Making it official certainly makes the Joey-Rachel "suspense" a non-issue. No way Jennifer Aniston is a part of the spinoff.

Not this past season.

Just for the record my favorite is Chandler. I would watch a Chandler spinoff. I'll also watch this one, though It wasn't until the DVD set for the third season came out that I started watching Friends (I had never seen an ep) and now I just ordered the fourth season because I'm hooked.

My order of preference:
Chandler
Joey
Ross
Rachel
Phoebe
Monica

I think they need to have Joey meet up with Kramer. Kramer can write the scripts and Joey can act them out. This is only if Kramer and the gang ever got out of jail.

Agreed, so I guess Rachel will hook up with Ross...which sucks because Ross is one of the most annoying characters in the history of prime time comedy. Right up there with Urkel and that guy Brosnan Pinchot played....

Okay does Ross like totally change from Season 4 on? Because I just got through Season 3 and don't see him as annoying...

Hmmmm. I've been watching since the beginning and can't decide if he's just become more annoying over time, or the act has just become old (and therefore, annoying).

If I hear "We were on a break" one more time........

Not so sure if I'll watch this...I've always been a Chandler fan and they're both at their best when they play off of each other.

I think so too. Why can't Chandler and Monica take a break and have Chandler move out with Joey? It'd be like the Odd Couple in Hollywood.

Ross's character changes after Emily divorces him and he has that breakdown, goes on sebatical, loses apartment, etc. He gets really annoying and whining then. Monica changes at some point too. She gets really neurotic in the last few seasons. Chandler gets more laid back/less funny after they hook him up with Monica

Unless they kill her off.

I agree completely and I pinpoint the fall of Friends after they get back from the Vegas trip.

Funny, they don't mention the baseball movie he did with the chimp.

As for when it "jumped the shark", that site says it was when:

382 votes - Never Jumped
199 votes - Day One
193 votes - They Did It (Ross and Rachel)
176 votes - They Did It (Chandler and Monica)
159 votes - I Do (Chandler and Monica)
121 votes - Joey has a crush on Rachel

Seems the more recent the storyline, the faster it is climbing the charts.

ROSS: She wants me to take responsibility for everything that went wrong in our relationship. I mean she goes on for five pages about, about how I was unfaithful to her! Well... WE WERE ON A BREAK!!!

CHANDLER: Oh my God! If you say that one more time, I’m gonna break up with you!

ROSS: Fine! Fine! But this break-up was not all my fault, and she, she says here, "If you accept full responsibility...", Full responsibility! "...I can begin to trust you again. Does that seem like something you can do." Does it?!

JOEY: No?



(Just gotta love fan sites!)

I'd at least check out a few episodes to see where the writers want to take his character. It's hard to be open-minded about these spinoffs now, as they all fail terribly.

Now, if this was the 70's, a spinoff would almost be gauranteed to be a hit.

It's a sitcom thing. The longer a show runs, the writers don't know what to do with the characters, so they become a parody -- or at least extreme incarnation -- of what they were originally.

So Joey becomes dumb as a post.
Ross becomes even more insecure and creepy.
Phoebe gets weirder and weirder.

Look at how Kelly Bundy was played on "Married With Children" in later seasons.

A Joey spin-off will live or die by the supporting cast.

It'll have to be like "Frasier." That show uses (or I should say "used" as it has become quite painful to watch these last few years) the title character as a lynchpin to bring other, more interesting, characters together. Martin, Niles, Daphne, Ros, Eddie.

Which is what they'll have to do with "Joey." I wouldn't be surprised if one of his sisters moved to L.A. with him. It would provide an attractive female character who wasn't a potential romantic interest. Throw in a couple of wacky neighbors and an unattainable romantic interest for Joey, and you're set.