Seinfeld had a bad incident in 1995 when actor Danny Hoch objected to his character’s Hispanic stereotype. Jerry and Larry weren’t budging, Julia-Louise was supportive, and Michael’s workaround suggestion was that if he couldn’t play the part, just play an actor who could play the part. Hoch was replaced with a Hispanic actor who did dial back the ethnic stereotype while amplifying it’s zaniness instead
Is that the one where the cat got out?
Sure, some people may have busted a nut over it and tossed off an angry ejaculation or two, but it was over pretty quickly. I mean, different strokes for different folks.
The Pool Guy S7E8
I was thinking of this:
I think the Seinfeld characters had an awareness of their lack of diversity at times, though.
I’m thinking of the episode where Elaine thinks the man she’s dating might be a light-skinned black guy, but she can’t figure out how to ask him. In the meantime, he thinks she’s probably Hispanic. Then something causes them to broach the subject of being an interracial couple, they realize they’re both just a couple of white people, then they go to The Gap.
And the show is very heavy on the Jewish humor, although I suspect a lot of that went over the head of a lot of viewers.
I particularly like the episode where they impersonate another airline passenger because they saw him get bumped from the flight and they want to take his limo but the passenger was a notorious Neo-Nazi and they find themselves being taken to speak at a big Nazi rally.
That’s kind of normal for back then. I remember someone in the early 1990s saying The Simpsons and Monday Night Football were the only shows that were in the top 10 of both black and white households.
My feelings exactly. I loved Seinfeld (and still occasionally watch it). I have very little experience of Friends beyond maybe having seen part of one or two episodes. It struck me as a blatant ripoff of the basic setup in Seinfeld, its first season starting not long after Seinfeld really took off in the ratings, except not funny and with unlikable characters. I noticed that some posters described the characters in Seinfeld as terrible people – I regarded them more as comically eccentric.
IIRC, the only black recurring character in Seinfeld is Jackie Chiles, who made his first appearance in Season 7. I wonder if they created the character due to some of the flack the show was getting for not being diverse enough for the NYC set show.
I’m trying to remember if there was a Hispanic recurring character. I think the super was Hispanic, but was only in one ep?
Kramer was always mentioning his friend Lomez…
I have heard a lot about how Friends was homophobic and I have to ask, how? Carol and Susans relationship is never shown as anything but valid and while Ross dislikes it, its shown as him being unhappy with the divorce, rather than homophobic.
The Chandler is gay episode is more about how his perception of him being gay hurts his dating prospects, not because its a bad thing.
Plus as I recall one of the co-creators was gay.
Yes, this describes my reactions almost exactly. As I remember, Ellen DeGeneres’s sitcom (that was originally called These Friends of Mine IIRC) was the first Seinfeld clone. Friends came just a smidge later and seemed even more clone-y…but watered down for a wider audience.
Seems a strange comparison to me. One of Seinfeld’s big lessons was “no hugging, no learning”, whereas Friends was the exact opposite - with numerous long running romantic relationships between the characters. Aside from being set in Manhattan, they really weren’t anything alike. Ensemble shows isn’t something that Seinfeld created.
That Screenrant one may be the most superficial list ever: kooky characters and troublesome neighbors, lol
Most, if not all, of the jokes in Friends that are called homophobic are jokes that are playing off of the characters insecurity. They are the butt of the joke.
Kramer was just another “wacky neighbor” that barges into the house/apartment. Been done a million times before.
That is what is going on there. Hardly worth characterizing the entire show as homophobic because of that kind of thing.
I don’t recall thinking of either show as offensive when they were on, and I don’t see that actually changing. They are both reminders of how times have changed, and it’s good to know how the world has changed, so sometimes we have to look back on retouched pictures.
I vaguely recall another Black character who was a coworker of Elaine or George’s boss or manager at some point. Maybe someone who worked for Mr. Steinbrenner when George was working for the Yankees?
I looked it up and the character I remember is, Mr. Morgan, who also worked for Steinbrenner during George’s time with the Yankees.
And there’s an episode where George goes to farcical lengths to pretend he has a black friend, to impress Mr Morgan; the ‘whiteness’ of Seinfeld is made into a plot point.