and Jami Gertz. Originally, the producers wanted to cast actress Courteney Cox as Rachel, who Crane and Kauffman were particularly drawn to because of her "cheery, upbeat energy". Additionally, Cox was the most famous cast member at the time amidst an ensemble of relatively unknown actors. However, the actress lobbied for the role of Rachel's best friend Monica, as whom she was ultimately cast, because she felt that she was not "quirky" enough to play Rachel. At the same time, although unbeknownst to each other, Aniston was being considered for the role of Monica, but fought to play Rachel because she felt that the character suited her better. At one point, Cox had begun to regret her decision to play Monica until her own character's storylines started improving. Friends was Aniston's sixth sitcom; each of her previous ventures had been canceled prematurely. Feeling vulnerable, Aniston had begun to doubt herself as an actress and personally approached Littlefield for reassurance on her career, who encouraged her to audition for Friends, which was being referred to as Friends Like These at the time. Crane and Kauffman had worked with Aniston prior to this. However, casting her as Rachel posed a challenge for the network because, at the time, Aniston was simultaneously starring in a developing CBS sitcom called Muddling Through, in which she plays a young woman whose mother is returning home from jail after two years. CBS was initially reluctant to release Aniston from her contract, which required the actress to balance both roles simultaneously, traveling back-and-forth between Muddling Through and Friends for two weeks. Meanwhile, NBC risked having to recast the role of Rachel, replace Aniston, and reshoot several episodes if CBS' series proved successful, which would have potentially cost the network millions of dollars. However, Littlefield remained confident that Muddling Through would fail. Essentially, the producers of Friends hoped that Muddling Through would be canceled before Friends premiered, while Aniston feared that Muddling Through would be the more successful of the two sitcoms in spite of her preference for Friends. During this time of uncertainty, Aniston was forced not to participate in several Friends-related promotions and photo shoots; the network excluded her from these in case she would be replaced. Aniston explained, "When we were shooting the first grouping of cast photos ... I was asked to step out of a bunch because they didn't know if I was