It's 29 years since the first-ever episode of Friends, and while the show is still wildly popular (especially since it attracted a new audiece when it started streaming on Netflix), it has been called out for its problematic moments more than once.
From the lack of ethnic diversity, to homophobic jokes and ‘fat Monica’ flashbacks, some feel that while it’s an entertaining show, it falls down when it comes to inclusivity. So when the show’s co-creator Marta Kauffman said there were some episodes of the show she didn’t like, you might have thought they were ones that included some of the insensitive jokes the show has been criticised for.
Kauffman did acknowledge one problematic episode, ‘The One With The Jam’, where Phoebe falls in love with her sister Ursula’s stalker, but didn't mention any of the criticism.
‘We did a lot of rewriting on that to make it work,’ she told the Hollywood Reporter at the Tribeca TV Festival's 25th anniversary celebration of the series. Kaufmann also mentioned her dislike of another Lisa Kudrow episode; The One With The Chicken Pox when Phoebe gets chickenpox just as her navy officer lover, played by Charlie Sheen, comes to visit.
READ MORE: Lisa Kudrow Reveals Misogynistic Comments From 'Friends' Co-Star
‘It's much harder for me to enjoy the good moments when there are moments in it where I'm going, “Oh my God, we let that happen? We did that,”’ she added.
Fellow co-creator David Crane said he just regrets the fact that the jokes weren’t better. ‘There are some [episodes] that are better than others,’ he said, adding that watching the show back he sometimes wonders, ‘We couldn't stay 10 more minutes and just find a better joke?. But that's just us beating ourselves up.’
READ MORE: All The Celebrity Cameos In Friends That You Missed The First Time Around
Let's Take A Look At The Celebrity Cameos In Friends
1 of 29Janine, aka Elle Macpherson
Joey's Australian dancer roommate who is the real reason we got to witness Ross and Monica perform 'The Routine'.
2 of 29Philip Schofield?!
Phillip Schofield shocked This Morning viewers by admitting he'd been on Friends, well, kinda. He's a superfan of the show, and so he actually went along to a viewing of Friends in the 90s. His laugh can be heard in a scene between Jennifer Aniston's Rachel and Matt Le Blanc's Joey in series three.He said: 'I have actually been on Friends. I've been in an episode of Friends. The one where they keep the scary books in the fridge. When I say I was on Friends... my laugh was on Friends.'
3 of 29Sandy, aka Freddie Prinze Jr.
The male nanny who Ross had an uncomfortable, definitely not okay, problem with.
4 of 29Melissa Warburton, aka Winona Ryder
Remember the big kiss? The one that Rachel apparently had in college with Melissa but no one believes her? That was with Winona.
5 of 29Ben, aka Cole Sprouse
Ross's son with Carol was not in the show anywhere near as frequently as he should have been. But the episode where Rachel teaches him how to pull pranks is gold.
6 of 29Ralph Lauren, aka Ralph Lauren
Kind of makes sense to have the real life fashion person referred to in Rachel's TV world job, played by the real life person.
7 of 29Susie Moss, aka Julia Roberts
Susie stole Chandler's clothes after having him undress in a cubicle in some restaurant toilets as revenge for teasing and pulling up her skirt when they were at school.
8 of 29Officer Goodbody, aka Danny Devito
Phoebe's last minute stripper for her bachelorette party was a fantastic dancer, and I won't hear otherwise.
9 of 29Dr. Michael Mitchell, aka George Clooney
Meet hot doctor number one who somehow finds himself in the middle of Rachel and Monica's identity swap after Monica loses her health insurance.
10 of 29Jamie, aka Helen Hunt
Helen popped up way back in the first season to give Friends a weird cross over into the Mad About You world. She tries to order coffee from Phoebe. It's a bit awks.
11 of 29Cousin Cassie, aka Denise Richards
Ah cousin Cassie Gellar. A relative who comes to stay with Monica but is oogled at a bit too much by Chandler so then goes to stay with Ross and has a weird moment over there too.
12 of 29Andrea Waltham, aka Jennifer Saunders
What a role, eh? Andrea played mother to Emily (Ross's wife who's name he did not say at the alter) and answers the phone to poor pregnant Phoebe who wasn't able to fly to London for the wedding.
13 of 29Tim and Tomas, aka Billy Crystal and Robin Williams
The award for the most out of nowhere cameo probably goes to these two guys who sat on the gang's sofa in the coffee house. Robin's character thinks his wife is cheating on him and for such an impromptu skit, it's pretty funny.
14 of 29Will Colbert, aka Brad Pitt
Aka co-president of the 'I Hate Rachel' club and lover of Thanksgiving food.
15 of 29Paul Stevens, aka Bruce Willis
Paul is dating Rachel after she breaks up with Ross who is dating Paul's daughter Elizabeth. It's one of the best awkward relationship squares that I can think of and that pep-talk moment in the mirror is A-grade brilliance.
16 of 29Richard Crosby, aka Gary Oldman
If you thought the guy who plays opposite Joey in a film then here's why. There's an awkward joke about an Oscar that he hasn't won (in real life and on the show).
17 of 29Leonard Hayes, aka Jeff Goldblum
Leonard/Jeff ends up getting peed on by Joey while congratulating him for a great audition, and I think we'll leave it there.
18 of 29Erica Ford, aka Brooke Shields
Yep, Joey's creepy Days Of Our Lives stalker is played by the Brooke Shields.
19 of 29Zack, aka John Stamos
To jog your memory, Zack is someone Monica and Chandler want as a sperm donor - they just don't tell him this!
20 of 29Amy Green, aka Christina Applegate
Here we have one of the Green sisters. We only meet Amy twice, and she has a real issue with getting Rachel's daughter Emma's name right.
21 of 29Jill Green, aka Reese Witherspoon
And here we have the other Green sister. She's Rachel's younger sister who comes to find her in the city hoping to start a new life like Rachel did but, well, doesn't. We think dating Ross to spite Rachel might have had a little something to do with it...
22 of 29Tommy, aka Ben Stiller
Remember Tommy the screamer?
23 of 29Erica, aka Anna Faris
Fun fact, Monica and Chandler's baby girl (one of the twins they adopted from Erica) would be about 17 now.
24 of 29Ryan, aka Charlie Sheen
Ryan, one of Phoebe's old flames, comes into town for a couple of weeks and hangs around even though Phoebe has the chicken pox. I suppose you could say it's kind of sweet.
25 of 29Kristen, aka Gabrielle Union
Kristen is one of the many women that Joey and Ross bicker over. She appears in The One With The Cheap Wedding Dress (when the girls go to that crazy discount store to help Monica find her dress) and ultimately choses to date neither of them.
26 of 29Wendy, aka Selma Blair
Miss Oklahoma runner up and causer of Christmas friction between Chandler and Monica.
27 of 29Jessica Lockhart, aka Susan Sarandon
We really hope no one took Jessica's screen kissing tips seriously. She's one of Joey's Days of Our Lives co-stars who is involved in that weird brain swap scenario.
28 of 29Mackenzie, aka Dakota Fanning
Nine-year-old Dakota Fanning played the little girl who chats to Joey when he's taken by Chandler and Monica to visit a house out in the suburbs. Neither of them wanted the sale to happen so they bonded.
29 of 29Guy on plane, aka Hugh Laurie
Let's have a moment for the unfortunate, nameless guy who has to sit next to Rachel on the flight from New York to London when she's adamant about telling Ross how she feels.
Kaufmann is just as surprised about the success of the show as TV critics, who were famously not huge fans of the show when it aired, and mentions the huge number of people still interested in Friends so long after the final episode.
‘When you set out to do something, you set out to do a good show and you hope people watch and then you keep your head down and you keep working and you don't really think about success, she said.
‘You wonder if people are watching it but you don't start imagining this and pop-ups and celebrating 25 years, which is so very long ago. No, it never, never occurred to me that we would be standing here.'
READ MORE: Can We Have A Minute For Charlie From Friends Please?