BREAKING: The 'Friends' Spinoff 'Joey' Just Got Its First Official Digital Release
Warner Bros. released the first two episodes of the long-overlooked, largely scuttled Matt LeBlanc vehicle on YouTube. Here's everything you need to know about 'Joey.'
(UPDATED with announcement & release schedule info)
This is not a drill, Friends fans. Yesterday, the official Friends YouTube account quietly dropped the first two episodes of Joey, its ill-fated 2004-2006 spinoff that followed Matt LeBlanc’s titular character relocating to Los Angeles.
Warner Bros. Television will release two new episodes of the show each Tuesday to the page. Dubbing it “Tribbiani Tuesdays,” the twofer upload schedule pays homage to Joey Tribbiani’s preferred pizza order on Friends: the “Joey Special,” aka two pizzas.
This marks the first time the oft-forgotten show has been given an official digital release in the United States. (Or, perhaps, anywhere.) While unofficial uploads of Joey episodes have been an on-and-off presence in some corners of the internet over the years, WBTV had never made it available since a confusing DVD release back in the mid-2000s.
The channel has so far posted full episodes of both the pilot and its second episode, “Joey and the Student.” (Both were directed by Friends co-executive producer Kevin S. Bright, and written by writer/executive producers Scott Silveri and Shana Goldberg-Meehan — all of whom carried over from Friends onto the new show.)
“Many of you know about the Friends spin-off, but how many of you have actually watched it?” reads the announcement. “You’ve got opinions, and now, we’ve got Joey.”
God only knows why, but I’ve written extensively about Joey over the years… so if you’re new to the series, here’s an FAQ of what you need to know. For a much deeper dive into the history of the show, check out this nine-year-old, mostly-still-in-tact article I wrote over at Vulture, fka Splitsider.
JOEY: An FAQ
What’s the show about?
Soon after the events of the Friends finale, Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc) moves to Hollywood to further his acting career. He winds up living with his 20-year-old rocket scientist nephew, Michael (Royal Pains’ Paulo Costanzo)—the son of his sister Gina (The Sopranos’ Drea de Matteo). The obligatory will-they-won’t-they comes courtesy of Joey’s neighbor and apartment complex super, Alex (Andrea Anders). Supporting characters include his brash manager Bobbie (Jennifer Coolidge); his superfan neighbor Howard (Ben Falcone); and, in season 2, Joey’s friends Zach (Miguel A. Núñez Jr.) and Jimmy (Adam Goldberg).
Joey only lasted one season, right?
WRONG. Joey ran for two seasons. It originally took over Friends’ prime Must See TV 8pm Thursday slot. Middway through its second season, the show was put on hiatus amid low ratings. Months later, it was brought back on Tuesday where it was scheduled against Fox’s then-smash hit American Idol. After one episode, it was pulled again. Despite being a spinoff of one of the biggest television series of all time, Joey went out with a whimper: The last eight episodes never aired on American television.
Did anyone from Friends appear in Joey?
None of the main cast appeared in Joey. Chandler is mentioned once by name in the pilot, and he later references his friends non-specifically at the end of the episode. Joey’s ill-fated crush on Rachel is referred to later in the series.
During production of the show, LeBlanc had said that he envisioned bringing the Friends cast in for cameos around Season 3, after Joey found its legs on its own. That, of course, never happened.
David Schwimmer did direct two episodes of the show.
The only actor to carry over from Friends, oddly, was Robert Costanzo. He played Joey's dad on the 1995 Friends episode "The One with the Boobies." Eleven years later, he reprised the role on Joey in "Joey and the Dad."
Despite going out of its way for that continuity, Joey didn’t adhere to any when it came to his sisters. Joey’s sister Gina — a main character on the spinoff — previously appeared in the Friends episode “The One Where Chandler Can't Remember Which Sister.” Here, she is recast by Drea de Matteo. His sister Mary Theresa, who appeared as Mary Therese on Friends, appears in one episode—again recast. Guest start Christinia Ricci plays her in Joey.
Actor Adam Goldberg, who had an arc in Friends as Chandler’s new roommate Eddie, becomes a major player in Season 2 of Joey as Jimmy, a completely different character.
What happened to Joey after it aired on TV?
The show was never released on streaming. The show’s only official release came on DVD, and that in itself was a minor mess. Season 1 was released on DVD worldwide — this being back in the era when TV-on-DVD was all the rage. It’s fairly easy to find used copies on eBay.
However, Warner Bros. decided not to release a Season 2 DVD in the United States. But it was released in Canada. To watch the second season on a standard American (NTSC) DVD player, US fans needed to buy the Canadian release. Europe also got releases of both seasons in the PAL format. All of the Season 2 releases include the last eight episodes of the show that were never seen by American audiences.
Because of the scarcity, Season 2 DVDs often sell for hundreds of dollars on eBay.
How bad were the ratings?
Joey premiered in 2004—the fall after the Friends finale—to over 18 million viewers. For context, the Friends finale had been watched by over 52 million. Ratings fell throughout the season, with viewership ending in the 7 millions. (Friends’ final season had averaged nearly 25 million viewers.)
Season 2 premiered to 7.8 million viewers. It rarely passed the 8 million mark, with its lowest Thursday-night rating coming in at 5.46 million. (Which, ironically, was for its Thanksgiving episode. That holiday gave Friends some of its most beloved episodes.) Joey’s lone Tuesday night episode — the one decimated by American Idol and led to NBC giving the show the axe — pulled in just 4.09 million viewers.
Will more episodes of Joey be made available?
The Friends YouTube channel will release two new episodes of Joey every Tuesday. As of now, that’s being deemed its “exclusive” home — “the only place you can watch it,” a post on the channel says.
Perhaps the distributor is simply testing the waters for a wider and/or more permanent release. While the YouTube description for each provides a link to “Stream on MAX,” those links direct to the streamer’s Friends page. Joey remains unavailable on the streamer… who, in 2020, told Variety that it had not yet licensed Joey.
Is the URL for this Substack a Joey reference?
Yes. Yes it is.
And now, without further ado, the first two episodes of Joey.