Friends alum David Schwimmer wants you to know that he has always harbored a very progressive mind-set, even during the early days of his cultural tentpole of a sitcom. In a conversation with The Guardian’s David Smith, the actor spoke reverently of the show’s indestructible afterlife and the ways that it was, in his words, “groundbreaking.” And while its gender politics and attitudes toward sexuality may have hinted at a more forward-thinking era of television, it still had enough documented cases of fatphobia, transphobia, and anti-queer sentiments that have impeded its ability to age favorably in a more socially aware era. Smith notes that when he asked Schwimmer about his take on some of the present-day criticism surrounding Friends, Schwimmer became defensive:
It is the only moment of the interview where Schwimmer appears a little defensive. “I don’t care,” he says, dismissively. “The truth is also that show was groundbreaking in its time for the way in which it handled so casually sex, protected sex, gay marriage and relationships. The pilot of the show was [Schwimmer’s character Ross Geller’s] wife left him for a woman and there was a gay wedding, of my ex and her wife, that I attended.
But it’s the follow-up quote that is the real kicker, truth be told:
“Maybe there should be an all-black Friends or an all-Asian Friends,” Schwimmer says. “But I was well aware of the lack of diversity and I campaigned for years to have Ross date women of colour. 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.
While we are thrilled that Schwimmer had the presence of mind to “push” for Ross—an equal opportunity saboteur—to invite women of color into the toxic maelstrom that was Ross And Rachel (an effort that unfortunately failed to permeate all other areas of the series), we and a rather vocal section of the internet had to ask, “Hi, have you heard of Living Single?”
If you didn’t have the pleasure of tuning into the ’90s Fox sitcom during its heyday, Living Single followed a group of young Black professionals living the single life in New York City. While some were quick to point out that Living Single was, in many ways, the “all-Black Friends,” that’s not entirely true: Since Living Single premiered in August 1993—over a year before Schwimmer and company first hit screens—that would technically make Friends “the white Living Single,” for those who wish to stick to the comparison. And considering that it featured a cast comprising hip-hop legend Queen Latifah; family sitcom veterans Kim Fields and Erika Alexander; and In Living Color alum and comedian Kim Coles, it’s hard to understand how a fellow industry mainstay could have missed such a noteworthy network comedy during the entirety of its five-season tenure.
Latifah has spoken publicly numerous times about her frustrations with the lack of respect paid to her show, which broke ample ground while depicting Black culture as the amalgam of perspectives, styles, and personalities that it is. Alexander, who played Maxine Shaw (Attorney At Law) took to Twitter yesterday to address Schwimmer’s oversight, noting that Living Single came first. Many fans joined in their attempt to educate, causing #LivingSingle to trend 27 years after the show’s premiere. If Schwimmer or anyone else would like to catch up on the brilliant exploits of magazine editor Khadijah James and her loyal crew, the series is currently streaming on Hulu.
Update: David Schwimmer has responded to Erika Alexander to clarify that his comments were taken out of context and that he does, in fact, know of Living Single. He tweeted an open letter addressed to the actress, stating that he was a longtime fan of her series. “If [Friends] was based on Living Single, you’d have to ask [the producers],” he states. “It’s entirely possible that Warner Brothers and NBC, encouraged by the success of Living Single, gave the Friends pilot the green light… If that’s the case, we are all indebted to Living Single for paying the way.” See the full statement below.
79 Comments
So a guy admits to his ignorance and privilege and people then get mad when he demonstrates it?
Schwimmer’s addendum didn’t come out until a while later.
Not even the addendum. The Guardian article that started this had him admitting he’s privileged in the interview.
Frankly, so fucking what? This is a non-story. He shouldn’t have to apologize for anything, although it was nice of him to do it, I guess. This is the type of shit the right points to and accuses the left of eating itself over. There’s like legitimate systematic racism and intense bullshit in the world right now, and yall dedicated bandwith to a quote from an interview taken out of context that David Schwimmer cleared up in a follow up tweet? How do you handle the lack of oxygen from how high your horse is?
That’s how it works. When geniuinely bad people do bad things in a bad way, The Internet always offers up the hypothetical “right way” of doing it.
And then the next time someone does exactly that….. they get skewered equally. Hardly anyone who spends time in online forums cares about actual justice.
“Guys, OJ already ADMITTED he had a jealousy problem! Stop hounding him.”
Saying “They should make a black or Asian version of Friends” while completely not knowing that one existed for blacks, for YEARS, isn’t admitting anything.It shows ignorance. It isn’t him admitting to it. If he’d said, “I had no idea about that show until recently, I can’t believe I didnt’ know.” THAT would be admitting.But sure, do your white brother a solid and support his stupidity.
Hey @DavidSchwimmer @FriendsTV – r u seriously telling me you’ve never heard of #LivingSingle? We invented the template! Yr welcome bro. ;)I get that it is Twitter, and that Twitter is a horrible wasteland, whose sole purpose seems to be content for articles such as these, but not bothering to type out “are” or “you” or “You’re” when making a valid point just makes the person look foolish. And who the heck abbreviates “you’re” to “Yr” anyway? Especially when they wrote out “you’ve” in the same tweet. What an eyesore.
Sonic Youth would take issue with yr complaint.
Are we talking Hedgehog Sonic here or the Sonic that makes burgers and shakes?
Both of those shows kinda sucked. People should go back and watch Good Times instead.
I’ll have you know Friends was plenty diverse.
I figured Schwimmer was saying that a Friends reboot now could be all-black or all-Asian.
I think it was just Schwimmer trying to say that he has no fucking interest in a reunion show and stop asking him, but in a way that wouldn’t piss people off. He was wrong. It’s 2020 and everything that anyone says pisses people off.
Have a nice day and I hope this pisses you off!
It did. You’re obviously saying this because I’m Chinese and you’re making fun of the Coronavirus affecting my people’s New Year celebration. You’re a gaslighting racist and I will start a hashtag campaign against you.
You’re obviously saying this because I’m Chinese and you’re making fun of the Coronavirus affecting my people’s New Year celebration!P.S. I stayed home by choice for this CNYE because I find the family dramas to be too draining, and I prefer takeouts to home cooking anyway!
Well, shit. Now I have to block you to save face.
Living Single wasn’t the same after Kyle left.
Could there BE any more backpedaling?
My name is Chanandler Bong and I approve of this message.
I enjoy A.V. Club, but do the site pay copy editors? “Paying the way”? Schwimmer’s tweet so clearly said otherwise.
Does this site pay copy editors?Haha, no.
but do the site pay copy editors?Curse you, Muphry! /shakes fist
No, but it does pave them.
This site can’t even manage hiring writers smart enough to have good takes that aren’t just regurgitated outrage from the bowels of Twitter…you think they give a fuck about grammar?
Why pay someone to do it when commenters will do it for free?
Jeez, the guys makes an offhand comment that if you reboot the show, make it diverse, and because there was a show about black people who were friends two decades ago, people are angry? Can you imagine the outrage if someone suggested you couldn’t do a sitcom with a diverse cast because they made one twenty years ago? TLDR – Why does Ross, the largest of the friends, not eat the people writing self righteous tweets?
Counterpoint: OUTRAGE! DESTROY!
Because apparently, despite what his on-screen character might act like, Ross is a decent dude, I guess.
Because apparently, despite what his on-screen character might act like, Ross is a decent dude, I guess.
With Splinter gone, this is the stuff we get on AVClub.
I dunno who is “angry,” but more baffled that he is literally describing, as something that would be a groundbreaking follow up to his own groundbreaking show, a show that was not only contemporary with his show but debuted before it.
Angry is maybe overstating it, but look at the tone of this article for a man who just wanted more diversity if his show is rebooted. A lot of Tweets were needlessly aggressive and confrontational. Many accused Friends of being a Living Single rip off (actually there’s a lot of evidence that it was a ripoff of Cameron Crowes Singles, right down to them accidentally announcing it with that title).He doesn’t say a diverse reboot would be groundbreaking, he says Friends was groundbreaking. Which it was, for a number of reasons.
Friends has the vaguest, most low-concept sitcom premise ever, bar maybe “man and his family”. Acting like Friends is a ripoff of another show that had people who were friends in it seems a bit silly to me. As is the implication that we’ve “done black Friends already”. And it’s not like Schwimmer is shopping a show around. He was asked about a reboot and said it should be less white. He wasn’t asked to cite the lineage of influences on Friends.
I think you may be missing something about both Living Single and Friends if you think that the only thing about Living Single and Friends was that they “had people who were friends,” which describes literally every sitcom I can think of.
I also don’t think it’s fair to say that Friends was simply a copy/reboot of Living Single. As best I remember LS, it was primarily about a group of women living their shared experience in the big city. Friends definitely expanded on that by having both genders interacting in more personal ways.
Yes. He should also be mocked for insisting on an interracial romance in the show, because he didn’t manage to integrate the rest of the show when they actually did it.
The way this title was written reminded me of the sci-fi show Revolution, I think its name was where it was mentioned that David Schwimmer was the only surviving actor from Friends after the apocalypse and made a living acting out all the parts in scenes from episodes from the show.So to pre-empt … looks like in this scenario Ross may well have as the largest, survived by etc etc.
Is it just me or can you just ‘hear’ him in character as Ross trying to explain this in that stupid smug way he talked to everyone when he just had to be right?
Man, I hated Ross. The only one of the ‘Friends’ to be overwhelmingly smug, overwhelmingly stupid, overwhelmingly inconsiderate, and go out of his way to hurt other’s pride in the show.
Counter point: he was also the only one with the backbone to stand for what was right even when it was unpopular (for example off the top of my head, when Phoebe wanted to keep that girl’s missing cat and nobody else had the balls to tell Phoebe that this was wrong). Regardless it’s a 90s sitcom — judged from the lens of the real world, invariably every character is going to be shitty by plot necessity.
To be fair, he was talking down to Phoebe and the others the entire time before the cat’s owner was even found and expected the others to follow his lead. It’s not just backbone so much as he was a jerk. It doesn’t bypass him being the only one to be repeatedly vindictive to Monica and Rachael when they responded negatively to his behavior. He even got called out on it once when Monica pointed out she hated him for it as a kid. Phoebe would also call him out on his need to be ‘right’. He just seemed to be the most self-centered of the bunch.
To me it, his character was the worst mainly because he really didn’t change and the show just piled on negative character traits for him to the point where I don’t even see how he could be considered a good friend for anybody. Everyone else seemed to mature for the most part and grow as characters while Ross just sorta stayed the same. Though, I’ll admit to disliking a lot of sitcom characters like Ross. Ted Mosby from How I Met Your Mother comes to mind. Also Sheldon Cooper, J.D. from Scrubs, and Eric from that 70’s show.
Ross’s flaws are generally the least outlandish, so they tend to rub us off the wrong way because they seem more real. But you just called him the most selfish character on the show in the very same paragraph you discuss Phoebe seriously considering keeping a little girl’s lost cat as her own. I don’t think Ross stands out as more selfish than any of the other characters on the show.As for maturity, I think he actually is the most mature character on the show for most of the run. He talks down to them which is annoying, but generally it truly is from a place where he is in the right, and he is trying to talk them out of childish antics. He doesn’t really become more mature as the show goes on due to the general Flanderization of his character, but that is true for almost all of the others too (or at least the boys). Joey is an airhead actor at the start of the show, but by the end he’s a legitimate moron whose actions resemble a pre-teen child more than an adult. And Chandler becomes a pervy loser over the last couple of seasons.
I could be wrong but don’t recall Phoebe considering keeping the cat once she found it was someone else’s. At that point her point of view shifted to questioning Ross’ need to be right and lack of belief in things that aren’t purely scientific. Joey remains an airheaded moron but his womanizing gets downplayed after he actually seeks a relationship (thanks to Monica and Rachel keeping the girl around until she gets tired of Joey). From there he grows to someone who actually would’ve been a decent match for Rachel if the Rachel/Ross thing wasn’t constantly forced to the point of Joey and Rachel being completely unable to even get physical for ‘reasons’.
Chandler and Monica’s relationship has them both grow as characters. Monica’s vague OCD that only exists in certain episodes seems to just vanish at the end while Chandler deals with his hangups with family (and gender), overweight people, Janice, and his need to joke to fit in.
Even Phoebe grows from her relationships with the cop who’s name I can’t remember but was played by Michael Rapaport, the guy who went to… Minsc (?), and Mike. She acknowledges her flakiness, her quirks in shopping and diet, settles most of her family issues aside from Ursula, and gets into a healthy relationship with someone.
Rachel grew the most in terms of becoming self-reliant to the point where her sisters were forced to at least try to follow in her footsteps. The writing requiring her get back to Ross kept rolling back a lot of her progress though.
Ross though… he just sorta stayed the same selfish dorky guy. To me, he just comes off as a massive dick compared to the others. He had several scenes of treating Phoebe poorly because of her beliefs, at least two breakdowns (The Sandwich, seeing Joey and Rachel kissing), the entire “on a break” thing which was made worse by his unsubstantiated jealousy concerning Rachel’s coworker/friend ‘Mark’, had to be convinced by his ex-wife to go help his friends since he was seriously going to leave them broken down at a rest stop, found/searched for‘loopholes’ to the agreement with Joey while trying to date Gabrielle Union’s character, purposely embarrassed both Monica and Rachel on the phone, seriously tried to convince Phoebe that she was in love with Rachel to cover his need to stay married to her, lied to Rachel about their annulment and refused to tell her even after telling Phoebe, found out about the game of ‘Cups’ being something Chandler made up to trick Joey into taking money from him until he got on his feet again and refused to give the money back, dated a student of his, found out continuing to date her would cost him his job and did it anyway, found out her father didn’t approve and blackmailed the guy with revealing his odd confidence mantra after being caught at the father’s cabin/retreat with the daughter, and treated Monica poorly until she called him out on it. While all the other friends had some stupid moments and wacky behavior, he was the only one who’s shenanigans tended to directly effect the core group and who would turn on his friends as soon as it benefited him. Long story short, Ross wouldn’t be my friend. Everyone has flaws in the show, Ross just has no redeeming characteristics in my eyes. It just seemed like he always had to have his way and when he didn’t he’d either talk down to people, yell, have a breakdown, find some sneaky way to try and get what he wanted, or come up with some outlandish lie that made others look bad. He’d then turn around and try to force his interests on people while ignoring that they weren’t interested. So while he might be the most realistic of the bunch, I’d still wouldn’t consider him a friend, particularly to his friends.
To be honest, I liked Ross and Aisha Tyler’s character (Charlie?) as a couple. He actually treated her better than all the others he was hooked up with in the show. Whether that was because she was a peer and he had reverence for some of her work or because she was only a guest star for a few episodes, I don’t know.
Yeah ok. Maybe you should stop stealing other people’s sandwiches out of the office refrigerator.
I don’t eat them, I just throw them away. Spite.
Friends was bad and Ross was the worst Friend. Also the largest.
Nevermind
AND Living Single had the better theme song. And now it will be stuck in my head for the rest of the day.
My outrage knows no bounds.
Counterpoint: Living Single wasn’t that great so it really doesn’t matter who did what first. But then again, I was never the biggest fan of Friends, either. I’m an equal opportunity hater, I guess.
Shit…I’VE never heard of Living Single.
Guess it’s a good thing I’m not David Schwimmer.
I’ve heard of Living Single but never watched it – is it streaming anywhere? Is it worth checking out?
Its on Hulu since last year.
So this is why Living Single was trending on Twitter? I thought maybe it was a reboot. I never really watched Friends, but I did love Living Single – at least the first few seasons. A first-rate cast with impeccable chemistry and an ability to make me laugh until my stomach hurt. I only got into the show because I was so happy to see Kim Coles again (she was one of my favorites on the first season of In Living Color) but I was also happy to see Kim Fields and Erika Alexander getting to show their talent – I’d been fond of Erika in her thankless Cosby Show role and this was just night and day for her to work with. When I think of stuff I miss from the ‘90s, this show is near the top of the list.
Hasn’t Living Single been called a black Designing Women?
Ah. Yeah, that update sounds more like it.
Ross was the only character to date outside his skin tone. If Schwimmer pushed for that, that’s not a bad thing. And isn’t that kind of what we want white actors in general, and white men in particular, to do?As for the defensiveness, I’ll tell you that the first positive portrayal of a gay relationship and marriage was in Friends. It was 1994. Bill Clinton had just told soldiers to stay in their closets. We were four years BEFORE Matthew Shepard. That counts. Stop slicing 1994 shows with 2020 razors
“Outside his skin tone”? You mean “outside his race”? Unless there was a subplot I missed about Ross bravely dating a pale goth chick in the summer. Also I’m gonna call BS on that claim of Friends being the first positive portrayal of a gay relationship; first lesbian wedding on TV, sure.
You can stalk me all you want. I’m not letting you touch my special place. Go kill a dog like you want to and leave me be, dog killer
I literally had to go into my notification history to know what the hell you were talking about. I have neither the time nor the energy to write down the usernames of everyone I’ve ever disagreed with on the internet, but you do you. I’ll let you get back to advocating for genocide, weirdo.
Are you saying that Friends wasn’t the first positive portrayal of a gay relationship, or that it wasn’t positive?If it’s the former then I can’t remember any before Friends. TV in the 90s was rife with female cast members flirting with lesbianism for a single episode, but at the end of the episode deciding they weren’t gay and then it was never mentioned again (Picket Fences and L.A. Law come to mind).If it’s the latter then I have to disagree. Considering it was 1994, I was surprised with how matter-of-fact the show treated that relationship. Yes, Ross’ ex and her girlfriend/wife (can’t remember their names) weren’t cast members and only occasionally appeared, but their relationship was portrayed as just another relationship, not something the main characters mocked or looked down upon. It was a rare TV lesbian relationship that was ongoing, led to marriage, and no one on the show was claiming they were bad parents *just* because they were lesbians.
Joey dated Charlie as well.
I think hes talking about Ross dating Julie in season 2
The article doesn’t say it was a bad thing if Schwimmer pushed for that.Also, it is possible for something to have been forward thinking in certain respects and still have either been regressive at the time in other respects or to seem regressive in retrospect according to current standards. Friends remains culturally relevant, and there is nothing wrong with viewing it in a 2020 mindset and recognizing what has and hasn’t aged well…in fact that’s a pretty healthy way to look at art.
You’re right. It doesn’t say it was bad. It barely mentions it before going in to mock him more. And what you are describing sounds like the least healthy way to view art. Worf’s Rule: If everything is an outrage, nothing gets to be one
How do you suggest we pretend that modern standards don’t exist? It is dumb to pretend that social norms haven’t moved beyond art and that art doesn’t reflect outdated social norms.
once again, David Schwimmer makes my brain hurt by playing the most unlikeable Friend but also being a good dude.
I don’t exactly have a dog in this fight, as I think all involved are fairly indestructible, and Schwimmer’s misfire will move into the ether in a few days. But I will ask, why do the Kinja sites seem to take such glee in dragging these cultural misdemeanors to their absolute breaking point?
it still had enough documented cases of fatphobia, transphobia, and anti-queer sentimentsI can think of examples of two of the three of those, but what was the transphobia? The closest thing I can think of off the top of my head is the humor based on Chandler’s dad, but I thought he was gay, not transsexual. (Oh, and there was a joke about Joey kissing a woman with a noticeable Adam’s apple, but I think that was cross-dressing.)
I don’t know if they ever clarified Chandler’s dad either way, but he was at the very least cross-dressing, I guess? He/she was played by Kathleen Turner, a female actor who was also considered a sex symbol during her youth, so I guess the argument could be made that he was supposed to be trans.
Viva Las Gaygas!
Since Living Single premiered in August 1993—over a year before Schwimmer and company first hit screens—that would technically make Friends “the white Living Single,”Lol I like that. But when do we get to talk about how all these shows owe everything to Designing Women?
Everyone, it’s great that Living Single exists and all, but David Schwimmer can’t be the first and only person to have forgotten it’s existence even for a moment in thirty years, so how about we all just back off a little with the righteous indignation this time.
Living Single invented the template of “We need our own Seinfeld”?
GTFO
Make it “It’s A Living” and I’m in!
I watched Living Single but can’t remember one of the guys on the show being interesting at all. I think he was just trying to say do a show with 3 guys and 3 girls as the main stars and use Minorities instead of the very wonderbread cast of friends. Nothing to look at here and I’m a large brown man in his 40’s from NYC so I know the “friends area” very well and it did make me laugh in the 90’s because that’s not how that area looked.Glad David did push for Ross to date women of color back then because both of them were great actors but lets be honest to hot for Ross who was a dweeb.
I don’t remember much about Julie (which is odd considering she probably had the most appearances of Ross’ love interests) but Aisha Tyler was definitely out of his league.
I always thought all the main characters in Friends were assholes I’d never want to associate with in real life. The only person that was half decent was Phoebe, and they made her mentally deficient, and “quirky”.
Let’s just drop all this and think about how fucking hot Jennifer Aniston was in 1995.