I'm going to be completely honest here. I'm a fan of Friends, and I watch it all the time. Not once did I wonder why there weren't any black main characters or recurring characters.
That's how TV was back then. A show with a predominantly white cast is going to have 95% white people in it. That's just common sense. I don't think it matters because back then, there was like a buffet of sitcoms that were predominantly black, some of the best sitcoms of all-time. Obviously, I can't speak on what was going on back then, but Friends and Seinfeld not having people of color is an old joke. The reason people make that joke is because they're two of the most popular sitcoms to ever exist, and people want to see themselves in the characters they watch.
The internet will have you believe that Friends never had black people in it, but that's a myth. Two of Chandler's bosses (Dorien Wilson, Janet Hubert) were black. Jenifer Lewis made an appearance early on as one of Monica's coworkers. Sherri Shepherd did a guest spot as one of Ross' coworkers. Ross dated Gabrielle Union and Aisha Tyler, and Aisha Tyler actually had a recurring role from the end of season nine until the early part of season ten. Besides that, there were random black people in the background or they had roles in certain episodes. Whether they were at Central Perk or a tenant in Monica's apartment building. There's never been any evidence of Friends having no black people in it.
What I hear the most when it comes to Friends is that it ripped off Living Single. Honestly, there's truth to that, but not in the way people think. I don't believe David Crane and Marta Kauffman saw Living Single one night, called each other and said they need to do the same thing with white people. I believe Friends was their original idea. What happened was Warren Littlefield, the president of NBC at the time, was asked which of the new shows of 1993 would he want for himself. He said Living Single. A year later, Friends is on the air.
What I think happened is that Warner Bros. looked at Friends as a more marketable, more glamorous version of Living Single and exploited the similarities. It's like how Maurice Starr felt like New Edition would have been more successful if they were white, and then started New Kids on the Block. Warner Bros ignored Living Single and put all the promotion, all the money, and all the attention behind Friends. The Living Single cast knew this and didn't like it. FOX even moved Living Single to Thursdays after its first season to compete with Friends. Martin also moved to Thursdays as well. Before 1994-1995, The Simpsons was on Thursdays and it got moved back to Sundays. Everything was plotted with the intention to create a competition that Living Single couldn't win, and Warner Bros knew that. David Schwimmer implied a couple years ago that Friends wouldn't have been greenlit if it wasn't for the success of Living Single, and admitted to being a fan of the show.
I just feel like there’s a lot of misinformation and emotions getting in the way of what's out there. Was Friends a show with only white people in it? No. Is it a product of its time? Yes. Did it rip off Living Single? No. Did Warner Bros see the similarities between both shows and exploit that for their own benefit, which led to Friends getting everything and Living Single getting nothing? Hell yes.
