The Degrassi Student Body
For a supposed inner-city school, the same kids sure seemed to be seen walking those Degrassi halls again and again! But that's okay. They were good kids.
But we must give credit to the character, as well. Joey had a little Zack Morris in him, a little Steve Sanders, a little Eddie and Freddie Haskell (though he was much more appealing than those first two names, at least.) If you're not familiar with those people, suffice it to say that Joey Jeremiah was Degrassi's wisecracking, ever-persistent, chick-chasing, childish, yet good-hearted "trouble magnet." In his early Degrassi days, he cruised around on a skateboard, played video games, flippantly complained that his mother "abused" him after she (oh, gasp) cleaned up his room and tried to cut up that jacket, and encouraged his buddy Wheels to go "all the way with Stephanie Kaye!" Then, a little later, big bad Mr. Raditch made Joey repeat Grade Eight. That seemed to sober him up a bit -- but the slightly more mature Joey most definitely continued to get into scrapes, usually along with Wheels and Snake. During Grade Eight Part Two, Joey got together with his polar opposite, the intense Caitlin Ryan. Their relationship seemed to consist of lots of standing each other up and bickering and pouring Cokes on heads. Nevertheless, they stayed together until high school, when Caitlin fell for the charms of Claude "Clode" Tanner and dumped poor Joey ... causing him to start referring to her as "ice maiden." Joey's school troubles resurfaced again in high school, when he found out he had a learning disability called disgraphia. He vowed to quit Degrassi after they told him he would have to take a special-ed class, but an argument with Caitlin (in which she told him that quitting school, not having disgraphia, would make him "stupid") influenced him to stick around. Joey and Caitlin crossed paths once again after Claude offed himself; this time, Joey helped Caitlin deal with her Claude-oriented issues, and assumingly that's when he stopped thinking of her as the ice princess. They attended a dance together in the last episode of Degrassi High. I've yet to see School's Out, but from what I understand ... Joey and Caitlin begin the movie still a couple, then he cheats on her with Tessa Campanelli of all people, and then Caitlin says her famous swearing line -- but they end the movie dancing as friends at Simon and Alexa's wedding.
More about Mr. Jeremiah: Joey was the short kid with the loud clothes. In junior high school, he wore jeans and that aforementioned jean jacket a lot, sometimes with loud shirts. His standard high school attire, however, usually consisted of a pair of jeans and a vest over some brightly-colored shirt. Oh, and the hat. Raditch might want otherwise, but we can't forget Joey's hat! In his earlier days, it was this beret-like thing, but mostly Joey wore a Swingers-ish fedora (I think that's what they're called) with one of those little bows on the side. He was rarely seen without it.
Joey was also the keyboardist and frontman for Degrassi's sole band, the Zit Remedy (shortened to simply "the Zits" later on.) The Zits had just one song in their two or three- year tenure, "Everybody Wants Something", which was very ... snicker-evoking. Still, Wheels and Snake and especially Joey harbored dreams of becoming great rock stars! They recorded demo tapes, and at long last, a video (with some help from Lucy Fernandez.) The video made it to TV, and I don't remember hearing much about the Zits after that.
Joey might not have been as cool as he thought, but his classmates seemed to either like him or be amused by him. He had only one real enemy -- that was Dwayne (formerly known as "Bully.") Dwayne and his cronies, Nick and the Dipps girl, called Joey "cockroach" and tripped him and ruined his ridiculous money-raising scheme of walking the Degrassi cafeteria wearing only a hat (not on his head.) This torment ended, though, after Dwayne contacted HIV, fought with Joey, and had to tell Joey his secret when he realized both of them were bleeding. Joey nicely kept quiet, Dwayne left him alone, and in the final episode they even kidded around a little! There was mention of Joey's parents "raising four kids", but apparently his siblings were all much older, since Joey seemed to be the only kid around his house. He also came off as more than a little spoiled. Hmmm, what else can be said about Joey Jeremiah? Whenever he or Snake or Wheels said "trust me", something was bound to go wrong! There are countless classic Degrassi moments revolving around Joey. He could be immature and even a little obnoxious sometimes, but what made him more likable than similar characters is that he never seemed mean-spirited. (He was more akin to a "hapless puppy dog", if you will.) Look, there Joey is again (doing the "Stayin' Alive" thing), along with Archibald "Snake" Simpson. What kind of name is Snake? A better one than Archibald! (And "Slim" -- an early consideration for the character.) Truthfully, calling the guy "Snake" was kind of like calling a bald person "Curly." Snake wasn't a wimp or anything, but he certainly wasn't a vicious, imposing bully-type either ... the way you might expect somebody with such a nickname to be. He was just a mellow, easygoing, all-around good kid! He was the least problem-plagued of the three Zits. Snake made good grades, had no enemies, and lived a seemingly regular home life. (When he got into trouble, it usually just meant that Joey and Wheels were around.) This is not to say Snake was without issues! After his older brother Glen revealed his homosexuality, Snake's parents kicked Glen out. He also seemed to have a difficult time dealing with death, as evidenced by his reactions to the loss of Wheels's parents and Claude. (Snake, remember, was the one who found Claude -- complete with self-inflicted gunshot wound -- which WOULD be pretty traumatic.) Snake never really had a steady girlfriend (maybe he did in School's Out?) but there were some "chicks" in his life ... Melanie Brodie, for example. They tried to go out a few times, though it unfortunately never spawned anything serious. This was mostly due to mistakes on Melanie's behalf. In high school, he developed a crush on Michelle Asseth. Their first date turned out badly, but by the end of the series, they were attending that dance together and appeared ... happy. Allison and Spike also had crushes on Snake (at different times.) He proved his kindness after accepting Spike's dance invitation as a friend, then not immediately cancelling out on her (he let Spike take care of that!) after his true love Michelle asked him out.
More about Snake: In contrast to Joey, Snake was like ten-foot-three inches tall. In junior high school, he had unkempt carrot-colored hair, which later turned lighter and neater. Unlike Joey, he didn't really wear the same kind of outfit every day. Snake just wore stuff like shorts and rumpled-looking T-shirts (he wore a Big Dog T-shirt a few times; also, this orangey-yellow sweatshirt with his "name" on it in red) and, later on, patterned button-down shirts and sweaters. Occasionally, Snake and Joey and Wheels all wore these Hawaiian-looking shirts. Snake had a blue windbreaker for awhile, too. Snake played the guitar. He tried to use it for assistance in winning the spot of school president, but alas, Stephanie Kaye's kisses proved more appealing. Fortunately, Snake's guitar skills came in handy when he became a member of the Zit Remedy! He may not have always been the most thrilling character around, but there was nothing to hate about Snake. He actually was a nice guy (and, as opposed to certain other shows' "nice guys", didn't go around SAYING, "Look. I'm a nice guy" ... a la Brandon Walsh.)
Tragedy did not strike Wheels until grade nine. Early that year, both of his adoptive parents died in a car accident. He was sent to live with his grandparents. He never really got along with them, and later on in grade nine, Wheels tried to run away and live with Mike. He survived the come-ons of a pervert, only to find out Mike had no room for a permanent Wheels in his life! So Wheels went back to his grandparents. Things were okay for awhile, but in high school the problems started up again; and, by the way, this was entirely the fault of Wheels! He still had many issues, which was obvious by his laziness and deceitfulness. He went to live with Joey, and stole from Mrs. Jeremiah. He tried to deny this, but Joey kicked him out; after having to sleep on Snake's outdoor couch in the rain, Wheels admitted to his thievery. He got a job somewhere, paid the Jeremiahs back, and seemed to be okay again. However, by the time of School's Out, Wheels has apparently become an alcoholic. He crashes his car ... blinding Lucy in the process, and killing a kid! *sigh* Wheels, Wheels, Wheels.
More about Wheels, Wheels, Wheels: Underneath his sometimes sullen exterior, Wheels was your basic nice guy, like Snake. Without problems, he was a good friend -- you can detect this in both the early junior high episodes, and in the early high school ones ... before his grandma had to kick him out. Whenever his issues ovewhelmed him, though, Wheels became either stoic and emotionless, or bitter and ... annoying. He lied nonchalantly, he insulted people close to him. He chalked his bad attitude up to the death of his parents. Maybe he just felt guilty, and didn't know how to deal with it?
Wheels played bass for the Zits. He was proud to have a musician biological father, and looked forward to "jamming" with Mike when he ran away ... but Mike and his friends only teased Wheels for having played the instrument for such a short time, yet thinking he was this big shot! Wheels started his junior high days with fairly short hair and no glasses. Later on, Ms. Avery made him get glasses; Joey and Snake weren't happy with this (What rock star has GLASSES?!, they thought), but they got used to it, I guess. His hair also grew shaggier. At first, he wore just jeans and T-shirts. In late junior high and high school, however, Wheels seemed to ALWAYS be wearing this pair of very tight jeans, with a white or light-blue "blousey"-looking shirt. And he had that same shaggy hair! Wheels also never really had a real girlfriend. He and Stephanie Kaye contemplated going "all the way" back in junior high, but they decided they were too young. He went to a dance with LD once, and kissed Heather Farrell at a high school party ... only to snub her the next school day! Wheels was a little like the "Dylan McKay" of Degrassi -- an alcoholic, with a troubled home life -- but he wasn't some stupid, James Dean-knockoff "rebel" like Dylan. Wheels was just ... Wheels! You've already heard a little about Caitlin Ryan. She's mostly known for being the on-again, off-again girlfriend of Joey Jeremiah ... but Caitlin had plenty of storylines of her own, which had nothing to do with Joey! How to describe her? Well, Caitlin was ambitious like Joey, but her goals had more of a ... hmm, political edge to them! Caitlin toyed with questions about her sexuality after developing a close relationship with her favorite teacher, Ms. Avery. She tried to keep pregnant Spike at school by writing an article for an "underground" paper. Environmentalism, feminism, animal rights, petitions, letters of protest -- Caitlin did it all! She was smart, passionate, and usually pretty serious. She probably felt she had MUCH more in common with "deep" Claude Tanner, so she dumped Joey and went out with him. Their relationship didn't last long, though, for Caitlin was soon to discover Clode's cowardly ways! Caitlin's first best friend was Susie Rivera; then, when Susie mysteriously vanished, Caitlin struck up a friendship with Maya. She also pal-ed around with Melanie, Diana, Trudi, Trish, and later on Lucy. Sometimes she hung out with Kathleen, and other times they acted like they hated eachother! True to her activist ways, Caitlin seemed to be a nice and fair "root for the underdog" type, but other times she came off as being a bit mean. Not mean in a bullying-the-less-popular way, but in a says-what's-on-her-mind way. She also acted kind of immature occasionally, such as when she skipped play practice after not being given the lead role. (Oh, yeah ... she had epilepsy. After some problems and seizures, it more or less was never mentioned again, so I assume Caitlin just kept it under control.) She was impatient sometimes, too (like with Joey the "numb-brain.") More about Caitlin: Oddly, Caitlin appeared to harbor secret dreams of becoming a performer. She mentioned her love for acting, and in the high school talent program, she showed off her tap-dancing skills (after confessing to Maya, "I've always wanted to dance!") Joey and Clode were her late junior high and high school boyfriends; in early junior high, she seemed interested in Rick Munro, but I'm not sure anything ever became of this. Caitlin had very short "boy" hair in her younger days. Sometimes, she tied headbands around it! Back then, she wore things like stretch pants and T-shirts. As she grew, so did her hair. It stayed close to shoulder-length for most of the series, but looked different with each term. At one time, she had this weird blondish streak in it ... then it was just normal ... then she had these big bangs and looked about forty. She stopped wearing stretch pants, and began dressing in skirts and shirts and blazers. Sometimes, she wore a pair of jeans with this pink sweatshirt that had a rainbow on it. She carried a bookbag with Read!Read!Read! printed all over it.
Supposedly, Caitlin had a (never seen onscreen) brother named Patrick. She babysat for him in an earlier episode, which was strange, because in a much later episode she mentioned going to live with him! (Maybe Patrick lived with a relative? Or maybe he drank a miraculous quick-aging potion? He WASN'T Patrick the Irish guy!) Caitlin seemed reasonably close to her parents, until she caught her dad point-blank in the middle of an affair. She grew very angry with him, and angry with her mother as well, when her mother chose to forgive him. Being Caitlin, she didn't hesitate to let them know how she felt! Overall, Caitlin can't really be likened to one single character from another show. She was a kind-of cross between Brenda Walsh and Andrea Zuckerman ... but not really! There's Yick Yu ... a/k/a, Mr. Yu the Disorganized! (Mean Raditch decided not to like Yick for awhile, and called him that.)Yick began junior high school as a nice little geek. He was Arthur Kobolowsky's best friend. They were a typical pair of young buddies, facing all the adventures that come the way of two twelve-year-old boys. They cheated together, rented porn movies, called sex therapists, got locked in the broom closet by Joey, etc. Once Yick entered grade eight, however, he started to change ... and I started to care for him less and less. He still hung out with Arthur, but he had this faux-cool "I'm such a bad boy" attitude going -- which was not only totally unappealing, it was boring! By high school, Yick mostly just hung around with rebels like Luke. What a waste of geek! Yick wore regular boy clothes in his early days; he sported tye-died shirts a lot in his later ones, plus this earring. He called people "broom-head" a lot! He attempted a little romance with Old Melanie of the Pimming-Swool Eyes;
after several flubbed date invitations, they went skating together. But Melanie decided she liked Snake better, and made up a lie to get out of going to the movies with Yick. Sillily, she and Snake went to that same theater, though ... and Yick caught her! In high school, Yick stole Tessa Campanelli away from Yankou. He played sports. He turned more and more dull, and frankly, I ended up not caring for him much at all. (I don't like those faux-cool types.)
The people who played these people
If the name Joey Jeremiah doesn't ring a bell, then what are you doing at this website?! Oddly enough, Joey was probably the main character of both Degrassi Junior High AND Degrassi High. Perhaps this was due to his name -- I mean, how can you forget a name like that? And if you did forget, Joey would be quick to remind you, as he seemed to have a penchant for speaking in the third person (i.e. "It's a classic case of the four J's, my friend -- Joey Jeremiah and his jean jacket!"; "Joey Jeremiah will not be denied!", "What Joey Jeremiah wants, he gets", etc. etc.)
And then we have "Wheels" ... officially, Derek Wheeler. The tortured-soul-and-poet Zit, Wheels began junior high school living a fairly regular life. He played bass for the Zit Remedy, was lusted after by Stephanie Kaye, and just went along living life with his friends and adoptive parents. One day, a man came along claiming to be Wheels's biological father ... and even provided proof. Wheels was pretty shaken up by this; still, he went about life, with Mike the Biological Father sending postcards from his musical gigs every now and then.
Yes, Degrassi had a pair of twins! Their names were Erica (left) and Heather Farrell. They claimed to be identical, but they were easy to tell apart. They had different ... eyes, or something, and different teeth. (With all due respect to Heather, hers were worse.) The twins didn't dress alike ... yet they both had a penchant for black, white, stripes, and polka dots! They had long, brown, very curly hair throughout all of junior high and high school (though it varied in length at times.) Personality-wise, the twins were sort of similar to ... *snicker* ... Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield from stupid Sweet Valley High. (Remember them?) Like Jessica, Erica was more carefree and tempestuous. She was boy-crazy, and got into trouble rather easily. Heather, like Elizabeth, was much more practical and down-to-earth. She worried a lot, especially about her twin -- but also about other friends, like when she thought Lucy might have anorexia nervosa. The twins were very close, and always seemed to be together! They hung out with Lucy, Alexa, the Zits, Stephanie Kaye, and pretty much all of the older kids. However, when Erica ended up pregnant and chose to have an abortion, Liz O'Rourke (initially a friend) made her pro-life opinions QUITE clear on Erica's locker. This resulted in a catfight between Erica and Liz, which more or less ended the friendship between Liz'nSpike and the twins. Erica's abortion created a little rift between the girls, as well. While Heather didn't agree with Erica's decision, she supported her; but she worried about Erica more than ever afterward! Eventually, they worked things out. Besides her fling with Jason (the father of her would-be child) and some other brief flings (i.e., Blaine), Erica never had a steady boyfriend. Though she had better luck than Heather -- whose crush Wheels kissed her at a party, then avoided her! Once, the twins fought over that bore Clutch. Why? Who knows!
Arthur Kobolowsky was a much better geek! He wasn't my favorite-ever Degrassi character or anything, but at least he wasn't faux cool. Arthur was much more awkward and innocent than Yick. Once, he found a dog named Phil ... and when his mom, sister (Stephanie Kaye, who was ashamed of him -- in school, at least), and mum's boyfriend all began fighting ... Arthur told Phil, "We don't need this!" and ran off to the park with him, just a boy and his dog. Arthur lived with his dad most of the time, and they were obviously very close. Both loved practical jokes! He seemed an easygoing kind of kid, and only acted bratty occasionally (such as when his dad's new girlfriend came to school on Parents' Night, and he blew up at her. "You're not my mother!") Arthur dressed in regular nerdy-young-kid clothes. He had a bluish "Joe's Joke Emporium" sweatshirt, which he wore a lot. His cousin Dorothy eventually joined him as a Degrassi student, and I believe he acted ashamed of her at first -- but they were seen together lots. They even tap-danced together in the school talent show! He developed a crush on Caitlin in high school, but he never had a true girlfriend. (He did end up getting a kiss from Caitlin; just a friendly one!) Oh yes, Arthur started experiencing non-dry dreams in junior high -- worried and confused, he sought help from a local sex therapist (she assured him he was normal.) Arthur Kobolowsky: your basic husky-yet-sweet nerd! (I read that there were plans for the character to be bullied in high school ... hence the never-seen-in-an-actual-episode peanut-butter-on-the-bike scene in the opening credits ... but he grew so big that he would have looked majorly wimpy, so the bullying never happened!)
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