When "Friends" debuted back in 1994, very few people could have guessed that every single member its cast of 6 relative unknowns would become household names, or that the series would run an unbelievable ten seasons. But, credit has to be given to the writers for consistently delivering funny lines of dialogue and oddball situations for such a ling period of time. And, of course, to Courtney Cox-Arquette, Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer, and Lisa Kudrow for breathing life into these endearing characters. What I always found strange however, was that this highly talented cast of performers never really found much success off the small screen. All of them have made the leap into feature films at one time or another, but none of them have really been able to shed their "Friends" image.

Where they were funny on TV, somehow they weren't so much on the big screen. There have even been a few attempts to move into dramatic roles, but these have also met with little success. Jennifer Aniston has probably associated her name with more feature films than the rest, but to date she has yet to make a decent movie. Fortunately though, all of the cast members were able to, in later years of the series, able to get huge raises from the studio, so it's not like any of them are going to be hurting for money even if they stop working right now.

The one cast member who recognized the problems they were all having leaving "Friends" behind them was Matt Leblanc, who played the dim-witted actor Joey Tribbiani. Admittedly, he was always my favorite "Friend", so when I heard he was going to try and continue the character by spinning off into his own series, I was rather glad. I honestly didn’t believe it would work, after all, part of what made each of the characters work so well was the overall rapport between the entire cast. Setting up any one of them on their own seemed like it might be a recipe for disaster.

When the series, "Joey", debuted last year, it was met with a rather huge reception, but it soon dimmed and no one knew if it was going to move forward. An entire 1st season of 24 episodes was shot, and to the best of my knowledge, they all aired. But the ratings never pulled high enough. After a lengthy hiatus, it was announced that the show would not be back. I really wondered if it could have been that bad, so when it was announced that the complete season was coming out on DVD, I made sure to get in a bid to try and review it.

When the DVD set showed up, I was a little hesitant to start watching it, after all Joey was my favorite character and I had no wish to see him fail. Most of the creative team from "Friends" made the movie to be a part of the new series, and they cast a whole new ensemble of characters around him. I finally started watching the episodes, and to be honest, the first few were less than stellar. Joey was still funny, but extremely stiff. Tried as I might not to, I kept expecting the humor to be the same style as "Friends", but it wasn't. And though I realized that the idea was not to make a "Friends" clone, the direction they were going just didn’t work.

However, as I watched I noticed that the cast really started coming together and jokes and pacing improved. "Joey" was becoming a better show, episode by episode. By the time I got to the last one, I found myself enjoying it quite a bit. It wasn't hysterically funny, and there were still some dull spots, but it was good enough to pass the time watching. I can see where audiences weren't able to give it the same chance I could to let it grow on me. Most left it before it started getting better, in one of those cases of 'a little too late.' By the time the show improved, audiences had already moved on.

On the bright side, the few audiences who stuck with the show will enjoy this new DVD set, since it has the entire season. Their one disappointment will be the same as mine though, as there are no special features to speak of. It's kind of understandable that no one involved with the show wanted to take the time to do any commentaries or interviews, after all the had been cancelled so it probably wouldn’t have been any fun for them. But I certainly would have enjoyed a few comments from the cast and crew about how they felt about the whole experience.

The Warner Brothers DVD of "Joey" hits store shelves this week.

Episodes:
Pilot
Joey and the Student
Joey and the Party
Joey and the Book Club
Joey and the Perfect Storm
Joey and the Nemesis
Joey and the Husband
Joey and the Dream Girl, Part 1
Joey and the Dream Girl, Part 2
Joey and the Big Audition
Joey and the Road Trip
Joey and the Plot Twist
Joey and the Taste Test
Joey and the Premiere
Joey and the Assistant
Joey and the Tonight Show
Joey and the Valentine's Date
Joey and the Wrong Name

Starring: Matt LeBlanc, Andrea Anders, Paulo Costanzo, Jennifer Coolidge, Drea de Matteo
Extras: None
Specifications: Full Screen
Studio: Warner Home Video
Release Date: 5/30/2006
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give Joey: Season 1 a B-.