Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman has revealed that the sitcom made mistakes in how it handled Chandler Bing's transgender parent.
In a forthcoming interview with the BBC, Kauffman reflected on the popular American sitcom and disclosed that it was an error for the writers to misgender Chandler’s trans parent, Helena Handbasket (played by Kathleen Turner).
During The Conversation on the BBC World Service, the 65-year-old screenwriter said to the program: "We kept referring to her as Chandler's father, even though Chandler's father was trans."
"Pronouns were not yet something that I understood. So we didn't refer to that character as 'she.' That was a mistake," she admitted.
Turner appeared as Helena - known professionally as Helena Handbasket - in three episodes of the show's seventh season in 2001.
The character was never officially recognized as transgender within the show, but only referred to as gay or a drag queen in her performances in Las Vegas.
Turner, 68, was interviewed with The Gay Times back in 2018 and said that viewers thought the character "was just dressing up".
She also revealed to the publication that when she was initially asked to play the role, it was pitched to her as her being "the first woman playing a man playing a woman".
"I said yes because there weren't many drag/trans people on television at the time," Turner told the publication, adding that she wouldn't do the role again because "there would be real people able to do it".
Kauffman, a writer on each of Friends' 235 episodes, went on to explain how her approach has changed since the hit show ended after 10 seasons in 2004.
"I like very much to create an environment where we have a happy set and a happy crew. It’s very important to me that where we are is a safe place, a tolerant place, where there’s no yelling," she said.
The co-creator continued by stating that she "fired" a guy "on the spot" after he made a joke about a trans cameraperson, saying that "just can’t happen".
This is the second time the 65-year-old screenwriter apologized for mistakes in the beloved tv show. Last week, Kauffman spoke about the lack of diversity in the sitcom, expressing "embarrassment" that she "didn’t know better 25 years ago".
Kauffman then announced that she has pledged $4 million to the African and African American Studies department of Brandeis University, her alma mater, in response to criticism of the show's lack of diversity within its cast.
"I've learned a lot in the last 20 years," Kauffman told the Los Angeles Times. "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 hopes that the donation will help assist the department in employing more expert scholars and teachers, as well as providing new opportunities for academic studies and research.