Not many remember the Friends spinoff, Joey, but the show’s stars — including Matt LeBlanc and Andrea Anders — have remained on our screens.
Friends, which aired from 1994 to 2004, centered on a group of friends in their 20s and 30s as they navigated life in New York City. The sitcom’s successful run on NBC skyrocketed Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green), Courteney Cox (Monica Geller), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay), LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani), Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing) and David Schwimmer (Ross Geller) to fame.
After Friends came to an end, Joey scored his own show about his move to Hollywood. His attempts to become an actor reunited him with his sister Gina (Drea de Matteo) and his nephew Michael (Paulo Costanzo). Joey later formed a romance with his superintendent Alexis (Anders) in addition to his friendship with fellow aspiring actor Zach (Miguel A. Núñez Jr.).
Several cast members that appeared on Joey originally played different characters on Friends including Jennifer Coolidge, Adam Goldberg, Carlos Gómez, Patrick Kerr and Brent Spiner. Meanwhile, Robert Costanzo reprised his role as Joey’s father, making him the second actor alongside LeBlanc to play the same character in both shows.
Joey premiered on NBC in 2004 before being placed on hiatus midway through the second season. It returned in 2006 for one episode before the show was pulled and subsequently canceled. Before Joey wrapped up, LeBlanc managed to score a Golden Globe Award nomination for his role in the spinoff.
“It didn’t allow Matt to have this carefree kind of lifestyle, and it tried to make Joey grow up — and I think that was a huge mistake,” Kevin S. Bright, who worked on Friends and Joey, told Digital Spy in 2018. “Joey, in my mind, should have been a kid for life, until he found the right woman that was willing to take care of this kid — and accept him as who he was. I think the transformation of Joey into a guy who doesn’t know how to get a date, who doesn’t have any friends – I think that made the audience go away.”
Keep scrolling to see where the cast of Joey is now:
