Friends spinoff Joey, starring Matt LeBlanc, has quietly been made available for streaming.
Per TVLine, the first two episodes of Joey have been uploaded to the Friends YouTube channel. This marks the first time the sitcom has been made available to watch in any official capacity in nearly 20 years.
What Was Joey About?
Set after the events of Friends, the spinoff follows its title character, LeBlanc’s Joey Tribbiani, as he moves to Hollywood, hoping to truly make it as an actor. After reuniting with his high-strung sister, Gina (Drea de Matteo), a hairdresser, Joey moves in with his genius twenty-year-old nephew Michael (Paulo Costanzo), who is a rocket scientist. He also begins a tentative romance with his landlady, Alexis Garrett (Andrea Anders), and becomes close friends with fellow aspiring actor Zach Miller (Miguel A. Núñez Jr.). Jennifer Coolidge also appeared as Joey’s agent Roberta Morganstern.
While Joey got off to a great start in the ratings (18.6 million viewers), fans slowly began to switch channels during the show’s second season. This led NBC to eventually yank the spinoff from its schedule. It’s crazy to think that a billion-dollar franchise like Friends managed to produce a spinoff like Joey that has been largely forgotten about by the public.
Last year, on the heels of Joey‘s 20th anniversary, TVLine reached out to Warner Bros. Television to ask why the show wasn’t streaming anywhere. The answer? Nobody wanted it. The show was available to license but hadn’t been sold to any platform, including Warner Bros. Discovery’s own Max streaming service, which is where all 10 seasons of Friends can currently be found.
I guess Warner Bros. Television got tired of waiting for someone to want Joey and decided to go ahead and throw it on YouTube. The first episode, “Pilot,” has already amassed over 130 thousand views, while the second, “Joey and the Student,” is at 35 thousand views. You can watch both episodes below.
Did you watch Joey when it originally aired on NBC? Do you hope more episodes are uploaded to YouTube?
