Answers

This is where I put answers, speculations, and other comments people send me regarding the questions on my Sparky Speaks page. Please note that I do not post contributor's emails on here just so they can be flamed if someone doesn't like or agree with their idea. If you must flame someone, flame me or something. But don't expect a reply.

Q: Why is the town the Deetzes live in in the cartoon called Peaceful Pines while they lived in Winter River in the movie?

submitted by Darrel Jones:
That's easy, they moved from Winter River to Peaceful Pines between the movie and TV series to a similar looking house. Since BJ has been in the Neitherworld for centuries, the new location is no barrier for him.

submitted by Brandon:
I figured that it'd be hard for the Deetz's to move to a different town close to winter river(no offence) because in the first episode you can still see the Winter River Bridge where the maitlands die down the street from the house in the movie. SOOOO since the country seemed to change Delia ALOT maybe she decided to get involved and went to some town meetings and sugested the name of the town be changed to somthing more pleasent like Peaceful Pines(??)

Q: Why does Mayor Maynot change appearances between seasons?

Q: What ever happened to Percy the cat?

submitted by Darrel Jones:
Mayor Maynot's Appearance/Percy's Disappearance: My explanation for BOTH inconsistencies is that during the first season, Percy was juiced back into ancient Egypt. He led a long and (thankfully) worry-free nine lives there, and was mummified with a magical wrap that cursed whoever unwrapped it with instant mummification. Between season one and season two, BJ juiced the Mayor into real-earth Egypt, where Percy's body was decomposing in a pyramid. The Mayor, being a cat lover, decided to unwrap Percy and look at his cute little body. Guess who got the worst of the Mayor's anger when he finally returned to BJ's town? This easily could have been a "bridging" episode.

Q: What jobs does everyone have?

submitted by Darrel Jones:
Jaques is a fitness instructor, Ginger an aspiring actress/ tap dancer, and the Monster an aspiring country singer (who ranches in his spare time). All this seems consistent with the series. Charles must be a paranoid lawyer; how else could he get all that money BJ scams from him on "The Son Dad Never Had", and still be so uptight whenever he tries to relax?

submitted by Brandon:
[As] for Charles, I think he was what you call a developer(??) I don't exactly know the title of the job, but he found places that Maxie Dean could make some money off of. And locations that would be good for building hotels and things. He was put on leave with pay until his nerves get better. And he also owns a couple of condos I think, because Otho hints at somthing like that in the movie.

Q: Why don't we see Donny in flashback episodes?

submitted by Darrel Jones:
My best explanation, borrowing from the descriptions of Neitherworldian creatures you [Sparky] have written, is that Donny, like BJ, is a ghost-turned-ghoul who is BJ's kid brother and came to the Neitherworld after Beetlejuice "grew up". Since nobody ever ages in the afterlife after hitting "adulthood", this explains why Donny wasn't around; he didn't yet exist!

And this version by Alison Blazow:
We know from the film that Beetlejuice is at least 600 (I think) years old, so we know how long he's been dead. What we don't know is what age he died at, so here's my theory.
Basically BJ died at a very young age (say before his first birthday) through some kind of accident or illness--they didn't have very good health care back in the pre-1300 days. Anyway the ghost infant Beetlejuice arrives in the Neitherworld, where he is fostered out and allowed to "grow up". The Neitherworld-running people would have to do this, because you couldn't have a whole bunch of ghost babies running around the place forever.
(Sparky's note: My guess is then that BJ was raised at that point by his Aunt Irma and Uncle Sid, since we know from In the Schticks that they did take him places when he was a baby.)
Anyway, a few years later BJ's parents bite the Big One. They arrive in the Neitherworld and their son is handed back to them, albeit a few years older. They live together long enough for BJ to grow up, go to High School etc.
Meanwhile, back in the Outerworld, Donny lives a long and productive (if not happy) life. He finally dies at a grand old age of 80 or so (VERY old back in those days). This means that by the time he has arrived in the Neitherworld, BJ has had time to grow up and so forth.
This way it doesn't really matter who's the older brother because BJ would have had a lifetime longer in the Neitherworld than Donny (though, conversely, Donny would've had a longer time in the lands of the living).

(Allison sent me this follow-up on 8/10/99...)
My theory on the bridging story still (basically) stands, but my world has come crashing down regarding the other tale. Though these things are sent to try us, I've had to grudgingly admit that this theory is currently unworkable by taking all bits of Beetlejuice lore into account. Basically, the dates are impossible. According to the tombstone at the Universal Studios Beetlejuice show, BJ was born in the year 1313 and died in 1356 - making him a good 43 years old when he died. Unfortunatley, my theory relies on him being only very young when he died.

Alison Blazow offers up this excellent idea 'bridging' the movie and the series (I based "Bridge Over the River Winter" on this):
Frazzled by their last encounter with the dead, the Deetz decide to move out of their old house in Winter River, which is haunted, and off to another house as far away from it as they can. They wind up in Peaceful Pines. This also explains why the nice dead couple who took a long drive off a short pier aren't with them in the new house--being stuck in their old one for another hundred-odd years.
(Sparky's note: this does not explain how Lydia can still attend Miss Shannon's School For Girls, which we know she was going to at the end of the movie. Perhaps Peaceful Pines is simply nearby, as we know that Lydia still has to cross the Winter River Bridge in order to get to and from school.)
Anyway, Charles and Delia are adults, and--adults being adults--push the whole Other House Incident out of their heads, convincing themselves that it was just some kind of mass hallucination. And Delia, being Delia, redecorates the new house to exactly match the old one (more or less).
Meanwhile, our be-striped antihero does all the things he needs to do to make the transition between being live-action and being animated (i.e. buying the Roadhouse, unshrinking his head, etc.). Now, Beetlejuice still thinks Lydia is pretty cool and all that (he has a crush on her), so he decides to go and find her. He's probably feeling guilty about everything that happened in the film (because, let's face it, deep down he's not such a bad guy. At least when it comes to Lydia). He does, and apologises and all that. Lydia is a bit skeptical, but they soon become friends and the whole messy film incident is forgotten.

Here's Brandon's version:
[As] for the Maitland's, well in the end of the movie they do get Beetlejuice punished for all his bad deeds so they were rewarded (since no one in the neitherworld likes BJ) and were granted passage into the Neitherword and a restraining order from the ghost with the most. And BJ was punished by Mayor Maynot to haunt the Deetz's until Lydia forgave him for trying to marry her by force! And over the year they became friends.

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