This Monica Storyline Was Almost Cut From Friends’ Pilot

John Allen Nelson (Paul the wine guy) and Courteney Cox in "Friends"

Friends co-creator revealed that Monica’s story in the pilot was almost completely cut. 

While in a post Sex and the City world, women talking about sex and well having it is something we’re used to seeing on television, in the mid-90s that wasn’t necessarily the case. 

Don Meyer, who was then the head of NBC, thought that the fact that the story that Monica Geller (Courteney Cox) goes on her first date with Paul the wine guy and ends up sleeping with him in the first episode will make viewers dislike the character. 

But then an audience a questionnaire proved NBC management wrong. The audience came back saying that they love the character. 

“Then Don got on board because he said, ‘Well I’m okay with it because she gets what she deserves when the guy sort of screws her over.’”

All’s well that ends well, the Paul the wine guy story made it into the pilot.