After practically twenty years, a long-forgotten chapter of “Friends” is lastly seeing the sunshine of day ― simply in time for Thanksgiving, fittingly.
Each seasons of the “Friends” spin-off collection “Joey,” centered on Matt LeBlanc’s Joey Tribbiani, have been formally made out there to stream on YouTube this week for the primary time. The discharge contains Season 2’s closing eight episodes, which NBC by no means broadcast after the present was formally canceled in 2006.
“Joey” was created by Shana Goldberg-Meehan and Scott Silveri, each of whom labored on the unique “Friends” over the course of that collection’ record-smashing 10-season run.
The present adopted Joey Tribbiani after he relocated from New York to Los Angeles to deal with his appearing profession, and likewise starred “Sopranos” actor Drea de Matteo as Joey’s sister, Gina, and Jennifer Coolidge as Hollywood agent Bobbie Morganstern.
Important reception to “Joey” on the time of its debut was combined. “Let’s be honest: ‘Joey’ is no ‘Friends,’” Newsweek wrote, earlier than praising LeBlanc’s “adorably dense” portrayal of the title character. Selection, in the meantime, known as it a “polished and likable half-hour.”
Although “Joey” premiered to respectable rankings in 2004, it didn’t seize the zeitgeist like its predecessor, and was canceled amid its second season, with its closing eight episodes left unaired within the U.S.
The primary two episodes of “Joey” have been uploaded to the official “Friends” YouTube web page in March, with the remaining 46 lastly showing on-line Wednesday.
Talking to The Hollywood Reporter in 2014, LeBlanc recalled how the failure of “Joey” prompted him to take an prolonged break from Hollywood. Following the present’s 2006 cancellation, he didn’t return to tv till 2011, when he performed a fictionalized model of himself on the Showtime collection “Episodes.”
“I did ‘Joey’ for two years, and that wasn’t received with the same success as ‘Friends’ was. The pressure was incredible,” he defined. “There was just no way, it couldn’t perform like ‘Friends’ did. So when that was over, I said, ‘I’m going to take at least a year and not do anything,’ and that turned into six years. I was enjoying myself … I really didn’t think about work at all.”
