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Lisa Kudrow Admits Getting Annoyed With Friends Audience For 'Laughing Too Much': ‘It Wasn't That Funny’
Lisa Kudrow, best known for her iconic role as Phoebe Buffay on the hit NBC sitcom Friends, recently expressed her frustration with the show's live studio audience. Here's why.
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The Friends star revealed her annoyance with the live studio audience's extended laughter
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Kudrow shared that the show was made for TV viewers at home, not just the studio audience
Lisa Kudrow, best known for her iconic role as Phoebe Buffay on the hit NBC sitcom Friends, recently talked about an unexpected challenge on set. During a conversation on the Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend podcast, Kudrow openly spoke about how the show's live studio audience sometimes got under her skin, as per Variety.
She explained that their prolonged laughter often felt excessive to her. "Because they were laughing for too long. It wasn’t that funny," Kudrow said, frustrated. "It wasn’t an honest response and it irritated me. Now you’re just ruining the timing of the rest of the show. There are other lines."
Kudrow, who appeared in all ten seasons of Friends, felt that the audience's overly dramatic reactions disrupted the flow of the scenes. This irritation caused her to express her displeasure openly, even looking out at the audience and saying, "Come on." She described feeling "really angry" when the laughter lasted longer than she expected.
Lisa Kudrow explained the impact on filming and timing
The extended laughter had a practical impact on the show's production. Kudrow stated that Friends episodes could take six to eight hours to film, despite being only half an hour long. The lengthy filming process was made harder by the need to reshoot scenes based on audience reactions. "Sometimes I would just look out if they’d been laughing too long," Kudrow said, "and go, ‘Come on’. Really angry."
The actress explained that the show was primarily intended for home television viewers rather than studio audiences. She said that a TV show is not for the studio audience. She said it is designed for TV viewers at home and that is who they are here to serve.
She also shared that if it had been a stage play, extended laughter would have been less of an issue because actors could adjust their performances in real-time. However, on a television set, prolonged audience reactions may disrupt the timing and rhythm of the scenes being filmed.
The effect on writers and production
Kudrow also talked about how audience reactions could influence the writers and the overall production. As the audience's laughter faded with each take, writers assumed the material wasn't working and requested rewrites. This cycle could result in even longer filming sessions and increased stress for the cast and crew.
Despite all of this, Kudrow maintained that the material frequently worked well the first time it was performed. She believed that the production could simply use the laugh track from the first take and apply it to subsequent takes, rather than being concerned about the audience's declining reaction.
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