I know Joey fell short of ...
Question: I know
Joey fell short of expectations. It had its moments, but it also needs improvement, though I thought
Matt LeBlanc did as good a job as possible to make the show work. With
Friends, all six characters were good and funny from the beginning. All too often with sitcoms today, it seems the writers and actors think the goofier the character, the funnier the show. But if you look at the great sitcoms of the past, including
Friends, the characters were still people and not just ridiculous caricatures. Anyway, do you think
Joey can be salvaged?
Answer: I hope so, but I'm not sure any fix will be anything but too little, too late. Look at that time period this season:
Joey will be fighting for attention against a truly terrific new comedy, UPN's
Everybody Hates Chris, as well as
Survivor,
The O.C.,
Alias and
Smallville. I can tell you now that
Joey and
Will & Grace are fifth, maybe sixth, priority for me in that time period. But for NBC, fixing
Joey is a real priority. I don't know many details, but in NBC Entertainment president
Kevin Reilly's presentation at TCA, he said that
Joey will finally make it in Hollywood, which indicates he won't be stuck in that pathetic apartment so much; that
Drea de Matteo's character will go to work for
Jennifer Coolidge (yay to more of her!); and that
Joey will get a new actor buddy, adding new blood to the anemic ensemble. I hope it works. I still like LeBlanc and the character, but not when (as you noted earlier) he's more goofy than funny.
