Julia Louis-Dreyfus Admits She Was Never a ‘Friends’ Fan: ‘I’ve Seen Bits and Bobs’

Julia Louis-Dreyfus was too busy with her own show and burgeoning family to watch “Friends” as it aired alongside “Seinfeld” on NBC’s “Must See TV” Thursday-night lineup. That was her reasoning, at least, for never becoming a fan of the show after Dave “Lil Dicky” Burd asked her if she liked the classic sitcom on his latest episode of the “Friends Keep Secrets” podcast. “I didn’t really watch ‘Friends,’” Louis-Dreyfus admitted of the long-running comedy. “I mean, I’ve seen bits and bobs of it, but I was, you know — I have to tell you something, when I was doing ‘Seinfeld,’ I had both of my kids during that time. And you’ll see, if you want children, you’ll see if you’re working and you have kids, that’s a balancing act like no other. “That’s why I was enormous on that show,” she added. “I was going up and down up and down with pregnancies.” Louis-Dreyfus starred at the time of “Friends” as Elaine Benes on the equally beloved “Seinfeld.” Her series had been on the air for five years before “Friends” premiered in 1994, and the two sitcoms shared a network home on NBC through to 1998. Louis-Dreyfus joined “Friends Keep Secrets” on Tuesday for a free-wheeling, hidden-camera hang with its three hosts — Burd, his wife Kristin Batalucco and Benny Blanco — who dug into everything from homemade sauces to parenthood and comedy. Pressed if she ever felt “Seinfeld” was in competition with “Friends,” Louis-Dreyfus responded, “No, because they came after us.” “I mean, there was an overlap, but it was ‘Cheers,’ then ‘Seinfeld’ came along. We overlapped with ‘Cheers’ for awhile. And then, I mean I, we can look it up, I don’t really remember the years.” Despite both being set in New York City, following a group of friends and sharing a network and premiere night, the similarities between “Friends” and “Seinfeld” mostly end there. In a December interview on Amy Poehler’s “Good Hang” podcast, Louis-Dreyfus humorously remembered feeling envious of the “Friends” women — namely Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow — because they were permitted to be “sexy” on the show while Elaine wasn’t necessarily presented as such. “I would love to go back and fix that look,” Louis-Dreyfus bemoaned to Poehler of the character’s dress, blazer and curly-haired attire. “But I actually remember when ‘Friends’ came out at some point when we were doing ‘Seinfeld’ … and all those girls were so sexy!” she exclaimed. “And I remember thinking, ‘Ah, f—k! I should’ve been sexy!’” Back on “Friends Keep Secrets,” the actress also expressed her “100%” respect for “Seinfeld” co-creator Larry David for refusing to do any crossover episodes with “Friends,” despite pressure from NBC. “Larry would never do it. NBC wanted to do, like, a crossover episode where each episode has a blackout, and Larry’s like, ‘No f–king way am I doing that,’” Louis-Dreyfus recalled. “That was the network idea because that was ‘Must See TV’ back then. Everybody was watching on Thursday nights and so the idea would be, like, all the episodes have a blackout to contend with. And that’s fun for the audience. But Larry not in a million years would go along with anything like that.” Watch Louis-Dreyfus’ full episode of “Friends Keep Secrets” below.