The Director Of The "Friends" Reunion Responded To Criticism Of Its Lack Of Diversity

"You should have devoted a half hour of the special to a Laverne Cox-led discussion of CIS white privilege!"

Good for him. Someone needs to push back on this nonsense.

No. The people aren’t speaking about the main cast, they’re speaking of the guest celebs they had. They only chose white celebs. And people don’t understand why they didn’t have Aisha Tyler and Lauren Tom make an appearance, the only two people of color to have a recurring roles on the show.

*to have recurring roles

Didn’t Lauren Tom publicly badmouth the show?

R5 not sure, but Aisha Tyler still to this day speaks of her appreciation to the show, and specifically David Schwimmer, who hand picked her for the role.

Maybe they didn’t want to appear.

Friends was a white people’s show. Bland and terribly unfunny.

I wish Kathleen Turner made an appearance and ripped them to shreds. That would be hysterical.

She hated her brief time being a guest on the show.

Of course he’s British. They’re the only ones who still care about this stupid show.

R10 it’s huge all over the world, even in parts of Africa 😂

One of the links in the OP article leads to a Times article that says this about the Friends Reunion director:

[quote] He’s the British producer who counts Prince Harry, the Beckhams and James Corden among his real friends.

That explains why Corden was involved. He's irritatingly everywhere nowadays.

Were there any white actors included in the Fresh Prince reunion? Just sayin’

I recently saw a stat to the effect that 75% of white people have no non-white friends.

Is there a stat as to how many black people don’t have white friends? Or would it be considered racist to ask?

Exactly, R15!

The show was diverse, it had an Italian, a Greek, a couple of Jews, a previously homeless women and a WASP with a cross dressing father.

*woman

R17. DON’T FORGET THE LESBIANS!!!!!

Um...what's he suppose to do 30 yrs later?

Retroactively add black people in through cgi, until history is changed to fit the current narrative, nothing will ever be good enough! BLM!!!

Unfortunately r1's comment could actually be real and not a parody, the way things are now.

Some of you are so lost.

Only it’s mostly one person on more than one account

r17, technically it was three Jews, since Aniston wasn't playing Greek. The Gellers and Greens were supposed to be Jewish families from Long Island, even though none of the Green daughters were cast with Jewish actresses (but Ron Leibman was cast as their father).

They could have at least had Lionel and Jenny Jefferson make an appearance!

Rachel was meant to be Jewish? Did they ever reference that?

[quote] I wish Kathleen Turner made an appearance and ripped them to shreds. That would be hysterical. She hated her brief time being a guest on the show.

What did she say about the show? She appeared in three episodes, so it couldn't have been that bad.

[quote]Rachel was meant to be Jewish? Did they ever reference that?

No, it was never mentioned on the show. But many people on here claim that it was “obvious” Rachel was intended to be Jewish.

Because she slept with a couple of Jewish guys?

[quote]”What more diversity do they want in this reunion? The cast is the cast."

It's so odd that one stupid sitcom targeted to basic white people shouldn't have an all-white cast or white guests for the reunion special. The fact that this is controversial is ridiculous. Black people never watched Friends and thought it was asinine.

R30 There's my girl!

It's just kind of obvious. David Crane and Marta Kauffman are both Jewish, their previous two shows--Dream On and Family Album--were about Jewish characters, and the cultural signifiers were there that the core families are Jewish (like the casting of Gould and Leibman as the fathers). Rachel basically starts as a stereotype of the Jewish American Princess from Long Island.

In Lisa Kudrow's interview with the Television Academy where she talks about being cast as Phoebe and initially thinking she was too different from the character, she states, "Phoebe has nothing to do with me. She's like this sort of ditzy, new age-y...that has nothing to do with me. I couldn't be a more like, rational, practical, JAP-py, you know...like this JAP from the Valley. Like, who's playing Rachel? I didn't even see that Rachel's like the romantic interest. I was just thinking about character character character." (start around 4:00)

Gee, why would a JAP from the Valley think she might be more suited to play Rachel...? Because Rachel is obviously a JAP from Long Island.

[...]

I know Kathleen Turner criticized the cast for being unfriendly and I don’t think she’s the only guest star who made that complaint.

Okay he cute though.

Yes, let the push-back begin. Enough is fucking enough with all of this calling-out cancel culture. Do, watch, be whatever your want now. But what's done is done. This hand is about to be over-played.

It was mentioned on the other Friends thread that even in NYC, many people do not have a rainbow of diversity in their immediate circle of friends. That's just how it is. And esp. back then, you could walk into any number of coffee shops, restaurants, bars, bookstores etc. in certain neighborhoods in Manhattan and the crowd would be 99% white.

I remember going to the Barnes and Noble in Union Square back in those days and it was a sea of white faces, even when the place was packed. And it was a big store on two levels.

Chances are that even if the cast was perfectly nice to Kathleen Turner she would have ended up bad mouthing them anyway.

Races stick together, that's just how it is.

Why has the word "diversity" come down to meaning only white and black? As mentioned above, Friends was pretty diverse for its time in other ways. Yes, the guests on the reunion were ridiculous choices in general, and it would have made much more sense to bring Aisha Tyler on than Justin Bieber, but do people seriously think that choice was made with the intention of excluding black people? Aisha Tyler may not even have been available for all we know.

Maybe they should have been more intentional with a keener eye for diversity when choosing the randos to appear as guests. I dunno. I'm all for equity and diversity, but this seems to me to be just looking for discrimination where there really is none.

some people have become professional diversity complainers. It gets them publicity. The director should have just said," To all of those woke assholes who complain about a lack of diversity," Fuck you!" I would watch any show he directed.

The characters of Ross, Monica and Rachel are all supposed to be Jewish, but they never really talked about it. They just dropped hints and references here and there.

Fuck these diversity cunts. People are sick of every damn tv show and movie having to look like a goddamn UN meeting. It's not organic, in many cases, and just looks forced, superficial, political, and takes you right out of the story.

They couldn’t have Aisha Tyler on the reunion without addressing the criticisms about the lack of diversity on the show, considering during their story line, Ross told several jokes implying that her character wasn’t really black.

Go back and check it out. Season 10. It was the episodes following the ones where Monica gets corn rows.

The discussion of diversity is stupid because the show was created to be accessible and mainstream as possible. That's why it's still in syndication today, all across the world, including Africa and the Middle East. They're the ones who want to see pretty white people living pampered, privileged lives. If you want to watch a show about friends and lovers with an edge, watch Coupling.

No, R45, It takes you right out of the story. Most of us don’t have a problem with seeing other people besides white folks represented on screen. And I’m sorry, but we will never go back to the old days, either. Get used to those interracial couples in advertising! They are here to stay!

Omfg. NO ONE IS SAYING THAT THE CORE GROUP NEEDED A POC!!!! What is not clicking?

The complaint was that everywhere the characters went it was 99.9% white in 1994-2004 NYC. NYC had a lot less white people then than it does in 2021 and a lot more black people back then than 2021.

Even their servers etc. were always white. Hotdog vendor? White. Etc.

This is the complaint. And now a reunion special has celebrity guests… all white.

You misunderstand, r48. We're not upset at seeing diverse representations. It's when it is obviously forced and inorganic, that it's a problem.

The Toronto Trans Collective have issued a statement

[quote]The Toronto Trans Collective is outraged about pretty much everything and find an excuse to call anything an act of extreme violence against trans people but even we can't get angry about this. Plus Lisa Kudrow was in that British show with that aristocratic they/them person who was nominated for Best Female Performance. Now THAT is extreme violence against trans people.

What I find fascinating is that the people who make claims like r38 and r41 are always people who are transplants. Always. Just goes to show you how different natives are.

David Schwimmer is a native NYer and since season 1 he fought to get more diversity on that show, back in the 90s, because he was born and raised in NYC and this show was so far from what NyC was really like it bothered him. They gave him an Asian girlfriend to appease him in season 2.

They’ve spoken about how outspoken Schwimmer was throughout the series about the lack of diversity. Years went by and they still weren’t hearing his complaint and Aisha Tyler’s character was written as white, and he stormed in the writing room and demanded a black woman get that role because A. NYC isn’t a white haven, and B. He doesn’t believe Joey and Ross would only be into white women. He personally picked Aisha himself, and she still thanks him to this day for that opportunity

Of course Rachel Green was Jewish. They practically beat you over the head with it in the beginning of the show.

I always thought it was hilarious that they cast WASPy Reese Witherspoon as her sister.

OMG, it's Friends. It wasn't designed to big some huge statement about diversity and equity. It was mindless, sometimes funny, TV drivel. Who TF cares? Find bigger issues to worry about.

R53 and Applegate also

[quote]No. The people aren’t speaking about the main cast, they’re speaking of the guest celebs they had. They only chose white celebs.

So what? If you don't like it don't watch it.

Why does every fucking thing have to look like a Benetton advertisement?

[quote]What I find fascinating is that the people who make claims like [R38] and [R41] are always people who are transplants. Always. Just goes to show you how different natives are.

Please. There are stores, cafes, bars etc. in certain parts of Manhattan where the clientele is very, very white. Obviously you don't hang out in those neighborhoods. I was just out and about on the UES yesterday and it was white white white everywhere I went.

In what universe could Reese Witherspoon read as Jewish?

r52 your bizarre fixation on "transplants" is only shared by you.

[quote] What I find fascinating is that the people who make claims like [[R38]] and [[R41]] are always people who are transplants. Always. Just goes to show you how different natives are.

Nonsense. I grew up on the UWS and have lived there for years. There are plenty of places where I've never seen someone who isn't lily white.

So is this director James Corden’s “special” friend?

Actually NYC has less black people (percentage) now than it did 70 years ago.

[quote] In what universe could Reese Witherspoon read as Jewish?

In the same one as Courteney Cox, I guess.

Why did the show need so many Jews?

I think the main thing to point out is that Mr Winston is a very attractive man.

r49, while the show certainly could have been more diverse, the idea that 99.9% of the people the main characters ran into in NYC were white is bullshit. Just looking through the IMDB pages for the first season:

- In the second episode, Joan Pringle played Carol's obstetrician, who was black.

- In the third episode, Jenifer Lewis guest starred as Monica's co-worker at the restaurant.

- In the eighth episode, the nurse when Monica and Ross's grandmother died was Asian.

- In the sixteenth episode, Chandler's boss and the lamaze teacher Ross/Carol/Susan go to are both black.

- In the seventeenth episode, Alaina Reed guest starred

- In episode 21, several of the students in the dance class Monica takes are black.

- In episode 22, one of Chandler's co-workers is black.

- The season finale introduced Julie, who is Asian.

So that's one third of the 24 episodes in the first season. It certainly could have been more, but saying there were no POC and 99.9% of the guest actors were white is nonsense and just makes it sound like you're making things up.

R44 Phoebe did a holiday song that mentioned Hanukah for Ross, Monica and Rachel

Of course, even if there had been more POC characters, some people would just complain that they weren't the protagonists. Last week I read this inane article by a black writer complaining that Julie, Charlie, and the woman played by Gabrielle Union were "failed" by the show because they didn't get happy endings with one of the main characters? Never mind that Julie and Charlie were given happy endings--Julie with Ross lookalike Russ; Charlie who dumped Ross to get back with her ex who she was really in love with. (Gabrielle Union was only on a single episode.) Also never mind that anyone cast as a love interest was just going to be a temporary obstacle on the way to Ross and Rachel's inevitable reunion since they were setup at endgame from the pilot. None of Ross's POC love interests were treated any differently than Bonnie, Emily (who certainly got screwed over even more than Julie or Charlie) or Mona...yet the writer expects that they should have been?

Central Perk also had a recurring black waitress in the early seasons. The show had diversity in the background, which makes sense for a group of white friends. I guess that doesn't fit in with the current idea that every show should be the rainbow, hell if you want a lack of realism in terms of diversity look at the office. It had one black guy and one Indian woman early on, added a mixed race girl but she was played as Italian, they added another black guy and that was it. That show only ended in 2013.

This is all fake controversy to get attention. They hire two trolls who go on Twitter and say there aren’t enough trans male black lesbian queers and the targets in question go all “You’re out of order! You’re really going overboard here!” And they get more buzz and a bigger audience.

Yes r48 but people have to stop whining about what was shown 30 yrs ago...we cant take it back

Now I understand how Black people must have felt all these years when everyone from commercials to TV shows to movies to Broadway was White. Now that everyone seems to be non-White I feel like I'm living on somebody else's continent.

Why, op people of color can be in a mediocre, overrated sitcom about young people living in New York City? I’ll never get how anyone can watch that clabber...that’s what it was.

SO, not op.

R31, I know black people who liked Friends. This is in the UK, though. I don't think there's a strong a cultural divide between the races here.

[quote] This is in the UK, though. I don't think there's a strong a cultural divide between the races here.

That was a joke, right?

Erica Gimpel was the Lamaxe coach.

No, it was Michele Lamar Richards (Whitney's sister in The Bodyguard.)

I didn’t know, r78, I was VERY STONED...

Friends took place in that some fictional, idealized NYC that didn't have any minorities in major roles that Seinfeld also took place in.

Hated both shows and always noted at the time the lack of racial diversity in FUCKIN' NYC!!!!!

r80 as has been explained, these characters socialized in places in Manhattan that were predominantly white. The cafes, coffee houses, art galleries etc. Even walking down the street in parts of the UWS and UES, for example, you'll see mostly white people.

R17 diverse can only refer to trans and people of color (bonus points if you’re both), didn’t you get the memo? Economic and ethnic diversity doesn’t count!

[quote] The cafes, coffee houses, art galleries etc. Even walking down the street in parts of the UWS and UES, for example, you'll see mostly white people.

Wasn't their apartment supposed to be in the Village, though? (I know it's actually there, but not sure if that's where they claimed it was in the show.)

R80 Not all Black people share your pathological need to hang out with White people.

First of all Friends was entertainment. Its job wasn't to heal the nation.

And rather than pointing out racial insensitivities in the nineties, I think it is worth to point out the show's accomplishments. It often successfully highlighted different social settings as normal. The lesbian couple was repeatedly brought back and usually as the normal, reasonable counterpart to jealous Ross. And where other relationships failed, this lesbian relationship was continuously portrayed as stable.

Making Chandler's father a tran-woman was pretty radical, it would quite noteworthy even in a current mainstream sitcom. Kudos for Kathleen Turner for playing her with so much wit. And she too - in the few episodes she was on- was portrayed as pretty sane and stable. Compare that to Rachel's angry father and 'loco madre', or Ross' and Monica's loving but slightly weird parents.

"No. The people aren’t speaking about the main cast, they’re speaking of the guest celebs they had. They only chose white celebs."

BTS is white? Oh, I forgot. " Diversity" only means black. It's such bullshit.

Fuck the director, raw w/no lube.

The director is cute.

R49 go back and read the article. MALALA was literally on the reunion. And guess what, it made no sense for her to be there but they did it for outraged people like you.

R52 has actual insight and knowledge about the production of the show and everyone is ignoring them just so they can keep saying the same stupid platitudes on repeat. Who cares, it doesn't matter, it's just a TV show, and the woke are out of control, rinse and repeat.

Who gets outraged over a shitty, POS show like 'Friends'? Seriously, life's too short.

R91. Exactly

"Who gets outraged over a shitty, POS show like 'Friends'?"

The professional outragists do. You know, the ones who spend every waking moment into trying to discover something to display their bile. They look at each piece of publicity as a badge of honor, giving their life meaning.

Why does Gen Z love this show so much? And why do act like this show's lack of diversity was any different from other shows in the time. It was set in NY, so what? Every sitcom is the same dynamic and could be set anywhere. It seems writers just throw a dart to a map and decide what city to set a show in.

Home Improvement for example was set in Detroit but all they ever showed was white people. Same with Boy Meets World which was set in Philadelphia. Majority of John Hughes movies were set in or nearby Chicago. These three cities have very high black populations but the neighborhoods are segregated by race and income.

Full House was set in San Francisco which has a heavy Asian population but most of the background extras were white and black. Most shows set in Los Angeles like Melrose, Baywatch, etc would look like Orange County which the amount of blue eyed blondes.

Dukes of the Hazzard is set in rural Georgia yet only showed a predominantly white cast. Georgia is a state where 1/3 of the population is black. This is probably the most unrealistic modern depiction of the South because the rural areas are the least segregated areas and you'll find black and white people living in close proximity. I have tons of family in Georgia and Alabama and most of their neighborhoods and schools are mixed.

The point is regardless of where TV shows are set, the producers still feel pressure to pander to white middle class suburbia. It's stupid but it sells.

One a side note, I've noticed children's TV shows are far more diverse and more likely to have nonwhite leads. 90s Nickelodeon is a perfect example of this. I grew up on this era of kids TV and it was glorious.

It's time for people to stop acting like they're a different race because of a slightly darker or lighter skin tone. We're all human. You can give up your special victim unicorn card now because most of that victimization is in your head.

R96 That would only work if people didn't mistreat others based on their appearance or culture. That's something that will never go away because human nature is fearful, greedy and ignorant. There's always conflict and an "us vs them" throughout our entire existence on this planet.

R96: Where do you live? Are you white? If you are, would you trade lives with a black man living in the South?

So many issues here. I did watch Friends in the beginning. I did think it was a little weird that they didn't have a black or Asian main character, but not horrible. New York does have A LOT of minority people, but, like others have said here, not as high a percentage as other Eastern cities, like Philadelphia.

Rachel was definitely supposed to be Jewish at first but I think they softened that. If you live in the New York City-New Jersey-Philadelphia area, you know plenty of Jews. You are likely to have a Jewish grandparent as well. It's not uncommon here. But then I guess they realized that other parts of the country, people didn't really know what being Jewish was. So they softened it. I will forever think that The Simpsons were supposed to be A-Racial at first. A kind of racial blend. The kids all had black person hair. I used to see black boys with Bart Simpson tee shirts with African type colors in the background. This was real. Then it went away. They added all the darker skinned people, and suddenly the Simpsons were white. Same kind of thing.

[quote]You are likely to have a Jewish grandparent as well.

No. You are not.

Was the reunion any good? That is what I care about. Besides I am a Seinfeld type of fan not friends.

[quote] Was the reunion any good? That is what I care about. Besides I am a Seinfeld type of fan not friends.

It was enjoyable enough if you used to watch the TV show. It's no great piece of art, but it was fun seeing them back together and reminiscing.

The director looks like a hot Seth McFarlande..

Oh, please. They could have had appearances by Aisha Tyler and Lauren Tom but did not. Just like they didn't have appearances from Paul Rudd, Paget Brewster, Helen Baxendale, Jon Favreau, Bonnie Somerville, Bruce Willis, or any of the other dozens of memorable love interests from the show. Sure they could have cast more celebrity fans of color, but was Friends even popular in black and brown households? Do we really think Queen Latifah or Kanye were gonna appear to gush about how much they shipped Ross and Rachel?

Black people didn't watch Friends, they thought is was stupid.

Some black people did. Stop putting all black people in the same bubble.

R99 we are speaking about 90s NYC, not 2021 NYC. 90s NYC did, in fact, have many POC.

[quote]If you are, would you trade lives with a black man living in the South?

I'd trade lives with Tyler Perry.

Ben Winston is a talentless piece of shit.

I, for one, am glad that the program didn't succumb to fake " diversity" casting, which has overwhelmed television. It's just too obvious and done simply to appease the SJW crowd.

[quote]90s NYC did, in fact, have many POC.

It sure did, but they weren't hanging out in coffee shops in the WV.

R111 but some were.

I get that some social circles are racially homogeneous, that’s fine, especially if it contributes to realism on a television show. That being said, [italic]Friends[/italic] was not funny to me... I even tried to get into it when it went into syndication. But I couldn’t identify with anyone on that show and the repartee was so strained at times. And a penny for every white girl at work who attempted to get the ‘Rachel’ over the weekend and would come back to work on Monday looking like ass.

R100 you are posting from CT, not NY, NJ, or PA.

Yawn, the "we hate white people brigade" pipes up again. Friends was a very white show as were most mainstream shows of the 90s. I'm not condoning it, but this was a show for thirty fucking years ago. Hollywood is making strides at tell more diverse stories which is wonderful. Perhaps they should have talked about the lack of diversity of the show in the reunion special but they didn't cause this was mean to be a fun few hours of entertainment. This obsession with race on both the far-left and far-right is ultimately what is creating mounting pressure of the house of cards that is American democracy. Labelling (black, white, Asian) is automatically otherizing people. We're all human, we all bleed the same color.