“Joey,” the short-lived spinoff to “Friends,” has finally released all of its episodes after being pulled off the air mid-season by NBC in 2006.
The comedy, which starred Matt LeBlanc as his beloved “Friends” character Joey Tribbiani, has been released in its entirety on YouTube — five months after the official “Friends” account first began uploading full episodes to the channel.
The LeBlanc-led series aired for two seasons on NBC between 2004 and 2006. And, while the sitcom initially debuted to strong ratings — nabbing over 18 million viewers for its pilot — after taking over the Thursday evening time slot from “Friends,” the viewership eventually took a dip. At first, NBC moved “Joey” Season 2 to a Tuesday time slot, but ultimately got yanked (notably, eight episodes early) by the network.
However, “Joey” did air its entire second season internationally. So, these unaired eight episodes are really an exciting update for U.S.-based fans.
In addition to LeBlanc, “Joey” starred “The Sopranos” alum Drea de Matteo and “Road Trip” star Paulo Costanzo as the former’s on-screen sister and nephew. The comedy followed LeBlanc’s titular character as he moves to Los Angeles for his career, but ultimately reunites with his West Coast-based family in the process.
Jennifer Coolidge, Andrea Anders, Miguel A. Núñez Jr. and Ben Falcone also rounded out the “Joey” cast.
The show was created by Scott Silveri and Shana Goldberg-Meehan, both of whom worked as writers and producers on “Friends,” which ran for 10 seasons before concluding in 2004.
“Friends” — which also starred Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer and the late Matthew Perry — is available to stream in its entirety on HBO Max.
