Pilot (Joey episode)

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“Pilot (Joey)”
Joey episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 1
Guest stars	Wyatt Smith (Man in Airplane Terminal) Wayne Wilderson (Director #2) Jason Huber (The Taxi Driver) Matthew Mullany (The Director) Lawrence Mandley (The Slate Guy) Nancy O'Dell (Herself) Ethan Erickson (Sam) Tommy Perna (The Criminal)
Written by	Shana Goldberg-Meehan and Scott Silveri
Directed by	Kevin S. Bright
Production no.	475246
Original airdate	September 9, 2004
Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
–	"Joey and the Student"

Pilot is the pilot of the American sitcom Joey.

First aired: September 9, 2004.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

1 Plot
2 Trivia
3 Featured music
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Plot

This is the first episode of Joey. In this episode, Joey moves to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career. After accidentally taking a cab through Dallas (under the misapprehension that he was in LA) he arrives in an LA airport and is greeted by his sister Gina. Joey and Gina talk about Gina's recent boob job and about Joey's new start to his career. Joey tells Gina that he has been offered a part on a show about male nurses and another show, this on cable, in which he stars as a cop.

Joey and Gina go to Joey's apartment. There they meet up with Michael, Joey's nephew. Gina tells Joey not to tell Michael that she had him when she was only 16 - she has told him that he was born when she was 22. Michael, now a college student, expresses to Joey his wish to move out of his mother's house. Joey initially refuses.

Later, Joey is hanging out on his back porch, where he meets Alex, one of his neighbours, to whom he is initially attracted. When Joey proudly informs her that he is an actor, she tells him that most of the people in the building are actors including the guy in the apartment above hers, who is a porn actor ("It's not the best").

Joey later receives the news that his cop show is not going to air because it is too disgusting. Meanwhile, "Nurses" is becoming a huge success and Joey is out of work. When Michael makes meatballs for Joey to cheer him up, Joey agrees to let Michael move in with him.

After an unsuccessful audition to present Hollywood Minute, Joey returns to his apartment where he finds out that Alex is married.

He then takes on the difficult task of convincing Gina to let Michael move in with him, inadvertently revealing in the process that Gina was only 16 when Michael was born. The episode ends with Gina reprising a childhood punishment she would often inflict on Joey - twisting his ear until he shouts "I'm gay for David Cassidy!"

[edit] Trivia

Joey lives in "Monroe Manor".
All episode titles (except this pilot) begin with the words "Joey and the...".
This episode is also known as "The One Where Joey Gets Cancelled", in the style of Friends-episode titles.
Kevin S. Bright is the only one of the three creators of Friends that has moved on to work on Joey. Marta Kauffman and David Crane have not continued to work on Joey though they still receive credit for creating the character of Joey.
Joey is filmed on the same sound stage on which they filmed Friends - Soundstage 24 at Warner Brothers studios in Burbank, California.
John Shaffner, a production designer for this show was nominated for an Art Directors Guild award Excellence in Production Design Award for his work in the pilot episode. However, he didn't get the award.
In the original version of the pilot, the Access Hollywood segment featured Pat O'Brien. After the pilot was filmed, O'Brien left Access Hollywood, so the scene was reshot with Nancy O'Dell. Also, the name of the nurses show was originally R.N. but was changed to Nurses for this episode. Nurses was the name of an actual NBC sitcom that aired from 1991 to 1994, although it wasn't about male nurses.
The theme song is "Sunny Hours" by Long Beach Dub All-Stars featuring will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas.
Ashley Scott was originally cast as Alex, but was recast after test audiences didn't see much chemistry with Matt LeBlanc.
Jennifer Coolidge ("Bobbie") also played "Amanda" in the episode "The One With Ross's Tan" of Friends.
This is the second spin-off that Matt LeBlanc has starred in. The first spin off he starred in was a spin off off of Fox's popular show Married... with Children.
The continuity between Friends and Joey is horrible. In Friends we left off with Joey living in his apartment in New York, and Joey starring in Days of Our Lives. When Joey starts there is no information given as to why he left New York, or what happened to him on Days of Our Lives (although he is awarded best death scene in Joey and the Wrong Name).
Joey's Magna Doodle wasn't up in this episode because the movers hadn't arrived.
Matt LeBlanc had to lose 30 pounds by the shooting of the pilot because the NBC executives wanted him to look nice for the show.
Alex's full name is Alexis Julia Garrett. Joey's full name is Joseph Francis Tribbiani.
This is the only episode of the show that is not presented in HDTV.
Joey is famous for dying when he plays Dr Drake Remoray on Days of Our Lives. In Friends, he falls down am elevator shaft (The One Where Dr. Ramoray Dies) and in Joey he is stabbed with a scalpel in the middle of an operation (Joey and the Wrong Name).