“Joey,” the 2004 Matt LeBlanc “Associates” spinoff, has now been utterly restored to life on the Associates YouTube channel, together with eight episodes by no means aired on this nation, the NBC collection having been canceled in 2006, two-thirds of the way in which via its second season. For many, there will likely be no distinction between the episodes that aired and those that didn’t — they are going to be equally unseen. For some, it is a shoe that took 19 years to drop. I can discover no report of what I considered it on the time, however I took this event to look again, look anew, and assess the collection out of the shadow of what then was its simply departed mothership. Viewing from right here, I’d name it a satisfying, humorous present, straightforward to put money into and a reminder that you may’t decide a present by its rankings.
The collection follows LeBlanc’s Joey Tribbiani to Hollywood — or “Ollywoo,” per his obstructed view of the Hollywood signal — the place his appearing profession will sputter out of and into life. (After many blown auditions, he’ll do nicely sufficient lastly to look on “The Tonight Present,” “Ellen” and “The Actors Studio.”) “I used to be joyful in New York, OK,” Joey tells his sister Gina (Drea de Matteo), residing in Hollywood earlier than him, “and I attempted actually arduous to maintain issues from altering. However all people else obtained married and had youngsters and moved on — all of them modified, so I’m giving change a shot.” Although “Associates” provides “Joey” a helpful working begin, making moot the query of why we must always imagine on this doofus, that quote and nods to Joey’s previous “Days of Our Lives” position as neurosurgeon Dr. Drake Ramoray are the one references to the sooner present. It’s a brand new profession in a brand new city.
It’s not likely truthful to check “Joey” to “Associates,” which ended with 10 years of momentum behind it and an ensemble of co-headlining friends that supplied a mannequin for subsequent haunt collection, none of which is able to ever attain its legendary standing, deep library (236 episodes) or intergenerational enchantment. “Joey” was one thing totally different, and likewise extra normal, a gathering of oddballs round a essential character on a set that discovered all of them a spot to sit down. Together with De Matteo, contemporary from being murdered on “The Sopranos,” however preserving Adriana alive inside Gina, the first-rate forged included Paulo Costanzo as Michael, her 20-year-old son; Andrea Anders as lawyer neighbor Alexis, a hot-and-cold love curiosity for LeBlanc; and Jennifer Coolidge, abundantly current as Joey’s agent, Bobbie, placing an exclamation level on the finish of each sentence. (“It’s the dumbest script I’ve ever learn! It’s going to be enormous!”)
Alexis, performed by Andrea Anders as Alex, had a hot-and-cold relationship with Matt LeBlanc’s Joey within the sitcom.
(Chris Haston/NBC)
The collection is barely marred by bouts of (already dated) Swinging Bachelor Comedy, but it surely additionally feels constructed as a corrective to that very factor, with Joey commonly put in his place by ladies smarter than he’s. (Showing on “Contained in the Actors Studio,” he’s confronted with an viewers of sad ex-girlfriends.) Certainly, a certain quantity of failure is written into the character, together with his mixture of optimistic naivete and self-puncturing pleasure, a mixture LeBlanc is expert at bringing to life. His face is a dialog between his happy smile and astonished eyes, expressions pushed simply far sufficient into caricature to register as comedian, however by no means a lot as to violate the integrity of the character. Among the many zaniness there’s an emotional arc, a dance of non-public progress and backsliding, and relying on what the scene requires, he may be the dumbest man within the room or the wisest.
Though “Joey” is precisely described as short-lived, there are 46 episodes on the YouTube playlist, which might quantity to 6 or seven seasons of a present streaming comedy. A broadcast sitcom is a residing factor; the lengthy season permits for a wealth of variations, sidetrips and experiments; characters and relationships are in continuous flux, revised in mild of rankings and community notes, and from time to time one senses the collection looking for itself. The second season added Miguel A. Núñez Jr. as Zach, an actor good friend for Joey (which additionally had the good thing about bringing a Black individual into the famously white “Associates“-phere) and, midway via, Adam Goldberg as Jimmy, a tightly wound childhood good friend of Joey’s who’ll study he’s Michael’s father, and whom Joey will rent to work at his new manufacturing firm, which he names “Sure I Am a Chook Productions,” as a result of he imagines it’s an anagram of Joey Tribbiani. The newly seen episodes commit a lot time to the Gina-Jimmy relationship — which consists largely of arguing and intercourse — as Joey and Alexis proceed to fail to outline their ambiguous relationship. All of it heads towards “Joey and the Marriage ceremony,” which serves nicely as a long-in-coming collection finale.
That TV reveals finish is one thing we’re oddly poor at accepting, given how typically they do; as with the actual folks we love, we wish as many minutes with them as doable, so it’s doubly unhappy after we know there are completed episodes simply past our attain. It’s like being ghosted, however ghosts do generally return, bringing closure.
