Was Chandler Bg supposed to be gay Friends?

Contents:

• HOW TO TELL IF YOUR GUY FRIEND IS GAY
• TV LEGENDS: WAS CHANDLER ON FRIENDS ORIGALLY MEANT TO BE GAY?
• WAS CHANDLER BG ORIGALLY GAY ON FRIENDS? EVEN LISA KUDROW THOUGHT SO

HOW TO TELL IF YOUR GUY FRIEND IS GAY

One of the ma characters of the h '90s TV show Friends was reportedly supposed to be gay. Queertyreports that Friends producers origally tend the character of Chandler Bg (played by Perry) to be gay. The plot was cut for unknown reasons, but certaly would've been a groundbreakg moment for gay reprentatn, nsirg how big of a h the show beme.

There is a nng gag throughout the seri of people assumg Chandler is gay, but the ia mak him unfortable and is played for lghs. As a recent news em volvg a squashed gay-themed storyle remds , Friends is still really, really homophobic.

Acrdg to a newly published look behd the scen of the smash s, Generatn Friends: An Insi Look at the Show that Defed a Televisn Era, the show's wrers pched a B-plot which Chandler Bg (Matthew Perry) sneaks to a gay bar, not for the queer mrarie or the love of ABBA songs but bee he lik the tablishment's tuna melts. The male characters on Friends showed a noted disfort and disda toward LGBTQ+ people durg s 10 seasons -- om Chandler's aversn to his transgenr parent (played by Kathleen Turner, still slayg the role) to a particular episo which Ross (David Schwimmer) sists his male nanny mt be anytime LGBTQ+ people are brought up through the show, 's played for lghs -- whether 's the nng joke that people thk Chandler is gay or an episo where Joey (Matt Leblanc) nvc an actg stunt who he is petg for a role on All My Children to play the character "homosexually.

TV LEGENDS: WAS CHANDLER ON FRIENDS ORIGALLY MEANT TO BE GAY?

"In perhaps the most on-the-nose pictn of s tenncy toward gay panic for cheap lghs, Joey and Ross eak out the seventh season of Friends after they accintally fall asleep together on the uch. "While would be easy to dismiss Friends as a product of s time, many of s ntemporari were well ahead on LGBTQ+ reprentatn -- om Blanche (Rue McClanahan) learng to embrace her gay brother on The Goln Girlsto the groundbreakg same-sex weddg Roseanne. Intertgly, when creators David Kffman and Mara Kffman reflected on the storyl they regret, neher of them mentned the show's homophobic history.

A longstandg and oft-repeated urban legend is that Chandler was origally supposed to be gay  Friends until Matthew Perry was st the role. “If we had st a different actor – who was gay – there was the optn that we would have taken the character that directn. This ntributed heavily to fan speculatn that Chandler was origally supposed to be gay – a theory given crence by Phoebe Buffay actrs Lisa Kudrow, who 2014 revealed that she thought the character was gay when she first joed Friends.

WAS CHANDLER BG ORIGALLY GAY ON FRIENDS? EVEN LISA KUDROW THOUGHT SO

“If they had ma fully gay – wrten gay, played gay – would that have been a good thg or a bad thg? “On the one hand, would have been amazg to see a gay ma character on one of the most popular shows TV history. They’d often repeat the same simple joke, that would be funny if a person was gay.

Bme said Friends was at s bt when tellg “heterosexual stori”, addg: “I’m not sure they uld have pulled off the challenge of featurg TV’s most proment gay character. In fact, wh the benef of hdsight, ’s easy to see how the show bolstered homophobia and transmisogyny our culture for years to, when Friends unr fire for s msy history wh queerns, fans and advot pot to the way the show was received upon s arrival the mid-90s. Commentg on the show’s one-night revival 2016 for the Chigo Tribune, Bethonie Butler oped that “[w]rg Friends off as homophobic ignor the cln of Ross' ex-wife, Carol, and her partner, San, ” two supportg characters who helped propel the show to two GLAAD Media Award nomatns and one w for Outstandg Comedy ’s certaly te that any semi-rpectful portrayal of lbian love 1990s televisn was rare at bt, but that don’t mean San and Carol’s plotle was good.

Ross unsuccsfully bids to attach his last name to theirs when namg their child “The One Wh the Sonogram At the End, ” and reflects glumly that he should have known Carol was gay bee she drank beer “straight om the n” the seri pilot (“The One Where Moni Gets a Roommate”); even when Ross and San bond “The One Wh the Lbian Weddg, ” ’s wh a dig at Ross’s masculy, as San asks him to dance wh the tongue--cheek offer “I’ll let you lead.

Throughout the seri, Chandler exprs mortifitn at havg a “gay dad, ” as Charl’ g-out not only end Chandler’s parents marriage, but led to embarrassment om his schoolyard peers — embarrassment that ntu to adulthood, as the Friends st routely roasts Chandler on this topic. Club lled “one of the bt half-hours the s format ever produced”), the fact that Chandler’s father performs a Las Vegas burlque revue lled “Viva Las Gaygas” is played for lghs when the gang nstcts a “quiz show” about how well they know one another.

I put sre quot around “gay dad” and “he” the precedg paragraph bee Charl Bg’s genr inty is mangled throughout the seri by a team of wrers wh only the shallowt unrstandg of how trans and drag culture overlap.

Though Charl is referred to as a gay male drag queen and burlque performer, the character’s few on-screen appearanc Friends’ seventh season seem to dite she is actually a transgenr woman, given that she apparently prents as female 24/7 and is implied to have done so for years. (There’s more textual evince, too: when Chandler and Moni travel to see “Viva Las Gaygas” “The One Wh Chandler’s Dad, ” they’re waed on by a visibly trans wars played by Alexis Arquette — who don’t appear fond of Moni’s cuty bumblg over her pronouns.