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Lisa Kudrow: Friends Showrunners Thought Monica Was “Slutty”

Not so friendly, NBC! Lisa Kudrow looked back to her Friends days on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday, Oct. 29, and revealed that the smash show’s network had some less-than-kind words about the character of Monica Gellar (played by Courteney Cox). 

“When we were shooting the pilot, the network got really nervous,” Kudrow, who played the eccentric Phoebe Buffay, explained to Jimmy Kimmel. “In the episode, [Monica] sleeps on the first date with the guy… he didn’t have a name, he was like, the salesman guy, I don’t remember.”

Related: PHOTOS: Friends Stars: Then & Now

In the series premiere of Friends, which aired in September 1994, Monica nabs a date with Paul “The Wine Guy,” a man who worked in Monica’s restaurant.

“They were really nervous and said, ‘The audience won’t like her cause she’s sleeping with him on the first date! It’s slutty!’ Yeah!” Kudrow, who is promoting the November return of The Comeback on HBO, continued. “They actually made up a survey to give to the audience to ask them questions like, ‘So Monica sleeps with this guy, Bob the sales guy, on the first date, and how does that make you feel? A: I’m fine with it. B… something like that! It was a survey, and most of them were like, ‘It’s fine!’ They seemed a little irritated like, ‘Oh, knock it off!'”

Lisa Kudrow on Friends

Related: PHOTOS: '90s TV Stars: Then & Now

While Friends famously saw success despite Monica’s so-called “slutty” behavior, one person who isn’t one of the show’s millions of fans is a young man very close to Kudrow, 51. 

Asked whether her son Julian, whom she shares with husband Michel Stern, is old enough to watch her beloved show, Kudrow told Kimmel, “Well, he’s 16. He’s old enough [to watch it], and he’s old enough to know that he’s not that interested.”

Watch the Emmy winner talk Friends in the video above! 

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