"Friends" Creator Apologizes for the Show Being All-White -- Pledges $4 Million to FundAfrican and African American Studies Department AtBrandeis University

“Friends” has long been criticized for its lack of diversity, but co-creator Marta Kauffman is finally ready to admit her failure — with a $4 million apology.

Kauffman, 65, initially struggled to grasp the “difficult and frustrating” criticisms of her television series, choosing to believe the successful show was being singled out, she told the Los Angeles Times.

But nearly two decades after the show wrapped, Kauffman has begun to see the error of her ways.

“I’ve learned a lot in the last 20 years,” Kauffman said in a Zoom interview. “Admitting and accepting guilt is not easy. It’s painful looking at yourself in the mirror. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t know better 25 years ago,” the television writer.

Poster Comment:

The writer, Seinfeld and others in the cast were Jewish, not white.