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Did Joey From Friends Ever Appear on Days of Our Lives? Well ...
“This was the greatest thing that ever happened to me," Friends characterJoey Tribbiani declared about his soap gig.
Paging Dr. Drake Ramoray!
Fans of Friends, the beloved NBC sitcom about six BFFs living in New York City, will immediately recognize him as the world-class neurosurgeon played by Joey Tribbiani on the soap opera Days of Our Lives.
More specifically, Friends star Matt LeBlanc portrayed the dashing doctor as he played Joey, a working actor, on the hit prime-time series that aired 1994 to 2004. But did Matt, Joey, or Dr. Ramoray, ever actually appear on the show?
Was Joey Really on Days of Our Lives?
While a medical professional like Dr. Ramoray could have fit in with the colorful cast of Days of Our Lives, now in Season 60 on Peacock (and hitting its 15,000th episode on December), the doctor was not a character on the actual soap.
Drake blurred the lines between make-believe and reality. He was a creation who existed only within the fictional universe of Friends, where Joey and his pals Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), Monica (Courteney Cox), Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), Chandler (Matthew Perry), and Ross (David Schwimmer) all got into his Days job.
Friends' ties with Days of Our Lives
Since 1965, Days of Our Lives has chronicled the joys and jolts of the residents of the fictional town of Salem. Jennifer Aniston’s father, John Aninston, played the key role of villainous Victor Kiriakis on and off from 1985 to his death in 2022.
For Joey, a big acting break came in Season 2 of Friends when he booked the role of Dr. Drake Ramoray on the soap opera. In “The One With The Lesbian Wedding” episode, Drake revealed a habit of mixing business with pleasure.
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Asked by the sister of a woman he was treating if the patient would be all right, Drake said, “I'm afraid the situation is much worse than we expected. Your sister is suffering from a subcranial hematoma. Perhaps we can discuss this over coffee.”
Drake ends up being a recurring character on Days Of Our Lives, until Joey sabotages himself. In “The One Where Drake Ramoray Dies,” Joey tells an interviewer that he improvised his lines. Days writers get even with Joey by dropping the doctor down an elevator shaft and into a seemingly permanent coma. This is devastating for Joey, who concludes, “This was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.”
It turned out that it wasn’t over, either. In true soap opera fashion, Drake manages to come back from the brink. In Season 7 of Friends, Joey auditions for the role of Dr. Stryker Ramoray — Drake’s twin brother — a new character on Days of Our Lives.
Drake is eventually raised from his coma via a brain transplant from another Days of Our Lives character, Jessica Lockhart, who was being written out of the show. Then, in Season 9, Joey gets Phoebe a job as an extra on the soap.
The show within the show and Joey’s role on Days of Our Lives serves as a cheeky commentary on the soap opera genre, highlighting the often exaggerated nature of daytime television.
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In the end — and in signature over-the-top soap opera fashion — Drake gets stabbed to death by a nurse mid-surgery in the Friends spinoff Joey, per screenrant.com.
Have any Friends actors appeared on Days of Our Lives?
The Friends-Days of Our Lives connection actually runs even deeper. Real-life stars of the soap opera popped up in cameos “as themselves, their on-screen counterparts, and even fictional soap stars” over the years during the sitcom run, thelist.com reported.
Alison Sweeney, who’s famous for playing Sami Brady on the actual Days, is among the stars who dropped by Friends.
In “The One with Joey’s Award,” Sweeney played a soap actress who works with Joey. Sweeney has been away from the real-life Days of Our Lives for two years, but will be seen in Season 60 episodes in 2025.
Days of Our Lives Season 60 is streaming on Peacock. Check out the 15,000th episode today.
