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Previously Unseen Final Episodes of ‘Friends’ Spinoff ‘Joey’ Finally Released to the Public
Nearly 20 years after the show’s cancellation, the final episodes of the Friends spinoff Joey are now available to U.S. audiences for the first time.
Joey began airing just a few months after Friends ended in 2004. Joey followed Friends character Joey Tribbiani, played by Matt LeBlanc, as he moved from New York City to Los Angeles to try furthering his acting career.
Despite initially having a strong fanbase coming off of the success of Friends and the show being voted Favorite New TV Series at the People’s Choice Awards in 2005, viewership dwindled steadily as the show went on.
However, LeBlanc himself seemed to have no regrets. In a 2012 interview with The Guardian, he firmly denied wishing he had never signed on to do Joey due to the show’s negative reception.
“I would do that again; I thought that it was a good show. I just think that we were telling stories that emasculated the character,” he explained in the interview. “They wrote a guy who became very doubtful of himself in this new place, in Hollywood, no friends, can’t meet girls – and that’s not who Joey was. He was always, always, always, the consummate optimist. Always. And that’s not who they wrote. That was very frustrating for me.”
Eventually, the show was cancelled midway through Season 2, and NBC chose not to even air the rest of the season in the U.S.
While the episodes did air in some other countries and were available on DVD sets of the show, they were never publicly accessible until now.
On November 13, the Friends Instagram account surprised fans by announcing that all episodes of Joey, including the unaired ones, would be available on the Friends YouTube channel.
“East or west coast, Joey is still, well, Joey,” the account wrote in the post alongside a clip of the show. “Did you know that the final eight episodes of #Joey Season 2 never aired in the U.S.? Now, 21 years later, catch the remaining episodes exclusively on the #FRIENDS YouTube channel!”
Like the show itself, this announcement got mixed reviews from Friends fans online.
“Can you not post this show’s scenes on Friends account? This show was ABYSMAL,” one Friends fan commented on the post.
“Everybody hated this show so I skipped it. A year ago I watched it and it is not bad at all, it is funny on its own, and the main part is that Joey is there,” another fan countered.
“Oh wow I forgot about the Joey spinoff! I gotta rewatch it all,” another fan added excitedly.
Regardless of its general public reception, fans of the show can now get closure and enjoy both seasons in their entirety in a playlist on the Friends YouTube channel.
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