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Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman has once again apologized for the lack of black leads on the iconic New York sitcom.
In response to the show’s lack of diversity, Kauffman has pledged $4 million to her alma mater, Brandeis University in the Boston area, to create an endowed professorship in the university’s Department of African and African-American Studies.
Kauffman, 65, who co-created the NBC sitcom with David Crane, said she was “embarrassed” that “Friends” had a mostly white cast.
“I’ve learned a lot over the last 20 years,” Kauffman told the LA Times. “Admitting and accepting guilt is not easy. It hurts to look at yourself in the mirror.
“I’m embarrassed that I didn’t know any better 25 years ago.”
While “Friends” is arguably one of the most successful sitcoms of all time, running for ten seasons between 1994 and 2004, the series has always been criticized for its lack of diversity.
Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman has once again apologized for the lack of black leads on the iconic New York sitcom
Kauffman, 65, who co-created the NBC sitcom with David Crane, said she was “embarrassed” that “Friends” had a mostly white cast
It wasn’t until 2002 that Aisha Tyler was cast, becoming the first black actress to be a regular on the show. she played dr Charlie Wheeler, a paleontology professor who dated Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) in the ninth season. But they only lasted nine episodes.
Kauffman said she regrets making the six main characters all white – but is still glad Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry were all part of the series.
“I would have been crazy not to hire those six actors. What can I say? I wish Lisa was black?’ Kauffman told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the airing of the Friends: The Reunion special.
But now Kauffman has pledged $4 million to Brandeis University to fund African American studies.
That The Marta F. Kauffman ’78 Professorship in African and African American Studies will support a distinguished scholar with a focus on the study of the peoples and cultures of Africa and the African diaspora.
The donation also helps the department renew itselfattract more expert scholars and faculty, identify long-term academic and research priorities, and provide students with new opportunities to engage in interdisciplinary scholarship, the university said.
“It took me a long time to understand how I internalized systemic racism,” Kauffman told Brandeis. “I’ve worked really hard to become an ally, an anti-racist. And that seemed like a way for me to engage in the conversation from a white woman’s perspective.”
It wasn’t until 2002 that Aisha Tyler was cast, becoming the first black actress to be a regular on the show. she played dr Charlie Wheeler, a paleontology professor who dated Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) in the ninth season. But they only lasted nine episodes
Since announcing the donation, Kauffman told the Los Angeles Times, “I’ve received nothing but love. It was amazing. It surprised me a bit because I didn’t expect the news to be so widely shared.
“I’ve been getting a barrage of emails and texts and posts that were nothing but support. I got a lot of ‘It’s about time’. Not in a mean way. It’s only the people who acknowledge that it was long overdue.
By the time Friends: The Reunion was released, which was criticized for sidestepping the lack of diverse roles issue, Kauffman’s perspective on diversity was beginning to change.
“After what happened with George Floyd, I began to wrestle with buying into systematic racism in a way I never realized,” Kauffman told the LA Times.
“That was really the moment I started investigating my participation. I knew then that I had to correct the course.”
Pictured: (clockwise from left) Courteney Cox as Monica Geller, Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing, David Schwimmer as Ross Geller, Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green, Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani, and Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay
It comes after Schwimmer, who played Ross on the hit show, recounted The guard in a 2019 interview that he’s always pushed for diversity on “Friends.”
“I was aware of the lack of diversity and for years I advocated for Ross to date women of color,” Schwimmer said.
“One of the first girlfriends I had on the show was an Asian-American woman, and later I started dating African-American women. That was a very conscious push on my part.’
It wasn’t until 2002 that Aisha Tyler was cast, becoming the first black actress to be a regular on the show. she played dr Charlie Wheeler, a paleontology professor who dated Ross in the ninth season.
Realizing the lack of black characters on the show was hard at times – Kauffman got emotional in 2020 when she admitted she hadn’t done enough to encourage diversity on her hit NBC sitcom.
Kauffman was asked during the 2020 Virtual ATX TV Festival what she “wish she knew” at the start of her television career.
The writer/producer broke down in tears and became emotional: “I wish I had known then what I know now.
“What makes this really emotional for me is wanting that connection that I didn’t have,” she said. “I deeply want that connection to the black community that I didn’t have. Because of ‘Friends’ I never got there.’
“Sorry, I just wish I knew then what I know now. I would have made very different choices,” Kauffman added, referring to the show’s lack of diversity, which she was often criticized for.
“I mean, we’ve always supported people with diversity in our company, but I haven’t done enough and now all I can think of is what can I do?” She added.
“What can I do differently? How can I redesign my show? And that’s something I not only wish I’d known when I started showrunning, but I wish I’d known for the past year,” Kauffman said.
“Friends” has been criticized for lacking diversity on the show
Established in 1969, Brandeis’ Department of African and Afro-American Studies is one of the oldest such departments in the country.
Chad Williams, the University’s Samuel J. and Augusta Spector Professor of History and African and African-American Studies, said the new professorship will place Brandeis in a leadership role in the broader academic community and public.
“We are at a time in this country’s history when students are looking for opportunities to broaden their intellectual and political horizons and for places to articulate what it means to be a young person at a time of incredible being changes and upheavals. especially in terms of race,” he said.
“Brandeis needs to embrace that and recognize that there is an opportunity to lead with our division at the top.”
Kauffman also confirmed that any future projects would feature a more diverse cast.
“I feel like I’ve finally been able to change the conversation,” Kauffman told the LA Times.
“I have to say once I agreed to that and I stopped sweating it didn’t relieve me but it lifted me up. But until I can get it right in my next production, it’s not over.
“From now on, with every production I do, I want to make sure I’m consciously hiring people of color and actively nurturing young writers of color. I want to know that I will behave differently from now on. And then I feel unencumbered.’
