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Kudrow told The Sunday Times that at the time, \"this show thought it was very progressive.\"

\"There was a guy whose wife discovered she was gay and pregnant, and they raised the child together? We had surrogacy too. It was, at the time, progressive,\" she said.

In recent years, the show has faced prevalent criticism for containing elements that some perceive as transphobic and fatphobic and for lacking diversity.

Aisha Tyler, the only black actress to have a recurring role on the show, didn't appear until season nine.

David Schwimmer was asked about this criticism during an interview with The Guardian, which was released in January 2020.

\"I was well aware of the lack of diversity and I campaigned for years to have Ross date women of color,\" he said. \"One of the first girlfriends I had on the show was an Asian American woman, and later I dated African American women. That was a very conscious push on my part.\"

But the show did break barriers, he argued.

\"The truth is also that [the] show was groundbreaking in its time for the way in which it handled so casually - sex, protected sex, gay marriage and relationships,\" he said. \"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 went on, \"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.\"

Earlier this year, it was announced that the show's six original stars will come together for a reunion on HBO Max.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lisa Kudrow (@lisakudrow) on Feb 21, 2020 at 2:00pm PST

\"No audience has seen us together since the show was over,\" Kudrow said. \"We will reminisce, talk about what was going on behind the scenes.\"

\"I am really looking forward to it, because I think that I remember things, but then I talk to Matt [LeBlanc] or Jennifer, and they remember everything,\" she added. \"It’s really fun.\"

Video: 5 things you'll see and learn about 'Friends' at the sold-out NYC pop-up

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