Friends: Monica & Chandler's Relationship Almost Happened Much Earlier
Chandler and Monica became one of the most beloved couples in Friends, and their relationship almost happened way earlier than it did. Created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, Friends made its debut on NBC in 1994 and came to an end in 2004 after 10 successful seasons and a lot of ups and downs in the lives of its main characters. Friends continues to have a very solid fanbase, which has grown in recent years thanks to its time in the world of streaming.
Friends follows the lives of a group of six young adults living in New York City and doing their best to juggle their social, personal, and professional lives, which often overlapped. Monica, Phoebe, Rachel, Chandler, Joey, and Ross became family, with four of them actually ending up together: Rachel and Ross, and Monica and Chandler. The latter pair went on to become a fan-favorite, and their story was one viewers could relate to, as it was through them that Friends addressed themes that weren’t common on TV at the time.
Chandler and Monica famously got together the night before Ross and Emily’s wedding in London (season 4’s finale “The One With Ross’ Wedding, Part 2”), when Monica got drunk and was looking for someone to hook up with. Their supposed “one-night stand” ended up becoming the most solid relationship in the show, but they almost got together way before traveling to London. Speaking to Vulture, writer and executive producer Scott Silveri shared that the chemistry between Chandler and Monica became evident to them in season 2, specifically in the episode “The One Where Ross Finds Out”, where Monica began to train Chandler so he could lose some weight. Silveri added that having Chandler and Monica become a couple was pitched during season three, but writer Shana Goldberg-Meehan said it was too soon to introduce another couple, and so they waited a bit longer.
However, Ross and Rachel’s infamous “break” happened in season 3, and that took all the attention not only of the audience but also of the writers, so they had to wait to introduce a new pair. Silveri explained that the show couldn’t rest on just one relationship if it wanted to be entertaining for longer, and pairing Chandler and Monica felt organic. The way they approached this new couple was also different, as the whole Ross and Rachel relationship was “experienced by the group”, whereas Monica and Chandler’s was kept secret for a while, allowing them to figure it out by themselves. The writers’ intentions of making Chandler and Monica a couple could be felt even before Ross met Emily, most notably in season 3’s finale “The One At The Beach” and season 4’s first episode “The One With The Jellyfish”, where Chandler kept pushing Monica into considering him to be her boyfriend.
Even with all those hints at Chandler and Monica’s future, their relationship came as a surprise to viewers, but the pair quickly won them over. Waiting until season 4 to bring them together was a very wise decision, more so as the audience was tired of the Ross/Rachel drama by then, and this new couple was a breath of fresh air. If Monica and Chandler had gotten together earlier in Friends, it might have taken longer for viewers to accept them, but if the rest of their story remained the same, they would have still been a fan-favorite couple.