Posted on: Thursday, September 9, 2004
TV REVIEW
'Joey' will need lots of friends to succeed
By Ed Bark
Knight Ridder News Service
Yep, Joey's still stupid. But has NBC made a smart choice?
Associated Press "I think it's the smart move. If you want to make it as an actor, you gotta move to L.A. — to Hollywood," he tells a cabbie.
"So what're you doin' in Dallas?" the driver wonders.
Pause, one-two-three-four.
"I did have a layover in Dallas," a flustered Joey finally musters.
The title character's principal foil is his saucy sister, Gina, played by Drea de Matteo, recently removed from "The Sopranos." Her Adriana La Cerva took plenty of punches before being whacked late last season. Now she'll be trading punch lines with her boob of a brother, starting with labored jokes tied to her recent enhancements.
References to Joey's immediate sitcom past are fewer and farther between.
"It's a very vibrant gay scene," Gina tells him as they enter the courtyard of the new apartment she's found for him.
"Chandler and I are not a gay couple!" he retorts.
Also in the mix is Gina's 20-year-old son, Michael (Paulo Costanzo), who yearns to declare his independence by moving in with Joey. A cute neighbor named Alex (Andrea Anders) prompts a "Happy Days"-ian "Ohhh" from the studio audience when she tells Joey she's married. The struggling actor also has a flamboyant new agent named Bobbie (Jennifer Coolidge). Her lone scene with him is the first episode's best.
LeBlanc, who emerged from the shadows of his co-stars in the last three seasons of "Friends," is still a decidedly limited actor if not a one-note one. Playing it dumb as Joey seems to come natural for him. His pre-"Friends" character on Fox, Vinnie Verducci, was a box of rocks, too.
But if "Gomer Pyle" can live long and prosper ... Thursday's first steps toward a hit-or-miss future are wobbly but not altogether clumsy. Now the characters must mesh and the jokes will have to get smarter even if Joey himself can't.
The big-hearted, intellectual ant from "Friends" is dizzily heading to Hollywood in the season's most-anticipated new comedy. "Joey," premiering tonight in the lead-off slot vacated by his other Central Perk pals, finds him instantly dazed and confused — but in Dallas.
Matt LeBlanc is comfortable as Joey in his new sitcom by the same name on NBC.
It remains to be seen whether lots of this can go a long way. Matt LeBlanc's Joey Tribbiani continues to draw mental blanks in this high-stakes spinoff of a show that stayed in Nielsen's top 10 for its entire 10-season run. One of the three creators of "Friends," Kevin S. Bright, is along for the figurative ride west, even though "Joey" originates from the same Warner Bros. soundstage as its predecessor.
'Joey'
