The Other Show You Didn't Know Featured Matthew Perry's Chandler
NBC's Must See TV program was a ratings juggernaut for years. How many TV scheduling blocks get their own oral history? Warren Littlefield, the NBC exec who shepherded that night of TV wrote a book collecting the reminiscences of folks from shows such as "Friends," "Seinfeld," ER," and "Will and Grace." Besides sharing a night and a network, many of these shows shared a setting: the city of New York. The shows tacitly shared a world, with Lisa Kudrow playing twin sisters across two sitcoms: Phoebe on "Friends" and Ursula on "Mad About You."
NBC used this to their advantage by creating crossover events that linked the powerhouse shows like "Friends" to the runts of the Must See TV litter. One of the first of such events was "Blackout Thursday," when Helen Hunt caused a city-wide blackout on "Mad About You" that carried into "Friends" and "Madmen of the People." As Esquire recounts, "Seinfeld" refused to participate. But another crossover event saw Matthew Perry's Chandler venturing into another sitcom's turf.
Chandler struck out on Caroline in the City
A later crossover event saw characters from "Friends," "Caroline in the City," and "The Single Guy" meeting and failing to understand each other. Chandler went to "Caroline in the City," where he wound up in the same video store as series regular Annie. "Friends" fans know that Chandler is an action flick guy, with "Die Hard" regularly cited as a favorite. But "Friends" fans also know Chandler can't help but make a fool of himself when he's trying to impress a girl. He loudly proclaims that he was looking for "The Piano," because he thinks gory movies are demeaning to the human spirit or whatever. Annie's rental pick? A sorority row slasher. Chandler runs away in shame.
Lea Thompson, the titular Caroline of "Caroline in the City" wound up in the "Friends" ep "The One with the Baby on the Bus," where she mistakes Chandler and Joey for a gay couple raising Ben. Ross had the most involved crossover of all the "Crossover Thursday" crossovers, spending a whole episode on "The Single Guy," where he and Jonathon (Johnathan Silverman) each thinks the other is gay and hitting on them. Apparently nothing was funnier in the mid '90s than the seemingly brand new information that queer people exist.