‘Friends’ writer trashes life on the show: ‘Sex talk was pervasive’

nypost.com:

“End Credits: How I Broke Up with Hollywood,”she reports that she started as a “Friends” writer in July 2000.Having premiered in 1994, “Friends” was in its seventh season at the time, with cast members Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow, and Matt LeBlanc already big-time celebrities. “But the novelty of seeing Big Stars up close wore off fast, along with my zeal about breakfast,” Lin wrote in an excerpt published by Time magazine. “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.”Lin, who is in her 50s, accused the cast of purposely sabotaging the script if they didn’t find it humorous. “They all knew how to get a laugh, but if they didn’t like a joke, they seemed to deliberately tank it, knowing we’d rewrite it,” she alleged.“Dozens of good jokes would get thrown out just because one of them had mumbled the line through a mouthful of bacon. [Co-creators] David [Crane] and Marta [Kauffman] never said, ‘This joke is funny.

The actor just needs to sell it.'”Lin continued, “Once the first rewrite was finished, we’d have a run-through on the set, where the actors would rehearse and work out blocking with the director.

Then everyone would sit around Monica and Chandler’s apartment and discuss the script.”“This was the actors’ first opportunity to voice their opinions, which they did vociferously,” she explained. “They rarely had anything positive to say, and when they brought up problems, they didn’t suggest feasible solutions.