When the “friends” won their roles on this beloved sitcom NBC, they instantly obtained their future as some of the largest and most well-paid stars in the world. At the end of the series in 2004, each member of the whole earned $ 1 million per episode. This means that for seasons 9 and 10, they have won $ 42 million, and to date, The casting “Friends” still makes a lot of reruns. Of course, they sacrificed a large part of their personal intimacy in the process, and David Schwimmer was one of the most frank on the negative side of the mega-intrigue.

In a Tutor Interview, the actor recalled how before the beginnings of the show, the director and legend of the sitcom James Burrows took the casting to Las Vegas and tried to warn them of the upcoming attack. “We were crossing the casino at some point,” recalls Schwimmer, and [Burrows] Said to us, “Remember this moment, this is the last time you will be able to travel a casino like this”-basically, with total anonymity. “Burrows could not have been fairer; while he was embarking on a vegas plane, Schwimmer remembered a group of women who” grabbed him “he would not have dropped him”.

Since then, the actor of Ross has seized several opportunities to comment on what he considers fans and pressing on their limits, describing what it was for the casting. In the 2021 “Friends” reunion special, he spoke of the unique experience of becoming so known so quickly. “The fact is that no one was going through what we were going through, except the other five,” he said. “Our family could not understand, our friends, our closest friends could not relate. But, the only other people who really knew what it looked like was the other five.” None of this means that Schwimmer was disappointed to have landed “friends”, especially by establishing that he had paid his subscription for some time before the beginnings of the show. Even in the months preceding the “friends”, Schwimmer was done with another sitcom who probably prayed for this kind of success.

“Friends” made its debut in September 1994 and is undoubtedly the most successful and appreciated sitcom in the history of television (even if it only made number 12 on / film ranking of the best sitcoms of all time). THE Comforting purgatory of “friends” has become a place of generations of viewers regularly revisit, and the show continues to order a massive audience more than two decades after the broadcast of its last episode in 2004. As such, it is difficult to overestimate the chances of being thrown into such a show. The history of television is strewn with failed sitcoms which did not spend their first season and almost all the members of the “Friends” set had appeared in such a series. Matthew Perry, for example, may have presented himself in “growth pain” Before “Friends”, but it also appeared on three other sitcoms which were canceled before the broadcast of their first seasons. He was not the only one either.

The same year “Friends” was broadcast for the first time, David Schwimmer a Co-A directed another short-term sitcom alongside the veteran of “Happy Days” and the star of “Barry” Henry Winkler. “Monty” began to be broadcast on Fox in January 1994 and run only a month before the network spent the catch. Even the unhappy sitcoms in which Perry had played had lasted a little longer than that. So what was the problem?

“Monty” played Winker (who also produced a frame) as Monty Richardson, a Rush Limbaugh TV commentator who finds himself frequently disagreement with his wife and his liberal children. Schwimmer played Monty’s son, Greg, a dropout of Yale’s law which returns from a trip to Europe with a new girlfriend and a desire to become a vegetarian chief, to the chagrin of Monty. The series also features Kate Burton as the wife of the teacher of the Monty primary school, Fran, and David Krumholtz as the youngest son of Richardson, David. If you think it looks like a dynamic “All in the Family”, it was a lot, and intentionally. This sitcom had proven a huge success in the 1970s and for any reason Winkler and Co. were convinced that the public wanted to see the FONZ as a type of Bunker Archie in the 1990s. (They did not do it.)

“Monty” was broadcast on Fox between January and February 1994 and was canceled after six episodes, leaving seven which did not go. Obviously, the public did not respond to Henry Winkler’s return to sitcom format, and with Fox taking the catch so early, the notes had to be horrible. That said, the spectacle itself was not necessarily as bad as the notes suggest it – although it was not great either.

In a review, Variety‘S Tony Scott noted that the writer / Creator Marc Lawrence (who had already written for “Family Ties”) is based on standard liberal and conservative lines, so there are few surprises. “According to Scott, director James Burrows, who would later direct several episodes of” Friends “and warn David Schwimmer against renowned signs, managed to” find fun moments among the clichés “, while the critic greeted the rhythm. Scott, however, made MONTY DE WINKLER as” Fonzie on “Happy Days” had been a curseMonty was surely not much better. But Schwimmer may have received the most biting assessment when Scott described it as well as Krumholtz as “acceptable”.

Obviously, NBC, the network which would broadcast “friends” later the same year, initially developed “Monty” before placing a serial order. Fox then intervened and ordered 13 episodes, but NBC clearly knew that he had a failure on their hands and was right to let the show go. “Monty” seemed to belong to a bygone era of sitcoms, in particular given his ambitions to imitate the success of “All in the Family”. “Friends”, who made his debut only six months after “Monty” left the air, could not have been more different. Its representation from 20 to 30 years old who found their way in the 1990s New York looked like an evolution for the format. Although the two programs are sitcoms, Schwimmer and James Burrows were really the only things connecting the two, as evidenced by the massive difference in the way each spectacle was received. However, while “Monty” was not the most beautiful moment in Schwimmer, at least he did not have to worry about being swarmed at the airport.