'Friends' Star Says Certain Channels Refused to Air Lesbian Wedding

When we think of Friends, it’s hard not to think of Ross Gellar’s ex-wife, Carol, who left him when she realized she was a lesbian and ultimately married her girlfriend, Susan.

It was a gutsy move for a network show in the ‘90s, and in the show’s second season, they aired the second same-sex wedding to happen on a sitcom (the first was on Roseanne, only five weeks earlier).

Carol and Susan exchanged vows in a small ceremony that was most noted by LGBTQ advocates for attempting to skirt controversy by refusing to show a kiss between the two women. It was an acknowledgement of queer culture without fully committing to a level of treatment equal to all the heterosexual characters and relationships. A conscious decision to toe that line, carefully.

But Jane Sibbett, who played the second and most memorable iteration of Carol after the actress from the pilot left, told The Guardian that controversy wasn’t completely avoided after all.

In an article featuring snippets of new recollections from fan favorite guest characters on Friends, Sibbett mentioned that “certain affiliates wouldn’t air the episode with our [Carol and Susan’s] wedding. They completely blocked it out.”

The affiliates in question were KJAC-TV in Port Arthur, Texas and WLIO in Lima, Ohio, which... isn’t exactly mind-blowing news.

“I don’t know if it would have the same outrage that it did at that time,” she had previously told Metro.co.uk in 2017. “We had blackouts in Lima and Texas, the affiliates were blocked out… That kind of press was the best thing, and we were grateful for it actually, because it really brought the conversation to the table about it… this is about love, do you understand that?”

Sibbett also shared a tidbit with The Guardian about one of her favorite jokes from Carol on the show:

“It was the episode where Susan and I are celebrating our anniversary, and Ross comes over at an inopportune moment, and I had to telegraph to him that it isn’t a good time. So I removed a little pub from my tongue. That was the only time I pitched something that was really outrageous, and it actually got on air.”

As fun as that joke was (and it was), it’s still kind of amazing that even back then, that joke could make the cut but a kiss was too controversial for air. 

But still, the wedding was an important touchstone for popular culture, censorship or not.

And, Sibbett added, "It was important to us, and the producers, that we showed a couple that was in love."