Friends almost featured Chandler cheating on Monica in season 5, but Matthew Perry begged writers to not push through with the storyline.
Chandler almost cheated on Monica in Friends until Matthew Perry stepped in. Perry was best known for playing the witty and lovable Friends character who was widely regarded as a fan-favorite. In light of Perry’s untimely death, new stories about him have been making the rounds, including one particular moment where he had to stop the Friends writers from doing something catastrophic to Chandler and Monica’s relationship.
Speaking with TMZ, Friends’ one-time guest star Lisa Cash revealed how Perry blocked a storyline that would have seen Chandler cheating on Monica. The episode in question was in season 5, “The One in Vegas: Part 1,” where the gang made a trip to Las Vegas. Read her full quote below:
The scene was Chandler and Monica were arguing in Vegas about Monica having lunch with Richard and initially in our script, Chandler goes up to the hotel room, orders room service and I bring it up as a hotel worker, and we end up talking and laughing and connecting and Chandler ends up cheating on Monica with my character. We had rehearsed it and everything, and then the day before we were shooting in front of a live audience, I was told that Chandler went to the writers and said that the audience will never forgive him for cheating on Monica, which, it was probably right. right.
Why Chandler and Monica Are The Ultimate Friends Couple
Ross and Rachel are often considered as Friends’ primary romance. The show spent so much time on their will-they/won’t-they dynamic. After becoming an official couple, they eventually broke up, birthing the debate about whether they were on a break when Ross slept with someone else. Wading through all the drama, heartbreak, and yearning from both parties, the pair was only together for a brief period of time. Looking back at Friends, it isn’t difficult to think that they were actually a toxic pair. So while they were Friends’ most prominent love line, they weren’t its best couple.
Instead, Chandler and Monica were the ideal romance in Friends. Their relationship started with friendship, and their bond gradually grew over the years. When they eventually got together, they knew each other quite well. Considering both of their commitment to each other, Perry was corrected to persuade the Friends writers to scrap Chandler’s cheating storyline. Not only would it be uncharacteristic of him, but it would have also ruined the best couple on the show.
It would have been tough for them to bounce back from that crisis, especially considering Monica’s history with Richard. Throughout the ups and downs of their relationship, there was never any doubt that either one of them was going to give up on each other. Chandler cheating would have been a great dramatic plot, but it would have been detrimental to Friends’ overall story.
