Friends' Bosses Didn't Plan To Have Monica And Chandler Become A Serious Couple
"Friends" was ripe with relationships for each character throughout the beloved sitcom's epic 10-season run, but the show's creators didn't actually plan for Monica Geller (Courteney Cox) and Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry) to become one of its biggest love stories.
"When we were shooting the scene in London where we find out that Monica and Chandler have slept together, we were in front of a live audience and the reaction was so stunning," co-creator Marta Kauffman explained to Entertainment Weekly, noting that the studio audience applauded the surprise reveal for a whopping two minutes.
The reaction was all she and co-creator David Crane needed to reconsider turning Monica and Chandler's hookup into something more. "We kind of went, 'Huh, this is such an unexpected duo, let's play with it for a little while,'" Kauffman added.
The unlikely pair first get together while across the pond for Ross Geller's (David Schwimmer) wedding to his second wife, Emily Waltham (Helen Baxendale), during the Season 4 finale. Before that bombshell, however, the series' primary "will they, won't they" romance was between Ross and Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), who had already been through plenty together.
Taking a chance on Monica and Chandler's connection paid off
Monica and Chandler's London hookup marked a major shift in "Friends," as their relationship became a central storyline alongside Ross and Rachel's on-again, off-again romance. The audience's enthusiastic response showed Marta Kauffman and David Crane that there was more to explore with Monica and Chandler than they had originally anticipated.
The creators didn't see it coming. "Our intention was not for them to be as serious as they became," Kauffman told Entertainment Weekly. "One of the fun things about doing a show that has years of legs on it is that it begins to tell you what it should be."
After their initial hookup, Monica and Chandler went from keeping their relationship a secret (in one of Perry's best episodes as Chandler) to committing to married life together within three seasons, turning a one-night stand into one of the show's longest-running romances.