The Iconic Sitcom Lisa Kudrow Got Fired From Before Her Friends Fame

It's hard to imagine anyone but Lisa Kudrow in the role of Phoebe Buffay on the iconic '90s show "Friends." The Emmy-winning star appeared in 234 episodes of the NBC sitcom between 1994 and 2004, playing both the "Smelly Cat" singer and her twin sister, Ursula.

However, years before she took on "Friends," Kudrow appeared on another NBC sitcom called "Cheers" in a 1989 episode. While she didn't become a permanent patron at the Boston bar "where everybody knows your name," the role did put her on the radar of producers for Kelsey Grammer's 1993 spinoff sitcom "Frasier." In fact, shortly before Kudrow was hired for "Friends," she was also cast as a main character on "Frasier."

Kudrow ultimately traded playing a fictional TV producer on "Frasier" for a role as a singing massage therapist on 'Friends," although it wasn't her call. It was because, while she had mega chemistry with "Friends" co-stars Jennnifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, and Matt LeBlanc, Kudrow didn't totally click with Grammer on "Frasier" — and producers let her know it.

In 1993, Lisa Kudrow was cast as Roz Doyle on the upcoming sitcom "Frasier." Career-driven and tough, Roz was the producer of  Dr. Frasier Crane's (Kelsey Grammer) KACL radio talk show. However, fans never saw Kudrow in the role, because she was cut from the show three days into production for the pilot episode, "The Good Son." 

In a 2021 interview on "The Howard Stern Show," Kudrow revealed why producer James Burrows let her go from "Frasier" early in her career. "I wasn't right for the part [or] for the chemistry of the group," she explained. "So that wasn't working, but I did think, "Oh, I am not this guy's cup of tea."'

After being fired from "Frasier," Kudrow faced Burrows for a one-on-one audition for "Friends." She noted that she was the only member of the six-person cast who had to audition for Burrows separately. "I had one extra audition just for James Burrows," she told Stern. "I did it and he went, 'No notes.' I left going, 'That either means she's beyond help and helpless, just like I always knew,' or 'Yeah, it's perfect. I have no notes."' 

Kudrow added that Burrows was right to fire her from "Frasier," which ran one season longer than "Friends" on NBC and scored a 2023 reboot. "He wasn't wrong about 'Frasier,' he wasn't," she said. "I wasn't right." But Kudrow did admit that while filming the "Friends" pilot, she got nervous that history would repeat itself. Luckily for fans, it didn't.

After Lisa Kudrow was axed from "Fraiser," Peri Gilpin was cast as Dr. Frasier Crane's talk show producer, Roz Doyle. The pairing proved to be a winning combination and "Frasier" went on to win 37 Emmy Awards over its 11-season run. 

What did Gilpin have that Kudrow didn't? It all came down to a pivotal scene in the "Frasier" pilot. In an interview with WBUR, producer James Burrows pointed to the Lupe Vélez speech scene in the "Frasier" pilot, "The Good Son." "The speech before Frasier goes in and confronts his dad, the Lupe Vélez speech," Burrows said (per ScreenRant). "Kelsey is such a strong personality and Lisa's, what she does great is ethereal, and it just didn't work in that moment."

The scene in question had the Roz Doyle character telling Frasier about the 1930s movie star who wanted to be remembered for how she died and planned a lavish suicide, then died after tripping in the bathroom instead. After Frasier asked Roz the reason why she was telling him the story, she said," Even though things may not happen like we planned, they can work out anyway." Those words definitely proved to be true for Kudrow, despite the fact that she never got the chance to say them on camera.

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