- The final 8 unseen episodes of the Friends spin-off Joey are now free to watch on the official Friends YouTube channel
- The sitcom, starring Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani, originally aired from 2004-2006 but was cancelled due to low ratings
- Some fans say Joey is underrated despite its mixed reception
Do you remember how eagerly anticipated the 2021 Friends reunion was? And then how disappointed fans were when they realised it was actually just a chance for the cast to sit down for a lookback chat with James Corden of all people?
If you counted yourself among the disappointed, then there is an opportunity for you to return to the world of Friends completely anew. Sort of. Enter the Joey spin-off.
Even if you’ve already watched it, a suite of eight never-before-seen episodes are now being released almost 20 years after they failed to make it to air.
Focusing on everyone’s favourite ladyman Joey Tribbiani, played by Matt LeBlanc, the spin-off sitcom ran in the US from 2004 to 2006, but the plug was pulled amid low viewership numbers. As a result, the final batch of episodes were never shown.
Now, US-based Friends completists can finally catch the episodes, which have been made free to stream over on the show’s official YouTube channel, after NBC started uploading the series earlier this year.
Before that, the show had not been available to stream anywhere, not even for rent or purchase.
The newly released episodes include an appearance from the only other original Friends cast member to crossover to the spin-off: Robert Costanzo, who played Joey Tribbiani Senior.
Alas, none of Joey’s Central Perk gang – Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), Monica (Courteney Cox), Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), Chandler (Matthew Perry) or Ross (David Schwimmer) – appeared on the show.
The spin-off saw LeBlanc’s character Joey relocate from New York to Los Angeles to pursue his acting dream. But having upped sticks to the other side of the country, he learned his TV show had been cancelled.
The show focused on Joey’s relationship with one of his many sisters (albeit one we never met on Friends) Gia, played by The Sopranos star Drea de Matteo. The cast was rounded out with Jennifer Coolidge, Andrea Anders, Miguel A Núñez Jr and Ben Falcone.
Why was Joey cancelled?
The in-show drama of Joey’s fledgling TV show started to feel a bit too true-to-life when the show itself was cancelled.
While it had premiered to a whopping 18.6million viewers, having inherited the Friends linear slot, the numbers started to nosedive to an average of 7.1million in the second series – admittedly, that’s pretty impressive in the current viewership climate. But it was not at the time.
Friends executive producer Kevin S Bright has previously spoken about where he thinks the show went wrong, saying that Joey lost a sense of who the character really is.
‘On Friends, Joey was a womaniser, but we enjoyed his exploits,’ said Bright. ‘He was a solid friend, a guy you knew you could count on.’
He added told The Age of the spin-off version of the show: ‘Joey was deconstructed to be a guy who couldn’t get a job, couldn’t ask a girl out. He became a pathetic, mopey character. I felt he was moving in the wrong direction, but I was not heard.’
Now, you may have heard Joey isn’t up to scratch compared to Friends – the show currently holds a 50% rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, compared to 78% for the original (which also seems low).
But a number of viewers have made the case for Joey being unfavourably compared to its predecessor, which has become one of the greatest and most beloved sitcoms ever made.
Taking to IMDb to share their reviews of the two-season spin-off, @umamahesh-84200 described the show as ‘highly underrated’, adding: ‘This show is a hidden gem. Like normal shows, this show also has some flaws and loopholes but that doesn’t ruin our entertainment. Must watch.’
It was a sentiment that @SuparnoRoyKumar agreed with, writing: ‘It’s different from Friends, and this is also the reason why it is great to watch, for those who admired Joey or Matt Le Blanc. The character grows more than it was on the actual show.’
Joey is available to watch for free on the official Friends YouTube channel.
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