Matthew Perry Reportedly Scrapped a Controversial 'Friends' Cheating Storyline

Friends dodged a major bullet in its fifth season, and we apparently have Matthew Perry to thank for it.

This is according to actress Lisa Cash, who appeared as a flight attendant in the 1999 episode "The One in Vegas: Part I." However, in the wake of Perry's untimely passing on Oct. 28, Cash told TMZ that the role she had initially been hired for was much more salacious, and would have undoubtedly altered the trajectory of the hit NBC series and enraged fans had the actor not stepped in.

In the episode, Chandler (Perry) and Monica (Courteney Cox) get into a fight on the way to visit Joey in Las Vegas for their one-year anniversary, after it comes to light that Monica recently had lunch with her ex-boyfriend Richard (portrayed earlier in the series by Tom Selleck).

The pair eventually make up in "The One in Vegas: Part II." But according to Cash, in the proposed storyline she was supposed to play hotel staff who brought room service to Chandler, who then allegedly would have cheated on Monica.

However, after rehearsing the scene, Perry knew how upset fans would have been if Chandler would have gone so far as to cheat on Monica. As such, he went to the writers and insisted that they axe the scene.

While Cash knows what an impact the original scene would have had on her career, she agrees that ultimately it wouldn't have been worth it to draw the ire of fans and completely change the dynamic of the couple's relationship. You can see Cash in the scene that she ultimately ended up appearing in, below.