MovieChat Forums > Joey (2004) Discussion > People moaning about Joey being an awful...

People moaning about Joey being an awful choice for a spin off

posted 16 years ago by Positively-Fourth-Street
15 replies | jump to latest

Who else could they have done?

Nothing. Joey was the only logical option

A spin off with Chandler and Monica in their new home would have been awesome. Imagine it ..... The Bings. However, Courtney Cox was one of the ones who wanted Friends to finish so she could move on to different things.

Phoebe, Rachel and/or Ross would have sucked bad.

I'm Jewish, thats no cake walk either. I was elected school treasurer... I didn't even run!

[–] WhiteWerewolf 16 years ago

i understand the point you are trying to make. and hell, i liked the show joey. i own season 1 on dvd.

The Bings as you say would be great. but then i think it would be on par of the family sitcom. and while those are fun...the general 'angle' of the show is dead. the bings would most likely feel like a TGIF early 90s show.

but if people truly wanted a spin-off to fit the mold of frasier/cheers, then it would NOT be joey. it would more than likely be gunther.

what i think worked is that frasier was never a main character at first. he was a supporting character that had room to explore. joey was a full fledged main character. his character was already developed enough. gunther would of filled the supporting turned lead role. not joey.

[–] Christophee 16 years ago

Joey's character was pretty developed, but he was the only one of the six who was not married (or soon to be married) and without kids, so he didn't really have a proper ending as it were. He was almost the exact same character at the end of Friends as he was at the start, which meant that there was further to go with his character. He was the logical choice for a spin-off really.

[–] joyfarrah 13 years ago

I agree Christophee.. I think that the others were "settled" as people, Mon and Chandler had their babies, Ross and R were married, Phoebe was married. Joey was free to "go on" as a single guy and he was an actor so it was easy to imagine he mgiht try to go to HOllywood to try his luck there. And I think htat they DID do a good job with him, apart from a few little blips. Joey grew up a bit, he was a good freind/uncle/brother.. and Drea De Matteo was very funny as was Adam Goldberg

[–] seangordon 15 years ago

Joey was one of the main characters, a major focus of the show. If you've noticed, all the great spin-offs
star minor characters...let's look at the All in the Family spin-offs. There was Maude, which was about Edith's cousin; The Jeffersons, the Bunkers' next door neighbors; Good Times, which starred Florida from Maude; and Sanford and Son, which starred Lamont Sanford from the Jeffersons. All of those were classic shows, but that's because they didn't try to re-create an already well-developed character like Joey did. Robert, if that's what it's called, was pretty awful, too.

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[–] Christophee 15 years ago

Was Frasier a minor character in Cheers? I thought that he had a pretty big role by the end of the series.

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[–] sublime_boom_box 15 years ago

Gunther was no where near as important a character as Frasier was in Cheers. He started out as a recurring character but quickly became a regular. a lot of the later episodes centre around him and Lilith whereas i cant think of any Friends episodes where Gunther has more than a few lines

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] ally_1707 15 years ago

The Bings?! Loooove the idea. But it would have been too much like Friends since everybody would have come to visit them....

Joey was the only character for which they could invent a storyline outside of NYC. I mean, Ross/Rachel are city-people, Monica/Chandler have bought a house and Phoebe....She's propably not allowed to leave the state anyway haha. Besides, they all had jobs and stuff.

Joey was the only spinoff that made sense.

[–] aznfratboy1 15 years ago

The Bings - It's been done before, family oriented sitcom, all apart from I Love Lucy and Cosby Show have failed

According to Jim
My Wife and Kids
Grounded for Life
Still Standing
the list goes on

A Phoebe and Mike spin-off? Done that already, it was called Dharma & Greg

A Ross/Rachel spin-off? Nope, Aniston was the one who pulled the plug on Friends, she was also the one that reduced the schedule from 24 episodes to 18 in season 10.

A Ross spin-off? He was THE most developed character on the show, we can't have him run the same crap over and over again, and if they gave him new personality traits or a new back story, then it we'd all go "Wtf? This isn't Ross, he would never do something like that!"

I believe Joey sucked because
1) the story moved WAY too quickly
2) the characters became all the same, either VERY sexually active, or never got action.
3) Played their trump cards too quickly, Joey and Alex after 24 episodes? Look at Niles and Daphne from Fraiser, took them nearly a decade to finally get together.

Personally, I think the best spin-off would've been a Phoebe one, one that was like her homeless years, so between like 14 - however old she was in 1992.

The Joey spin-off though had been an idea that was around for a good 4 years already. When season 6 ended, there were rumors flying around of how Kudrow and Schwimmer were quitting, which in my opinion are the best two actors of the show, and the public and media pushed for a Joey spin-off. The rumors of quitting, coupled with the fact that Seinfeld had ended meaning Friends had more leverage in terms of demands meant that the show went on for 10 seasons, also the reason their salaries were hockey stick like. So ultimately, for four years, they had a basic plan of how Joey would begin already, not a full on script, but the bare bones of the show, thus why Joey was the spin-off.

[–] coffeeinthebin 13 years ago

i always wanted a spin off with Jack and Judy Geller! They were hilarious! And i love shows with old couples. They're so funny to me.
I like the Phoebe idea but people would've been pissed with a 14 year old actor, no matter how good she was it would bother most viewers because they're used to Kudrow and no one could really give it justice compared to her.

Also with both suggestions, it caters to a different audience, and Friends catered to every audience. Any spinoff would've gotten less views, nothing could compete with the original anyway though lol

[–] a_tuch_f_frst 15 years ago

You know it's nice to dream and say what would have worked best, and what was the original option, and a Gunther show (by the way, perhaps the worst possible idea ever, it would work for about five minutes then die) but if you've seen Friends sixty million times, like most fans.. and you've watched every interview and guest appearance from every cast member of friends.. you'll know it's not about 'what would have worked best'.

It was all about the actors and that they wanted it to finish. Let's face it, with the popularity of friends, if it had been about money they would have been back in a flash. Most of them were sick of it. The only person who had any regret and actually wanted things to continue was Matt Le Blanc, the rest were happy for the series to finish and to purse other interests.

If you watch all the interviews and when they were on Ellen, it's pretty clear cut. You can literally almost see them grinding their teeth and fake smiling. 'Mhm yes, friends was nice, but we've had enough'. I think the only problem with Joey was that it came too soon after Friends came out, and everyone took it the wrong way. Rather than say 'Why do a series with only one cast member?' They should have been happy that the series was continuing in some form or another.

I think that with friends just ending, and it still being on pretty regularly, people were quick to see it as a cheap alternative that didn't measure up to the original series. I think that if Joey would have started in 2008, or even this year, there would have been a different reaction. Once it was clear that Friends was never coming back, with no reunions to look forward to, maybe they would have welcomed Joey with open arms and a more open mind rather than with harsh judgement.

Personally I think the series was a great change both in direction and the characters, I think Michael in particular was a great addition. The reaction it got in America was unjustified, and the success of the box set now just shows the success it could have been with better timing. I just think it's unfortunate that with the reaction it got from the public when it came out has ruined the series, and that they've not continued it as a result.

To me it seems a great waste on what could have been a great series had it been allowed to shine. Be great if they could bring it back but I doubt they will!

[–] Island_Of_Ireland 14 years ago

Joey is far too unrealistically dumb to have his own show, look at trigger from only fools and horses (a trillion times better than friends) trigger is a hilarious character, but a show about trigger himself would just never work.

not to mention, the writing in joey was just plain crap.

[–] Nitshi 13 years ago

Phoebe's ex-boy friend... David the scientist guy would ve been a good candidate for a spin-off
~Nithya~