'Friends' producer reveals shocking secret of hit sitcom

On the 30th anniversary of Friends, a shocking inside account was revealed by one of the hit sitcom team members about how the stars refused to do particular scenes after they became famous.

In a chat with The Guardian, Todd Stevens, the series line producer, said the success of the NBC show had shot up the cast's confidence to the point that they started saying no to scenes.

One of the particular shots was the iconic opening credits at a New York City-esc fountain.

The creators, he said, wanted to recreate the scene for an alternative reality episode in 2000. 

But the A-listers were adamant in their refusal despite the executives' repeated pleas.

“It’s one thing to do that when you’re on the pilot,” Todd added. “Revisiting the uncomfortable nature of that, cold and wet, was very different when they were big.”

In line with his account, Patty Lin, who was a writer on the show, wrote in her memoir How I Broke Up with Hollywood, that the actors vetoed any joke they thought was unfunny in the table reads.

“They all knew how to get a laugh, but if they didn’t like a joke, they seemed to deliberately tank it, knowing we’d rewrite it,” she wrote in an excerpt published in TIME.

“Dozens of good jokes would get thrown out just because one of them had mumbled the line through a mouthful of bacon.”