Four years before Sex and the City would premiere, NBC launched Friends, a sitcom about six twentysomethings figuring out life — and drinking freakish amounts of coffee — in New York City. And not only did the women of Friends talk about sex, but they had sex, something that might not sound revolutionary today but wasn’t necessarily commonplace on television in 1994 — so much so that the network tried to stop one story from hitting the screen.

In the Friends pilot, Monica Geller (Courteney Cox) goes on her first date with Paul the wine guy and ends up sleeping with him. “When we were doing the pilot, Don Meyer, who was then the head of NBC, took real issue with the fact that Monica sleeps with a guy on the first date. He said, ‘We’re not going to like her!’ But we really held our ground on it.”

Thankfully, director James Burrows planned to have a live audience for the network run-through, as Crane put it, “so you can hear what’s working.” And NBC saw the pilot run-through as an opportunity to get some feedback. “The network gave the audience a questionnaire that was so skewed,” Crane remembers. “It basically said: ‘When she does this, is she a trollop? Is she a ****?'”

But the result was not what the network expected. “The audience all came back with, ‘No, we still like her,'” Crane says. “Then Don got on board because he said, ‘Well I’m okay with it because she gets what she deserves when the guy sort of screws her over.'” Remember: After sleeping with Paul, Monica discovers that his claim that he hasn’t had sex in two years is a line he’s used before to get women into bed.

“I could see the steam coming out of [co-creator] Marta’s [Kauffman] nose,” Crane says in reference to Meyer’s comment. “And I’m tap-dancing going, ‘But you’re okay with it! So if you’re okay with it then we’re good, let’s move on, yay!'”

And in the end, the entire story made it into the pilot.

25. The One With the Blackout (Season 1, Episode 7)
24. The One Where Rachel Finds Out (S1, E24)
23. The One With Chandler in a Box (S4, E8)
22. The One With Monica and Chandler’s Wedding: Part 2 (S7, E24)
21. The One With Ross’s Grant (S10, E6)
20. The One With the Pediatrician (S9, E3)
19. The One With the Football (S3, E9)
18. The One With the Apothecary Table (S6, E11)
17. The One With the Routine (S6, E10)
16. The One on the Last Night (S6, E6)
15. The One With the Morning After (S3, E16)
14. The One With Unagi (S6, E17)
13. The One Where Rosita Dies (S7, E13)
12. The One Where They All Turn Thirty (S7, E14)
11. The One With Rachel’s Phone Number (S9, E9)
10. The One With Rachel’s Other Sister (S9, E8)
9. The One Where Rachel Has a Baby: Parts 1 and 2 (S8, E23/24)
8. The One With the Prom Video (S2, E14)
7. The One With the Rumor (S8, E9)
6. The One With All the Cheesecakes (S7, E11)
5. The One Where Ross Got High (S6, E9)
4. The One With the Embryos (S4, E12)
3. The One With the Videotape (S8, E4)
2. The One Where No One’s Ready (S3, 32)
1. The One Where Everybody Finds Out (S5, E14)