Chances are you haven’t heard of Cheers, but failed to have any wit of its own. Joey had none of the bromance moments compared to other comedies released around the same time, and was criticized for being largely inconsistent to how Joey had previously been established.
Even fifteen years after this show debuted, fans like to pretend it never existed so that we can just go back to thinking the Joey we had on Friends was the only version of the character that existed. For you to know why this resentment is so strong, here are 10 inconsistencies Joey had compared to Friends.
Joey's Dimness
On Friends, Joey got progressively dumber as the seasons went on, but he still had a kind of wit to him where he could catch situations that smart people like Ross could not; on Joey's own show, he was just a big bonehead.
Not only was he generally dumb, Joey lost his golden touch in talking to women because he couldn’t conjure up charming stuff like he used to. This got to the point where Joey couldn’t even beat a foreign guy who could barely speak English in an English-speaking class. Creator Kevin Bright also echoed similar sentiments in an interview after Joey’s cancellation.
Joey's Age
In the beginning Friends Season 2, Joey was said to have been 28 years of age, with following seasons continuing this pattern. However, that would mean Joey would have to be around 37 years old when his own show started, yet Michael called him out to be 35.
Not only that, but Joey was somehow okay with getting old when he had been hard against the idea on Friends, where he refused to believe he had turned 30 when that birthday had arrived. On Joey, he itted without any problems that he was getting too old to pick up girls in bars.
Gina Being Older Than Joey
All of Joey’s sisters were shown to have been younger than him when they showed up on Friends, with these women barely looking like they had even crossed 25 years of age by that point. However, Joey was shown to have moved to Los Angeles to be around his elder sister Gina.
This doesn’t add up to how Joey was painted as being the older brother of seven sisters on Friends, but this was never brought up on the spin-off, where he was said to be a year or two younger than Gina.
Gina's Appearance
This is an easy point to make, seeing as Gina looked nothing like the actress who portrayed her on Friends. In that season, Gina looked exactly the same as her sisters, leading Chandler to be confused over which sister he had kissed.
On Joey, Gina didn’t even remotely resemble her Friends appearance. Even her style of talking was nothing like it was before. She had also been very outspoken on Joey, but seemed to be okay with blending in with the rest of her sisters on Friends for some reason.
Everything About Mary-Theresa
This was supposed to be the sister who had tried to steal Chandler from Mary-Angela, but was a far sight from what she was on Friends when she appeared on Joey. In the latter series, Mary-Theresa somehow became the second youngest sister in the family and her characterization completely changed.
While she had been shown to be close to her sisters on Friends, here she and Gina couldn’t stand one another. Mary-Theresa was also depicted as being a spoiled brat on Joey, where she didn’t even speak with the accent she had on Friends.
Joey's Father Not Approving His Career
The actor portraying Joey’s father was the only one who carried his appearance from Friends to the spin-off, but even he was riddled with inconsistencies. Despite Joey having made it as an actor during his own show, his father suddenly had a bitterness for Joey not going into the same business he did.
This didn’t make any sense, since Joey’s father was very ive on Friends, at a time when Joey was struggling in his career and had no direction. Why would Mr. Tribbiani disapprove of his son’s career a decade later when he was now successful?
Joey Calling Ross His Best Friend Over Chandler
It was well-known that Joey saw Chandler as his best friend during Friends, and this was a fact Ross knew very well. Every time Joey got angry at Chandler, he would use Ross only as a replacement, and then go back to calling Chandler his best friend later on. Plus, Joey did get on Ross's nerves because of that whole thing with Rachel.
However, Joey spoke about Rachel as the girl he'd once been in love with, who was now married to his best friend in New York. Not only does this contradict him calling Chandler his best friend, it also appears as if Gina somehow didn’t know who Ross and Rachel were.
Michael Existing At All
When Joey’s youngest sister got pregnant on Friends, Joey was beside himself with rage and beat up the father of the child to force him into marrying his sister. And yet, we were made to believe Joey had already seen this happen when Gina had gotten pregnant with Michael.
More than that, there was also no trace of Michael when Gina had visited Joey on Friends. If he was supposed to have existed at that point — which math says he should have. Michael should’ve been present at the family dinner Chandler attended. In fact, he should’ve been around 10 or 11 years old during Friends.
Joey's Childhood Best Friend Being Awfully Like Eddie
We get that they got the same actor who portrayed Chandler’s insane former roommate Eddie to play Michael’s father on Joey, but there was nothing to separate both of the characters. Jimmy was almost a carbon copy of Eddie.
Both of them acted like total lunatics, they both had anger problems, they had the same manner of talking, and they both seemed to be forgetful about the most important points. However, Jimmy was said to have been Joey’s childhood friend, which means Joey should’ve at least felt that Eddie was remarkably like Jimmy when he met the former on Friends.
Joey's Lack Of With His Original Friends
Anybody who’s seen even a few episodes of Friends knows that Joey’s whole life revolved around his pals. He gave up relationships like the one he had with Janine for them, he would go out of his way to make them happy, and forgave anything bad they might have done to him because he loved them so much.
All this didn’t seem to matter to the character on Joey, where he didn’t even mention these people. Other than on a couple occasions — and even here, he would usually not use their names — it looked like Joey might have forgotten about his friends entirely. Joey had a new best friend in this show as well, and he didn’t think twice over how easily he’d replaced his former buddies.
