TV Best Friends Who Can't Stand Each Other In Real Life

For better or for worse, and consciously or not, people model their behavior and interactions with others based on what they see on TV. The history of television has given the world many ideal friendships that we should all be so lucky to mirror in our own lives. But all those characters demonstrating love, support, respect, loyalty, and other elements of a good friendship were created by writers — they're not real people, and they do what they do to serve a story.

Similarly, the people who play those on-screen pals are also making things up. They're actors chosen to play participants in TV friendships, most likely because they have such good chemistry with the actors who play their buddies. They don't necessarily have to be friends in real life. Maybe they do become close after spending so much time on the set working with one another, but many of the most famous TV friendships are a lie, because actors are terrors to their co-stars sometimes. Here, then, are the actors who were just really good at their jobs — they successfully convinced the world that they liked their small-screen best friends when in actuality they couldn't stand them. 

The two main characters on the original "Star Trek" came from different worlds — Captain James T. Kirk was from Earth, and Spock hailed from Vulcan. Built on a professional respect and mutual reliance as they led the Starship Enterprise, the characters eventually became deeply bonded friends. One of the most messed up things you didn't realize about "Star Trek": The actors behind Captain Kirk and Spock, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, respectively, struggled with friendship.

In the weeks after the September 1966 debut of "Star Trek," the majority of fan mail came in for Nimoy, not Shatner, the show's lead, to his chagrin. Nimoy, in turn, didn't appreciate Shatner's propensity for pranks, such as the times Shatner hid his co-star's bicycle. Following the cancelation of "Star Trek" in 1969, Shatner and Nimoy drifted apart, but the pair grew closer on the sci-fi convention circuit in the 1970s and had to act professional for one another — Nimoy directed the films "Star Trek III" and "Star Trek IV," and Shatner directed "Star Trek V." 

The relationship permanently soured in the 2010s, after Shatner filmed Nimoy without his consent or knowledge for a "Star Trek" documentary. That could be why Nimoy refused to speak with Shatner again, a promise he kept until his death in 2015. "I just don't know, and it is sad and it is permanent. I don't know why he stopped talking to me," Shatner told The Hollywood Reporter.

On "Lost," Dr. Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) and rock star Charlie Pace (Dominic Monaghan) became friends and allies out of necessity and circumstance. Jack assumed the role of leader of a group of survivors after their plane crashes on a very strange island beholden to nefarious and supernatural forces. Charlie became one of Jack's most trusted companions, and both saved each other from certain death on numerous occasions.

In 2012, a user of Twitter (now known as X) named Becca implored Monaghan to get his old "Lost" co-star and on-screen friend Fox to join the social media network. Monaghan declined to do so while also revealing that he and Fox weren't remotely chummy in real life, for reasons the actor found justifiable. "[H]e beats women. No thanks," Monaghan tweeted (via The Hollywood Reporter). To Becca's incredulous response, Monaghan added, "you don't know either of us.he beats women.not isolated incidents.often.not interested." That callout came about nine months after Fox was accused of punching a female party bus driver. When TMZ reached out for comment, sources close to Fox denied Monaghan's allegation but explained that the two actors hadn't communicated directly for many years.

"The Golden Girls" demonstrated the power of chosen family, depicting the lives of four older women sharing a Miami home together. It was headlined by a cast of veteran, Emmy-winning TV stars, including Bea Arthur as the curmudgeonly Dorothy and Betty White as the innocent and dim Rose. The reaction to the heart-wrenching death of Betty White in 2021 proved the actor's extreme popularity, but White didn't have a fan in her co-star from "The Golden Girls."

"Bea Arthur, who I cast in something else later on, just said, 'Oh, she's a f***ing c***,'" "Golden Girls" casting director Joel Thurm told the podcast "The Originals." A third "Golden Girl" cast member, Rue McClanahan, once said the same thing about White, Thurm recalled. The casting director figured that a lot of the animosity arose from White's on-set treatment of the other "Golden Girls" regular, Estelle Getty. Getty had a tough time remembering her lines and would jot them down on her hands. "Betty White would make fun of her in front of the live audience," Thurm said. "That may seem like a minor transgression, but it really does get to you."

White corroborated everything. "Bea had a reserve. She was not that fond of me. She found me a pain in the neck sometimes," White said at a 2011 TimesTalk (via CBS News). "It was my positive attitude — and that made Bea mad sometimes."

From 1984 to 1992, Malcolm-Jamal Warner co-starred on "The Cosby Show" as mistake-prone young man Theo Huxtable. Often roping him into shenanigans was his bad influence of a best friend, Walter "Cockroach" Bradley. Carl Anthony Payne II portrayed Cockroach in 12 episodes until the actor and character disappeared mid-way through Season 4. Producer Bill Cosby, a sitcom star who got locked up, fired Payne in part because he didn't like the way the young actor's hair looked following a mishap caused by the show's hair team.

At the very least, Payne's exit relieved the unease between him and Warner, who were not at all friendly during production of "The Cosby Show" — they were professional rivals, as Warner had edged out Payne for the role of Theo. "The original callbacks for 'Cosby,' they flew in an actor from Chicago and then flew in an actor from New York. Carl was the actor they flew in from New York. So, had I not auditioned for the show, Carl would have played Theo," Warner told "The Breakfast Club" in 2023 (via Atlanta Black Star). Warner also said that Payne's "huge ego" prevented a friendship when they were young, but that they mostly worked out their differences later on. "We're cooler as adults than we were during the time."

Despite huge ratings and nine Emmy Awards, "Sherlock," a contemporary retelling of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories that were loosely based on the incredible life of the "real" Sherlock Holmes, ran for just 15 episodes across four seasons. Benedict Cumberbatch portrayed the inscrutable genius mystery solver Sherlock Holmes, while Martin Freeman played his professional partner and only friend, Dr. John Watson.

On television, Sherlock and John navigated an extremely close and complex relationship. On the set, Cumberbatch and Freeman were barely friendly. "They're professional and very polite to each other, but there's not the warmth you'd expect after filming together for six years," a figure close to the situation told The Sun (via The Mirror). The actors also indirectly sparred in the press. Freeman complained that the show was too popular and under too much scrutiny from fans. Cumberbatch replied to The Telegraph (via The Mirror), "It's pretty pathetic if that's all it takes to let you not want to take a grip of your reality. What, because of expectations? I don't necessarily agree with that." Adding to the speculation that the actors don't get along: Freeman didn't attend Cumberbatch's wedding, although other "Sherlock" cast members did. When asked about a potential "Sherlock" revival in 2024, creator Steven Moffat redirected the blame. "I'm easy to get. It's those two big stars that's the problem," he told Metro.

Among the many complex romantic entanglements that characterized the first few seasons of "Grey's Anatomy," there stood one low-key and healthy male friendship. Despite losing a permanent position as Chief of Surgery to Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), Dr. Preston Burke (Isaiah Washington) became very close with his former rival. Shepherd once performed career-saving surgery on Dr. Burke and later served as the best man at his wedding.

While shooting an episode in 2007, a mutual hostility between the co-stars manifested in a violent scuffle. "I think one of them had been late to set one day and the other one then decided to pay him back by being late himself," show writer Mark Wilding said in "How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of 'Grey's Anatomy'" (via People). "Then it sort of exploded. They got into an arguing match, and then before you know it they were physically fighting."

"I guess [Washington] felt disrespected that he and the crew had been waiting," staff writer Harry Werksman recalled. "He went after Patrick, pushed him up against the wall ..."  During that confrontation, Washington allegedly used an anti-LGBTQ slur that was understood to have been directed at co-star T.R. Knight, who identifies as a gay man. That utterance got Washington fired from "Grey's Anatomy."

In 2016, Fox converted the beloved "Lethal Weapon" movies into an action-comedy TV series. Clayne Crawford starred as rogue, loose-cannon Detective Martin Riggs opposite Damon Wayans as his by-the-book and grizzled partner, Detective Roger Murtaugh. Woefully and comically mismatched, Riggs and Murtaugh become close friends and dedicated partners over the first two seasons of "Lethal Weapon." And then, after a series of on-set incidents and confrontations, Crawford left the show.

Crawford got the chance to direct an episode in 2018, and a special effects explosion went awry, sending a flying chunk of detritus right at Wayans, leaving him with a deep and bloody laceration and almost adding him to the list of actors who were tragically injured on set. Wayans got angry about it and blamed Crawford, who called him "the biggest crybaby p****" he'd ever met in response, according to witnesses who spoke to Variety. Other on-set events from the time included Crawford telling a group of noisy children to "shut the f*** up" and behaving in such a way that it led an assistant director to quit mid-shoot. In May 2018, producers fired Crawford and replaced him with Seann William Scott playing a new character.

The cultural impact of HBO's love-in-New York sitcom "Sex and the City" was such that each of its four main characters became archetypes. But off-screen and out of character, the women who brought to life Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda weren't the supportive, tight-knit BFFs they played over six seasons of television and two spinoff films.

"We've never been friends. We've been colleagues. And in some ways it's a very healthy place to be," Kim Cattrall (Samantha) told "Piers Morgan Tonight" (via "Entertainment Tonight"). Cattrall, who in 2017 said she hadn't spoken to her castmates in years, earned the resentment of "Sex and the City" fans and actors alike when she passed on making a third movie, thus killing the project. "Specifically, Sarah Jessica Parker ... I think she could have been nicer," Cattrall said. "I don't know what her issue is."

When Parker learned that Cattrall's brother died in 2018, she tried to offer her condolences, only to be publicly rebuffed. "Your continuous reaching out is a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now," Cattrall wrote on Instagram. "Let me make this VERY clear. (If I haven't already) You are not my family. You are not my friend. So I'm writing to tell you one last time to stop exploiting our tragedy in order to restore your 'nice girl' persona."

"Beverly Hills, 90210" was the definitive teen show of the 1990s, and it was initially about Minnesota-born twins Brandon and Brenda Walsh adjusting to the sunny, wealthy, dramatic world of a Southern California high school. Helping Brenda (Shannen Doherty) make the transition and establish herself was her sweet new best friend — and occasional romantic rival — Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth).

Doherty often instigated on-set disagreements, according to co-star Tori Spelling, and some of them turned violent. "I can only remember one incident and that was when, yeah, we took it outside," Garth told "Watch What Happens Live" in 2019. "It was like a fist fight," Spelling said on "Celebrity Lie Detector" in 2015 (via ET.) The altercation started when Doherty lifted up Garth's skirt in a demeaning fashion. Not long after the fight, Garth, Spelling, and other members of the "Beverly Hills, 90210" cast conspired to successfully lobby producers to fire Doherty from the show in 1994.

After originating as a series of popular sketches on "The Jackie Gleason Show," "The Honeymooners" became its own, standalone series in 1955, which would air for 39 of the most rerun television episodes of all time. Revived and re-created multiple times over the decades, "The Honeymooners" featured one of the first and most foundational TV friendships, that of blustery, bullying bus driver Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason) and his dim-witted, eager, and pushover neighbor, city maintenance worker Ed Norton (Art Carney).

The pair had excellent comedic chemistry as the palling-around, upwardly mobile best friends, but when they weren't in character, Gleason and Carney had a chilly relationship. In 1985, Carney reluctantly entered talks to reunite with Gleason for the TV movie "Izzy and Moe" but held up negotiations because he balked at how he was being paid less than Gleason, resenting playing sidekick once more. Behind the scenes of their various TV projects over the decades, Gleason would show up to work intoxicated and angry; Carney stayed out of his co-star's way and interacted with him only when necessary. Gleason would do the same, praising Carney's acting to the press but rarely even deigning to speak with him backstage.

On the 2007-2012 Disney Channel sitcom "Wizards of Waverly Place," David Henrie co-starred as Justin Russo, a teenager with magical powers. Many of his plotlines involved his best friend, star student Zeke Beakerman, portrayed by Dan Benson. "Wizards of Waverly Place" was revived in 2024 as "Wizards Beyond Waverly Place," with Russo taking center stage as a grown-up husband and father seeking to put his magical adventures in the past. Many original series cast members reprised their roles in some fashion, but not Benson.

Since "Wizards" ended production, Benson moved past family-friendly Disney fare and into a career as a content creator on the adults-only platform OnlyFans. In a cast interview before the revival's premiere, a surprised Henrie winced at a suggestion that Zeke could show up on the revamped series. Benson responded to the perceived slight on X, writing, "David Henrie can s*** my d***." On October 30, 2024, the day after "Wizards Beyond Waverly Place" debuted on the Disney Channel, Benson posted a video of himself on his Instagram account, mock-crying and superimposed against a backdrop of a screenshot revealing that Henrie had blocked him from viewing his posts on X. "We pretended to be best friends for years. How could you do this to me?" Benson captioned, implying that the animosity between himself and Henrie wasn't a recent development.