'Friends' Co-Creator Marta Kauffman Gets Choked Up While Discussing Show's Lack of Diversity

If you sit down to watch an episode of Friends today, the sitcom's lack of diversity is pretty apparent. For all its timeless popularity, the series has been criticized in recent years for its glaring lack of people of color. Despite taking place in New York City—the melting pot of the world—all of the main characters are white, their friends and family are white, and everyone's boss is white. Some notable characters of color included the Asian-American Julie and African American Charlie, both of whom played a love interest for Ross and were basically used as plot devices.

With discussions on racism becoming ever more prevalent in the U.S., now is the time to analyze our media and the perpetuation of these systematic issues. As reported by The Independent, co-creator of the popular sitcom Marta Kauffman recently spoke in a ATX TV panel discussion with other female showrunners where she touched on the lack of representation on Friends.

When asked what she would tell her younger self if she could return to the start of her career, Kauffman said, “I wish I knew then what I know today.” With tears in her eyes, she added, "Sorry, I just wish I knew then what I know now. I would’ve made very different decisions." You can check out the full panel below.

“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 showrunning, but I wish I knew all the way up through last year,” Kauffman added.

While nothing can be done to rectify the past, at least Kauffman is owning up to the mistakes that were made. Maybe someday they will do a more diverse remake!