Egon and Janine

[Fritz]

Y'know, right now I wish I had "Topic Split" like on GBHQ. I could send most of the last page to a new topic called "Janine, You've Changed Into A Junkie"

On the issue of backstory, well, there's always the "bare bones" presented here:
www.ectozone.com/gbny/janine.html

A few thoughts...

Let's face it, the character has been played so many different ways almost anything could be made to fit. But as always, I look to GB1 and the JMS/Laura Summer version as the "definitive" idea...though of course one non-Summer episode, JMS's "Janine You've Changed", is intensely important to understanding the character.

My thoughts:

I always saw her as rambunctious, and leaning toward tomboyish starting out. ie Fateful Encounter (I tried to show some of this idea in her offspring, particullarly her son) She probably got into a lot of schoolyard fights with other kids picking on her because she "wasn't pretty enough for them"

There are conflicting elements of her background. She graduated high school in 1977, thus would've come of age in the Swinging Seventies. She comes from a Jewish family. She demonstrates intense, deep loyalty to Egon, but is not above bouts of doubt that lead to disasterous encounters with the likes of Paul Smart, Louis Tully, and Cojilla. She has problems with her self-image, but is also firey and tough.

She probably bloomed late--but once she did, discovered some of the wonders of "girlishness" (mini-skirts, loud jewelry, ect). Not being popular, or conventionally beautiful, she probably mostly dated nerds; the flirtation style she demonstrates later certainly isn't very polished, being rather blunt and mawkish, as though tried on men who took a lot of blunt encouragement to work.

She is, ultimately, a nerd herself who somewhat wished (at least when she was younger) to be one of the "beautiful people"...to be whisked away by a Prince Charming.

Being the late seventies and early eighties, it's not impossible that she experimented with the whole nightclub/junk sex/drug lifestyle. And/or at least one bad relationship with some slick-tongued "Prince Charming" who did her wrong.

And then, of course, after a string of bad jobs and guys only interested in One Thing from a single girl in her early twenties, (ie Fateful Opportunity ) she was hired by Ghostbusters and met an unlikely combination of Nerd and Prince Charming all in one: Dr. Egon Spengler.

[Kingpin]

The danger therein though is to make sure this isn't the RGB version of the 'David Soul getting hooked on drugs' equivilant of that particular Starsky and Hutch episode, though it's interesting.


Mind you...anyone rewrite the history officially and I may be driven to blood lust. ;D



j/k, seriously though, if it is an apochrypha story, it should proove an interesting one.

[Silent Seraphim]

admin said:

Not being popular, or conventionally beautiful, she probably mostly dated nerds; the flirtation style she demonstrates later certainly isn't very polished, being rather blunt and mawkish, as though tried on men who took a lot of blunt encouragement to work.

But I'd have thought that if she'd had previous experience of dating guys like Egon (the nerd-type), then she'd have been more successful with him. I assumed that the reason she wasn't very good at flirting with Egon, was because she hadn't dated anyone like him before, and was using the kind of 'moves' that would have worked on other guys she'd been with, but failed with him because he was so different.

[Fritz]

Interesting thought. I admit the idea I presented was planted in my head by something I read years ago, a post on a message board somewhere by Anne Labidolemur.

How about this concept:

As essentially a Nerd with a deep-rooted desire to be one of the Beautiful People, she yearned to be swept away by a Prince Charming. Room is created for some bad experiences in High School and early adulthood...trying to get the attention of the "right" kind of man--the Football Jocks, the Preppies, the guys whom every other girl in school wanted too but of course went for the Cheerleaders.

But because she, herself, wasn't glamorous ("I wasn't pretty enough for them") she kept getting rejected. And/or being used by aforementioned creeps with only One Thing On Their Minds. Again, the possiblity of experimenation with drugs, junk sex, the things "everybody was doing" circa 1980.

The risk is, as has been mentioned before, we don't want to take any of this too far. She's far too intelligent to have stayed in the unhealthy types of life styles mentioned above long. to be a little more blunt about it, I really doubt she was a virgin by the time she met Egon, but (as GB2 proves) pure sluttiness isn't in character, either.

[Miss Janine]

I like that. And it fits with what I said earlier, about the stuff she's afraid Egon will find out about. Of course, he wouldn't hold it against her if he DID find out, since she luckily, and apparently, came out of whatever she did physically OK (no lingering aftereffects). And it could heighten the respect he and the others have for her, that she was smart enought not to stay in that lifestyle.

[Silent Seraphim]

The risk is, as has been mentioned before, we don't want to take any of this too far. She's far too intelligent to have stayed in the unhealthy types of life styles mentioned above long. to be a little more blunt about it, I really doubt she was a virgin by the time she met Egon, but (as GB2 proves) pure sluttiness isn't in character, either.

I agree. She could have fallen into that lifestyle in an attempt to fit in. She might have enjoyed it for a while, but I think that Janine would be smart enough to ultimately realise that staying out late and partying isn’t really her type of thing.

[Miss Janine]

A couple more E/J moments:

Camping It Up- who used his body to shield her from the explosion?

the ep with the Collector (blanking on the title right now)- when the firehouse sinks into the ground to reappear in the Land of Lost Objects, Our Favorite Couple is seen standing at an upatairs window, arms around each other. And weren't they alone there at the time??? ;D

[Fritz]

missjanine said:

the ep with the Collector (blanking on the title right now)- when the firehouse sinks into the ground to reappear in the Land of Lost Objects, Our Favorite Couple is seen standing at an upatairs window, arms around each other. And weren't they alone there at the time??? ;D

"The Brooklyn Triangle" And yeah, while we're at it, her hair was a little mussed up too. ;D

[Miss Janine]

I thought that was the title. Hey, they saw an opportunity and took advantage of it!

[Cliff]

It's always the quiet ones....

BTW: Anyone making any headway or laying claim to writing the "Apocrypha Janine" tale?

--Cliff

[Fritz]

Anyone making any headway or laying claim to writing the "Apocrypha Janine" tale?

My plate's certainly full at the moment--including a couple of big upcoming stories about the "real" Egon and Janine relationship.

If nobody else takes a crack at it I probably will...eventually. But if somebody else gets inspired sooner, go for it!

[Miss Janine]

admin said:

Anyone making any headway or laying claim to writing the "Apocrypha Janine" tale?

My plate's certainly full at the moment--including a couple of big upcoming stories about the "real" Egon and Janine relationship.

If nobody else takes a crack at it I probably will...eventually. But if somebody else gets inspired sooner, go for it!

That's what I like to hear!!!

[Kingpin]

Heh, if I had the time and the knowledge on drugs, I might have opted for it, but I'm snowed under with some person projects, some of which you, Fritz, know have been long in the making.

It should proove an interesting read, anyway.

[ghostdiva]

I think it's great that so many of us are writting something right now!! I also have a few things going

I also think it would be a very interesting apocryphal story with Janine "experimenting". I hope someone will eventually run with it, but I hope people don't write that into the omnibus because I really don't see her capable of it. First she was young when she started working for the guys and before that she worked job after job just trying to be independant.

I also think that Janine is a type of nerd, like the kind of woman that usually becomes a libraian or something and that she was most likely always attracted to the kind of man Egon is but never had the know how to get a date, I think that in reality she has only a little more experiance than Egon and only has had that experiance because the men do the asking out in most circumsatnces. Those men may very well have been "pretty boys" because Janine is attractive in her own right and I could see her friends dragging her out to meet guys that would ask her out before talking to her extensively and deciding that she isn't the average airhead. This probably caused a lot of disapointment for her and lowered her self esteem, leading to her future issues with her looks. I think 88mph comics was more in line with the truth, Janine saw a man she wanted, had NO idea how to get him, did the nerdy thing and researched it with girly magazines and self help books, and stumbled around until she figured it out.

On another note: Miss Janine... I think we may have guessed the song, because if you'll notice, Fritz has avoided that part of this conversation like the plague!

On yet another note: related to another topic[in a way] Citizen Ghost, rumored to be on the new DVD, also has a very cut Egon and Janine moment! I watched it so many times I wore that part of my tape out and can't watch it any more, so I'll be glad if that is one of the eps.


I would also like to welcome Cliff to the board. Have fun.

ghostdiva

[Miss Janine]

The song- I have no idea. I'm just waiting for the story to find out.

"Citizen Ghost"- IS on the DVD. "Partners in Slime" is the other one. Both very good movie-related choices.

;D