Phoebe's Ending in 'Friends' Was Originally Supposed to Be Very Different

Phoebe may have had a rough start to life, but by the end of Friends, she was in a great place, married to the love of her life: Mike Hannigan.

Except now it turns out that Hank Azaria, who played Phoebe's scientist boyfriend David, has revealed that things were supposed to end differently for dear old Pheebs. On the show, their relationship ended when he went to Minsk to do important research, but they had some good times.

Later, Phoebe falls in love with Mike, but they break up after Mike says he never wants to marry again because of his failed first marriage. David comes back from Minsk and proposes to Phoebe, leading Mike to propose to her, too.

She turns down both of them but gets back together with Mike and marries him later on because he's her lobster.

Well, it turns out, Phoebe was supposed to end up with David, but Mike, aka Paul Rudd, was so damn charming that they had to change the storyline.

"The plan always was kind of to bring [David] back," Hank said in a recent interview with The Huffington Post (opens in new tab). "I think, honestly, what happened was Paul Rudd is so awesome that they sort of found a groove with him and [my character] became more of just the grist for that mill. As opposed to the other way around."

He was a bit disappointed for the guy, as we all were. "It actually did sting a little bit," he said. "Whatever part of me is David the science guy who went to Minsk, which admittedly is probably a small part of me [laughs], but that part of me wanted to end up with Phoebe. So I was sort of sad when I didn't."

But even he had to concede that Mike was The One. "He certainly has gone on to prove that he was comedically deserving of Phoebe's love."

No doubt.

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