Not your average ‘Joey’

There doesn’t seem to be a particular formula or key to making a successful spin-off. It’s a question of character, or should I say characters. For every “Frasier” and “The Jeffersons," there is a “Joanie Loves Chachi.” If the audience connects with the characters, the show will be a hit, if not, your spinoff will spin off into oblivion.

That is why “Joey” will succeed as a spinoff. Goodness knows, Joey is a character.

Everybody knows a Joey. He’s the happy-go-lucky guy that sits next to you at work who seems oblivious to the Sturm und Drang going on around him.  He doesn’t get offended when he’s the butt of everyone’s jokes (assuming he gets the jokes in the first place) and can smell a box of donuts from a mile away. He’s not on anyone’s list of most hated and oh yeah, the ladies do like him. Hey there, how you doin’?

Joey is dumber than a bag of hammers, and the only relationship he’s ever committed to was with a meatball sandwich.

In 10 seasons, Joey was rarely at odds with any of his “Friends.” He had two notable run-ins with Chandler. The first time was over a woman, Kathy, which landed Chandler in a box on Thanksgiving. But soft-hearted Joey couldn’t stay mad at his roommate. The second time was over a very big, flashy bracelet. (“He has to get me the woman repeller, the eyesore from the Liberace house of crap.”) Once again, Joey forgives his best friend. Joey is loyal. Joey loves unconditionally. He always forgives.

But Joey isn’t perfect. He is dumber than a bag of hammers, and the only relationship he’s ever committed to was with a meatball sandwich. But Joey is a nice guy, just not in that Richie Cunningham gosh-golly sticky sweet way. He’s the kind of guy you want to hang out with, the kind you want to, say, spent 30 minutes on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. with.

Matt LeBlanc has made this lovable loser into a multi-dimensional guy. In the course of 10 seasons of “Friends,” LeBlanc (and the writers) have taken the character from pretty-boy sidekick to main character that evolved into true friend.

The more things change, the more they stay the same
Joey has changed throughout the years but he has remained consistent. He didn’t become smarter, just more experienced. He may have fallen in love with Rachel, but in the end, a real relationship with her just wasn’t for him. He got roles on TV shows and in movies, but he didn’t become a great actor.

And if there is one characteristic that is common to all successful spinoffs, it’s consistency.

Frasier Crane was a very minor character when he debuted on “Cheers”. He was a pompous self-absorbed psychiatrist who was engaged to marry Diane before she (talk about consistent), broke his heart to return to Sam, whose heart she eventually broke, too. Again.

Even when Frasier became a barfly, saddling up next to Cliff and Norm each night, he remained the same. And when he moved to Seattle and became the centerpiece of “Frasier,” he was the same neurotic narcissist he was in Boston.

When Rhoda left Mary behind in Minneapolis and moved back to New York, she did not suddenly become confident and thin.

Louise Jefferson remained smarter than George when they moved up to the East side.

And Joey won’t change just because he’s moving to Los Angeles and heading up his own show. He will have wise-cracking older sister Gina (Drea DeMatteo; "The Sopranos" loss is "Joey's" gain) to look out for him and torment him. He will have his new agent, the tell-it-like it is Bobby, to keep him humble and employed. Maybe.

NBC is counting on “Joey” to lead off its revised Thursday night lineup. The network is hoping audiences will tune in each week because folks just plain like Joey.

Denise Hazlick is lead entertainment editor at MSNBC.com

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