{"id":133087,"date":"2024-08-18T16:42:03","date_gmt":"2024-08-18T16:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/18\/friends-co-creator-reveals-nbc-had-a-problem-with-monicas-pilot-date\/"},"modified":"2024-08-18T16:42:04","modified_gmt":"2024-08-18T16:42:04","slug":"friends-co-creator-reveals-nbc-had-a-problem-with-monicas-pilot-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/18\/friends-co-creator-reveals-nbc-had-a-problem-with-monicas-pilot-date\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Friends\u2019 Co-Creator Reveals NBC Had a Problem With Monica\u2019s Pilot Date"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tvinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/friends-monica-gellar-courteney-cox.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The first episode of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tvinsider.com\/show\/friends\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Friends<\/a><\/em> had everybody feeling for Monica (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tvinsider.com\/people\/courteney-cox\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Courteney Cox<\/a>) after her one-night stand went awry \u2014 everybody, that&#8217;s, besides a sure NBC government, in response to co-creator David Crane.<\/p>\n<p>In that pilot installment, Monica goes on a dinner date with Paul (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tvinsider.com\/people\/john-allen-nelson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">John Allen Nelson<\/a>), a.okay.a. \u201cPaul the Wine Guy,\u201d who tells her he hasn\u2019t been capable of carry out \u2014 \u201csexually,\u201d he provides, making Monica do a spit take \u2014 ever since his spouse walked out on him. Monica finally ends up sleeping with Paul and solely later learns that his story was all a ruse.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"lzX2ZXOoDGw\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Friends HD - Paul tricks Monica to bed  ( Monica and Paul the Wine guy )\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lzX2ZXOoDGw?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>In a brand new <em>Friends<\/em> retrospective for <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/culture\/tv-radio\/article\/friends-tv-show-cast-crew-cfx5q52bd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Sunday Times<\/a><\/em>, Crane says {that a} community boss tried vetoing that plot and that NBC even surveyed viewers members in an effort to show that time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe guy who was in charge [an NBC executive] said: \u2018We\u2019re not going to like Monica because [in the pilot] she sleeps with a guy on the first date,\u2019\u201d Crane says. \u201cWe made the argument that it makes her sympathetic. The network, in trying to prove that the audience wouldn\u2019t like Monica if she sleeps with a guy on the first date, distributed a little questionnaire to the audience at our dress rehearsal. And it was so skewed. The question was like: \u2018When Monica sleeps with a guy on her first date, is she a) a slut or b) a harlot?\u2019 And people wrote in saying: \u2018No, it\u2019s fine.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An NBC analysis report printed by <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesmokinggun.com\/documents\/crime\/nbcs-failing-grade-friends\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Smoking Gun<\/a><\/em> in 2004 corroborates Crane\u2019s recollection. Though the report known as the <em>Friends<\/em> pilot \u201cweak\u201d and stated take a look at audiences \u201cfelt the show was not very entertaining, clever, or original,\u201d Monica\u2019s subplot \u201cearned sympathy mostly from women who felt sorry for her after she was conned by Paul.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Paul, in the meantime, \u201cdid not score [well] with viewers,\u201d the report added, although some \u201cdescribed him as good-looking and believable and commented that he added a \u2018punch\u2019 of reality because \u2018there are definitely guys like him.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n  {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n  'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n  fbq('init', '2150724991788914');\n  fbq('track', 'PageView');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/>[ad_2]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] The first episode of Friends had everybody feeling for Monica (Courteney Cox) after her one-night stand went awry \u2014 everybody, that&#8217;s, besides a sure NBC government, in response to co-creator David Crane. In that pilot installment, Monica goes on a dinner date with Paul (John Allen Nelson), a.okay.a. \u201cPaul the Wine Guy,\u201d who tells [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[5991,182,2668,5992,4219,1206,5058,231],"class_list":{"0":"post-133087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-cocreator","9":"tag-date","10":"tag-friends","11":"tag-monicas","12":"tag-nbc","13":"tag-pilot","14":"tag-problem","15":"tag-reveals"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}