It is hard to find anyone these days who isn't a fan of the US sitcom Friends. But it turns out it is even harder to find any non-white characters within the show's 236 episodes.
Despite being set in Manhattan between the years of 1994 and 2004, the popular sitcom only ever had to recurring non-white characters.
Now, Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman has admitted she "didn’t do enough" to promote diversity throughout the show's 10-year run.
Speaking at the virtual 2020 ATX Festival, Kauffman - who co-created the show with David Crane - teared up as she expressed her regret as the lack of diversity seen on the sitcom.
The 63-year-old writer and producer was asked what she "wished she knew" when she started out in television, and became emotional as she responded: "I wish I knew then what I know today."
Marta continued:
"Sorry, I just wish I knew then what I know now. I would’ve made very different decisions.
"I mean we’ve always encouraged people of diversity in our company, but I didn’t do enough and now all I can think about is what can I do?
"What can I do differently? How can I run my show in a new way? And that’s something I not only wish I knew when I started show running, but I wish I knew all the way up through last year."
Back in January, Friends star David Schwimmer told The Guardian that he spent years campaigning for greater representation on the show.
Schwimmer said: "I was well aware of the lack of diversity and I campaigned for years to have Ross date women of color.
"One of the first girlfriends I had on the show was an Asian American woman, and later I dated African American women. That was a very conscious push on my part."
Throughout the show, the only recurring characters who were people of color were Julie, Ross' Asian-American girlfriend played by Lauren Tom, and Charlie, who dated both Joey and Ross in the final two seasons of the show.
Charlie was played by African-American actress Aisha Tyler, and told InStyle back in 2018 that "people of color were always aware" of the lack of diversity in the show.
She added: "Even at the time, people were constantly pointing out that Friends wasn’t as diverse as the Manhattan of the real world."
Per the Metro, Kauffman was joined on the panel by The Vampire Diaries co-creator Julie Plec, whose show also has a largely white cast.
Pec said on the issue: "That has been the hardest pill for me to swallow, is that I’m part of that group."
Robin Thede - who created A Black Lady Sketch Show - then added that Kauffman and Pec were unknowingly part of a system "set up by racists to encourage racism".
Thede added: "You guys are just as much a part of systemic racism as well because it's a system. That's what I keep telling people. It's not one person being racist ruining everything, it’s a system that was set up by racists to encourage and teach racism and disguise it."
