There are so many examples of popular TV shows that formed great spinoffs — for example, Breaking Bad spawned Better Call Saul; All in the Family gave us The Jeffersons and many others; and Young Sheldon came from The Big Bang Theory. It’s surprising, then, that Friends — one of the best sitcoms of all time — inspired just one series (a failed spinoff at that) in Joey. Turns out, things could have been different if not for one big “no” from Jennifer Aniston.
Joey, starring Matt LeBlanc, premiered four months after Friends’ “The Last One” in 2004. However, it turns out the New York Knicks-obsessed, food-loving soap opera actor was not the first character NBC wanted to center a spinoff around. According to executive producer Kevin Bright, it was Jennifer Aniston who was first approached. He told Collider:
At first it was the obvious choices of who they wanted to do a series with and Jennifer was up there first, but she wanted to do movies, and she wasn’t interested in television.
It seems like if we were going to see Rachel’s story continued, David Schwimmer would also have to be involved, given the fact that Ross and Rachel reunited in the series finale. However, I can see a world where Rachel ended up taking the job in Paris anyway and there would be mention of Ross taking care of their daughter, Emma, back in the States.
We’ll file that in the “what could have been” category.
Matt LeBlanc was actually the most sensible actor to lead a spinoff, because Joey was the only character whose future didn’t really play into the Friends finale’s plot. Ross and Rachel got back together, Monica and Chandler had surprise twins (I will never buy this as plausible), and newlyweds Phoebe and Mike had plans to start their own family.
However, after Jennifer Aniston said no to a Rachel spinoff, there was apparently another option before they landed on Joey. Kevin Bright said:
We like the idea of a Monica and Chandler series, but everyone at the end, strangely enough, while they were grateful for doing the show, they didn’t want to play those parts anymore.
That is kind of understandable; it had been 10 years of their lives, after all. So, in the end, they landed on a show that followed the life and career of Joey Tribbiani because, the EP said:
Matt loved Joey, and he didn’t mind playing Joey.
That statement seems to be lacking the enthusiasm one would hope for in a Friends follow-up, but maybe I’m reading too much into the tone because I know how things worked out.
For as much flack as Joey got from critics and fans alike, it’s surprising that the sitcom aired 46 episodes over two seasons before being canceled by NBC. None of the other five Friends stars reprised their role in that time to visit Matt LeBlanc’s character (so much for “I’ll be there for you,” am I right?), and outside of the 2021 Friends reunion special, the six actors never shared the stage again.
Would things have been different if Rachel had been the show that premiered in 2004? There’s no way to know, but at least we can continue to stream Friends episodes with our HBO Max subscription. Also, the first two episodes of Joey are available to stream on YouTube.