When I looked at Kathleen Turner’s character, there was nothing tragic about it.
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“You look at where they were at that time of progression of TV and our country, and also where we are now and the standard. “Images don’t exist in a vacuum,” he said. “He has his own anxieties and issues,” Crane told Comedy Central, “but I don’t think the character was homophobic in the least.” Raymond Bradford from LGBTQ group GLAAD has spoken out to defend Kathleen Turner as Chandler’s father, one of most commonly cited “problematic” elements of the show in the current debate. Some of Friends’ gay jokes do feel clumsy now, particularly in regards to Chandler, whose masculinity is constantly torn to shreds in what could be deemed homophobic humour, largely based on the fact he has a trans father – played by straight cis woman Kathleen Turner if you really want to crank up the outrage.Ĭo-creator David Crane, himself gay, defended Chandler.
How many recurring gay characters were on TV before Carol and Susan in 1994? And how many of those gay characters would have maintained the moral high ground, or left leading straight characters – in this case, the deeply-insecure-in-his-own- sexuality Ross – as the butt of the joke? It earned Friends three nominations and a win for Outstanding Comedy Series at the Media Awards of the LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD.
Together, they made a groundbreaking depiction of female friendship.įriends was also way ahead of its time in the portrayal of lesbian couple Carol (Ross’s ex-wife) and Susan, who raised Ross’s son and were married in one of the US TV’s first gay weddings. Rachael, Monica, and Phoebe have moments of being regressive gender stereotypes, but they made bold moves that were revolutionary for female sitcom characters at the time: Rachael abandoned her future as a kept wife, a future which had been mapped out for her, when she left her husband at the altar Monica was a career woman and the strongest-willed character of the bunch and Phoebe refused to conform to the norm, such as choosing to be a surrogate mother to her brother’s triplets. There’s enough political incorrectness in that lot to trigger an embolism of pure self-important outrage.īut should it matter that old TV comedies don’t meet up to modern standards? Shouldn’t they be accepted as examples of their own cultural and social moment? And can’t we appreciate them for the ground they broke at the time?īack when the likes of Home Improvement and Married with Children were still the standard bearers for US sitcoms, Friends was more forward-thinking than modern Twitter arguments will let us remember. If modern viewers are "triggered" by Friends – one of the chirpiest, most well-intentioned comedies ever made – imagine what would happen if they clapped eyes on the kind of classic comedy shows us British audiences have watched over the years: Only Fools and Horses, Fawlty Towers, Till Death Do Us Part, ‘Allo ‘Allo, or Bottom. The joke, of course, was on me – the only way I could possibly have known the guys’ shortcomings so intimately is if I watched Friends repeats every single day on E4 and Comedy Central for about 20 years. (I’m showing my age there – the Gen-Zedders are consuming it through streaming these days, which has kept the debate alive.) It’s a trend that I may have even started back in 2014, when I wrote a tongue-in-cheek article about why Ross, Chandler, and Joeyare such dreadful examples of modern masculinity. We can barely go a year without a couple of articles popping up to call out Friends for crimes against woke-ness: fat shaming, gender stereotypes, homophobia, transphobia, white-washing, misogyny, and borderline sexual deviancy. The bile is now mostly directed at reunion host James Corden, a popular hate figure on social mediaīut the debate about Friends is never far away. A feel-good tonic, perhaps, after a year of awfulness.
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Response to the full trailer was more positive, with the six Friends back together, talking about the show, recreating iconic moments, and weeping at their own brilliance. From some quarters, the question lingered: is there a place in the modern world to celebrate Friends? Gen Z debate about Friends’ less-than-progressive attitudes. The Friends reunion show, inevitably called The One Where They Get Back Together, has finally aired. It's the first time the cast of one of the last great sitcoms have appeared together since 2004 the TV event of the year, you might think.īut when a teaser landed online earlier this month, there was an undercurrent of negativity – an overhang from the tiresome Millennial vs.