“Quinta Brunson, creator of the Emmy-winning show Abbott Elementary makes her first SNL debut last week, although it was a good show, a comment made about the hit 90s show Friends sparks some controversy about the show’s lack of diversity and its originality.”
As we know it, the 90s early 2000s sitcoms have had a big influence on us. From the phrases, clothing, and nostalgia, it is a no brainer that we would want to rewatch it! But a conversation has really sparked over the past few weeks about the lack of diversity in the famous sitcom Friends. This all started when Quinta Brunson SNL’s monologue highlighted how her show Abbott Elementary was just like the previous but with actual black characters. This was supposed to be a dig into the fact that popular comedies like Friends only focused on white characters throughout the entire series. This moment was funny, but it really sparked a conversation on Twitter, about the originality of Friends and how it is basically a copy of another popular sitcom Living Single that started in 1993.
A lot of people said that Friends is basically a copy of Living Single and honestly, I definitely agree with this take. Although it does have some of its own characteristics it does hold a lot of similarities. For example in Living Single, there are basically a bunch of people who live in the same vicinity as one another. The characters Sinclair (Kim Coles) and Khadijah (Queen Latifah) are cousins like how Ross and Monica are siblings. Also, there are also romantic dynamic similarities with Ross and Rachel, and Maxine (Erika Alexander) and Kyle (Terrence C. Carson) Honestly, at first I thought it was just a coincidence because most sitcoms tend to have the same blueprint. But, the more I watched, the more I realized that the shows are a little too similar so I decided to do a little bit of research. Turns out the creator of Friends was inspired by Living Single originally, which brings me to think about how come the original didn’t get a chance to thrive as much as Friends did.
As people on Twitter were saying how living single had a lot more potential and shouldn’t have ended the way it did. I definitely agree with that. Also, a theme that I have realized when it comes to white sitcoms of the 90s they are very white based, but sometimes I think it is really intentional because Honestly most of the shows had a majority of a white Fanbase, so in some sense it kind of made sense. But I feel like for the setting being somewhere like New York, and not having at least one POC or black character, it’s kind of questionable. So honestly although I do enjoy both shows, I did think if Friends were to launch in 2023 it probably would not have been as popular as it was for sure.
Overall, I feel like Quinta had a Fairpoint, and it definitely brought up a conversation on how shows need to have diversity. Possibly not in a stereotypical way, but in a way that showcases different kinds of people doing regular things, like how Abbott Elementary does.
<p>The post Living Friends? first appeared on Her Campus.</p>