Gourt Home::Gourt :: Joey Tribbiani
Joseph "Joey" Francis Tribbiani Junior is a fictional character on the popular US television sitcom Friends (1994–2004), played by Matt LeBlanc. He is also the title character on Joey (2004-2006), the only spin-off of the aforementioned show.
Background
Joey comes from an Italian family of 8 children, of which he is the only male. He is one of the few "Friends" that made (relatively) few moves of home, having only changed apartments four times in the series: once, he moved into what is usually Monica's apartment and then back to his own; another time, he moved to his own lavish apartment away from Chandler, with whom the psychotic Eddie moved in, but shortly moved back afterwards. Joey is a "stereotypical" actor: oversexed, looking for work and not the brightest crayon in the box.
Career
Joey has a career in acting. He also pursues modeling at one point. It was successful until he learned his latest picture was that for a health safety poster advertising VD. The poster was shown all over the city, including the scoreboard at Madison Square Garden and led to him being briefly ostracized by his whole family. His character is known for his simple-mindedness, trouble with understanding negative criticism of his acting, love of food (particularly sandwiches) and success with women, which generated the popular catchphrase "How you doin'?" (his pickup line). However, he is something of an idiot savant in matters of romance. For example, he made up an anecdote that Chandler and Monica referred to as the Europe story; apparently, anyone who hears it will immediately want to have sex with the teller. (See "The One With the Videotape", Season 8 of Friends.)
His roles varied from doctor to headshot in the above-mentioned public health poster for VD. Joey's most famous acting role (and longest lasting) was as Dr. Drake Ramoray on the serial drama Days of Our Lives. However, when he claimed in an interview that he wrote many of his own lines, the writers of the show became annoyed and killed him off a few episodes later (he fell down an elevator shaft). His character later returned after a bizarre plot line resurrected him. Joey's agent was Estelle Leonard.
Relationships
Joey famously shared an apartment with his best friend Chandler Bing. The two formed perhaps one of the most likeable and enduring television friendships in sitcom history. Their adventures included losing Ross's baby son on a bus, Chandler's dismay at Joey building an entertainment center which was so big it covered both of their doors, buying a chick and a duck (affectionately named 'The Chick and The Duck'), replacing their dining table with a foosball table, spending hours watching Baywatch, stupid fights, Chandler living in a box to prove how much their friendship means to him . . . the list could go on. A long-running gag depicted Joey and Chandler occasionally fighting with each other like an old married couple, with Chandler often assuming the wife role while Joey assumed the husband role, suggesting homosexual undertones in their friendship (this eventually ended when Chandler became permanently paired with Monica). The two "broke up" temporarily after Joey found success as Dr. Drake Ramoray, but soon moved back in together (after fooling replacement roommate Eddie into believing he'd never lived with Chandler). In the final episode, Monica destroyed the foosball table (when the two couldn't bring themselves to do it to release the trapped Chick Jr. and Duck Jr.), before Chandler moved to the New York suburbs to begin their new family. However, Chandler and Monica made it clear that their new home would have a specially designated "Joey room".
When Chandler moved out to pursue a relationship with Monica, Joey was joined by Janine (Elle MacPherson). He formed a stronger bond with Rachel Green during her pregnancy with Ross Geller. He eventually fell in love with Rachel and dated her for a time; however, nothing came of it and the two returned to being just good friends, and she ended up finally with Ross.
Joey is perhaps the most loyal of the friends. In one episode, when Joey believed Phoebe to be pregnant, he proposed marriage, claiming the world is too scary for a single mother alone. However, when it was revealed that it was in fact Rachel who was pregnant, Joey proposed to Rachel, making the exact same speech and demanding the ring back from Phoebe. He also offered to stand up for Ross and Chandler when they were being bullied at Central Perk, and he allowed Monica to hire and fire him so as to prove to her employees that she was not a pushover. When he discovered that Monica and Chandler have developed a romantic relationship and they learned about it, he had agreed to keep it a secret until the two were ready to admit it to the rest of their group (although he was not above humiliating Monica by covering her and Chandler's affair up with the above statement that he himself had slept with her in London).
Joey's relationships with the other Friends have always been very friendly. He is best friends with Chandler, and Ross is a close second, if not tied. Rachel and the other women on the show have been the object of many sexist comments on Joey's behalf, especially Monica. Chandler once put it, "Your long-standing offer to have sex with my wife is much appreciated." That statement pretty much sums up his behavior around most women; However, Monica, Rachel and Phoebe were always special to him and he cares about them very much.
Trivia
It is a running gag that Joey has always wanted to have sex with Monica. At one point, he claimed they had slept together in London, as a way of covering up the fact that Monica and Chandler were dating. Also when one of the Friends asks Joey a series of questions in which Joey has to give rapid answers to, they ask "Who would you rather have sex with, Monica or Rachel?" and to his own surprise, Joey answers Monica.
There was some confusion over when Joey joined the "Friends" group. We see in The One with the Flashback that he joined the group exactly one year before Rachel's failed wedding to Barry. This would be September 21, 1993. However, as we in "The One with all the Thanksgivings," we see him with Pheobe and Monica in a 1992 Thanksgiving flashback.
Joey was the only Friend who ended the series without a lover. (Rachel with Ross, Monica with Chandler and Phoebe with Mike Hannigan). It emerged that Phoebe had a secret crush on Joey. However, this was rather playful and was never acted upon.
Joey was ordained over the Internet and officiated at Chandler's wedding to Monica and Phoebe's wedding to Mike Hannigan.
When he was a child, Joey had an imaginary friend called Maurice, who was a space cowboy. It was also revealed in one episode that he slept with his "Bedtime Penguin Pal," Hugsy, a plush doll and the penguin is shown every time you see Joey's bed. Rachel's little daughter Emma became enamored of Hugsy; Joey at first allowed Hugsy to stay in Emma's playpen, but eventually decided he loved him too much and took him back. When Rachel demanded, "You're going to take him from a little child?!" he retorted "How d'you think I got him in the first place?"
In an alternate reality storyline during the show ("The One That Could Have Been"), Joey is still playing "Dr. Drake Ramoray" and is now a rich soap star. In a reversal of roles, it is now Joey who earns more money, while Chandler is down on his luck. Yet they remain fiercely loyal friends, in spite of Chandler's failed attempt to earn extra cash by being Joey's assistant.
Post-Friends
After the 2003/2004 final season of Friends, Joey Tribbiani became the main character of Joey, a spin-off TV series, where he moved to L.A. to polish his acting career. His sister Gina and her son Michael were two other central characters of the sitcom "Joey".
Friends characters | Fictional actors | Fictional Italian-Americans | Promiscuous fictional characters
Joey Tribbiani | Joey Tribbiani | Joey Tribbiani | Joey Tribbiani | Joey Tribbiani | Joey Tribbiani
"Joey Tribbiani"