Jennifer Aniston wasn’t an overnight success: By the time she landed her breakout role on Friends, she had already been a series regular on four other TV shows, including two that debuted within weeks of each other in 1990. The first was the short-lived Fox sitcom Molloy, in which Aniston played the self-absorbed step-sister of Mayim Bialik’s title character. The second also met swift cancellation but at least had more name recognition: NBC’s Ferris Bueller, based on the 1986 hit film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

For Ferris Bueller, as actor Charlie Schlatter took over the lead part from big-screen star Matthew Broderick, Aniston succeeded Jennifer Grey in the role of Jeannie Bueller, Ferris’ sister. And former GQ editor-in-chief Jim Nelson, who worked as a writer’s assistant on the series, offered a “little dirt” on Aniston in a 2014 essay about his time in Hollywood.