As Lisa Kudrow prepares for the 11th season of her hit genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?, she recently reminisced about her early days on Friends and how it led to a, let’s say, memorable first encounter with Jerry Seinfeld. While talking about everything from her pandemic viewing habits to still being afraid to ask HBO for a third season of The Comeback, Kudrow fielded a few questions about her time on Friends, which aired during the heyday of NBC’s “Must See TV.”
According to Kudrow, she bumped into Seinfeld at a party where he immediately made a smarmy remark to her about his show leading to Friend‘s success. However, Kudrow didn’t mind because she actually agreed with him. Via The Daily Beast:
Not to take anything away from the writing on Friends, or the cast, or how good Friends really was, but the first season our ratings were just fine. We held onto enough of Mad About You and starting building, but it was in the summer when we were in reruns after Seinfeld, where Seinfeld was our lead-in, where we exploded. I remember going to some party and Jerry Seinfeld was there, and I said, “Hi,” and he said, “You’re welcome.” I said, “Why, thank you… what?” And he said, “You’re on after us in the summer, and you’re welcome.” And I said, “That’s exactly right. Thank you.”
Kudrow also addressed Friends creator Marta Kaufman making headlines for her $4 million donation to make up for the lack of diversity on the show. Like the Seinfeld anecdote, Kudrow’s thoughts were completely unfiltered.
“Well, I feel like it was a show created by two people who went to Brandeis and wrote about their lives after college. And for shows especially, when it’s going to be a comedy that’s character-driven, you write what you know,” Kudrow said. “They have no business writing stories about the experiences of being a person of color.”
(Via The Daily Beast)
