Chris Rock Reveals He Was Almost On Friends, Pitches Himself as Colbert's Ed McMahon

In a discussion about big breaks that didn't happen, Chris Rock revealed Monday night on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that he'd been passed over for roles on quite a few familiar shows. 

Colbert asked him about the rumor that Rock was at one point in contention to play George Costanza on Seinfeld. 

"I just heard that one," Rock answered. "There was a lot of NBC talk There was talk about Seinfeld, there was talk about me being one of the Friends at a point. Yes, yes, yes, I would have been the Black Friend. That's basically who I am to America anyway at this point. Let's just say the good people at Seinfeld, they made the right choice. He's good. He's amazing." 

Rock also revealed that he almost played Theo Huxtable's friend Cockroach on The Cosby Show. "Thank God that didn't happen. Think about the world right now. Bill Cosby's in jail, and Snoop Dogg is the #1 pitchman in America. I will buy anything Snoop Dogg sells. I just bought a Snoop Dogg quilt! I got some gangsta sleep! Some O.G. sleep! If you don't have a Snoop Dogg quilt, you are sleepin' like a b*tch!"

Later, after talking about Rock's Ed Sullivan Theater memories, (he helped deliver the last top ten list on the Late Show with David Letterman), Rock suggested he'd like to guest host for Colbert at some point, then revised that idea. "I want to be Ed McMahon," Rock said, referring to Johnny Carson's venerable sidekick on The Tonight Show. "I just want to sit there. Can I sit there and smoke weed?"

"Just like Ed McMahon!" Colbert quipped back, before going off on a tangent. "If by 'weed,' you mean a Dubuque ham. Do you know what he used to do? He used to do Alpo Beef Chunk Dinner commercials on the old Tonight Show! They'd cut to Ed, and Ed would have like a dog and a f**king bowl of Alpo, and they would make Ed sell f**king Alpo while Johnny sat there and smoked and talked to Barbi Benton!" 

That's a deep TV cut right there.

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Andy Hunsaker has a head full of sitcom gags and nerd-genre lore, and can be followed @AndyHunsaker if you're into that sort of thing.