Joey Jeremiah
Encyclopedia
Joseph "Joey" Jeremiah is a fictional character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 from the Degrassi series portrayed by Pat Mastroianni
Pat Mastroianni
Pasquale "Pat" Mastroianni is a Canadian actor best known for his role as Joey Jeremiah on the Degrassi series of television shows.- Biography :...

. His first appearance in the series was as a grade 8 student on Degrassi Junior High
Degrassi Junior High
Degrassi Junior High is a Canadian CBC Television teen drama series that was produced from 1987-1989 as part of the Degrassi series. The show followed the lives of a group of students attending the titular fictional school...

. Since his first appearance up to Degrassi High
Degrassi High
Degrassi High is the third television show in the Degrassi series of teen dramas about the lives of a group of kids living on or near De Grassi Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It first aired from 1989 to 1991 and followed the kids from Kids of Degrassi Street and Degrassi Junior High through...

, he has been the main focus character and arguably the most popular among the viewers. On Degrassi: The Next Generation
Degrassi: The Next Generation
Degrassi: The Next Generation is a Canadian teen drama television series set in the Degrassi universe, which was created by Linda Schuyler and Kit Hood in 1979. Degrassi is the fourth fictional series in the Degrassi franchise, and follows The Kids of Degrassi Street, Degrassi Junior High, and...

, he is a recurring character
Recurring character
A recurring character is a fictional character, usually in a prime time TV series, who appears from time to time during the series' run. Recurring characters often play major roles in an episode, sometimes being the main focus...

.

Early life

As a youth
Youth
Youth is the time of life between childhood and adulthood . Definitions of the specific age range that constitutes youth vary. An individual's actual maturity may not correspond to their chronological age, as immature individuals could exist at all ages.-Usage:Around the world, the terms "youth",...

, the character's trademark attire was a fedora
Fedora (hat)
A fedora is a men's felt hat. In reality, "fedora" describes most any men's hat that does not already have another name; quite a few fedoras have famous names of their own including the famous Trilby....

 he always wore over his mullet
Mullet (haircut)
The mullet is a hairstyle that is short at the front and sides, and long in the back. . The mullet began to appear in popular media in the 1960s and 1970s but did not become generally well-known until the early 1980s...

 (though in some early episodes, he wore a beret
Beret
A beret is a soft, round, flat-crowned hat, designated a "cap", usually of woven, hand-knitted wool, crocheted cotton, or wool felt, or acrylic fiber....

). His personality was that of a humorous, extroverted, immature slacker. Joey had a penchant for trying to either charm or coerce his peers into getting or doing what he wanted. He was a nuisance to some, yet the character was portrayed with an innocent and caring side to his nature, especially when his friends were in a crisis.

Joey's best friend from the beginning of the series was Wheels
Derek Wheeler
Derek Wheeler, aka Wheels, is a fictional character on the Degrassi series, portrayed by Neil Hope. His first appearance in the series is as a grade 8 student at Degrassi Junior High School where he is best friends with Joey Jeremiah and Archie "Snake" Simpson...

. Both Joey and Wheels later became best friends with Snake
Archie Simpson
Archibald Rupert "Snake” Simpson is a fictional character on the Degrassi series portrayed by Stefan Brogren. His first appearance in the series was as an eighth grade student on Degrassi Junior High ...

 during the second season, when the trio formed an amateur rock band called "The Zit Remedy" for the school's talent show. The band was later re-named "The Zits" when they went to high school. Despite the skepticism of his bandmates, combined with the band having only one song ("Everybody Wants Something"), Joey dreamed of making a career of this hobby, including making copies of demo tapes and a music video. Gradually, Joey and Snake became each other's best friend, although both remained close friends with Wheels.

Joey's attitude

Joey's junior-high homeroom teacher Mr. Raditch was hard on Joey, but was shown to care for him.

At the conclusion of season 2 of Degrassi Junior High, Mr. Raditch informs Joey that he has failed grade eight. This news crushes Joey's spirits, as it means that he cannot join the rest of his friends in high school. Over-crowding of the high school, however, causes Joey's former classmates to take their grade 9 classes (aside from laboratory sciences) at Degrassi Junior High, and Joey thus continues to associate with them. A silver lining to repeating the eighth grade
Eighth grade
Eighth grade is a year of education in the United States, Canada, Australia and other nations. Students are usually 13 - 14 years old. The eighth grade is typically the final grade before high school, and the ninth grade of public and private education, following kindergarten and subsequent grades...

 is becoming a classmate of Caitlin Ryan
Caitlin Ryan
Caitlin Ryan is a fictional character from the Degrassi series portrayed by Stacie Mistysyn. Caitlin is a main character on both Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High, which chronicle her maturation from a seventh grader to a high school graduate...

, an intellectual student
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...

. Working together on a class presentation, the characters develop an on-and-off relationship with each other as the series progressed.

Joey makes an enemy of Dwayne Myers, the school's resident tough guy. The two of them fight one another in the neighbourhood park in Season 2. After being diagnosed with dysgraphia
Dysgraphia
Dysgraphia is a deficiency in the ability to write primarily in terms of handwriting, but also in terms of coherence. It occurs regardless of the ability to read and is not due to intellectual impairment...

 in high school, Joey is placed in a special education class which happens to be the same one that Dwayne attends, resulting in further bullying from him. Dwayne thwarts Joey's attempt to walk through the school cafeteria naked on a dare in order to earn money for a car, by telling Joey's plan to Mr. Raditch in advance. The two characters later reconcile when Joey promises to keep secret Dwayne's HIV positive status.

Joey's relationship with Caitlin ends in high school when she started dating Claude Tanner. They reunite as a couple once more by the final episode of Degrassi High, in the wake of Claude's suicide. They remain together over the course of the un-filmed two years, during which time Caitlin takes a sufficiently heavy course-load to graduate with Joey's former classmates.

In the TV movie School's Out
School's Out (film)
School's Out is a 1992 Canadian television movie featuring the characters of the popular Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High series. The show's longtime team of writers scripted this feature-length movie and shot it during the summer of 1991 to be shown on CBC Television during the new year...

, Joey is outwardly proud of Caitlin's academic success, but despondent about being left behind by not only his former classmates with whom he had remained friends, but his younger girlfriend as well. His fear of her leaving him to attend university in Ottawa is aggravated by his resentment of the long hours she works as a waitress keeping them apart, and her chastity keeping them both virgins. Caitlin rejects Joey's proposal of marriage, but agrees to wear the ring on her right hand. He is easily seduced by the younger but sexually aggressive Tessa Campanelli
Tessa Campanelli
Tessa Campanelli is a character from the Canadian television series Degrassi Junior High / Degrassi High, portrayed by Kirsten Bourne....

, and proceeds to cheat on both simultaneously. While Tessa knows of the recurring nature of Joey's and Caitlin's relationship, she believes them to be apart. Caitlin, on the other hand, rarely sees Joey because of her work schedule, but is oblivious to Tessa and attributes Joey's reduced pressure on her to being a supportive boyfriend.

Tessa learns of Joey's cheating when she tries to leave a "happy birthday" message to him on his family's answering machine. He had told her that his parents were taking him out to dinner to celebrate; she discovers the truth when Joey's mother answers the telephone. She rings him again in the morning and angrily breaks up with him. Unbeknownst to Joey, the two had conceived a child which Tessa secretly aborts.

Joey had, indeed, gone out to dinner to celebrate his eighteenth birthday; but with Caitlin. Their dinner is cut short when Caitlin tries to hint to an oblivious Joey that her parents are out of town and she hates to sleep alone in the house; even running her foot along his leg fails to make her point until she slips a condom into his hand. The couple make love for the first time, Caitlin believing Joey to have been a virgin as she was. Still awash in the afterglow the next day at a cottage retreat attended by their classmates, Caitlin accepts the offer of marriage that Joey had made on her graduation night. Their engagement lasts only minutes, however, until Caitlin overhears Snake reprimanding Joey about having spent the summer dating Caitlin while secretly copulating with Tessa. "Tessa Capanelli? You were fucking Tessa Capanelli?!" the shocked Caitlin asks him before throwing his ring and storming out of his life. Some months later, Caitlin is receptive to his apology at Simon and Alexa's wedding reception, and the pair share a dance as friends. That evening, Joey correctly prophesises to Caitlin that she will be a famous journalist.

Later life

Exposition in "Mother and Child Reunion" and "When Doves Cry" reveals much about the intervening eleven years. Joey owns Jeremiah Motors, a used car dealership
Car dealership
A car dealership or vehicle local distribution is a business that sells new or used cars at the retail level, based on a dealership contract with an automaker or its sales subsidiary. It employs automobile salespeople to do the selling...

. Sometime presumably around 1994, three years after his break-up with Caitlin, he enters a relationship with Julia Manning, one of the only people known to address him as "Joe". Several years older than Joe, Julia has a son Craig with her abusive husband Albert. It is not revealed whether Julia was divorced or even separated from Albert by the time she and Joe began dating, although Albert refers to Julia as having left him for Joey. Among the attendees at the Jeremiahs' wedding are best man Snake Simpson, classmate Christine "Spike" Nelson, Spike's daughter Emma
Emma Nelson
Emma Nelson is a fictional student on the Degrassi: The Next Generation television series, having originated in the series' precursor, Degrassi Junior High. She is portrayed as an adolescent and adult by Miriam McDonald....

 and Julia's son Craig. Their marriage produces a daughter, Angela, before Julia dies in 2000. Devastated by the loss of his wife, Joey closes himself off from the rest of the world - including his friends - for the next year.

On the day before their combined nine- and ten-year high school reunion, Joey attempts to sell a car to his old friend, Lucy Fernandez
Lucy Fernandez
Lucy Fernandez is a fictional character in "Degrassi Junior High;" "Degrassi High;" the Degrassi High follow-up movie, "School's Out;" and "Degrassi: The Next Generation." She is portrayed by the actress, Anais Granofsky in all of the Degrassi series....

 who asks if he is coming and hints that his wife would not have wanted him to become a recluse. Joey agrees to take Lucy out for a test drive, and drops her off at Degrassi Community School. There, Joey spots Caitlin, and they contemplate how they've changed. He decides to go with them for drinks later, but still remains unconfirmed for the reunion. At the bar, his friends reminisce about old times when his television advertisement for his car dealership airs. The advertisement showed Joey ripping his shirt off, resulting in a blunt critique from Caitlin's new fiancé, Keith. A movie director, Keith initiates friction between himself and Joey by admonishing the latter to "avoid the shifty, used-car-salesman vibe." Caitlin responds that he was a total "ham" during high school, and still is. Joey comisserates with Caitlin the next night after she discovers Keith trying to seduce Allison Hunter and demeaning Caitlin. Toying with her discarded engagement ring from Keith, Caitlin asks Joey if it reminds him of that day eleven years earlier at the beach.

Season two starts when Joey's stepson Craig Manning transfers to Degrassi. Reuniting with Angie's babysitter, Emma Nelson, with whom he had danced at Joey and Julia's wedding, Craig convinces her to let him spend time with his half-sister Angie (all in violation of Craig's instructions from Albert who wants Craig to have nothing to do with Joey or Angie). Angela sees Craig's bruises from being beaten by his father Albert, and reveals it to Joey. After an emotional moment in front of Julia's grave, where Craig admits to having been abused by Albert, Joey welcomes him into his home and helps him to file a police complaint. He later helps Craig come to terms with Albert's drunk driving death, and being diagnosed with bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder or bipolar affective disorder, historically known as manic–depressive disorder, is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated energy levels, cognition, and mood with or without one or...

.

Along the way, Joey finds Craig reliving many of his adventures and misadventures from the original series. Craig and his friends take an unlicenced joyride in a car from Jeremiah Motors. Craig forms a band who have a heavier sound and more songs than the Zits ever did. After a disagreement with his reasonably responsible and mature (but chaste) girlfriend Ashley Kerwin, Craig is seduced by the younger but sexually aggressive Manny Santos. Craig continues cheating on Ashley with Manny until exposed and rejected by both of them. Joey consoles him, and relates the events of his nearly identical love triangle twelve years earlier. Like Tessa, Manny aborts the issue of the affair.

Joey's conversation about cheating, however, leads to Craig making Joey realise that he still loves Caitlin and should leave his girlfriend Sydney (Elisa Moolecherry). Joey explains to Caitlin, "I moved on, but I never left." Their romance is rekindled until the end of the fourth season when they part on friendly terms when Caitlin is offered another job in Los Angeles and Clerks director Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith
Kevin Patrick Smith is an American screenwriter, actor, film producer, and director, as well as a popular comic book writer, author, comedian/raconteur, and internet radio personality best recognized by viewers as Silent Bob...

 tells Caitlin (while trying to seduce her) not to "settle" and to put her career first.

Joey's mother is presumably widowed or divorced by the time of Season 2. When Joey has to take a trip out of town, Angie is excited to spend a the weekend at grandma's house. His conversation with his mother to confirm Angie's arrival time marks the only example of a parent from the original series (aside from teen parents Spike Nelson & Shane McKay) being spoken to in The Next Generation.

Joey had not been particularly athletic in school. Nevertheless, when school budget cuts jeopardize his alma mater's varsity sports, he sponsors both the girls' floor hockey and boys' basketball teams. The two teams' jerseys bear a Jeremiah Motors emblem during his sponsorship.

Joey last appeared in season five's "Our Lips Are Sealed (1)." In that episode, Joey is dating Diane whom he had met at Ashley's father's wedding. In a reversal of his marriage to Julia, Joey is several years older than Diane.

In Season six, it was said that the character moved to Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...

 with his daughter.

Mastroianni's departure

In January 2007, three days after the Degrassi episode "What it Feels Like to be a Ghost, Part Two" aired, Pat Mastroianni announced on his website that he will no longer play the part of Joey Jeremiah.

Relationships

Relationships of the Degrassi character Joey Jeremiah
Relationship with Started Ended Reason
Caitlin Ryan
Caitlin Ryan
Caitlin Ryan is a fictional character from the Degrassi series portrayed by Stacie Mistysyn. Caitlin is a main character on both Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High, which chronicle her maturation from a seventh grader to a high school graduate...


(first relationship)
"Twenty Bucks" (310) Degrassi Junior High "Everybody wants Something" (405) Degrassi High It was revealed that Caitlin liked Claude Tanner.
(second relationship) "One Last Dance" (513) Degrassi High "School's Out" (TV Movie) Joey cheated on Caitlin with Tessa Campanelli.
(third relationship) "Holiday, Part 2" (312) The Next Generation "Going Down The Road, Part 2" (422) The Next Generation Caitlin moved to LA to further pursue her career.
Tessa Campanelli
Tessa Campanelli
Tessa Campanelli is a character from the Canadian television series Degrassi Junior High / Degrassi High, portrayed by Kirsten Bourne....

"School's Out" (TV Movie) "School's Out" (TV Movie) Joey had been lying to Tessa; he was actually cheating on Caitlin with her.
Julia Jeremiah
(formerly Julia Manning)
(Wife; maiden name unknown)
Sometime circa three years after "School's Out" (TV Movie), judging by the age of their daughter, Angela. Approximately one year prior to "Mother & Child Reunion, Part 1" (101) The Next Generation, as stated by both Lucy and Snake. Julia died.
Sydney Before "Father Figure, Part 1" (301) The Next Generation "Holiday, Part 2" (312) The Next Generation Sydney was rude to Caitlin, who still had feelings for Joey.
Diane "Weddings, Parties, Anything" (505) The Next Generation unknown unknown

Reception

In 1990, Pat Mastroianni was nominated for a Young Artist Award for Outstanding Young Ensemble Cast for his role as Joey Jeremiah, alongside his co-stars.

In 1987, 1988, and 1990, Mastroianni was nominated for Best Performance by a Lead Actor in a Continuing Dramatic Role at the Gemini Awards, winning it in 1988.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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