The One Where Jennifer Aniston Auditioned for Search for Tomorrow

Jennifer Aniston and her father, Days of our Lives star John Aniston (Victor), first appeared on television together at the 1995 Daytime Emmys as presenters. (The recipient of the award they handed out was none other than Oprah Winfrey!) However, the two almost worked on the same show years earlier.

Jennifer Aniston Reveals Role That Got Away

The famous Friends star was on Jimmy Kimmel Live! this week (see the video below) and shared that, while housecleaning, she came across her audition tape for a role she tried out for on a show in which her dad was appearing.

“I found a couple of treasures,” she shared with Kimmel. “One was a Betamax [tape] from the old VCR days. It was my first audition back when I was 12 for Search for Tomorrow, a soap opera my dad was on. I’d been dying to see it. I thought this was lost forever but it was in tons of old boxes.”

As Jennifer doesn’t exactly have a Betamax machine lying around (who does?), she told Kimmel that she’ll show it to him once she gets it transferred. Jennifer thought for sure she had a shot at getting the role and not just because her dad was a leading man on the NBC serial.

She said she spotted a notice on a bulletin board at the Search For Tomorrow studio when she was there visiting her father. Jennifer says she called her dad’s agent to help her get a reading for the part of T.R., who was described as a “13-year-old runaway.” Jennifer enthused: “I thought, ‘That’s me!’ Minus the runaway part.”

Jennifer recalled correctly that the role went to Jane Krakowski (Ally McBeal; 30 Rock). She played T.R. from 1984 until the show’s finale in 1986.

This wasn’t the only video that she found. The Morning Show star came across a tape of her parents who, in the first year of their marriage, appeared together on The Newlywed Game. “They won!” recalls Jennifer, wryly adding that winning “doesn’t mean your marriage will last!”