Jennifer Aniston is among the leading actresses in the entertainment industry, who proved her mettle with a long list of super hit movies. The gorgeous actress rose to stardom with her cult classic sitcom FRIENDS. It is considered among the most iconic shows ever and the fan following of the sitcom is growing every year. One of the biggest attractions of the show was the romance between Ross Geller and Rachel Green, played by David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston, respectively.
The show completely changed the life of the actress and made her one of the top-rated actors in Hollywood. However, there was once a time when Aniston was torn between doing FRIENDS and another sitcom.
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In the year 1994, Jennifer Aniston was starting her acting career and acted in several pilots for landing a role. After shooting five pilots for TV, the actor for her perfect role with NBC’s FRIENDS. The role of Rachel Green was perfect for her, and she became a star in the sitcom.
However, before taking up the show, she had also done six episodes of a completely different series. At the time, CBS was trying out a new sitcom named Muddling Through. In the show, she played the role of the protagonist’s daughter Madeline. The show was given six episodes, and if the rating were good, the makers could land a full season. However, Aniston was also selected for FRIENDS, which left her stuck.
If Aniston’s other show Muddling Through got greenlit, then she would have had to leave FRIENDS after the first half of the season. As a result, her character would have been written out, or she would get replaced by another actress.
How Did the FRIENDS team cast Jennifer Aniston?
The showrunners of FRIENDS were stuck with stiff competition, and they did not want to lose out on Aniston. Hence they came up with a strategy to ensure that Muddling Through never got greenlit. Strategist Preston Beckman made a plan to make the other show Muddling Through airing time, face stiff competition.
Hence, when Muddling Through aired in the summer, NBC started airing a line of TV movies that were adaptations of Danielle Steel’s novels. The romance author had a massive fan following, and hence majoring female viewers tuned the movie instead of the new show.
Muddling Through went on till its tenth episode, and its last episode remained unaired, as it was canceled. The show only lasted three months, whereas FRIENDS aired for ten seasons successfully. Aniston was finally cast for the show and got her breakthrough role as Rachel Green.
It was a stiff competition, but the FRIENDS finally won, and the role finally launched Aniston’s career.