Joey Jeremiah

Joseph "Joey" Jeremiah is a fictional character from the Degrassi series portrayed by Pat Mastroianni. His first appearance in the series was as a grade 8 student on Degrassi Junior High. Since his first appearance up to Degrassi High, he has been the main focus character and arguably the most popular among the viewers. On Degrassi: The Next Generation, he is a recurring character.

Early life

As a youth, the character's trademark attire was a fedora he always wore over his mullet (though in some early episodes, he wore a beret). 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. Both Joey and Wheels later became best friends with Snake during the second season, when the trio formed a garage band called "The Zit Remedy" for the school's talent show. The band was later renamed "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

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 is becoming a classmate of Caitlin Ryan, an intellectual student. Working together on a class presentation, the characters develop an on-and-off relationship with each other as the series progressed.

Joey had indeed gone out to dinner to celebrate his nineteenth 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 Campanelli? You were fucking Tessa Campanelli?!" 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. Sometime presumably around 1994,^[1] 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 and Julia's son Craig. Their marriage produces a daughter, Angela, before Julia dies in 1999. 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 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.

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.

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.

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.^[2]

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.^[3]

See also

• Degrassi: The Next Generation characters
• Pat Mastroianni

References

External links

• Joey Jeremiah's bio from Degrassi.ca
• ET Canada video clip of Joey Jeremiah as their 14th all-time favourite Canadian TV character