Earlier than HBO Max even had a reputation, the streaming service snapped up the streaming rights to Friends. On the time, we have been hoping the Vacation Armadillos at WarnerMedia would additionally reward us with those extended scenes which might be presently solely out there to look at on the individual season DVDs of the sequence, however that they had one thing even higher in thoughts: an official cast reunion with all six Friends stars (which is delayed, however nonetheless within the works). Clearly, HBO Max is aware of what the Central Perk trustworthy really need, they usually’re prepared to clap-clap-clap-clap up some major cash to carry it to us. However there’s nonetheless yet one more factor they’d must do to make the gathering full: Make Joey out there to stream.
For the unfamiliar — and, contemplating it is almost unimaginable to look at the present these days, being unfamiliar with it’s fairly forgivable — Joey was an precise, honest-to-goodness Associates spin-off which aired for 2 seasons from 2004-2006. It picked up after the occasions of the Associates finale with Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc) transferring out west to pursue his appearing profession in Los Angeles. There, he lived together with his sister Gina (portrayed by Drea de Matteo) and nephew Michael (Paulo Costanzo) and grew near their next-door neighbor Alex (Andrea Anders). In contrast to its mum or dad present, Joey was not an awards season darling — removed from it — and it had a maddening lack of cameos from the remainder of the Associates stars (simply David Schwimmer graced the set of the present, and solely within the capability of directing two episodes).
Even when Joey is the “Smelly Cat” of the Associates universe, it is nonetheless a respectable a part of the sequence’ historical past and continues a narrative that was left unfinished by the Associates finale — whereas Monica (Courteney Cox) and Chandler (Matthew Perry) obtained the twins and a brand new house in Brooklyn, Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) and Ross (Schwimmer) determined to finish their “break” in the end, and even Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) discovered her fortunately ever after, Joey’s story was open-ended. There are two complete seasons of his “How You Doin'” antics on the market gathering mud within the Warner Bros. TV archives, and your possibilities of watching them are woefully slim in the intervening time.
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Not solely is Joey unavailable to stream anyplace that will not soften your pc down with a virus, however it’s extremely tough to get your palms on a bodily copy of the present, too. There are used versions of Season 1 floating round on the market, however Season 2 copies are extraordinarily uncommon (and costly) to seek out. Because of this, the hundreds of thousands of recent followers who got here into the Associates zone by the use of its streaming availability on Netflix, and now HBO Max, are principally out of luck on the subject of watching the present, and that’s, to borrow a well-known quote from Joey, “whack.” In the event you did not catch it throughout its preliminary broadcast or snag a type of early DVD releases, it is “le poo” for you — until HBO Max decides to swoop in like Joey together with his copy of Buffay the Vampire Layer and at last give this present a streaming house in the end. (TV Information has reached out to HBO for remark.)
If HBO Max desires to be the streaming service equal to Monica’s cozy condominium (it even has a purple interface!), making Joey out there to the hundreds of thousands of Associates followers who did not occur to catch it in its time could be the icing on the trifle.
Associates is accessible to stream on HBO Max. Joey is (sigh) unavailable to stream right now.
Paulo Costanzo, Matt LeBlanc, and Drea de Matteo, Joey