After the incredibly popular 10-year run of
Friends on NBC Thursday nights, Matt LeBlanc's character was spun off into his own sitcom,
Joey. He was joined there by Drea de Matteo (
The Sopranos), Paulo Costanzo (
Josie and the Pussycats), Andrea Anders (
The Class) and Jennifer Coolidge (
American Pie). The first season of the show had so-so ratings, especially as compared to
Friends. For the second season they tried making adjustments: Joey caught his "big break" and was on his way to become a big star; his agent (Coolidge) therefore had a bigger role; they gave him a new close friend; and his relationship with a potential romantic interest (Anders) changes somewhat.
All was calculated to try to beef things up, but by then audiences had largely moved on, and ratings took a steep nosedive. After 13 of the second season's 22 episodes had aired, NBC took the show out of the "Must-See TV" Thursday-night slot it had inherited from
Friends, and after a three month delay returned it to the air...on Tuesday nights, up against
American Idol. After a single disastrous night of ratings, NBC officially canceled the show, and has never aired the final 8 episodes that were produced.
With a record like that, it's not difficult to see why Warner Brothers decided to
release the 1st Season on DVD (back in May 2006), but never got around to releasing the second season. And at this time, Warner Home Video's USA division has still not decided to move forward with a DVD release to wrap up the series.
The Canadian division of Warner Home Video, however, HAS decided to go ahead and bring out
Joey - The Complete 2nd Season! The collection is being planned as a 6-disc set that will arrive north of the border on
May 13th. Six discs? Yes, that's the listed info, but that sounds like a lot to us (since it's 22 episodes, and for the first season set we saw 24 episodes fit just fine onto four discs); we'll double-check on that. Running time shown is 471 minutes, Video is listed as full-frame, audio as an English - Stereo 2.0 soundtrack. English and French subtitles will be present. The cost will be CA$55.98 SRP.
Among the 2nd Season guest stars (including unaired episodes) are Kevin Smith, John Larroquette, Dan Cortese, Betty White, Coolio, Alan Thicke, Dave Foley, Cindy Margolis, Ellen DeGeneres, George Hamilton, Gregory Harrison, Brande Roderick, Carmen Electra, Robert Costanzo, Adam Goldberg, Masi Oka, Julia Sweeney and Neil Flynn.
Box art isn't available yet, but stay tuned and we'll bring that to you just as soon as we can! For those of you in the USA who want this in your collection, be aware that the Canadian release is still "Region 1," and will work just fine on any standard DVD player if you import a copy from Canada. When Amazon's branch in Canada lists this item for pre-order, we'll be sure to set up a listing that includes the link. Your American branch Amazon account will work just fine, with your credit card easily handling the exchange rate for you, which is almost even as of this writing (CA$55.98 = US$56.36 right now).
Our gratitude goes to Martin Albert of Le Coin du DVD (CoinduDVD.com) for tipping us off to this information, and to Warner (both USA and Canada) for filling us in on the background. Below is the official studio description for the show. Stay tuned for updates!
From three executive producers of the phenomenal hit series "Friends" comes the highly anticipated new comedy "Joey." Multiple Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Award nominee Matt LeBlanc reprises his "Friends" role as charming and still-single Joey Tribbiani, who has struck out on his own and moved to Hollywood, hoping to truly make it as an actor. Joey says goodbye to a time when his friends were his family and welcomes the chance to turn his family into his friends. After reuniting with his high-strung sister Gina, a strong and sexy hairdresser, Joey shares an apartment with her genius 20-year-old son, graduate student Michael - who literally is a rocket scientist. Joey soon meets his sexy neighbor, Alex Garrett, an uptight lawyer. What Joey lacks in book smarts, he more than makes up for with his people skills, making him the best new friend his nephew could ask for.
