Joey.

Spin-offs.  We dread them yet we cannot seem to tear our eyes away from the series premier.  With this post I bring you Joey, a spin-off of the beloved sitcom Friends.

Joey follows Joey Tribbiani on his move from New York City to Los Angeles to follow his acting career.  I am a big time fan of Friends.  I have watched the series through from beginning to end at least six times.  You can catch all of Friends streaming on Netflix right now, which makes it easier to binge watch.  Joey premiered in 2004, shortly after Friends ended.  I was still young but I vaguely remember watching the first episode and thinking it was terrible.  So I never watched it again.

The thing with spin-offs is that we all just want to keep watching our favorite show that we know and love.  We start watching these spin-off shows with a closed mind and eventually these shows get canceled after just half a season.  However, after some time has passed maybe we should be revisiting these shows.  I'm always putting Friends on when I'm home cleaning, cooking, or working on a project but enough time has passed that now I'm hungry for new material and Joey is one satisfying meal.

I am here to tell you that you should try re-watching all of those failed spin-offs!  Well, maybe not all of them.  Caleb and decided to watch Joey and I have to say we both really like it so far.  We sat down and watched four episodes in a row.  It's still our favorite Joey but he's in a new setting with new people.

The premise of the show has Joey moving to L.A. with his Sister, Gina Tribianni played by Drea de Matteo.  You might recognize Drea as Adriana in The Sopranos or more recently as Wendy in Sons of Anarchy.  Originally Joey's sister Gina was played by K.J. Steinberg in "The One Where Chandler Can't Remember."

Gina had a baby at age 16 and her son is now 20 years old in this series.  Michael Tribianni, played by Paulo Costanza, is a rocket scientist which is pretty funny considering what a dope Joey is.  You might recognize Paulo from his role as Evan in Royal Pains.

Replacing his quirky agent Estelle is Jennifer Coolidge as Bobbie.  I adore Jennifer Coolidge!  I love her in everything I've seen her in.  She even had a guest role on Friends as Monica and Phoebe's frenemy Amanda Buffamonteezi (Monica darling!  It's Amanda calling!).

An unfamiliar face to me is Andrea Anders, who plays Alex, the super at Joey's apartment complex.  She's no Mr. Treeger but she's still a great character.  She has a slew of recurring television roles you might want to check out!

One more character worth mentioning is Joey's potential best friend, Howard!  Howard is played by the hilarious Ben Falcone.  Ben is married to Melissa McCarthy and has appeared in many of her movies as well as his own.  New Girl, Bridesmaids, Tammy, and even Gilmore Girls are just a few of the great projects he's been a part of.

I am only about six episodes in but I could not wait to write about this one.  I will make another entry about Joey when I finish the series.  Luckily this particular spin-off managed to last for two whole seasons!

Check back in a few weeks for more on Joey!

Saved by the Bell.

Saved by the Bell is streaming on Netflix!  I love this show.  It brings back all those amazing youthful feelings of happiness and being carefree.  I was born in 1991 but that doesn't mean I was too young to appreciate all the music and television shows that the 90s had to offer.  When I first started watching Saved by the Bell again I found the show kind of hard to take.  It's dorky and immature and the story lines are absurd.  It got better through it and I'm glad I pushed onward.  So if you try watching these again and think "this show is stupid, why did I ever like it?"  Just keep trying! You can do it!

The series ran from 1989 to 1993 and then had Saved by the Bell: The College Years as a spin off.  Not as good, of course, but I still watched it.  The show was actually a spin off from something called Good Morning, Miss Bliss.  Disney picked up the series for thirteen episodes, where the teacher, Miss Bliss, was the main character and the secondary characters were Mr. Belding, Zack, Screech, Lisa, Nikki, and Mikey.  Now, if you watch the first season of Saved by the Bell on Netflix you'll see that these characters are all featured.  So I'm gonna take a leap here and say that the first season of Saved by the Bell is actually the show Good Morning, Miss Bliss.  After the first season the characters change; we now have Zack, Screech, Lisa, and Mr. Belding plus Kelly, Jessie, and of course A.C. Slater.

Saved by the Bell has a great cast and stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Zack, Dustin Diamond as Screech, Lark Voorhies as Lisa, Dennis Haskins as Mr. Belding, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen as Kelly, Elizabeth Berkley as Jessie, and Mario Lopez as Slater.  What have they all been up to since the show?

• Mark-Paul Gosselaar hasn't been in anything big that I've seen but he has had recurring roles on Franklin & Bash, Raising the Bar, and D.C.
• Dustin Diamond is an interesting dude who made a BIG splash on Celebrity Fit Club in 2008.  He has a foul mouth and giant attitude.  I can't even remember if he lost weight or not, all I remember is that he left the show and then came back.  He was also on Hollywood Squares in 2003.  That show was awesome.  OH!  Dustin also wrote an "insider" book in 2009 called Behind the Bell in which he spilled lot's of secrets.  Most of which his colleagues claim are not true.  Oh Dustin, you will always be Screech no matter how hard you try, sorry!  Even if you have allegedly had sex with 2,000 women.
• Lark Voorhies has been in all kinds of stuff since her Bayside years but nothing I've ever heard of.  She was in The Bold and the Beautiful from 1995-1996 but that's the only significant title I recognize.
• Dennis Haskins, the man, has been in just about everything.  He was in all the seasons of Saved by the Bell, including the spin-offs.
• Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, aside from being a mom, was most notably in Beverly Hills, 90210 from 1994-2000.  Which is an impressive run.  So she's been in two long television series.  Good for you Tiffani!
• You can see Elizabeth Berkley's breasts in Show Girls if you want.  She's been in lot's of other stuff but nothing really compares to Show Girls in 1995.  I mean, she plays a ruthless exotic dancer in Las Vegas! What's not to like?
• Finally there is the ever-so-popular, Mario Lopez.  Mario has been in loads of lame movies, like stuff on ABC Family.  Which I still love and will happily admit.  He has been the dorky but studly host of The X Factor, Mario Lopez: One on One, H8R, America's Best Dance Crew, and Pet Star.  Plus he's just been on EVERYTHING.  Seriously. Whether he's the host, a guest, or a contestant, he's been on too many things to list.  What a guy!

So the show did have some drama towards the end of the series.  Thiessen and Berkley refused to renew their contracts so the character of Tori, played by Leanna Creel, was added to replace them.  Tori is only in half of the episodes of the final season.  So it's really confusing to watch because suddenly Kelly and Jessie are there, then they aren't, then there they are again!  They filmed the graduation scenes while Thiessen and Berkley were still around and mixed the Tori episodes in the middle.  It's super confusing and weird but I am glad Kelly and Jessie graduation scenes were filmed so the original, favorite crew was all together for everyone to say goodbye to their Bayside friends.

If you love this show as much as I always have then give it another go!  It's streaming on Netflix right now!  If you've never seen the show before, well I'm not sure how you'll feel about it.  Let me know!  It's very 90s so beware but it's also totally amazing.

One really unique thing about Saved by the Bell is how Zack talks to the audience.  Something will be happening and he'll just stop and talk directly into the camera.  Here's a ridiculous clip that literally made me laugh out loud.