'Friends' co-creator regrets lack of diversity in the show

'I wish I knew then what I know today,' Marta Kauffman said during a 2020 virtual festival

Friends, the 25-year-old sitcom that seems just as popular today as it was during its original run from 1994-2004, is still making headlines as viewers look back at the show and many of its dated aspects.

The series, which has long been lauded has now become subject to criticism since its streaming on HBO Max for showing a lack of diversity, according to E!Online.

The criticism was there during its original run and continues as more viewers discover or re-watch the show. At the 2020 ATX TV Festival which took place virtually, Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman spoke about the issue.

Set in New York, the show followed six white friends and featured predominately white guest stars with the exception of girlfriend characters played by Lauren Tom and Aisha Tyler.

"I wish I knew then what I know today," Kauffman said during the festival. She further teared up and apologized, adding that she would have made different decisions if she were to remake the show.

"We've always encouraged people of diversity in our company, but I didn't do enough. 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? That's something I wish I knew when I started show-running," Kauffman said, reported Deadline.

She wished she knew it "all the way up through last year" as well.

"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 my character's wife left him for a woman and there was a gay wedding, of my ex and her wife, that I attended," actor David Schwimmer said, according to The Guardian.

"I feel that a lot of the problem today in so many areas is that so little is taken in context. You have to look at it from the point of view of what the show was trying to do at the time," he continued. "I'm the first person to say that maybe something was inappropriate or insensitive, but I feel like my barometer was pretty good at that time. I was already really attuned to social issues and issues of equality."

Schwimmer's Ross dated the characters played by Tom and Tyler.

"Maybe there should be an all-black Friends or an all-Asian Friends," Schwimmer added. "But 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."

Lisa Kudrow, Phoebe on Friends, said the show would be "completely different" if it was currently on in 2020.

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