The writers of Friends pitched an idea midway through the show’s run that would’ve relocated the main characters to Minnesota for half a season
Photo: NBC Throughout Friends’ colossally popular ten-season run, our central sextet rarely left their rose-tinted downtown Manhattan confines: There were sojourns to Montauk and Las Vegas, and longer treks to London and the Bahamas to get a breath of fresh narrative air, too.
The relocation to Minnesota developed in the writers’ room during the fifth season, thanks to a recurring desire to genuinely surprise the audience with plot developments. “The idea was that Chandler would be unexpectedly transferred to Minnesota for work,” Austerlitz writes. “Since there was no urgent reason for the characters to stay in New York, each of his friends would ultimately choose to join him there, and Friends would keep them in Minnesota for half a season.
While the writers initially approached this Minnesota move as a joke, they soon realized the creative potential was substantial. “Everyone knew you could not relocate an iconic show to a frigid destination 1,500 miles away,” Austerlitz explains, “which was precisely why many of the writers argued they should do it.” Storyboards were brainstormed. Narrative arcs were formed to get every character to and from Minnesota.
The writers, giddy with excitement at their pitch, were immediately shut down by showrunner David Crane, who said they were “out of their minds” to suggest such a thing. Friends’ fifth season would go on to primarily develop the romantic relationship between Monica and Chandler, as well as the aftermath of Ross’s second brutal divorce. Everything else was a moo point.
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