David Schwimmer, who played Ross on the 90s sitcom, Friends, proposed a new idea recently that has since earned him some serious backlash. David addressed the show's controversial nature and the criticism it has received since it originally aired, which has included the fact that the six main characters and most of the secondary characters were all played by white actors. While David feels that the show was definitely groundbreaking in many ways, such as how it handled "casual sex, protected sex, gay marriage and relationships," he does acknowledge that it was behind on plenty of other social issues.

Getty Images

“Maybe there should be an all-black Friends or an all-Asian Friends,” David proposed. “But I was well aware of the lack of diversity and I campaigned for years to have Ross date women of colour. One of the first girlfriends I had on the show was an Asian-American woman, and later I dated an African-American woman. That was a very conscious push on my part.” While he likely thought his suggestion to reboot the show with a cast made up entirely of people of colour sounded like a good idea, many folks have pointed out that a "black Friends" already basically exists: it's called Living Single, and it aired over a year before Friends did. Living Single followed six twenty-something male and female characters played by Queen Latifah, Kim Coles, Erika Alexander, Kim Fields, T.C. Carson, and John Henton, as they navigated the single life in 1990s NYC. Sound familiar?

There’s no doubt that Friends is one of the biggest television sitcoms of all time. In recent times, it became this nostalgic classic that everyone and their moms miss being on cable television. Now, that being said, the sudden nostalgia of the show has prompted rumors of a reunion. It seems inevitable since Hollywood apparently has unlimited funding to bring back old films and butcher them in the modern era.

Warner Bros. Television/Getty Images

David Schwimmer recently sat down with The Guardian where he essentially dismissed the idea of reviving his character, Ross Gellar. He also chimed in on some of the criticisms the show has faced in recent times, especially in an era where sexuality, gender equality, and trans rights are only beginning to make waves in mainstream conversation. 

“The truth is also that show was groundbreaking in its time for the way in which it handled so casually sex, protected sex, gay marriage and relationships. The pilot of the show was my character’s wife left him for a woman and there was a gay wedding, of my ex and her wife, that I attended,” he said. “I feel that a lot of the problem today in so many areas is that so little is taken in context. 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.”

Schwimmer then spoke on the idea of a reunion. While revamping his own character is out of the question, he did suggest having a more inclusive cast if a reboot was actually going to happen.