The show Living Single became one of the most key unsung cornerstones for American television pop culture but, most do not know about it because of its cheap knock off Friends. Living Single aired for five seasons on the Fox network from August 22nd, 1993 to January 1st, 1998. The basis of the show was six friends who shared their life experiences of work and love while living in a Brooklyn brownstone. The show ranked as being one of the top five most popular shows among African-American ratings for all five seasons.
Now I make the claim that Friends is the cheap knock off of Living Single because of too many “coincidences” that parallel the shows. The most important comparison is the times they both ran on air. Living Single debuted August 22, 1993 to January 1, 1998. While Friends ironically came out almost a year later, September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004.
The most simple comparison can be the setup of the show is in New York City and the amount of characters and their personalities. Monica on Friends can be compared to Queen Latifah’s character, Khadija James.Both characters were in a line of work that is not in high demand, James owned her own magazine titled Flavor and Monica was a chef. They both had competitive spirits, hate to lose and strived to be the best at anything they did and did not accept mediocrity. Rachel can be seen in Kim Fields character Regina "Régine" Hunter because both of their characters worked in the fashion industry and had spoiled, “high class” type of characteristics. Phoebe and a little bit of Joey can be seen in Kim Coles character Synclaire James because she was very quirky and often used as comic relief, she was an aspiring actress who was not too bright. Ross can be seen in T.C. Carson’s character Kyler Barker because they both are apart of very respectable professions (accountant and doctor), both try to pass of as very suave, cool guys but in their youth they were not the most popular and they end up dating one of their friends within their inner circle. Chandler can be see in Erika Alexander character Maxine “Max” Shaw attorney at law because they are both very witty, sarcastic and working in a corporate realm. Finally Joey is in John Henton’s character Overton because they both were not too smart but could be very sweet and kind.
To further cement how Friends ripped off the concept of Living Single, Queen Latifah did an interview with James Corden and spoke about the comparisons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3qwRHb616I
This is very important because Friends went on to win a lot of awards and catapult the careers of many actors we regard in positive light and is talked about as one of the most funny, amazing shows to come on television. But without the creative mind of Yvette Lee Bowser, Friends might not have even been a thing at all.
