‘Friends’ fans know Lauren Tom as Julie. Before becoming Ross’ love interest, Tom portrayed a nail tech on the famous series ‘The Nanny.’ The part could have been iconic.
Lauren Tom is easily recognizable to Friends fans as Ross Geller’s season 2 girlfriend, Julie. In Friends, Tom played a paleontologist Ross had previously gone to school. When Ross was sent to China for work, he reconnected with Julie. They returned to New York together and began a relationship, much to the chagrin of Rachel Green. Moments before playing a paleontologist, Tom appeared in an episode of The Nanny.
Before ‘Friends,’ Lauren Tom appeared in a backdoor pilot
Before appearing on Friends, Tom appeared in a single episode of The Nanny. Tom’s episode wasn’t just an average The Nanny episode, though. The season 1 episode was supposed to be a backdoor pilot for a show called The Chatterbox.
‘The Nanny’ backdoor pilot was scrapped because it was too close to the series
While CBS initially ordered the backdoor pilot, the episode was never actually spun off into its own show. According to Mental Floss, network executives realized that the potential series looked and felt too much like The Nanny to succeed.
The series was supposed to focus on a woman named Mary Ruth who took a job at a beauty salon after being kicked out by her boyfriend. The salon owner, Mr. Anthony, was a single father with one son. Mary Ruth was effectively a copycat of Fran Fine. Mr. Anthony was similar, in story, to Mr. Sheffield. Kim had characteristics that fans attributed to Niles.
When did Lauren Tom land the role of Julie on ‘Friends’?
The Chatterbox pilot, included in season 1 of The Nanny, aired on May 15, 1995. While the series never went anywhere, Tom appeared to have another similarly important role already lined up. She first appeared on Friends as Julie just a few days later. Her first appearance on Friends came in “The One Where Rachel Finds Out.” The episode originally aired on May 18, 1995.
Tom went on to appear in seven more episodes. Her character also appeared in two additional flashback episodes and was mentioned twice more, although Tom wasn’t seen. Tom’s role in Friends ended when writers chose to give fans what they wanted and developed relationship Ross and Rachel’s. She last physically appeared in “The One With Russ.”
