The Matthew Perry I once knew

When Friends first debuted, I looked at Chandler Bing and thought, "Hey, that's the guy from Just the Ten of Us and Growing Pains!" (As you can see, my brain operated for pop culture efficiency at a young age.) For those who aren't familiar with this pop culture gem, Just the Ten of Us followed Coach Lubbock and his family as they began their new life in California. It was a spin-off of Growing Pains, in which, oddly enough, Matthew Perry would play Carol Seaver's tragic love interest, Sandy, a year later.

In any case, since I was I child, I have always loved how Matthew Perry played his role in the episode, "The Dinner Test." (His answer to the chicken test was well-played, my friend, well-played.) The premise is that Wendy, the blonde Lubbock daughter, wants to date a guy that she knows her father wouldn't approve of. (He has a nasty habit of literally throwing the girls' dates out of the house.) So, she gets Matthew Perry's character, Ed, to pretend to be her date. She figures that when he passes the dinner test, she can go out and meet up with her real date, who of course turns out to be much less charming.

Enjoy this bit of nostalgic tv and remember a simpler time, when Matthew Perry was not linked to Bruce Willis, pain killers, or the name Chandler Bing.