The sitcom Friends continues to dominate in syndication, nearly 20 years after it first debuted on NBC. Now, behind the scenes anecdotes reveal that the show–which continues to endure criticism for homophobia–almost included a major gay character.
Friends revolved around the lives of a group of single 20 and 30-somethings living in New York City during the 1990s. The show became an immediate hit when it debuted, making megastars out of its cast Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer. For 10 seasons, viewers turned in to laugh at the floundering attempts by the characters to survive adult life and responsibility, and to keep up to date with their romantic lives.
For one character, that almost included a groundbreaking storyline. Ranker reports that the producers had originally intended the character of Chandler (played by Perry) to be gay. The final series instead featured a running gag that everyone thinks Chandler is gay, which constantly makes him feel uncomfortable.
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The reasons the producers nixed the Chandler-as-gay storyline remain unclear. In the mid-90s, adding a major gay character to a TV series was still considered a very risky proposition–enough so to prompt the producers or NBC executives to nix anything that could hurt the show as a ratings winner. Friends lore also holds that Matthew Perry once vetoed a storyline involving Chandler visiting a male strip club, as it reportedly made the actor feel “uncomfortable.”
Though Chandler never came out on the show–he ended up with Courtney Cox’s Monica when the show ended–Friends did feature a number of queer characters over its 10 season run. Modern critics have lambasted those characters–which included a frigid lesbian couple, and Chandler’s transgender father–as homophobic. The same goes for the running jokes about Chandler’s sexuality. Actress Lisa Kudrow has defended the show’s treatment of queer characters, as well as its all-white cast, referring to the sitcom as a “time capsule.”
Of course, there is an easy way to address some of these ongoing issues with the Friends legacy: stage a reunion special in which Chandler does finally come out of the closet, reconcile with his transgender father and find a nice man to date. We’d watch.
starri
It was nixed because of Matthew Perry. Years, and years, and years ago, one of the creators all but told the Advocate that Chandler had been conceived of has gay, and vaguely commented that things might have been different if they’d hired a different actor.
Although given that the bulk of the show is homophobic AF, it was probably for the best.
S.anderson
The original Beverly Hills 90210 was supposed to have a gay character too; “Steve Sanders” played by Ian Ziering. The big fratboy-ish blonde guy. If you watch carefully, he strangely seems to have no love interest in the first season. He’s a broody asshole who keeps ditching the gang. The corporate homophobes wanted to see how openly gay characters on “Melrose Place” fared well first. MP did fine, but 90210 was such a smash hit they decided not to take any risks. Steve’s bad attitude was explained away by giving him a drinking problem.
Creamsicle
Wasn’t there an episode where he picks up a woman who turns out to be a transvestite? Not sure if they were meant to be transexual, because the character immediately disappears as soon as the jig is up and just says something like, “I thought you knew.”
radiooutmike
I always thought the gay person was supposed to be Scott (Doug Emerson) who David’s (Brian Austin-Greene) best friend for the first two seasons of 90210.
Heywood Jablowme
Jon Favreau and Craig Bierko, both better-known in 1994 than Perry was, both auditioned for and were offered the Chandler role and decided not to take it. That would have been interesting, especially if Chandler were gay. Warren Littlefield, NBC exec (made fun of on “Seinfeld”) even said that Bierko had a “Snidely Whiplash” vibe (cartoon character, you’d have to look him up unless you’re old like me). Hard to imagine either of them in the role, but might have been fun!
Donston
Chandler initially being “gay” is pretty widely known at this point. So much of the cast, producers and execs have talked about it over the last decade.
Perry was the best of the guys in the early seasons. He had an awkward charisma about him and of course great timing. But after the first couple of years it seemed as if the writers never knew how to utilize that character and then he eventually became Monica’s whipping boy. But if Chandler was gonna be in legit same-sex relationships that meant the writers would have to create interesting outside characters, which they never were good at. Hell, Will &Grace was poor at that as well.
Heywood Jablowme
Yes, they seem to have thought of Chandler as gay (originally) but looks like they wanted him to be played by a more physically imposing, “hunkier” actor, which would have put a much different spin on the character. Not a nebbishy gay guy but a studly gay guy. (A gay 1994 Craig Bierko would have been pretty hot, I think!)
Besides that, there’s the West Village setting which was never really put to much use over the years. Their real-life apartment building is just a block away from Christopher Street. These characters in the real ’90s would have been interacting with gay men all the time, if verisimilitude were a concern. Well, I was living in NY then and little things like that tended to bug me!
DuMaurier
I don’t remember a “frigid” lesbian couple; and was Chandler’s father trans? I thought he was a gay drag queen/cross-dresser.
iminheatlikeacat
I Was confused by both of these things mentioned too. I can only think the “frigid” lesbians were Carol and Susan (they weren’t frigid) and you’re right – Chandler’s father was a drag queen, not trans.
pavel20
the issue of chandler’s father gets confusing since kathleen turner was cast in the role.
Outpost12156
I didn’t watch it on a regular basis but there were two instances which really hinted at the possible of a character being gay, or perhaps having feelings but not ready to deal with the feelings. Again, I don’t remember the characters clearly (it was quite a while ago) but two of them were room mates. The first instance related to using a common washcloth in showering. The second was when the room mate moved out, and as I remember the closing scene was the remaining room mate sort of leaning out the window visibly torn. There were feelings, but it was one way, and it was never voiced as I remember.
iminheatlikeacat
I remember both of those scenes and neither of them “hinted” at the characters being gay. From the top of my head I can think of about ten other examples that were bigger “hints” than those including kissing, arousal, pretending to be a same-sex couple etc
bachy
Wasn’t Rachel Green a gay character?
Georgeiv2
Oh I thought that both Ross and Chandler were gay and Joey played around ! could I have been wrong ?
inbama
Thank goodness they didn’t make Perry “uncomfortable” by making Chandler gay.
He might have turned to drugs and alcohol.
Cam
I see what you did there. 😉
michel_banen
I still enjoy FRIENDS as the 90’s series it is, way and will always be. I don’t remember ever being offended by it or finding it ‘homophobic’.
“Modern Family” had over the top gay characters that are sometimes só much over the top that that might be more stereotyping….. Still I LOVE that show !
JessPH
I’m glad that they didn’t make him gay. If they made Chandler gay then that would have been problematic for Will and Grace. NBC would not likely add into its prime time line-up another show with another gay male main character. It’s the 90s. You can only have so many gay main characters on prime time back then.
Cam
No surprise, Modern Family YEARS later had to be threatened with ad boycotts to just get their gay couple to show a chaste kiss. AND they fought against that by inventing a false claim that “Oh, the characters have intimacy issues” before finally caving and then claiming that they’d already written an episode showing a kiss.
So no, Friends never was going to have a gay character. It was probably a joke made around the writing table and never went farther than that.
Creamsicle
Does everyone just have cultural amnesia or something? The ’90s were full of homophobia. For example, DNDT was a compromise. Republicans originally wanted all gay service members dishonorably discharged.
Public support for marriage equality his an inflection point in 2009, and media very rapidly had to change to keep pace with public opinion. That upset the homophobic holdouts, and contributed to the rise of Reactionary political groups like the Tea Party and eventually DJT. But racism was probably a bigger contributor to those.
ShowMeGuy
Having Chandler be gay would have been lazy script writing. It played much better with him being straight and pass-thru characters causing confusion because they figured he was gay.
And all this “FRIENDS was homophobic and transphobic” bullshit……. well, it is bullshit.
wooly101
Who cares. If they did write him in as gay, they would have gone the typical route. Poor Matt uncomfortable to visit a male strip club. Some guys do have major issues.
8millionandcounting
Could a show be any Wh=iter???
Just joshing.
I couldn’t-care-less about the makeup of the show. It had it’s moments and it was what it was for the times. Stop all the fake outrage.