Friends co-creator admits she’s ’embarrassed’ and has ‘guilt’ over show’s lack of diversity

Successful TV writer and producer Marta Kauffman has worked on a handful of popular shows over the years, including Dream On and Grace and Frankie. But many know that her biggest work to date would be Friends, the NBC sitcom that ran from 1994 to 2004.

To this day, Friends is still one of the most beloved sitcoms of all time, with new generations watching it for the first time and falling in love with its characters. But along with the fact that some of the storylines did not age well, there’s also been criticism of the show over the years due to the fact that none of the six main cast members are people of color.

In the 1980s and 1990s, a handful of the most popular TV shows were led by primarily white characters, such as Home Improvement, The Wonder Years, and Full House. We could still do a much better job today at casting diverse actors for series and films, but I think it’s safe to say the entertainment industry is learning and improving. And that’s exactly what the co-creator of Friends, Marta Kauffman, wants to do.

In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times, Kauffman opened up on how she’s felt over the years about the criticism Friends has received, and how she used to disagree with complaints about the cast. This has led to her now deciding to donate $4 million to the African and American Studies Department at her alma mater, Brandeis University. According to the writer, she’s “embarrassed” over her choices when making the show.

“I’ve learned a lot in the last 20 years,” Kauffman said, as reported by the AV Club. “Admitting and accepting guilt is not easy. It’s painful looking at yourself in the mirror. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t know better 25 years ago.” She added:

"“It was after what happened to George Floyd that I began to wrestle with my having bought into systemic racism in ways I was never aware of. That was really the moment that I began to examine the ways I had participated. I knew then I needed to course-correct.”"

Some of the Friends cast members have addressed the lack of diversity over the years, with Lisa Kudrow noting that if the sitcom was made today, “it would not be an all-white cast.”