‘Friends’ Stars ‘Seemed Unhappy to Be Chained to a Tired Old Show,’ Would ‘Deliberately Tank’ Jokes, Says Writer

variety.com:

Ethan Shanfeld According to one former television writer, working on “Friends” wasn’t all that friendly. Patty Lin, whose credits include “Breaking Bad,” “Freaks and Geeks” and “Desperate Housewives,” opened up about her turbulent tenure on the juggernaut NBC sitcom in her upcoming memoir, “End Credits: How I Broke Up With Hollywood” (via Time). “The ‘Friends’ writing staff was cliquey, more so than at any other show I would work on.

They reminded me of the preppy rich kids in my high school who shopped at Abercrombie & Fitch and drove brand-new convertibles,” Lin wrote of her former co-workers.

Lin, who is Asian, joined “Friends” in its seventh season and was the only person of color in the writers room at the time. She wrote that she often struggled with “imposter syndrome” and “wondered whether I was hired for ‘Friends’ because of the diversity program or because I was the right person for the job.” Her experience only got harder during the table reads, in which the series stars — including Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc — gathered with the producers, writers and department heads to read the episode scripts. “The novelty of seeing Big Stars up close wore off fast,” Lin wrote.

She added, “The actors seemed unhappy to be chained to a tired old show when they could be branching out, and I felt like they were constantly wondering how every given script would specifically serve them.