TV Rewind | Joey: The cautionary story for spin-offs and sequels

Friends, as everyone knows, is among the hottest sitcoms of all time. And when it led to 2004, spin-offs of the money-minting machine have been anticipated. Thus got here Joey. But through the years, Joey has grow to be a cautionary story on the earth the place spin-offs and sequels are the order of the day.
Starring Matt LeBlanc, Drea de Matteo and Andrea Anders amongst others, Joey, created by Scott Silveri and Shana Goldberg-Meehan, ran for 2 seasons and led to 2006, with the final eight episodes by no means making it to air due to its unhealthy scores.
Here’s revisiting Joey to analyse what actually went improper with one of many most-anticipated exhibits of the time and why spin-offs aren’t at all times a good suggestion.

What is Joey all about?
Joey begins quickly after the occasions of Friends because the titular character strikes to Los Angeles to pursue his performing profession. Here, he meets his elder sister Gina (Drea), her son and a bunch of different characters who type the ensemble. The episodes comply with the primary characters as they navigate their approach by way of work and love life.
What didn’t work for Joey?
Over the years, many have stated, together with the writers and creators of Friends, that the present was destined to fail. But on the time, this present was NBC’s crown jewel. So a lot in order that the community even gave it the prized time slot of Friends.
When I first watched Joey, quickly after watching Friends, it didn’t really feel as unhealthy, however because the episodes glided by, it received more and more uncomfortable. I say uncomfortable as a result of the extra you watch this, the extra you’ve got a sense of it being improper in some unusual approach. The character of Joey, who you’ve got grown to like by way of the ten seasons of Friends, is handled with some bizarre character growth that appears prefer it was written for another person.

The ensemble of Friends felt good as all of the six characters slot in like an ideal puzzle. To counter Joey’s naivety, there was Chandler’s sensible remarks. But on this setting, Joey’s stupidity was left unattended. Friends was additionally designed adhering to in style character archetypes the place Joey fell beneath the stereotypical ‘cool guy’. In the spin-off although, his coolness was simply taken away. He wasn’t the man hanging out along with his mates who may simply spit out a “How you doin’?” and flatter the other intercourse. He was a tragic impression of his outdated self. Joey was struggling in his love life and work-life and didn’t even have any mates to cheer him up.
When the present began, it centered on Joey’s relationship along with his sister Gina and her son Michael. Gina, performed by Drea de Matteo, felt like she belonged to Joey’s household and was fairly likeable however because the present proceeded, her story along with her ex turned too central and after some time, it was exhausting to look after characters that we didn’t even know.

The second season of Joey had him falling out and in of affection with Alex (Andrea Anders), however by that point, we had identified his character for over 10 years, and this relationship simply didn’t ring true for the viewers. Kevin S Bright, the co-creator of Friends and the manager producer of Joey, revealed a couple of years in the past to Digital Spy that the present pressured the character to develop up which was fairly uncharacteristic.
What occurred to Joey?
The present was cancelled as a consequence of its poor scores and regardless of altering the time slot, NBC didn’t air the final eight episodes of the present. After the present’s cancellation, Matt LeBlanc took a break from showbiz for 4 years. His comeback comedy collection, Episodes, had him enjoying an exaggerated model of himself and it was in that present that they took some actual digs on the spin-off.
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Joey is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.