Over 20 years after the sitcom Living Single said goodbye to the airwaves, and fans are still upset that the show was presumably ripped off by a more popular sitcom, Friends. Fans continue to air their grievances over the well-documented point of contention on Twitter after an old viral meme started making the rounds again Monday.
The argument is something the casts of both shows are aware of. In fact, in an interview with the Guardian last year, Friends star David Schwimmer responded to comments that the show lacked diverse representation. “That show was groundbreaking in its time for the way in which it handled so casually sex, protected sex, gay marriage and relationships… You have to look at it from the point of view of what the show was trying to do at the time. 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.” He continued, adding that he advocated for more Black women as love interests on the series –– even adding that he thought “maybe there should be an all-Black friends or an all-Asian friends.”
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— TyreeBP (@TyreeBP) February 2, 2021
Erika Alexander, who played Maxine Shaw on Living Single, responded to his comments saying on Twitter, “Hey @DavidSchwimmer @FriendsTV, r u seriously telling me you’ve never heard of #LivingSingle?” Alexander tweeted. “We invented the template. Yr welcome, bro. ;)” Schwimmer responded to the tweet in a note. “I didn’t mean to imply Living Single hadn’t existed or indeed hadn’t come before Friends, which I knew it had. Please remember in an interview quotes are often pieced together and taken out of context, and then these quotes are repurposed in other articles by other people who are trying to be provocative.”
Living Single crawled, walked, ran, swam, then grew wings and flew just so Friends could ride in a Tesla truck
— Trillionaire (@michaeltheedev) November 24, 2020
“Living Single was better than FRIENDS,” one Twitter user wrote. Another agreed, “Living Single was ahead of its time.”
Living Single was always better than Friends.
— #RealTalkwithEzra🎙 (@Ezra_McNeill) September 28, 2020
“Friends was set in one of the most diverse cities in the world not a single POC friend,” another person wrote.
The FASHUN in Living Single…and people wanna compare Friends to it, lmaoo. Just because Jennifer Aniston went braless like, twice
— Bolu Babalola (@BeeBabs) November 9, 2020
“friends took their concept from this show but Living Single did it better anyway!” someone else tweeted. “i never really got the hype around friends. its always been living single for me and it will remain that way,” someone else wrote.
The show Friends being inspired by Living Single makes so much sense
— Noire Techie (@brotharell7) January 27, 2021
“I’ve been saying this since it came out while I was in a predominately white high school and no one knew living single. its so nice to finally get validated,” someone said. “After all the years of slander, I wonder if any of them ever watched an episode of Living Single to see who they ripped off,” another person wrote.
For those that don’t know friends was the original name of the pilot for what became living single. The shows were shot on the same lot same studio. The producer wanted a white counterpart show so he created friends. pic.twitter.com/y3bQjLjlhc
— Joshua (@joshuaTwi_) February 2, 2021
“The writers of Friends completely ripped off living single from the friendship dynamics to the plotlines. And even though I like friends I will never approve of this clownery. For once let poc people have their own things,” one fan wrote.
I never watched friends. I loved Living Single. Regine was my favorite character on the show.
— 🌻⏳AllDemsRCorruptVoteGreenAnd3rdPartyOnly🌻😷 (@1Kitty6) February 2, 2021
“I love this so much it hurts,” one Twitter user wrote in reply to the meme. “Friends was so unseasoned.”
