Friends fans, you've got yourselves to thank for Monica and Chandler's relationship
Co-creator Marta Kauffman has revealed it was the audience's reaction that inspired the longevity of the Friends characters' romance
Friends may have ended with the long-awaited reunion of Ross and Rachel, however it was the relationship between Monica (Courteney Cox) and Chandler (Matthew Perry) that dominated much of the sitcom's last six series.
But it could have been so different...
Speaking on a panel at the ATX Television Festival in Austin, Texas this week, the show's co-creator Marta Kauffman revealed that 'the Bings' weren't originally part of Friends' long-term plan.
"We had no idea what response that was going to get," she said, referring to the couple's drunken hook-up during Ross and Emily's London wedding celebrations at the end of series four. "We had to stop [filming] the show because people were screaming."
Kauffman went on to reveal that the writing team originally toyed with keeping Monica and Chandler's hook-up a short-lived lived affair, before the enormity of the fans' reaction changed their minds.
"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."
The pair's relationship went on to last the remaining six series, leading to their wedding (at the end of season seven) and the adoption of twins Jack and Erica as Friends concluded.
It just goes to show what fans can do – without you lot, most of this would never have happened...
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