Joey (TV Series)

Joey is an American sitcom, which starred Matt LeBlanc reprising his role as Joey Tribbiani from the sitcom Friends. It premiered on the NBC returned on March 7, 2006, in a new timeslot of Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. One episode, "Joey and the Snowball Fight", was shown on a Tuesday at 8:30 p.m, but was pulled by NBC when it was overshadowed in ratings by American Idol. NBC cancelled the series in May 2006 and did not broadcast the remaining episodes.
Repeats are currently broadcast in India on WB TV, in Norway on TV2, in Sweden on Kanal 5, in Denmark on TV 2 Zulu, in Portugal and Bulgaria on Fox Life, in the Netherlands on Veronica and in Japan on Super! drama TV.
==Main characters==
* Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani, who moves to Los Angeles from New York, to proceed with his acting career. He is constantly talking about food or eating sandwiches.
*Paulo Costanzo as Joey's nephew Michael Tribbiani who idolizes his Uncle Joey's ability to date many women, and who himself is sheltered and nervous around girls. He is self-conscious that he has been so sheltered and that his mother Gina breast fed him until he was seven. He is a huge Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Wars fan. He is extremely intelligent, an aerospace engineer, attends Caltech and specializes in applied thermodynamics, works with his rival Seth frequently on engineering projects, and is an obvious direct opposite from his more street-wise mother and uncle. He turns to Joey as a big brother and substitute father figure, even after his biological father Jimmy re-enters mother Gina's love life. Michael plays a smaller role in the second season.
*Drea de Matteo as Joey's attractive older sister Gina Tribbiani, who is temperamental and promiscuous. Not particularly bright but very street-wise, Gina is a caring but over-protective and domineering mother. For years she convinced her genius son Michael that he was born when she was 22 instead of 16 years old, and always says he is the one thing she has done really well. She and Joey are friends in addition to being siblings, both having the gift of being extremely appealing to the opposite sex, with numerous lovers. Initially working as hairdresser, by season two she works as a secretary for Joey's agent Bobbie, having impressed Bobbie with her brash manner. In season two she starts dating Michael's father Jimmy once again.
*Andrea Anders as Alexis "Alex" Garrett, the next door neighbor, landlord and friend. She is an educated, but slightly ditzy, blonde lawyer who graduated from Pepperdine University. Initially intimidated, but also intrigued by Joey's tough street-wise older sister Gina, the two women eventually become friends, and she becomes more bold in the way she dresses and acts, thanks to Gina's influence. She is puzzled but impressed by Joey's intuitive gift at being able to know when she is wearing thong panties, and spends most of her time hanging out at Joey and Michael's apartment. She and Joey bond and become close friends. Her husband is a professional orchestra musician and is away from home most of the time, and she confides her problems with her marriage in Joey. At the end of season one, she and Joey become romantically involved during her separation from her husband. In season two she becomes romantically interested in Joey and has a crush on him for a long period. Gina tries to help her to get over Joey, but once she starts dating Joey's friend Dean, Joey soon realizes that he is also in love with Alex. Ironically the actors portraying Joey and Alex also fell for each other in real life.
*Jennifer Coolidge as Joey's oversexed agent Roberta "Bobbie" Morganstern, and reportedly the twelfth most powerful woman in Hollywood. She has an enormous crush on Joey's nephew Michael. She often entertains herself by making her office assistant do funny tricks, or shocking herself with a stun-gun. She is brash, forward, aggressive, highly entertaining and slightly ditzy, laughing at everything and at anyone's expense, including her client Joey's. She was once sued by Phil Collins.
*Miguel A. Núñez Jr. joined the cast at the start of season two as the character Zach Miller. He soon became one of Joey's best friends. Zach has an interesting career, going from playing extras on TV, to directing amateur plays. Zach does not appear to have a home; he was seen at one time living in Joey's trailer while working on a major blockbuster movie. In one episode, Zach and Joey, both drunk, married in Tijuana, possibly a parody of Ross and Rachel marrying each other in the season five finale of Friends. As a tribute to Joey and Chandler, Joey and Zach argued like a married couple, Zach playing the part of the wife. Zach's final appearance was in "Joey and the Big Move". Núñez was absent from the last five episodes, including the finale of the series, because he found another job. Zach's absence within the show was not mentioned, nor was the character at all.
Two cast members had previously appeared as different characters in Friends; Coolidge appeared as Amanda, an old friend of Monica and Phoebe, in a tenth season episode. Adam Goldberg appeared in Friends second season in the recurring role of Eddie, who moves in with Chandler after Joey moves out. Additionally, Robert Costanzo reprised his role as Joey's father in "Joey and the Dad", a character originated in the first season of Friends. Costanzo was the only actor besides LeBlanc to play the same character in this series as in Friends (Gina appeared in a third season episode of Friends, but was not played by Drea de Matteo).
==Development==
The pilot episode was released in screener for test audiences and members of the entertainment industry to preview the show and drum up business. The screener was subsequently leaked on the Internet and thus has received a much wider critical review process than initially conceived. There were few differences between the unbroadcast pilot and the version that was broadcast. Ashley Scott played the role of Allison in the unbroadcast pilot, she was replaced by Andrea Anders and the character name changed to Alex.
The series did well in the Nielsen Ratings in its first season (2004-2005) and was subsequently renewed for a second season (2005-2006). In the second season, Miguel A. Núñez Jr. was also added to the show as a series regular. Also, Jennifer Coolidge had a more prominent role.
The show was pulled from its Thursday-night timeslot in December 2005, and NBC returned the show in a new timeslot (Tuesdays at 8pm) on March 7, 2006. Despite being in competition with American Idol, the ratings were even higher; Joey was the highest rated prime time program of the week for NBC. The network pulled the series after the first Tuesday broadcast and its cancellation was announced on May 15, 2006. The remaining episodes have never been broadcast by NBC, but have been shown on various other networks around the world.
The fifth and the thirteenth episodes were directed by David Schwimmer, who played Ross Geller on Friends.
==Episodes==
==Reception==
===Awards===
Joey won the People's Choice Award of Favorite New Television Comedy and Matt LeBlanc won Favorite Male Television Star. LeBlanc was also nominated for the Golden Globe of Best Actor in a Television Comedy or Musical. Also, he won at the Kids' Choice Awards in 2003 and was praised by Jack Black in his movie memorandum.
===Nielsen Ratings===
Based on average total viewers per episode of Joey on NBC:
Season	Timeslot (EDT) 	Season premiere 	Season finale	TV season	Rank	ViewersAmount In Millions	18-49 rating/share(rank)	Season highFor an Original Episode	Season low
1 	Thursday 8:00 P.M. (September 9, 2004 - May 12, 2005) 	September 9, 2004 	May 12, 2005 	2004-2005	#40 	10.2 	4.2/12 (#32) 	18.6 	7.5
2 	Thursday 8:00 P.M. (September 22, 2005 - December 15, 2005)Tuesday 8:30 P.M. (August 23, 2006)	September 22, 2005	March 7, 2006	2005-2006	#85 	7.1 	2.8/8 (#74) 	8.4 	4.1
==Series information==
===DVD Releases===
The Complete First Season was released on DVD on May 30, 2006 with all 24 episodes and French and Spanish subtitles. The Complete Second Season was released on April 29, 2008 in Canada (Region 1) and on September 10, 2008 in the Netherlands and September 11, 2008 in Portugal (both Region 2). The United Kingdom, the United States, and Region 4 are still waiting for a Second Season release.
DVD name 	Ep #	Region 1 	Region 2 	Region 4
The Complete First Season 	24 	May 30, 2006 	July 25, 2005 	February 15, 2006
The Complete Second Season	22 	April 29, 2008	September 10, 2008	TBA
==References==
== External links ==
* Joey on NBC Wiki (Fandom)
* Joey (TV) on Wikipedia
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Category:TV Shows
Category:Joey