‘Living Single’ Fans Push for Reunion Special After ‘Friends’ Reunion Hype

Friends: The Reunion premiered on HBO Max last week, but it made many fans nostalgic for another sitcom: Living Single. On social media, many fans think of Living Single as an analog to Friends with an all-Black cast, and some go even further accusing Friends of ripping off Living Single altogether. Now they are asking for a reunion special of their own.

Living Single aired on Fox from 1993 to 1998 and centered around six friends in their 20s juggling professional, romantic and personal development in New York City. It starred Queen Latifah, Kim Coles, Erika Alexander, T.C. Carson, John Henton, Kim Fields and Mel Jackson. It has always drawn comparisons to Friends, though perhaps even more so in recent years since Friends has become a streaming sensation and many critics have become tired of it on social media. Now, they are looking for recognition for their preferred sitcom.

In fact, there has already been one reunion special called Living Single: The Reunion Show in 2008, though it did not feature Queen Latifah or Mel Jackson. Much like Friends: The Reunion, the cast revisited old clips and reflected on the show’s cultural legacy. Years later, Coles, Henton, Fields and Carson reunited again for a Living Single marathon special on TV One.

Since then, there have been other whispers of a reunion with the full cast or even a revival series, but so far there is nothing set in stone. For fans of the series — and critics of Friends — that is a shame. Here’s a look at what people online have been saying about Living Single in the wake of Friends: The Reunion.

Needed

Many fans were pleased to see they were not the only ones longing for a Living Single reboot, or comparing the show’s legacy with that of Friends.

Nostalgia

In hindsight, many fans thought that modern creators could take some cues from Living Single and other predominantly Black sitcoms of the 1990s.

Ripoff

Many fans maintain that Friends is a ripoff of Living Single, repurposed for a predominantly white audience. Some parroted Queen Latifah herself, who said that Friends had copied Living Single quite frankly in a 2017 interview on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.

Comparisons

At this point, the comparison between these two shows is so common that some fans are sick of only hearing about Living Single when it relates to Friends. They want the show to be able to stand on its own merits.

Memes

Both Friends and Living Single have inspired plenty of memes in the social media age, and fans brought them all out for this occasion.

Priorities

In the event that a Living Single revival did come about, fans had plenty of ideas for it and priorities for what they’d want to see on screen. Most were just hopeful that the full cast could be reassembled with no absences.

Admission

Finally, many critics said that they might be able to let the comparisons go if only the creators of Friends would admit that they were at least inspired by Living Single. So far, there has been no admission to that effect.

Friends and Friends: The Reunion are streaming now on HBO Max. Living Single is streaming on Hulu, with a free trial available for new users here. So far, the revival Queen Latifah has alluded to has not been announced by any networks or streaming services.

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