Some '96 Bullshit
Do you ever read old articles and just get SO FUCKING MAD?
Page 1: http://articles.latimes.com/1996-02-01/entertainment/ca-30941_1_single-friends-living
Page 2: http://articles.latimes.com/1996-02-01/entertainment/ca-30941_1_single-friends-living/2
“The fact that Fox moved Living Single from last season’s comfortable Sunday night slot to a head-to-head losing battle with Friends has caused further distress on the series.”
“‘Fox takes our audience for granted,’ Bowser said. 'They feel our core audience is already there. We’ve been renewed for two seasons, and we’re definitely going into syndication, so it’s like they don’t have to worry about us. It’s unfortunate.’”
“Fox declined to comment.”
(btw, according to John Henton, Living Single has never been off the air. It has continuously made money for Warner Bros. since 1993.)
“David Janollari, executive vice president of creative affairs for Warner Bros. Television, said he was distressed about the charges by Bowser and the actresses. Janollari, who oversaw the development of both series, denied there was a great deal of similarity between them.”
“'Both shows have different tones and different attitudes, and are about different things,’ he said.”
This right here, though:
“Friends, for whatever reason, has become a national phenomena…”
FOR WHATEVER REASON.
But then he tries to get specific:
“Living Single was originally developed as a vehicle for Queen Latifah and Coles, 'and what happened in the casting was that it emerged as an ensemble of six people,’ Janollari said. ’Friends began life as a show that would center on two men and two women, with one other man and woman as supporting characters.’ … Friends has three stories running together in every episode and is filmed like a movie with more sets and faster pacing, Janollari said.”
In other words, that fucking man basically said: Since Friends wasn’t _originally_meant as a starring vehicle for Queen Latifah and Kim Coles… IT’S A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SHOW, OBVS. I mean, come on, Friends has more subplots and we built them more sets (for whatever reason). So, it’s totes different.
“Despite their frustration, the Living Single principals said they’ve also learned to laugh about being in the shadow of their NBC counterpoint.”
Can we just take a moment to commend every single creative person who worked on Living Single, please?
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Oh, but then there’s this shit: https://www.writersstore.com/excerpt-from-hire-me-hollywood-david-janollari-head-of-programming-mtv/
“Ultimately I spent six years at Lorimar and it was there that I got the opportunity to put on Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper and Living Single, among other hits.”
Which was immediately followed up with a question about how Friends came to be:
“It was the early nineties and Melrose Place was the big hit on Fox at the time, and I loved it; I couldn’t miss an episode. I kept saying, 'This is really cool, there should be a comedy version of this.’ So Marta Kauffman and David Crane came up with Friends, and it was completely based on their circle of friends growing up in the early days in New York City.”
BITCH, NO IT WASN’T.
A fucking comedy version of Melrose Place? Was he really serious?