Editor’s note: Matthew Perry, best known for his portrayal of Chandler in “Friends”, died at his home in Los Angeles on Saturday 28 October. This article was originally published in the New Statesman on 12 September 2014, and looks back at how a sitcom once described as “not very entertaining” left a lasting legacy and made Perry a star.
We might like to fool ourselves that comedy writing is all about inspiration and individual expression, but in the US it’s a research-driven business. And the auguries were not good for one sitcom pilot commissioned by NBC in 1994.
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