Let me know if this sounds familiar. Starting in the early 1990s, six 20 year olds try to survive New York. Sticking together they battle every life experience thrown at them (and they are often thrown into some pretty outlandish situations.) Despite this, these six friends overcome their challenges and become a family. I know many of you have already mentally checked out, figuring that the show I’m describing is so obviously NBC’s Friends. However if you so baselessly assume that, you are wrong. The show I was describing was Fox’s Living Single. Now I know extremist Friends stans are ready to dox me and burn down my house but please I’m asking for you to listen and hear me out on why Friends is just a copy of Living Single. Changed the regular formula of tv in the 90s Living Single opting to focus on the dotting city life of 6 black individuals making it in Brooklyn New York. Running from 1993-1998 Living Single is credited by the Chicago Tribute as “the second most watched program in black households.” This show quickly rose to popularity for its portrayal of strong black women, hard working individuals, and its chaotic fun energy. Living Single even gained the attention of NBC’s president within its first season. Queen Latifah noted in a interview in 2017 that the NBC president was asked in 1993, “out of all the tv shows he could have for his network what he would want.” His reply, Living Single. A year later after that conversation, Friends was born.
Running from 1994-2004 it's blatant in hindsight that Friends is a white Living Single. So why is it that this obvious and grievous plagiarism is continuously praised and adored while, Living Single is cast aside. While I don’t have a direct answer I do have a theory, and it is all based on audience and market value. Shows with a majority white cast (like Friends) are often hailed for their ideas and one liners, all because of capitalistic network producers who see white shows as more profitable. With the deep rooted connection of low income communities and POC households, black viewers were seen as less “valuable” as their white counterparts. Who has more income and time to spend watching shows. These people often were not interested in watching shows about diversifying their experience instead opting to watch shows that distracted from everyday life. Producers then took this information and used it to rationalize their failure to promote black lead shows. For example, in the years Friends and Living Single were running at the same time, Warner Bros (WB) dedicated less time to promoting Living Space. When WB saw a drop in viewership for Living Space they decided to change its previous time slot to the same time Friends aired. Forcing people to choose between which show to tune into. On top of this there is some responsibility held on the CW for the decline for Black Sitcoms as a genre. Nowadays when people think about the CW they only remember it for how they had to drop out of school, in order to run drugs to support their nana. How they never get to experience the epic highs, and lows of high school football. However, before its dramatic origins of providing teen dramas, the CW was two separate networks. United Paramount Network (UPN) and WB were two networks with historically black audiences. These two networks hosted a lot of black sitcoms like Everybody Hates Chris, Moesham, and Bernie Mac Show. With the combination of WB and UPN it led to the decimation of a lot of Black Sitcoms. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Aid, a classic black sitcom, doesn't do much better as it ends in 1996. Slowly the black sitcoms begin to die out in favor of white mainstream shows such as Survivor, American Idol,
Everyone loves Raymond, and Friends.
While I’ve spent the majority of this article slandering Friends I would like to point out the fact that I don’t see Friends as the enemy. Yes, the premise is the same, but Friends makes a point to differentiate itself at the end and grows into its own character. I think it's important to appreciate the work Friends did and the cultural impact it has. As even to this day I see people walking down the halls in Friends merchandise, something that Living Single has yet to do. With that said I’d be interested in a reality where we see black lead shows not only appreciated, but accredited for all of their work.
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