Friends co-creator blames ‘ignorance’ and other reasons for show’s lack of diversity

There’s no denying the pop culture significance the long-running series Friends holds. The sitcom catapulted multiple actors to stardom, racked up tons of award nominations and wins, and is still relevant to this day. Just take the highly-anticipated reunion special as proof. Friends: The Reunion saw a huge premiere when it dropped on HBO Max in May, with a reported 29% of streaming homes in the United States tuning in that day. Without a doubt, fans were thrilled to get more content from the beloved show.

However, that’s not to say Friends didn’t have its faults. Though the series is hugely popular, it has still received divisive opinions over the years. While the comedy doesn’t hit with everyone, the show has also been criticized for its lack of diversity.

The main cast of Friends — Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and Matthew Perry — does not include anyone of color, a move that has been called out for years. TV lovers of all colors want to see representation on their screens, and Friends did not do this for most races.

One of the show’s creators, Marta Kauffman, is now explaining why they did not include people of color in the main cast. As reported by E! News, the TV writer and producer admitted during an appearance on the CNN show History of the Sitcom: “It was, to a certain extent, a product of the time period and of my own ignorance.”

Kauffman went on to explain:

"“There were Black shows and there were white shows. There weren’t a lot of shows that were interracial. I guess at the time I was thinking, ‘This is what I know. This is what I know.'”"

In 2019, Friends actress Aisha Tyler, who played the role of Charlie Wheeler, spoke out on the lack of diversity on the show while speaking to The Guardian (per Digital Spy).

Tyler recalled of her experience on Friends:

"“My character wasn’t written on the page to be a woman of color, and I auditioned against a lot of other women of different ethnic backgrounds, so I like to think they picked me because I was the right person for the role. But I knew it was something new for the show, and it was really important because, the fact of the matter was, it was a show set in Manhattan that was almost entirely Caucasian. It was an unrealistic representation of what the real world looked like.”"

It goes without saying that if Friends was made in 2021, viewers would expect a more diverse cast. The series certainly has its fair share of mistakes and troublesome storylines, which absolutely wouldn’t fly today.