Chandler & Monica Were Never Meant To Be

Hold the phone. Shut the front door. This changes everything…

While it was always the on again, off again relationship between Ross and Rachel that kept us coming back for more of Friends (among other things), it was really Chandler and Monica’s unbreakable union that wound up giving the show its backbone. Now, however, we’re learning that this was never meant to be. Their hook-up in London was meant to be just that; a fling. What’s more, the show’s creators originally planned for Monica and Joey to bump uglies, even before they had decided that Ross and Rachel would work as the main love interest, given that it was these two who were considered the most sexual of the group. Imagine!

Were it not for the fan response to Chandler and Monica’s brief dalliance, we might never have cried ourselves into oblivion as she got down on one knee to propose to the perpetually sarcastic Chandler. Marta Kaufman, one of the show’s writers, revealed all at a recent ATX Television Festival:

“We had no idea what response that was going get…”

When Monica’s head popped up from behind the covers of Chandler’s bed in ‘The One With Ross’s Wedding Part 2’, the crowd were so overcome with shock and excitement, they had to stop filming.

“We had to stop [taping] the show because people were screaming… We thought it was going to be funny and we were going to get rid of it… Suddenly the audience told us they had been waiting for that and we had to rethink how we were going to keep going and change the relationship. But that wasn’t a person – it was an entire, immediate expression of joy.”