Friends star Jane Sibbett has reflected on how many TV stations refused to air the same-sex wedding scene on the show.
The actor, who featured in the series for seven years, played Ross’s (David Schwimmer) ex-wife Carol Willick, who came out as gay in the sitcom following her affair with future wife Susan.
Following her marriage scene with Susan in 1996, she recalled (via The Guardian) how the scene caused a “hullabaloo”.
She said: “Same-sex weddings were rare on TV in 1996. There was some hullabaloo. Two affiliate stations refused to air it. They still trim it out in China. Representation is so integral. To this day, people tell me it opened conversations about their sexuality.”
It comes after Sibbett previously recalled how she received abuse after starring in the scene.
David Schwimmer holds a baby, as actors Jessica Hecht (L) and Jane Sibbett look on, in ‘Friends,’ CREDIT: Fotos International/Getty Images
She told The Sun: “I would say there was 95 per cent support but once I had flown to Canada to shoot a Disney movie and a child was yelling at me out of a school window. He was shouting, ‘Go home, American f*g’ and I just went, ‘Wow, wrong on so many levels dude. Come down here and have a conversation with me’.
“Then I had a woman from my old church call me up… and proceeded to tell me that I was going to burn in hell.”
Sibbett went on to explain that even her father refused to watch the show after the scene was aired.
She continued: “It caused stress in my own family. We had a big situation with my father who wouldn’t watch the show. Thankfully he came around to it in the end.
“It was heartbreaking that he wouldn’t watch it. He would hold a bible study group at the time it aired to ensure his friends wouldn’t see it either. It took my godfather writing a letter to him saying how proud he was of me for the wedding scene that cracked it for my father.”
The pilot episode of Friends aired 30 years ago this year. It ran for 10 seasons, ending in May 2004.
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