Tom Selleck was ‘scared to death’ when he appeared on Friends

The 77-year-old actor joined stars Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry on the sitcom in 1995 for a series of appearances as Dr. Richard Burke – the short-term boyfriend of Courteney’s character Monica Geller – and admitted that he was terrified about taking on the role because he had never done a comedy series.

He said: “The hardest thing is to guest on a show. I try to relax the new actors because that’s really hard to come on a show where everybody’s up to speed. I was scared to death. I had done [an episode of] ‘Taxi’ a long time before, but I hadn’t done a sitcom. And so, I was really nervous. had done Taxi a long time before, but I hadn’t done a sitcom. And so, I was really nervous.”

However, the former ‘Magnum, P.I.’ star went on to explain that his co-star Courteney had been a “big help” in welcoming him onto the set and claimed that the stars are all part of an “incredible” friendship group in real-life as well as on the show.

Speaking on ‘The Kelly Clarkson Show’, he added: “Courteney helped a lot. Courteney’s a big help. But that group’s an incredible group of friends. They obviously became friends in life as well as on the show. And it shows. It was a wonderful place to work.”

Tom was only supposed to guest star on the sitcom for three episodes and although Richard and Monica eventually broke up, he made a total of nine appearances between 1995 and 2000.