The Big Picture In the early '90s, showrunner and creator Yvette Lee Bowser was finishing up her time on A Different World when she began working on her next project. Bowser drew inspiration from her personal life, stating, “I just decided to rip another page from my diary and create Living Single — tell personal stories of myself and my friends trying to make sense of love and life in the big city.” And on August 22nd, 1993, Living Single premiered on FOX.
The same cannot necessarily be said for Friends. While situations change throughout all ten seasons, there is a clear lack of growth for the majority of the main cast. Ross , for example, stays just as selfish at the end of the show as he was at the beginning. Joey’s character , actually became worse as the series progressed, with writers dumbing him down to the point of pure idiocy.
The Romance of 'Living Single' Are Stable and Less Dramatic The same can be said of the other two members of the crew: Kyle Barker, played by T.C. Carson, and Overton Wakefield Jones, played by John Henton. Kyle, a successful stockbroker, begins the show as the typical womanizer, which is likely why he constantly bumps heads with Max.
'Living Single' Doesn’t Need To Put People Down To Be Funny Living Single is by no means perfect, but it does a significantly better job of tackling issues without using them for punchlines. An example of this happens in Season 4, when girls decide they want to have a night without being hit on, and head to a gay bar. While they are there, Synclaire consoles a sad man who has been in a fight with his boyfriend, a tender moment of bonding for the both of them.
'Living Single' Handles Fatphobia Better Than 'Friends' Fatphobia is another issue that both shows don’t necessarily handle well but is another one that Living Single navigates better, albeit unintentionally. Every time Friends flashes back to Moinca's past, Cox dons a fat suit, and her weight becomes the ultimate butt of the joke.