David Schwimmer apologises after calling for 'all-black or all-Asian' version of Friends

Actor was accused of forgetting about 'Living Single', a series focused on a group of African-American characters

Friends star David Schwimmer has apologised to Living Single actor Erika Alexander after she criticised his claims that it was time for an “all-black Friends or an all-Asian Friends”.

Schwimmer made the remarks an interview with The Guardian, where he defended the hit NBC sitcom against accusations that it lacked diversity.

He said that Friends was “groundbreaking in its time for the way in which it handled so casually sex, protected sex, gay marriage and relationships… You have to look at it from the point of view of what the show was trying to do at the time.”

Responding to Schwimmer’s suggestion that the world needs a new, non-white Friends, Alexander tweeted: “Hey @DavidSchwimmer @FriendsTV, r u seriously telling me you’ve never heard of #LivingSingle? We invented the template. Yr welcome, bro. ;) [sic]”.

Living Single ran for five seasons on Fox, from 1994 to 1998 and focused on a group of African-American friends living in New York City.

Schwimmer, who played Ross, Friends’ buffoonish romantic lead, apologised on Twitter, saying: “I didn’t mean to imply Living Single hadn’t existed or indeed hadn’t come before Friends, which I knew it had.”

You can read his full statement here.

Alexander took the apology well, saying it was "very thoughtful", and promised a longer response in the days to come.