‘Friends’: Why Lisa Kudrow Thought Show Might Not Get Picked Up

Friends star Lisa Kudrow recently confessed that she thought the show might not get picked up after filming the pilot.

During an interview with Vanity Fair published on March 25, the actress who played Phoebe Buffay, explained this feeling and what her backup plan was.

“Honestly, when I shot the pilot of Friends, I thought, ‘Yeah, I mean, this is a good show.’ But good shows don’t get picked up all the time.”

At the time Kudrow was cast in Friends, she also appeared as a waitress named Ursula in Mad About You. The sitcom starring Helen Hunt and Paul Reiser ran for seven seasons from 1992 to 1999.

The actress said that she thought to herself, “If there’s any hope of me being able to stay on Mad About You after the pilot doesn’t get picked up — or they pick it up for, you know, 12 more episodes and then that’s it, like after this fails — because there’s no telling what’s gonna happen. Something can be great and still, it gets canceled. I was preserving Mad About You for myself. ”

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Ultimately, Kudrow appeared on both NBC shows at the same time, with Friends deciding to make Ursula Phoebe’s estranged twin.

“Friends found that they had to justify why this same face and voice is gonna be on at 8 o’clock on Mad About You once in a while, and then there she is at 8:30 on Friends,” she told Variety.

Kudrow added, “They had to cope with that and incorporate Ursula into Friends. And I mean, look, they’re good writers. So if you’re a good writer, there are no problems. There’s just, you know, really interesting things that come out of adapting. But I was thrilled, you know, that I could still be Ursula.”

Friends aired for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004. In addition to Kudrow, the beloved sitcom starred Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer, and Matt LeBlanc.

Friends, streaming on HBO Max

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