Dawn Images

Ever since its final episode aired in 2004, comedy sitcom Friends has garnered a massive fan following, with people all around the world giggling to its clips even today.

However, as the Black Lives Matter protests have brought about new avenues for conversations surrounding lack of representation and racism, co-creator and casting director Marta Kauffman has since apologised, wishing the show had been more diverse.

"I wish I knew then what I knew today, I would have made very different decisions. We've always encouraged people of diversity in our company, but I didn't do enough," she confessed.

"Now all I can think about is what can I do, what can I do differently? How can I run my show in a new way? That's something I wish I knew when I started show running, but all the way up through last year."

Kauffman was also a writer and executive producer on the show, which began airing in 1994 with Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and Matthew Perry, an all white star cast in leading roles.

Schwimmer, who played the role of Ross Geller, said he was well aware of the lack of diversity.

“I campaigned for years to have Ross date women of colour," he confessed. "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."

However, he also thought that "the show was groundbreaking in its time for the way in which it handled so casually - sex, protected sex, gay marriage and relationships."

"I feel that a lot of the problem today in so many areas is that so little is taken in context," he told The Guardian. “You have to look at it from the point of view of what the show was trying to do at the time."

Pheobe (Lisa Kudrow) revealed similar sentiments as she spoke about whether the show would be different if it was made in today's times.

"Oh, it’d be completely different," she told the Sunday Times. "It would not be an all-white cast, for sure. I’m not sure what else, but, to me, it should be looked at as a time capsule, not for what they did wrong."

A Friends reunion is scheduled in the making but has currently been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.