Without question, the most famous character of the Degrassi series is "the hat". But a close second is the head that wore the hat, "Joey Jeremiah" - also known as Pat Mastroianni.

I visited Pat's website, patmeup.com, bought some rare footage, and begged for an interview. He was swell, and obliged, generously. See for yourself.

kp: Do you think Degrassi would have worked as well if it had been an American show? Would it have worked as a Claymation show? Puppetoons?
pm: The producers should have listened to me before the series ended and made a spin off called the "Pets of Degrassi" where all the characters were animals based on their owners. "Snake"...obviously a snake. "Spike" would have been a poodle dog with little spiked hair. "Joey" would have been a pit bull with a hat. You get the idea. That would have made millions.

kp: If there was a Degrassi movie that had all new actors, who would play Joey: Robert Downey Jr., Vince Vaughn or Dave Foley?
pm: Uh, excuse me, but where are DeNiro or Pacino in that suggestion? Thank you!

kp: If there was a fight between the cast of Degrassi and the cast of 90210 who do you think would win?
pm: Jason could probably kick all our asses but I think I could take Luke. He would just be standing around, squinting, looking cool.  Snake would hold him for me and I’d jump in and sucker punch that bitch.

kp: Who is hotter, Caitlin or Spike?
pm: They are both lovely ladies.  I did offer the writers a chance to do a threesome episode.  They didn’t go for it.