Diversity has been a hot-button topic for quite some time and it isn’t just with things that happened recently. It is also true of sitcoms that may have been off the air for quite some time, such as Friends.
Recently, Adam Goldberg, an actor who was known for his part in Friends talked about the lack of diversity that the TV show displayed. That show, which was about a close group of friends in New York City was very successful ever since it premiered in 1994.
Eventually, the show came to an end in 2004 but Friends has stayed a cult classic in many ways. Even though it is popular with millions of people, it has also been criticized over the years because of a lack of diversity.
When you look at the ethnic cultures and races in New York, you see that it is a very diverse location. The general breakdown is 31.2% White (Non-Hispanic), 21% Black or African American (Non-Hispanic), 14.4% Asian (Non-Hispanic), 14.2% Other (Hispanic), and 6.3% White (Hispanic).
Despite the diversity in the actual city, there were no deviations in culture when it came to the six main characters. All of the characters on the Friends sitcom were white.
There were some supporting roles that featured different cultures, such as Aisha Tyler, who played a recurring role in nine episodes. She was Dr. Charlie Wheeler, a paleontology professor who worked with and dated Ross.
David Schwimmer, who played Ross gave an interview in 2020 and said that there was something that just felt wrong about the cultural representation of the series. He said: “I really felt like Ross should date other people, women of all races.”
Kaufman, who was a co-creator of the series said that it was ‘difficult and frustrating’ that the series was singled out for a lack of diversity. She has changed her stance in recent years and has noted the failure of the show to be more inclusive.
She said: “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.
“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.”
Many others have also spoken out about the lack of diversity in the series, including Adam Goldberg, who starred as Chandler’s temporary roommate, Eddie. Even though he was only in three episodes, he is still remembered as an important character in the show.
In an interview, he said about his experience being largely positive but he also said that it didn’t give an accurate representation of the population of New York.
He said: “One criticism was how the h*** do these people afford to even live in New York? Their apartment is massive, and it’s an incredibly unrealistic portrayal of New York.”
The actor continued: “And in terms of diversity, looking back, it seems insane. I’ve heard Black people speak about this and it’s like, you never expected to see yourself, so when you didn’t, it was not a surprise, and you ended up identifying to characters, irrespective of their race.”
He spoke about how it was normal to have a lack of diversity at the time and as a Jewish man, he complained often about how Italians could play Jews.
He said: “You very rarely see someone who’s a known Jewish actor playing Italian.”
He said that the ‘entire culture was like that, and television was just an amplification of that culture.’
