Two of the most successful sitcoms to ever air on NBC has been Friends and Will & Grace. The former started a couple of years beforehand in 1994 and finished in 2004, while the latter appeared on the peacock network from 1998 to 2006.
Many legendary shows have done some sort of crossover promotion in the past, where lovable characters appear on the opposite program in an effort to jack up the ratings during sweeps or whatnot. Friends and W&G never did that with one another during their original run, even though Sean Hayes revealed on Watch What Happens Live last September that there was an idea of having Matt LeBlanc’s character of Joey on his show, seeing as they are both played struggling actors on each individual series.
It was just revealed earlier this week that David Schwimmer, who played the down-on-his-luck Ross on Friends, will be featured in a recurring role on the upcoming second season of W&G’s revival. He will play the love interest of Grace, played by Debra Messing. Comedian and late-night host Chelsea Handler will also be making an appearance as a power lesbian.
So, this got me thinking: what if the other five cast members from Friends (Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry) all made an appearance as well? Would it be too much for us to handle? Jennifer recently revealed how she “fantasizes” about bringing the show back to life… so this could be a great way of teasing that sort of thing, even if they are not playing the characters that made each of them super famous.
Here’s what I think each actor should play if they ever decide to drop by the set of Will & Grace.
Jennifer Aniston: If Jennifer is so game to bring Friends back on the air… then this is where we could see her revive Rachel Green. The storylines could run rampant here, but the focus of her being on the show is to really see if she’s still with Ross, how Emma is doing now that she’s in high school, and who she keeps in contact with from the original group. This is all a fantasy, but boy would it be a ratings juggernaut should it ever happen.
Courteney Cox: There’s a lot of avenues that they could do with this. A dramatic twist could be that Courteney plays the woman that Leo (Harry Connick Jr.) slept with while they were in Cambodia back at the end of season 6. A lot of storylines became resolved when W&G was revived, however this one never did, and it would be interesting to see how this could play out knowing what really happened with Grace and Leo at the end of it all (their marriage just didn’t work).
Lisa Kudrow: This would be downright hilarious. Lisa played Ursula Buffay, Phoebe’s twin sister on Mad About You, over the span of 24 episodes (as well as some appearances on Friends). Her role of a ditzy waitress would work perfectly opposite Sean’s of Jack in case he is ever unemployed and must become a waiter again. The storyline would be that they are both up for a high paying catering gig of sorts, and shenanigans would ensue between the two for one of them to get it. In the end, neither of them does… just like when he had to battle Will Arnett for a dancer’s spot in Janet Jackson’s tour back on season 7 of the show’s original run.
Matt LeBlanc: I’m going to go out on a whim and say this… Matt could be Stan Walker, Karen Walker’s husband (who has never been seen on the show). He’s lost a ton of weight and finally appears as a super hunk for the boozy assistant to parade around in sheer glory. He falls off the bandwagon by the end of the episode, however, after getting stung by a bee which brings him back to his original gluttonous self.
Matthew Perry: Simple. Matthew was a straight guy that Will had a thing for when they were both junior lawyers… that isn’t straight after all. I mean, everyone thought Chandler was gay on Friends, so why should this be any different?
This was created by one of our Contributing Writers and does not reflect the opinion of Instinct Magazine or the other Contributing Writers when it comes to this subject.