Before they were Friends

After watching last weeks 1-hour special of ET on Friends "Before they were Friends", I thought I'd list a few shows I'd remember seeing most of these actors before they all became a household name.

Courtney Cox Arquette: Well, Duh.....Springstein's "Dancing in the Dark" Video Family Ties Cocoon: The Return And of Course Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

Lisa Kudrow: Cheers - She played an actress practicing a play with Woody. He had to say "I love you" to her in the play, but couldn't because of his commitment with Kelly. You can't recognize her at first because she had dark hair at the time, but once you hear the voice, it's obvious it's hers.

Matthew Perry: (here we go) Growing Pains: Recurring character named Sandy. He was Carol's college boyfriend who loved to go drinking. He appeared in 2 or 3 episodes. The last episode he was in, he died as a result of a serious car accident due to drinking and driving. Matthew really stood out in these episodes.

I can't remember the series he was in, but he played a young guy on his own and suddenly his sister and her daughter move in with him. His best friend, I remember, used to play the chubby guy in "Head of the Class". The only episode I remember from this show was his friend brought over Basic Instinct: Uncut and kept fast forwarding to the nudie scenes. Bad Comedy.

Matt Lablanc: Top of the Heap: with Joseph Bologna. Married with Children spin-off, but not as good. Cheap sex, jokes. You know, the cheap works. Only lasted a few episodes, but Matt stood out in this one.

David Schwimmer: NYPD Blue. He played David Caruso's neighbor who was pissed off with some kid who robbed him in the laundromat so he tried to take matters into his own hands. He was in several episodes before he god killed.

So. That's what I remember. What else have these guys done before friends that you remember?

Courtney Cox Arquette: Dancing in the Dark (of course) and Family Ties

Jennifer Aniston: Herman's Head (as Hermans younger sister), which incidently also starred Ross' ex-wife Carol

Matthew Perry: Just the Ten of Us, as one of the girls "fake" date, so her dad would approve of her boyfriend Second Chance (later redone as Boys will be Boys)

Lisa Kudrow: Newhart, final episode, married to one of the Darryl's (or maybe Larry) She had dark hair here also (someone mentioned her appearance on Cheers with dark hair)

Matt LeBlanc: Married...with Children, Kelly's dippy boyfriend, also got his own spinoff show Top of the Heap, and later Vinnie and Bobby (all three, including MWC were the same character)

David Schwimmer Wonder Years: Karen's boyfriend

Although with David and Lisa, I didn't really remember them, until after they were on Friends, and I saw the episodes later. The others though, I knew who they were before Friends.

Fred

Hi !

MP was in a movie with River Pheonix when he was about 16/17 "A night in the life of Jimmy Reardon", both actors gave good performances, was dark & moody, & full of teenage angst. He's also done a lot of TV stuff & (Snigger)...

Microsoft Windows 95 Video Guide with Jennifer Anniston in 1995 (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0210840)

Z.

wrote in message news:8f55jm$mp0$[email]...

MP Guest starred on Beverly Hills 90210 as a sucidal kid from a rich father who he could never live up to, he also was a great tennis player.

~Act

In article , [email] wrote:

How could you forget Ursula? Because of her, "Friends" is virtually a spin-off from "Mad About You". LK was also very good in "Flying Blind".

Tennant Stuart

Matt Le Blanc did a Heinz Ketchup commercial when he was a teenager.

In article ,

I think he did one for Cherry 7Up, too. Plus he was on a show called 'T.V. 101'. I thought it was kind of good. Apparently no one else did though, because it was quickly cancelled.

Alanna

In article ,

wrote:

had to

Blind".

Yes, that's true, but I'm listing shows that had either small parts or parts that we sort have forgotten them in. You know, where we can all go, "OH Yah" to. Ursula's a given. We all knew that. :)

[email]

[email] wrote:

I loved her character in Family Ties (Ellen, I think). It was so sad the way she parted with MJF's character (Alex). "At This Moment" still rings through my head from time to time.

There's the obvious Mad About You role, which I'm fairly certain began before Friends.. But of course, everybody knows about that role.

He also had a short scene in the movie Wolf, with Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeifer (sp?).. He played one of the two cops who ran into the werewolf in the park. "My gun! He took my gun..."

In article , "Dr. Briefs" wrote:

Nope, Courteney was Lauren, the girlfriend after "At This Moment" Ellen (who was played by MJF's real wife Tracey Pollan).

wrote in message news:8f55jm$mp0$[email]...

The character was called 4B, after his apartment number. I seem to remember he was an 'early' Ross - a little geeky and unsure of himself.

She also appears to have the same face.

In article , "Tom Hawley" wrote:

Actually, Jadzia is correct, for Ms.Kudrow's face has changed quite a lot over the years, especially her nose. For instance, she was amazingly different on "Flying Blind" except for her voice.

Tennant

Tennant you know way too much about friends... can you rearrange these words into a sentence ?

"obsessive-I-potential-a-stalker-am" ?

Only kidding Dude, I salute you !

Z.

"Tennant Stuart" wrote in message news:[email]...

to

In article , "Zeb Ede" wrote:

Okay dude, thanks for that. :)

Tennant

Hi everyone. I've never posted here before, but I've been reading for a few weeks now. I noticed once before on IMDB that Matthew Perry is credited as appearing on Family Ties, but there is no character name or episode number given. Does anyone remember this? Kind of ironic that both he and Courtney Cox both appeared on the same show before they were 'friends'.

Ryan

In article , rcrum11 wrote:

MP & CCA - Dream On

MP & MLB - Just the Ten of Us

JA & CCA - The Larry Sanders Show

Tennant Stuart

During a discussion of where the Friends actors appeared before Friends, Tennant Stuart wrote:

What characters did they play? Recurring or one time? Just the Ten of us was one of my favorite shows. I had a major thing for Marie (Heather Langencamp). Funny that I've never felt that way about any of the lady Friends.

Todd wrote in message news:[email]...

   (Some info from imdb.com, and some from watching the show when it
was syndicated on USA. Hard to believe I remember all this.)
   MP's one appearance was remarkably similar to the plot of "Picture
Perfect."
 Matthew Perry played a geeky kid from school who was asked by Wendy
(Brooke Theeis) to pose as her date to get through her father Graham's
"dinner test," where the girls'
dates are grilled by Graham (Bill Kirchenbauer).  MP's character got along
great with the family and had a real crush on Wendy, but Wendy ditched
him after the dinner to go out with her real date.

Matt LeBlanc played a football player at the girls'' school (which was an all boys Catholic school except for the four sisters). I think he was also in only one episode. He had a crush on Wendy, but Wendy wasn't interested. Graham asked Wendy to go out with the guy just to boost his confidence, which would make him a better player. Wendy wound up actually falling for him.

"Just the Ten of Us" was a fairly good late 80's sitcom. Jamie Luner, who played Cindy, starred on Profiler its final season.

Bobby C.

In article , "ROBERT COAKLEY" wrote more than:

Story of my life - the curse of being liked by the girl's mother...

Thanks for that, Bobby. :)

Tennant

Both were one-time deals... MP was in Season 2, Episode 2.04 "The Dinner Test". He played "Ed", a guy who posed as a guy Wendy wanted to date. All her dates had to pass the dinner test (dinner with her parents) and she didn't think the guy she wanted to date (Bill) would pass, so "Ed" was brought in as a substitute, so she'd get permission to date "Bill".

MLB played Todd Murphy in the third season, Episode 3.02. He was a quarterback on Coach Lubbock's team who liked Wendy. When she seemed interested, he played well, but when she didn't, he fumbled. So Coach Lubbock told Wendy to be nice to him... and she ended up liking him.

Todd wrote:

Okay, dude alert!

In article , "Tom Hawley" wrote:

Hey dude, dude alert alert!

Tennant

Jennifer Aniston gave an *outstanding* performance in the multimedia production Director's Chair which also starred Steven Spielberg...

If a 100 monkeys each could get their own show (alt.tv.friends), perhaps one day (Wed, 10 May 2000 10:16:42 GMT) a chimp ([email]) might say:

ahem wasn't Tarantino in that? The guy in prison? I borrowed that game off my friend a few years ago, it was.. okay :)

sesameslang - ME LIKE HOCKEY!