Courteney Cox Hits Out At Modern Sitcoms And Explains Why She's 'Afraid' Of Doing Another

Courteney Cox has no plans to return to the world of sitcoms any time soon, and she's got a pretty good reason as to why.

Speaking during an appearance on the Just for Variety with Marc Malkin podcast, the Friends star explained that she still gets pitched a lot of ideas for 30 minute comedy shows.

But while older shows like Friends have stood the test of time, she feels that more recent sitcoms don't live up to those high standards.

'Usually they’re not challenging enough,' she told the podcast, adding: 'I find sitcoms just not that funny any more.

Courteney Cox (Alamy)

'I don't know why. I feel bad to say that.'

Cox added that the mind-blowing success of Friends also left her wary of signing up for other sitcoms.

She said: 'I come from such an iconic sitcom where it still holds up and it's so funny and it was so relevant to everyone.

'I'd be really afraid to do another sitcom because I wouldn't want to ever be compared to Friends.'

Since Friends ended in 2004, Cox has largely stayed away from TV, with the notable exception of the sitcom Cougar Town, in which she starred for six seasons as a divorced real estate agent with a passion for oversized glasses of wine.

Now, she's returning to the small screen to star in the horror comedy Shining Vale as Pat Phelps, an erotic fiction writer who moves from New York City to the country with her family after her husband discovers she's having an affair, and grows convinced that she's seeing ghosts.

Courteney Cox (Alamy)

With Shining Vale and her recent return to the Scream franchise, alongside the recent Friends reunion special, Cox has found herself firmly back in the public eye.

Nevertheless, she admitted in the podcast that over the past decade, she'd wondered at times whether there was still a place for her in the industry.

'I didn’t feel very relevant,' she said of the years after Cougar Town ended, during which time she chose to focus on her family over her career. 'I think [it was] out of sight, out of mind.

'And yeah, I think a lot of it was my fault, but I think also once I wasn’t driven, I think they probably forgot about me for a while.'

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Topics: Courteney Cox, Film and TV, Friends

Hannah Smith

Hannah is a London-based journalist covering news and features for UNILAD. She's especially interested in social and political activism and culture.