Friends Pitch Meeting

* Main
* Transcript

**Friends Pitch Meeting** is the tenth episode of the Pitch Meeting series on Screen Rant. It is the first TV series to have a Pitch Meeting episode made about it.

## Description

Could this pitch meeting BE any better?! See how the hit show FRIENDS came to be by stepping into the meeting that started it all.

## Cast

* Producer Guy - Ryan George
* Screenwriter Guy - Ryan George

**Producer Guy:** So you have a sitcom idea for me?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah, so it's called *Friends*.

**Producer Guy:** And what's it about?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well it's about a group of people… that are friends.

**Producer Guy:** Right, but like what's their deal?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well they're all friends. Together.

**Producer Guy:** Who are the characters though?

**Screenwriter Guy:** The friends.

**Producer Guy:** Yeah, but why them?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well the title of the show is *Friends*, so obviously we're gonna follow the friends. Like why would… why would we follow anyone else?

**Producer Guy:** *[impatient]* Okay, talk to me about the characters! What kind of stuff are they gonna be doing?

**Screenwriter Guy:** The friends?

**Producer Guy:** Yeah.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Just friend stuff.

**Producer Guy:** *[annoyed]* Agh.

**Screenwriter Guy:** *[confused]* I'm sorry, am I doing something wrong? I- I- I don't-

**Producer Guy:** *[more annoyed]* It's fine, so there's a group of friends?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah.

**Producer Guy:** How old are they?

**Screenwriter Guy:** The friends?

**Producer Guy:** *[exasperated]* The friends, yes! How old are the friends?!

**Screenwriter Guy:** They're like in their mid-twenties.

**Producer Guy:** *[relieved]* Okay, good. That's helpful.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Great!

**Producer Guy:** So they do like typical mid-twenties stuff?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Exactly, they're just like every group of friends in their mid-twenties.

**Producer Guy:** Awesome, relatable.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah like one of them's a paleontologist named Ross.

**Producer Guy:** What?

**Screenwriter Guy:** His name's Ross.

**Producer Guy:** No but he- he's a paleontologist?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah well you know how when people are in their twenties there's always *one in the group* who's like… a paleontologist with a PhD?

**Producer Guy:** Does… Does that happen to people?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah, I think that's pretty commonplace.

**Producer Guy:** Okay, well at least he'll be an interesting character.

**Screenwriter Guy:** He's the boring one.

**Producer Guy:** Oh.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah and he's gonna have this big love thing with Rachel over the span of several seasons.

**Producer Guy:** Rachel?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah, when we meet her she's literally just run away from her own wedding 'cause she realized she's not attracted to her fiance. She thinks he looks like Mr. Potato Head.

**Producer Guy:** *[disgusted]* Oh my god, that's horrible!

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah, she's not the best person.

**Producer Guy:** Isn't it gonna be tough to get people to wanna follow a character like that?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Actually super easy, barely an inconvenience.

**Producer Guy:** *[dubious]* How so?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well I figure she could like… never wear a bra.

**Producer Guy:** Ohh.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah.

**Producer Guy:** Yeah I guess that'll be good for ratings.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah, should be. So anyway, Rachel's gonna move in to Monica's apartment without asking permission.

**Producer Guy:** Who's Monica?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Monica is Ross's sister.

**Producer Guy:** So Rachel must be like really good friends with Monica for that to happen.

**Screenwriter Guy:** They haven't spoken in years and Monica wasn't invited to Rachel's wedding.

**Producer Guy:** *[doubtful]* And she's just gonna suddenly move in with her unannounced and become super tight with all the friends.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yep. Instantly.

**Producer Guy:** Okay, so, tell me about Monica.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Okay so Monica used to be fat, so… the jokes kinda write themselves.

**Producer Guy:** What do you mean?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well say we have a flashback where Monica is dancing, it's gonna be funny. Because she's fat.

**Producer Guy:** Isn't that gonna kinda alienate a large group of overweight people?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well look at it this way: isn't any group of overweight people a large group of overweight people?

**Producer Guy:** *[confused]* I… guess, but does that make it okay?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Maybe not but these jokes are gonna be really good.

**Producer Guy:** A fat person dancing is pretty funny.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah we're also gonna have her like really like food.

**Producer Guy:** Because she's fat.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Because she's fat, exactly.

**Producer Guy:** Ah, alright. I'm sold.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah so anyway now Monica is kind of a neat freak and we're gonna have her fall in love with Chandler eventually.

**Producer Guy:** Chandler is one of the friends?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Right.

**Producer Guy:** It sounds like a lot of these friends are actually lovers.

**Screenwriter Guy:** So?

**Producer Guy:** Well maybe we should call the show *Lovers*.

**Screenwriter Guy:** *[displeased]* They're friends!

**Producer Guy:** Okay.

**Screenwriter Guy:** So anyway Chandler's like the wisecracking sarcastic guy of the group.

**Producer Guy:** So he's always making the other friends laugh?

**Screenwriter Guy:** They will never laugh at his jokes.

**Producer Guy:** Never?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Never.

**Producer Guy:** So he's like… cracking the jokes for himself, I guess?

**Screenwriter Guy:** I guess.

**Producer Guy:** Isn't that a little… crazy?

**Screenwriter Guy:** It is when you stop to think about it.

**Producer Guy:** So are there any other lov-

**Screenwriter Guy:** *[angry look]*

**Producer Guy:** Friends? Are there any other friends?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well there's also Joey, who's Chandler's roommate.

**Producer Guy:** And what's his deal?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well he's dumb and he likes food but he's not fat.

**Producer Guy:** Oh that's it?

**Screenwriter Guy:** No, he also really likes sleeping with women. Like if he could sleep with over fifty women during the course of the show that- that'd be perfect.

**Producer Guy:** That feels like a lot!

**Screenwriter Guy:** It *is* a lot, but because he's dumb people will be like "Oh, that's Joey".

**Producer Guy:** Any other friends I should know about?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Ooh, yeah, well next up there's Phoebe.

**Producer Guy:** What's up with her?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well very early on we're gonna find out that her mother committed suicide when she was fourteen.

**Producer Guy:** *[saddened]* Oh my god!

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah and her mom was a drug dealer too.

**Producer Guy:** Jesus!

**Screenwriter Guy:** So then Phoebe was taken care of by this albino guy and then he killed himself.

**Producer Guy:** Wow, I mean, I guess it'll kind of balance out the show to have such a dramatic character.

**Screenwriter Guy:** No she's the silly one.

**Producer Guy:** Oh she is?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah, she's all weird and stuff.

**Producer Guy:** Probably because her parental figures killed themselves.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah, probably. Weirdo.

**Producer Guy:** So what kind of friend stuff do all these friends do together?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Most of the time they hang out in a coffee shop, they very rarely go to work, and other than that they just hang out in their giant, beautiful apartments.

**Producer Guy:** They're in their mid-twenties but they have giant, beautiful apartments?

**Screenwriter Guy:** That's right.

**Producer Guy:** So this takes place in like a small town, or-

**Screenwriter Guy:** New York City.

**Producer Guy:** Wow, so they must all have like really high-powered jobs.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well Joey is a struggling actor, Rachel works in a coffee shop, Monica works in a restaurant, Chandler has… a job, and Phoebe plays the guitar.

**Producer Guy:** Interesting. And I'm guessing since it's in New York there's gonna be a lot of diversity.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Everyone will be white.

**Producer Guy:** Oh.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Everyone.

**Producer Guy:** Wow.

**Screenwriter Guy:** And that's basically the show.

**Producer Guy:** That's all she wrote?

**Screenwriter Guy:** That's all *I* wrote. *[brushes his hands together, causing the lights to turn off]* What happened?

**Producer Guy:** Ah, it's these damn clapper lights they installed. *[claps twice to turn the lights back on]*

**Screenwriter Guy:** Oh that's fun! *[claps twice to turn the lights off]*

**Producer Guy:** Oh, let's not play with it.

**Screenwriter Guy:** *[claps four times rapidly to turn the lights on]*

**Producer Guy:** Wait… do that again.

**Screenwriter Guy:** *[claps four times rapidly, the lights turn off]*

**Producer Guy:** Huh.

**Screenwriter Guy:** What? *[claps four times rapidly, the lights turn on]*

**Producer Guy:** *[thinks for several seconds]* Nothing.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Okay, so, what about casting?

**Producer Guy:** What about it?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well you gonna cast some like big stars to help promote the show?

**Producer Guy:** Actually, I'm thinking of going like low-level, no-name actors.

**Screenwriter Guy:** *[concerned]* Oh, how come?

**Producer Guy:** Well to be completely honest a show like this will last one, maybe two seasons, so this way we know we're never gonna have to pay a lot of money for actors.

**Screenwriter Guy:** *[concerned]* Fair enough, that's smart.

*[cut to headline: **Highest Paid TV Actors of All Time**]*