Friends may be a staple in pop culture, but it has been criticized over the years for not aging well.
This is due to many things, with the major ones being inappropriate jokes about homosexuality, stereotypes, and a lack of diversity.
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Now, in a new interview, Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe on the hit show, responded to the criticism about Friends having an all-white cast.
*Friends* is one of the best shows of all time, and those are just the FACTS.
It was hilarious, told real stories about life and love, and gave us characters that we would treasure for the rest of our lives.
Yes, I am sentimental.
Every character was amazing and unique, which made us love the show even more.
Whether they were loved for their sarcasm or their eating habits, or just for not understanding basic jokes, they were impossible not to love.
Well, for most people.
A lot of people, especially the younger generations that are coming into the world, really don’t like the show.
They often call out the jokes that have not aged well over time (but that’s the case for so many shows).
While we don’t know whether or not the cast goes online and reads these things themselves, they are occasionally asked about these things in interviews.
And while it can definitely get awkward, at least the cast is very honest about what they think!
This includes Lisa Kudrow, who got real about the criticism people have over the cast being all white in the show.
Some of the older fans tend to defend the show, but many people still have an issue with it!
But that issue is being talked about more than ever!
Lisa Kudrow is spilling all the *Friends* secrets lately.
The actress starred as Phoebe Buffay on the hit ’90s sitcom from 1994 until 2004.
Recently, she dished to The Hollywood Reporter about the drama that went down after the Friends reunion was shut down due to the coronavirus.
The highly-anticipated reunion was supposed to air on *HBO Max*.
“We shut down the Friends reunion, which was painful,” Lisa said.
“I feel bad for everyone who was working and now is not working. That’s the part that makes me really nervous.”
She explained that she began to get nervous about the reunion getting postponed at the beginning of March.
“I called [executive producer] Ben Winston and asked if he had any contingencies that he was thinking about — like, were there other versions of this? He was like, ‘No, it’s going to be fine!'”
“And then everything started shutting down, one by one.”
She continued:
“We all got on the phone and said it had to shut down. People threw out [other] dates, which have come and gone. But we were really trying to be able to do it as soon as we could.”
As for when the reunion will film? Lisa made it clear that things are still uncertain.
“I don’t have an update yet on when anything is possible. It sounds like people are hoping and hedging on August or September,” she said.
Conflicting schedules for each of the actors could also come into play.
She continued:
“But then it just feels like everyone is going to be shooting things as much as possible in those two months and there might be another wave. I don’t know; everything cannot be shot in two months. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
While a lot of former shows have been reuniting virtually lately, that won’t be the case with *Friends*.
So far, this includes The Nanny , Melrose Place , Parks and Recreation Glee , and many more.
The Office cast even reunited recently to help surprise super fans with a virtual wedding.
“We haven’t all been in the same room in front of people — I mean, we have privately once many years ago but that’s it,” Kudrow continued.
“The whole point of this is to be in the same room. That hasn’t changed. And HBO Max is being phenomenally patient and understanding.”
When the reunion does resume, there will be a lot of safety precautions put into place.
“I haven’t heard anything officially, but hopefully there will be tests available so everyone has to be tested for the virus and antibodies before being able to show up for work. If everyone’s tested and clean, then we don’t have to be 6 feet apart.”
In a separate interview with the *Times* U.K, Lisa went even deeper on the show.
She did so by responding to the criticism over the fact that the Friends cast is all white.
She also gave fans her take on what the show would look like now in 2020.
“It would not be an all-white cast, for sure,” Lisa said.
She also called the show a “time capsule” of the ’90s and early ’00s:
“To me, [ Friends ] should be looked at as a time capsule, not for what they did wrong.”
She then said that she thought the show was “very progressive” at the time.
She gave a few examples of this.
“There was a guy whose wife discovered she was gay and pregnant, and they raised the child together,” she said. “We had surrogacy, too.”
“It was, at the time, progressive,” she emphasized.
While the show often gets criticized for not aging well, Lisa gave her opinion on why it’s still relevant today.
“Yes, it’s a fun comedy, but it’s also about people connecting, and part of what appeals about it now is that young people have this unconscious nostalgia for personal connection.”
“And not just right now during the pandemic, but before that.”
Speaking of the pandemic, Lisa shared what she thinks Phoebe Buffay and her husband, Mike (Crapbag) would be up to in quarantine right now.
Hint: the kids they always wanted would be involved!
“I feel like if they’d had kids, she would be militaristic about creating art,” she said.
“So their place would be overrun with huge, outlandish projects.”
You can check out the interview with Lisa here . And for more of Lisa, look out for Space Force on Netflix on May 29!
h/t: The Times .
