Back in 1994, Friends premiered on the same network as Seinfeld, at the height of the series’ success.
During Friends‘ first season, it had good ratings, but things drastically changed for the show when it started airing after Seinfeld reruns in 1995.
“It was in the summer when we were in reruns after Seinfeld, where Seinfeld was our lead-in, where we exploded,” Lisa recalled in an interview with Daily Beast.
And Lisa says that Jerry didn’t hesitate to point that out when they met at an event.
“I remember going to some party, and Jerry Seinfeld was there, and I said, ‘Hi,’ and he said, ‘You’re welcome,'” Lisa explained.
She continued, “I said, ‘Why, thank you…what?’ And he said, ‘You’re on after us in the summer, and you’re welcome.'”
And while Lisa doesn’t want to “take anything away from the writing on Friends, or the cast, or how good Friends really was,” she says she did agree with him.
“I said, ‘That’s exactly right. Thank you,'” Lisa shared.
While Jerry can’t take all the credit for the popularity of Friends, it certainly sounds like he helped set them up for success early on!
You can read all that Lisa had to say here.