Matthew Perry nearly missed ‘Friends’ for a terrible sci-fi sitcom

Can you imagine “Friends” with someone other than Matthew Perry playing Chandler Bing? Because it nearly happened, all because Perry’s horrible business manager at the time told he had no money and needed a gig badly. And before the script for “Friends” — then called “Friends Like Us” — came along, he’d already signed up to star in a sitcom pilot called “LAX 2194,” about “baggage handlers at the L.A. airport in the year 2194,” he recently revealed to Seth Meyers. Luckily, everyone at the network quickly realized that “LAX 2194” was “the worst thing we’ve ever seen in our lives,” so Perry was freed up to pursue more contemporary material.

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