Friends fans in the US can finally watch the last eight episodes of the hit sitcom’s ill-fated spin-off show Joey, starring Matt LeBlanc as the hapless but loveable Joey Tribbiani.
The 2004 NBC sitcom was cancelled in 2006 midway through its second season following poor ratings, meaning US fans never got to see the final instalments.
Now, almost 20 years later, those episodes have been made available to watch on the Friends YouTube channel.
The show, which first aired just four months after Friends ended, saw Joey move to Los Angeles, where, ironically, his new sitcom was cancelled, forcing him to move in with family.
“To the person that runs the Friends YouTube channel, thank you,” one fan wrote. “I never got a chance to watch this series and the fact that you kept with it is amazing.”
Another wrote: “The show, despite its critics, made me laugh on every episode and rewatching it now after all theses years was therapeutic. Farewell Joey, you have made an impact in my life and I will cherish it.”
Someone else said: “I hope Matt Le Blanc and the rest of the cast read the comments on this channel some day and realise that, contrary to public opinion, there was a community that absolutely adored this TV show.”
The cast also included Jennifer Coolidge, Drea de Matteo, Paulo Costanzo, Miguel A. Núñez Jr and Ben Falcone.
While Joey’s pilot episode was watched by a decent 18.6 million viewers, ratings slid as the series progressed, averaging 10.2 million viewers in its first season and 7.1 million in its second.
Joey was then removed from its Thursday slot – the same one that Friends had aired in – in December 2005, returning to NBC on Tuesdays in March 2006.
It was pulled again, this time after just one more episode. The show was officially cancelled after two seasons in May the same year.
Some international fans were able to watch the full two seasons in their own countries at the time.
UK fans could watch on Channel 5, which aired the second season aired in its entirety in 2007.
Joey has a 50% rating on film review site Rotten Tomatoes – compared with 78% for Friends.
