Was Chandler om "Friends" meant to be gay? It seems he almost was. - LGBTQ Natn

Contents:

• HERE'S WHY SOME 'FRIENDS' FANS THK CHANDLER WAS ORIGALLY MEANT TO BE GAY
• WAS CHANDLER OM “FRIENDS” MEANT TO BE GAY? IT SEEMS HE ALMOST WAS.
• TV LEGENDS: WAS CHANDLER ON FRIENDS ORIGALLY MEANT TO BE GAY?
• WAS CHANDLER BG ORIGALLY GAY ON FRIENDS? EVEN LISA KUDROW THOUGHT SO
• GAY TV HISTORY: THE STRAIGHTENG OF CHANDLER BG
• WAS CHANDLER FROM ‘FRIENDS’ MEANT TO BE GAY?
• GAY-UNIENDLY MATTHEW PERRY REFED A ‘FRIENDS’ STORYLE WHICH HAD CHANDLER SNEAKG TO A GAY BAR, ACRDG TO NEW BOOK
• "CHANDLER'S TREATMENT OF HIS GAY FATHER IS APPALLG": EVERYTHG CRICS REALIZED WHILE WATCHG "FRIENDS" 2015

HERE'S WHY SOME 'FRIENDS' FANS THK CHANDLER WAS ORIGALLY MEANT TO BE GAY

Seattle-based journalist Matt Bme, however, believ the show uld have end very differently if the creative team’s origal plans for Chandler, played by Matthew Perry, had been a new vio report, Bme ― who is the thor of the 2015 book “Defg Marriage” and the host of “Culture Cise, ” an acclaimed YouTube seri ― lv to thly sourced but persistent reports that the creators of “Friends” had tend for Chandler to be a gay man, but changed him to a straight character after Perry was st.

He also breaks down a number of gay jok ― many of them crgeworthy by morn standards ― prented the show at the character’s expense as evince of a funct plot le.

And Perry’s -star Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe Buffay, gave crence to that theory a 2014 terview wh the Televisn Amy suggtg that she, too, believed the character was gay at that Chandler posss what he believ is “a gay sensibily, but no gay storyl, ” Bme told HuffPost, “If they had ma fully gay ― wrten gay, played gay ― would that have been a good thg or a bad thg?

WAS CHANDLER OM “FRIENDS” MEANT TO BE GAY? IT SEEMS HE ALMOST WAS.

”“On one hand, would have been amazg to see a gay ma character on one of the most popular shows TV history, ” he ntued. [The show] seemed to be at s bt when tellg heterosexual stori, and I’m not sure they uld have pulled off the challenge of featurg TV’s most proment gay ma character. 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. “If they had ma fully gay – wrten gay, played gay – would that have been a good thg or a bad thg?

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

“On the one hand, would have been amazg to see a gay ma character on one of the most popular shows TV history.

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. Chandler uld have had the most proment gay character televisn history… until the show’s creators cid to straighten him out. It was about six twenty-somethg Gen-Xers livg, lghg, and lovg implsibly large Manhattan apartments, and was a lot ls shy than other shows of the time about dog gay episos.

He’s smart, he’s funny, he’s sarstic, he’s unlucky love, he’s well drsed — and he was believed to be totally gay, both by characters on the show and by people real life. Chandler go to his iends and asks if they ever thought he was gay, and learns that they all thought he was.

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

And they’re not alone, bee when this episo aired, a lot of viewers thought he was gay as well. In the early velopment of Friends, creators Marta Kffman and David Crane “entertaed the possibily that Chandler uld be gay, ” acrdg to terviews published back the 1990s.

Viewers may have been primed to notice gay characters the mid-90s bee they were creasgly visible on the news and talk shows. There are tons of articl om the show’s origal n perd about how gay Chandler seems — so many terviews where they have to very patiently expla, no, he’s not gay, really.

In that season 1 episo, after his iends all tell him that he has a gay “qualy, ” Chandler fds his worker so he n make sure she knows he’s not gay.

GAY TV HISTORY: THE STRAIGHTENG OF CHANDLER BG

It’s sentially that Chandler’s gay, which was also the punchle the first scene wh his worker, and the scene wh his iends, and the other scene wh his worker. That joke — ’s jt funny for someone to be was gay — seems to be the only gay joke Friends wants to tell.

It would have been a huge tone if the creators of Friends had gone ahead and ma one of the iends gay. It was such a popular show — if uld pel lns of Amerins to change their hairstyl, image what might have done to public attus about homosexualy.

WAS CHANDLER FROM ‘FRIENDS’ MEANT TO BE GAY?

In the latt TV Legends Revealed, learn whether Chandler was nceived of as gay until Matthew Perry was st and the character was re-wrten. TV URBAN LEGEND: The character of Chandler Bg on "Friends" was origally wrten as a gay character. Now, though, when you look back at the seri, is strikg to see how often "gay panic" is displayed on the seri, wh the three ma male characters sperate to make sure that no one ever nsirs them to be gay (most notably, the season 1 episo where we learn that Chandler's -workers do believe that he is gay).

However, this has led to a separate legend that you see pop up all the time on the ter, that Chandler was origally gog to be gay until Matthew Perry was st as the character. This is all over the place on the ', but to pick one, here's one of those "facts you might not know" articl about the show, where stat, "Which of the six characters was origally gog to be gay? The producers later changed their mds, but they did keep some of the tras they had planned for the gay character.

GAY-UNIENDLY MATTHEW PERRY REFED A ‘FRIENDS’ STORYLE WHICH HAD CHANDLER SNEAKG TO A GAY BAR, ACRDG TO NEW BOOK

Crane (who once joked that the fact that he was openly gay was mentned so equently verage of the show that he me to thk that his full name was "The Openly Gay David Crane"), rpond to the "is Chandler gay? If we had st a different actor - who was gay - there was the optn that we would have taken the character that directn.

So if you wanted to phrase as "The producers nsired makg Chandler gay before stg Matthew Perry, " I uld get behd that as beg te. FriendsThis weekend Friends fished filmg a rnn episo, slated to appear on HBO Max at some pot, which has me thkg about jt how close the show me to featurg what uld have been the most proment gay s character history.

"CHANDLER'S TREATMENT OF HIS GAY FATHER IS APPALLG": EVERYTHG CRICS REALIZED WHILE WATCHG "FRIENDS" 2015

Shownners me this close to makg the Chandler character gay, only pullg back after they st Matthew Perry. But spe havg straightened Chandler out, creators Marta Kffman and David Crane gave the st and crew explic stctns to reta the gay vibe: “wre gay, ” they told everyone, “and play straight.

I wonr, lookg back now, if they had allowed Chandler to be gay — or bi, or any other flavor of queer — would that have been better? I was bg through newspaper archiv om the mid-90s, and a surprisg amount of the verage is voted to slow, patient explanatns that Chandler isn’t gay — really, we promise.