an actor who appeared as a flight attendant in season five, episode one, titled ‘The One in Vegas: Part 1’. Originally, Cash was slated to play a hotel worker who became involved with Chandler after a disagreement between Chandler and Monica over her lunch with her ex-flame, Richard, played by Tom Selleck.
Cash told TMZ, “I came in as a guest star, and I was super excited. The scene was Chandler and Monica were arguing in Vegas about having lunch with Richard.” She went on, “Initially in our script, Chandler goes up to the hotel room, orders room service, and I bring it up [to him] as a hotel worker. We end up talking and laughing and connecting, and Chandler ends up cheating on Monica with my character.”
However, just a day before shooting in front of a live audience, Perry had the foresight to intervene, expressing concerns about how the audience would react to Chandler cheating on Monica.
Cash explained how things went down on the day of the shoot, “We had rehearsed it and everything. The day before we were shooting in front of a live audience, I was told that Perry went to the writers and said the audience would never forgive [Chandler] for cheating on Monica. He was probably right! That would’ve changed possibly the course of the show and his character.”
This story has come to light in the wake of Matthew Perry’s unexpected passing on October 28th, 2023, at the age of 54.
