Friends cut entire Monica and Chandler scene from show after 9/11

Friends is a comfort show at its core but after the catastrophic 9/11 attacks, the New York-set sitcom was forced to change a subplot.

The 9/11 terrorist attacks claimed the lives of 2,977 people after 19 terrorists associated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial planes. Two of the aircraft were flown into the Twin Towers.

A number of shows on the air in 2001 were set in New York and were therefore faced with choosing how the attacks would impact their plots going forward.

The eighth season of Friends debuted on 27 September, 2001 and the premiere episode, “The One After ‘I Do’”, is dedicated to “The people of New York City” in remembrance to the victims.

However, this wasn’t the only change made to the eighth season. The third episode, “The One Where Rachel Tells...”, which aired on 11 October, 2001, originally featured a subplot at an airport.

Newlyweds Chandler and Monica were going to be detained.

A deleted scene from the episode that eventually aired shows the Bings going through airport security. After navigating through metal detectors, Chandler points to a sign that prohibits jokes about aircraft hijacking or bombing.

"You don’t have to worry about me, ma’am. I take my bombs very seriously,” he jokes to a TSA agent.

The deleted scenes took place in an airport (Warner Bros.)

Chandler is then escorted away by security and the newlyweds have their luggage searched.

They’re eventually cleared to board the flight but Monica receives a call from Joey and Phoebe about a gas smell coming from her apartment.

Joey and Phoebe ask Monica if she wants them to break down the door. She responds: “No, I want you to stand there and wait for the whole place to blow up

The show was filmed weeks in advance of airing and the plot would have been an unfortunate coincidence.

In the version that made it to the air, Monica and Chandler’s honeymoon takes an increasingly frustrating turn when they keep running into the same newlywed couple.

At the airport, the other couple lands a first-class upgrade, and the competition continues when they reach the hotel and are given a far more luxurious suite than the Bings. Their string of good fortune eventually pushes Monica and Chandler to confront them, and the Bings ultimately end up with the better suite.

The side-plot included a joke about bombs (Warner Bros.)

The creators of the show addressed the plot change while speaking to the Television Academy in 2010. Co-creator Marta Kauffman explained that the original scenes were no longer appropriate in the aftermath of the attacks because they were 'not going to work'. The decision to keep Friends largely removed from the events of the real world was later reinforced by the response from viewers, who found comfort in returning to the familiar sitcom.

"People said it was a welcome [distraction]. Sitting with old friends was soothing, comforting, and that made us feel really, really good about it," Kauffman recalled.

Fellow co-creator David Crane agreed that September 11 did not fundamentally change the direction of the series. The one exception was 'except for that story [getting] thrown out.'

The show's creators would later welcome survivors of the attacks and their families into the studio audience for a subsequent episode taping. Kauffman remembered the experience as particularly moving.

"It was an extraordinary night," she recalled. "It was amazing, and people were incredibly grateful for the opportunity to laugh."