Friends was among several TV shows to alter certain moments that had suddenly become insensitive or upsetting in the wake of 9/11.
The 1990s sitcom’s Emmy-winning eighth season launched just 16 days after the terrorist attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people 25 years ago today.
As a result, a sub-plot involving Monica and Chandler’s honeymoon was quickly rewritten and re-shot.
The storyline featured in the third episode, The One Where Rachel Tells…, and saw Matthew Perry’s character joke about bombs while going through airport security. The gaffe landed him and Courteney Cox’s Monica in a questioning room with officials.
The deleted scenes, which are available to watch online, begin at the full-body scanner, where Chandler notices a sign warning that federal law prohibits joking about aircraft hijacking or bombings.
‘You don’t have to worry about me, ma’am. I take my bombs very seriously,’ ill-advised Chandler then jokes.
Having explained themselves to two stern-faced officials, Monica takes a call from Joey and Phoebe, who ask whether they have permission to batter down their apartment door over a suspected gas leak.
Monica sarcastically yells: ‘No, I want you to stand there and wait for the entire place to blow up!’ and the two officers haul them back into the interrogation room.
The scenes were replaced with a silent war the Bings wage with another newlywed couple, who are constantly scooping them on honeymoon perks.
The whole thing ends with a confrontation in the other couple’s fancy gifted suite – but in the original cut of the episode, we were never meant to see Chandler and Monica on their actual honeymoon.
Those original scenes were later included on the 2004 UK DVD of the series, and have since been uploaded to YouTube.
Comment nowWhat are your thoughts on the deleted Friends storyline? Comment Now
They are introduced with the message: ‘As part of the history of the show, we hope that the scenes can now be viewed in the spirit which they were originally intended.’
While the show never directly acknowledged 9/11, the first episode of that season was dedicated to ‘the people of New York City’. The show also hung an American flag in the Central Perk coffee shop and featured the cast wearing NYPD and FDNY apparel, in tribute to the first responders.
In one scene, Joey wears a ‘Captain Billy Burke’ t-shirt, referring to a firefighter killed in the attacks. Captain Burke remained in the North Tower to assist stranded civilians, despite having sent the rest of his engine back down to ground level, as he was aware the South Tower had collapsed.
Days after 9/11, on Friends, Joey wore the shirt of FDNY Capt. Billy Burke, one of the NYC firefighters who died pic.twitter.com/RnXVUZB0Gu
— CanadianStories (@Inspitory) September 13, 2014
Friends co-creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman have spoken about their decision not to mention 9/11 within the show, referring to it as a form of ‘comfort food’ at the time.
Kauffman told the Television Academy: ‘People said it was a welcome [distraction]. Sitting with old friends was soothing, comforting, and that made us feel really, really good about it.’
It was during that eighth season that Friends also hosted survivors of the attacks, along with their families, in the studio audience for a taping of the show.
‘It was an extraordinary night,’ Kauffman recalled. ‘It was amazing and people were incredibly grateful for the opportunity to laugh.’
Director and executive producer Kevin S Bright reiterated the point to Digital Spy, noting that Friends wasn’t a ‘topical show’.
‘We didn’t want to do “a very special episode” of Friends where they’re all distressed about what happened, and trying to deal with it. That just wasn’t what we thought the show meant to the audience,’ he said.
Using identical language to the co-creators, he added: ‘We felt we were comfort food, and during this time, if anything, we should be funnier than we’ve ever been.’
Friends is available to watch on NOW and HBO Max via Sky.
Comment now
Comments
Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google
Add as preferred source