Lisa Kudrowwho played Phoebe Buffay on the hit NBC sitcom friends, He recorded his experience taping the show in front of a live studio audience. And no, it wasn't fun at all. Speaking to Conan O'Brien on the podcast, Conan O'Brien needs a friend. Kudrow was clear about how annoying it could be to have audience laughter at inappropriate times.
As Variety reported, Kudrow revealed a certain behavior to the studio audience where she played Buffay for 10 seasons, each of which contained about 20 episodes. O'Brien asked her why this was “annoying,” and she replied:
“Because they laughed for too long. It wasn't funny. That's why. It wasn't a genuine reaction and it bothered me. Now you're ruining the timing of the rest of the show. There are other lines. Sometimes I'd just look to see if they'd laughed for too long, and I'd say, 'Come on.' Really angry.”
friends
- release date
- September 22, 1994
Kudrow continues:
“TV shows aren’t for studio audiences, they’re for TV viewers at home. That’s who we serve. If it’s a play, yeah, you can laugh as much as you want. I’ll come up with things to keep my character busy while I wait to get on with it.”
Because each episode runs several hours and takes multiple takes of the same scene, the laughs stop at some point. However, Kudrow says that writers often mistake this lack of laughter for ineffective material, leading them to rewrite scenes and dialogue.
But it worked the first time! All I know is that you take the laugh track from the first take and move it to every other take. Who suffers because they don't laugh? I'm fine if they don't laugh that hard. We can keep going.
The Legacy of One of Friends' Most Underrated Characters
Phoebe Buffay was a free-spirited massage therapist and amateur musician who sang at Central Perk and was kind enough to carry triplets for her brother when he and his partner had no other choice but to have children. Alongside Joey, Phoebe was mostly a source of humor in the first half of the show, but eventually the writers gave her more substance by making Phoebe a more consistent presence beyond her eccentric lifestyle and outlandish attitude. However, audiences will never forget her iconic performance of “Smelly Cat.”
As with other characters on the show, none of this would have been possible without a good actor like Kudrow. At first, Phoebe was a goofy, funny blonde, and she quickly adopted a character style that always carried a bit of mystery. She was very funny, yes, but she was also a very interesting person that everyone wanted to be friends with.
friends
Available to stream on Max.
