Everyone knows Joey, the goofy stud and aspiring actor (who once played Al Pacino's butt double in a movie), but not many people seem to know Joey, the failed spin-off that followed the end of beloved sitcom Friends. The show premiered in 2004 and featured Matt LeBlanc reprising his role as good-natured ladies' man Joey Tribbiani, who moves to Los Angeles to continue his acting career. Joey also starred Drea de Matteo, following her departure from The Sopranos, as his sister Gina, and Paulo Constanzo, who would later star in Royal Pains and Designated Survivor, as Joey's brainy nephew Michael.
Despite the show's initial popularity, the ever-changing narrative and devolution of Joey's character into a sadder, dopier man who can't even get a date isolated audiences and lowered the ratings, resulting in the show's abrupt cancellation.
Producers Speculate ‘Joey’ Failed Because Its Version Of The Character Was Unfamiliar To Audiences
Everyone grows up, but maybe Joey shouldn't have. Executive producer and director Kevin S. Bright thinks the change in lifestyles, from carefree bachelor in New York City to serious actor trying to make it in Los Angeles, might have been the show's biggest mistake.
"Joey, in my mind, should have been a kid for life," Bright said, "until he found the right woman that was willing to take care of this kid - and accept him as who he was."
Matt LeBlanc himself agreed: "In Friends, Joey was always glass is half full. In Joey, he was glass half empty. And that was sad."
Joey Was Not The Producers' First Choice For A Spin-Off
If the producers had it their way, we would've gotten Rachel instead. Bright told Metro that Jennifer Aniston's character was the "obvious choice." However, Aniston was tired of television after 10 years of Friends and wanted to move on to film.
The second choice? A series based around Chandler and Monica's married life. Courteney Cox and Matthew Perry felt the same way as Aniston: They were tired of playing the same role. The only one who didn't seem to mind was Matt LeBlanc.
Matt LeBlanc Said The Show Was Doomed From The Start, But At Least He Made $30 MillionÂ
In an interview with Radio Times, LeBlanc admitted that the "writing and the jokes were okay, but the conflict and the obstacles in the stories were not valid enough."
He added that having 46 (including eight unaired) 22-minute episodes centered around himself was a lot of responsibility and that he could barely take the pressure.
However, it wasn't all bad: "I made $30 million, I'd like another one of those failures!"
Not bad for a universally panned and abruptly canceled show.
Joey’s Love Interest In The Series Is A Married Woman
Another likely contributing factor to Friends fans' reluctance to embrace Joeywas a major shift in the character's social life. Instead of playing the field and "womanizing" as he was known to do in Friends, Joey spent the majority of his solo series pining after his next-door neighbor, Alex (played by LeBlanc's now ex-wife, Andrea Anders).
This on-again-off-again relationship became the focal point of the show by the end of the second season.
The pair eventually get together, following Alex's separation from her husband, only for them to break up, get back together again, and have Joey mess things up by telling her they're getting too serious too soon.
The Show's Biggest Flaw Was Joey's Lack of 'Friends'
According to Dr. Simone Knox - one of the writers of Friends: A Reading of the Sitcom, an academic book about the beloved sitcom - none of the characters in Friends were made to stand alone on their own show. They were written to complement one another.
"So you have the Joey character, who is into food and sex, and is a loyal friend, and is a little stupid," Knox told the Daily Express. "But you need Joey in relationship to a Chandler, for example, who keeps him in check and who makes sarcastic comments about his naive stupidity."
Nobody understands wanting things to stay the same like I do. I was happy in New York, okay? And I tried really hard to keep things from changing. But everyone else got married, and had kids, and moved on. They all changed. So, I'm giving change a shot. And it has been hard. But just hoping things stay the same? It doesn't work.
At some point, Joey even admits to his friends that he's too old to hit on girls at bars anymore.
Producer Kevin S. Bright said it himself: "On Friends, Joey was a womanizer but we enjoyed his exploits. He was a solid friend, a guy you knew you could count on. [On Joey], he became a pathetic, mopey character... I think the transformation of Joey into a guy who doesn't know how to get a date, who doesn't have any friends - I think that made the audience go away."
