Friends is one of the most popular sitcoms of all time, so it wasn’t surprising when NBC ordered a spinoff, Joey. However, it failed miserably.
Joey is undoubtedly one of the most forgotten-about spinoffs in the history of television, even though it is tied to one of the most popular sitcoms that is still frequently referenced and discussed almost 20 years after its series finale. Friends premiered in 1994 and was an overwhelming success, mostly in part due to its dynamic cast of Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green, Courteney Cox as Monica Geller, Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay, Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani, Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing, and David Schwimmer as Ross Geller. So, when the sitcom ended in 2004, NBC decided to greenlight a spinoff featuring one of the six characters — Joey.
Joey premiered only a few months following the Friends series finale, and it featured Matt LeBlanc reprising his role as Joey Tribbiani in the spinoff. Following his character’s last episode in Friends season 10, Joey decided to leave New York City and move to Los Angeles to further pursue his acting career. As fans recall, the NBC comedy series concluded with Chandler and Monica married with two newborn twins, Ross and Rachel finally getting together, and Phoebe happily married to Mike. The only one who did not receive a concrete happy ending was Joey, making him the perfect character on paper to build a spinoff around. Unfortunately, Joey was not as successful as its predecessor.
Joey Forgot What Made The Character Special
Multiple reasons factored into the Friends spinoff Joey failing, seeing as though it only lasted two seasons and received unfavorable reviews and terrible ratings. NBC canceled the comedy television show on August 23, 2006, citing low ratings for the series being pulled from the network. Of course, the fact that viewership steadily decreased over the episodes was the upfront reason for the spinoff’s cancelation. But numerous factors contributed to the show losing audience members from week to week, like its quality and forgetting what made the character of Joey special in the first place.
Every Friends character had a distinguishable personality, and Joey was no different. It seemed as though the character’s personality in Joey strayed too much from the person that the popular NBC sitcom developed over ten seasons. Plus, part of the reason why viewers loved Joey was his relationships with the other Friends characters, like Chandler and Phoebe. Once they were taken away from Joey, it was difficult to adjust to him interacting with new characters in Hollywood. People were motivated to watch Joey because of Friends, but the spinoff strayed too far from what made Joey lovable in the first series.
Joey Made Its Star Too Stupid
One of Joey’s greatest qualities in Friends was his affable nature, which, admittedly, got more prominent as the seasons went on. Nevertheless, his naivety was endearing and perfectly complimented Chandler’s sarcasm, Rachel’s cheerfulness, Phoebe’s easygoing attitude, Monica’s perfectionism, and Ross’s impatience. It was the perfect recipe for comedy, and sure, Joey’s dumb comments were the butt of a lot of jokes toward the end of the NBC sitcom series. However, Joey took his stupidity to another level that was more annoying than funny and lovable.
Again, it all circles back to the insane chemistry that the entire cast of Friends shared. Yes, one of Joey’s most notable attributes was how he could be a bit dumb from time to time, but the negative quality was perfectly balanced with the other five characters’ personalities. His naivety was only charming when it was used as a foil to Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Chandler, and Ross, and without them, Joey’s stupid comments were not funny. The cast of the Friends spinoff was not as compatible with Joey’s character as the other five were, and, as a result, Joey fell short of successfully continuing his story.
Joey Couldn’t Sustain A Show By Himself
Although every Friends character was loved by many and were all unique in their own way, Matt LeBlanc as Joey was the wrong figure to pick to lead a spinoff. As mentioned above, the network did not have much of a choice since producers would likely have had to convince both Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox and Matthew Perry, or Lisa Kudrow and Paul Rudd to lead a new television show if they wanted one-half of any of the couples. You cannot have a spinoff with just Ross without Rachel (and vice versa), Monica without Chandler, or Phoebe without Mike. So they had to go with Joey, and unfortunately, that was still a mistake.
Joey was funny, charming, and easy to root for in Friends, but given that the entire Friends roster was stacked with lovable characters, it is hard to say that Joey is the best one. Part of what made him (and Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Chandler, and Ross) so great was his chemistry with the ensemble cast around him. Sadly, the Joey cast was not up to par with the Friends cast, and the characters that surrounded Joey did not make his character more appealing like the Central Perk crew did. No one can say whether a spinoff focused on Chandler or Phoebe would have been successful, but it was clear that Joey couldn’t sustain a show by himself.
Joey Just Wasn’t As Funny As Friends
At the end of the day, Joey failed because its jokes did not land as well as Friends’ did. The popular NBC sitcom television show set the bar high regarding comedy, so the spinoff had a lot to live up to. Unfortunately, the humor in Joey could not match the comedy in Friends. The cast of characters, which included Drea de Matteo as Gina Tribbiani, Andrea Anders as Alexis “Alex” Garrett, Paulo Costanzo as Michael Tribbiani, Jennifer Coolidge as Roberta “Bobbie” Morganstern, Miguel A. Núñez Jr. as Zach Miller, and Ben Falcone as Howard Peckerman, were just not as funny as the parent series’ crew.
It is also important to remember that the writers behind Joey were not the same writers from Friends. As a result, the humor between the two NBC shows was not the same, which was a disappointment to audiences who previously loved the original series. Friends co-creators and producers Marta Kauffman and David Crane were not involved in the spinoff, which undoubtedly was a factor in Joey’s demise.
