The former FRIENDS writer says the actors rarely had anything positive to say about the scripts

Television writer Patty Lin has worked on tons of popular and beloved series over the years including Freaks and misfits, Desperate Housewives AND breaking Badbut the most popular of its time it had to be Friends. The series ran for ten seasons between 1994 and 2004, and attracted the largest audiences and highest salaries for its stars of any show in history. It’s still widely seen, in syndication and streaming, but not everyone involved with the show has the best memories of working on it.

The stars of the show are still notoriously close, but Lin recently opened up about the difficult times she had while making the series.

Lin wrote in her memoir, Credits: How I Broke Up With Hollywood (via Now):

“The novelty of seeing the Big Stars up close quickly wore off, along with my zeal for breakfast. The actors seemed unhappy at being chained to a tired old show when they could have branched out, and I got the feeling they were constantly wondering how each script would specifically serve them.

Has continued:

“They all knew how to make people laugh, but if they didn’t like a joke, they seemed to deliberately ignore it, knowing we’d rewrite it. Dozens of good jokes would have been thrown away just because one of them had mumbled the joke into a mouth full of bacon. David [Crane] AND Martha [Kauffman] he never said, “This joke is funny.” The actor just has to sell it.’”

Lin goes on to write that the actors voiced their opinions “loud” when they didn’t like something in the script, adding:

“They rarely had anything positive to say, and when they did raise issues, they didn’t suggest viable solutions. Seeing themselves as guardians of their characters, they often maintained that they would never do or say this or that. This was occasionally helpful, but overall these sessions had a terrible, aggressive quality that lacked all the levity you’d expect from making a sitcom.

He kept saying that throughout his time Friendshe suffered from “impostor syndrome”.

“But imposter syndrome, I later learned, is a common experience for racial minorities working in fields where they lack representation. As the only Asian writer in many rooms, I felt so alone, giving in to the pressure to represent my entire race and prove I deserved a seat at the table or a spot on that stage.

Lin says it Judd Apatowthe producer of Freaks and misfitshe warned her about taking the job Friends as she was already a “well oiled machine” and would learn nothing adding, “I didn’t learn much except that I never wanted to work on a sitcom again. But the choice had been clear then. And, for better or for worse, Friends it would remain my most recognizable merit.

via: Deadline