Jennifer Aniston almost wasn't Rachel Green. Before committing to starring on Friends, the actor had a contract to star in Muddling Through, a 1994 CBS sitcom about a waitress trying to pick up the pieces of her life after serving time in jail for shooting her husband in the butt. (Yup!) You cannot watch Muddling Through online, but there are some clips out there, and we have some info on the series thanks to the Friends reunion on HBO Max, too. Hey, it's something.

First things first: According to TV Guide, Muddling Through is not available for streaming, but you can add it to your wishlist, should it ever air. And according to TV Tango, there aren't any DVDs of the show, either.

But, we learned a few things about the failed series during the Friends reunion. Friends creator Marta Kauffman said of casting Aniston as Rachel: "We took this big risk to cast her, share her with this other show [Muddling Through], and see who wins."

David Crane explained that had Muddling Through been picked up by CBS (they had aired six episodes), Aniston would have had to continue on Muddling Through and NBC would've had to reshoot the first three episodes of Friends, which of course, starred Aniston.

For her part, Aniston said that she had a "graveyard of failed pilots" and was doing a pilot a year. But when it came down to sitting with the five other cast members for the first table read, she knew she had to quit Muddling Through.

"Tail between my legs, hat in hand, I went to the producer of the show I was on ... and said, 'Please, release me from the show. I love the show I'm doing right now [Friends]. Nothing against your show, I just love these people and I'm having so much fun.'"

According to Aniston, the producer said, "I saw that show, and lemme tell you something, that show is not going to make you a star."

Here's the synopsis of Muddling Through from IMDb:

After serving two years in jail for shooting her cheating husband Sonny in the butt, Connie Drego returns home to the motel she owns, which her older daughter Madeline kept open in her absence. Connie desperately wants to pick up the pieces of her life and try to do it right this time, but that won't be easy with her younger daughter Kerri well into puberty, Sonny still living in one of her rooms, and her bright Madeline married to Duane Cooper, the naive state trooper who arrested her.

Could you imagine Jennifer Aniston as Madeline Drego Cooper? Madeline Drego Cooper? Rachel Green. Madeline Drego Cooper? Rachel Green. Words' lost all meaning.

Here's the first 10 minutes of the Muddling Through pilot:

And finally, here's a clip of Aniston moments on Muddling Through:

In another dimension, Aniston is probably smoking a cig right now watching Tea Leoni on the Friends reunion, wondering why the hell she muddled on with Muddling Through.

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