That was a fan-fic. You've wandered into fan-fic territory there, just short of dotting the i's and crossing the t's.
Nice fan-fic Cass!
However if Terrence is de-jerkified if only a bit, the doors of chaos are flung open. Would he then become a better friend to Mac? How would that affect the Mac-Bloo partnership?

As for the Frankie background story, well there is a gap there that dosn't affect anything else in the Fosters continuum if filled. Yes there is potential for more work in the Frankie's parents area maybe comparing their ideas, behaviour or views on IFs with Frankie's and Madame Foster's. I know from experience that all sorts of inherited tendencies jump a generation. Hmmmm yes.

I agree, that Terrence working at Foster's idea would make for an awesome fan-fic or even an actual episode of the show, it contains the perfect mixture of comedy and heart.

Though if it was an actual episode, dollars to doughnuts says they'll more then likely find a way to return things to the status quo before the episode is even over.

It's a great idea, Cassini, but Koosie and Taranchula may have a point. But my biggest concern would be the show boiling down to yet another crush-fest on Frankie. But I do like the idea of Frankie somehow being a positive influence on Terrance.

Yeah in that fic series I was working on about Terrence he was going to wind up working at the House for a while (starting in the stables) and being befriended by Frankie. It's fan-fic fodder. The reason I abandoned those stories is because I realised that the whole reason I even started writing them was because I had been reading too much fan-fic and not watching enough of the show. Nothing I wrote about would work well in the actual show. I've come to love the character of Terrence as he really is, and if they de-jerkified him it would basically ruin him. I do think it would be good if we could get an idea that he might improve as a person in some kind of show finale, but I don't think it should happen while the show is still going on. His character is not *meant* to be anything but a jerk; that's who he is, that's his role in the show.

I agree that that would be a mega-awesome-riffic fanfic!

Also, just because Terrence is tolerable wouldn't make him not a jerk. I mean, look at Bloo!

I don't see Frankie befriending Terrence. It's already been established she doesn't like him, I think in the Duchess episode where she lives next door to Mac.

Yeah, Mac's friends don't care for Terrence much and Terrence seems to have his own friends. I don't see them crossing paths.

Maybe there could be an episode where Frankie moves out to her own apartment, but comes back because she's lonely living alone. Writing for just one character without others to interact with is a big challenge, though.

Frankie is too smart to move out on her own (she has an old victorian house to inherit if Madame Foster passes away - no mortgage). Terrence will have to practically walk on water to even get a "job well done" from Frankie.:frankiesmile:

I'd watch this as an episode or read it as a fic. Terrence working at Foster's for ANY reason invites entertainment.

There is definately that point of the decision to return everything back to normal, which could be a bit of a stickier-than-pine-sap situation. But I don't necessarilly see a repeat of Frankie My Dear should Terrence work at the house for any length of time. It would be interesting to see how Frankie influences him though...

I dunno-- I'd like to see it happen, but I'm rather impartial to plot. Does that make me a hippocrite? <sp?>

When I dreamed up this idea the thoughts of Terrence developing a crush on Frankie or becoming "de-jerkified" never occurred to me. The former isn't consistent with either Terrence's character or the show's premise, and the latter, well, I never intended for him to become any less of a jerk; the idea was to gain a little understanding of why he's a jerk. I don't see him ever really changing in the slightest until possibly the final episode, if even then.

If anyone wants to write it go ahead but don't look at me; you know full well that if I were to write it the focus would be more on Frankie than any other character, same as the other stories I've written. After all, I am a Frankie fan, y'know. :frankiesmile:

Frankie will hate terrence as much as she hates securRom or Starforce, which was waay worse than securom.

Yep. I figure college'll change him some, but I don't see anything happening before then.

I think hate is a rather strong word. I'm sure that if Terrence made an honest effort to change then Frankie, and many others at Foster's, would be willing to give him a chance.

I think I said this before (but not sure): Terrence can walk on water, and I doubt THAT will be enough to earn Frankie's trust and respect.:wiltshock:

If it were up to me i would have him spend a week in a max security prison, so he can taste of what life is like for trouble makers.

Wait a minute...I could have sworn that this was a "Frankie Foster Discussion Thread", so when did it mutate into a Terrence-Bashing thread? There IS a Terrence discussion thread, you know, but there are NO threads on the board devoted to bashing characters.

I will say this much though-as a veteran teacher, who has taught in the public school system now for more than two decades, and who has taught every grade level from four-year-old kindergarten through high school seniors, I have seen more than my share of "Terrences" come through the system. Most are simply troubled kids who have no guidance at home, and most DO manage to turn themselves around and grow a brain, often after finding someone to help them along the way. I can recall one student in particular who not only ACTED like Terrence; he even LOOKED like him, and if ever there was a kid that the world would label a "loser", it was him. Now, after being adopted by an uncle when he was in his mid-teens, a guy who turned his life around, he owns one of the largest automobile dealership franchises in the state. I've also seen a LOT of "Macs"-sweet, kind, smart, considerate kids that you'd think would have it made-turn into total little jerks and utter morons when they hit puberty, and wind up either killing themselves with drugs or getting shot to death before they reach the age of 18. It can go either way, folks.

pitbulllady

Uh, that's not a pretty picture. Very sad.

Anyhoosen, back on topic, sort of, most of us have probably heard of the Valentines Day marathon on CN from 6-11. There is one Foster's eppie due to air during that time. And which one is it? Why yes, one of the best Foster's eppies ever! Our beloved FMD! :yeah: Due to air at 7:30. So Frankie will be in the spotlight for V-Day. Yay! :frankiesmile:

Too quiet in here, and for far too long. Talk to me, guys. :frankiesmile:

We've talked about the many mysteries in Frankie's background more than once, and there are a lot; what was her major, why doesn't she have an IF of her own, etc. No need to list them all; you know what they are as well as I do. If you could get an answer to any of these questions, which one would it be? Right now I'm thinking I'd like some info on her parents. What are their names, and where are they? Why do we never see them, or even hear about them? What do they do for a living? Are they dead, as some people have speculated? If so, how? Is Frankie their only child, or are there more?

Anyway, that's what I'm wondering about this afternoon as I look at yet another pic of her. How about you guys? :frankiesmile:

Siblings? Wow, I've wondered about her parents, but the thought of her having siblings has never entered my mind. That would be cool. :frankiesmile:

What I've always wondered about is her junior high years. It's such a pivotal place in our lives- entering the teenage years, about to leave elementary school and start high school, the onset of puberty. I just wonder what it was like for her. What kind of friends did she have? Was she "punk rock" back then, or something else? What crazy clothes did she wear when trying to find her own sense of style? Did she wear braces? Did she have acne? What styles did she experiment with in hairstyle? How did she feel about growing up, physically as well as emotionally?

The "tweens" were such an interesting and insecure time for us all I'm sure. I've always wondered how those sensitive years treated her.

I really do wonder what she was like in high school. Was she particularly popular, was she once a vapid valley girl and then changed her life around to the great person she is now? Was she the lonely cute wallflower who was too shy to ask guys out? High school can be a whole different life and world for people.

I personally think her parents are dead or are missing or something that has made it seem like they are never gonna show up. I also suspect that quite possibly Frankie's parents were workaholics or had jobs that constantly required them to leave at a moment's notice, Frankie seems kind of family left out.

I get the impression she didn't spend a lot of time with her family or possibly was not on very good terms with them. Frankie seems very independent but not by nature, I think responsibility was something she was saddled with and didn't particularly want or desire. Care giving she does want, but the amount of responsibility I'm not so sure.

What I mean by that is, Frankie seems like the kind of person who gets work dumped on her on a daily basis, the fact she gets so used to it without flipping out on a frequent basis indicates either a strong tolerance for it or from my personal judgments based on her facial reactions, reluctant acceptance.

I think Frankie had to take responsibility and work onto her shoulders at a very young age, which is kind of where I still feel the dead parents theory would make sense, making her need to "grow up fast" similar to Bruce Wayne. I don't think Frankie had time to be a kid which may explain why she never had an IF.

I think this also connects to her child like behavior such as when she was in love and acted so giddy and playfully expressive, or her little "sowwy" jokes she makes with Mr. Herriman, and her cookie attack thing. They all seem like repressed signs of immaturity Frankie never got the chance to express as a kid.

Of course, this probably sounded WAY too psychologically in depth like 3 paragraphs ago. But, Cass wanted to shake things up a bit and get us thinking about Frankie, so I figured, go nuts!

Like you'd be the first person here to overanalyze a character. ;) What you wrote makes sense, though, and largely jibes with much of my thinking. I don't agree with the "dead parents" theory, however. It does sound good but I can't see it within the context of the show, what with it being a children's cartoon and all. My guess would be they're either workaholics or possibly beatnik/hippie sorts, not unlike Mr. Herriman in Let Your Hare Down. Maybe they spend their time following some group like the Grateful Dead around the country; Frankie, and Madame Foster for that matter, never mention them because they're an embarassment. Not a likely scenario - I think the workaholic theory is more plausible - but certainly an amusing one.

I admit it sounds grim, but then again the whole thing with Mac's father not ever showing up and everyone feeling they are divorced isn't a pleasant theory either. Even if the theory isn't very "kid friendly" I would rather they give us a grim explanation then a kid friendly one that doesn't make any sense.

When it comes to certain aspects of the show, I feel sugar coating things diminishes the material. Like in Teen Titans when the traitor Titan Terra asks Beast boy to "destroy her" for all the bad things she's done. Had they simply said "kill me" it would have preserved a truly moving and sincere emotional event.

Now obviously Frankie's parents haven't had any indication of anything about them but my point is, I hope that if there is an explanation for her folks mystery location and they HAVE an explanation that accurate but not kid friendly, I would rather have that then tainting a potential deep moment with kid jokes.

That's just the way I feel about it. If they are not dead, fine that's great, just don't feed me an explanation that is made simply to cuddle kids from reacting negatively because something serious might be involved. To put it simple: if your gonna do it, do what feels right to the character not what kids parents thinks feels right.

The Thing i always liked about frankie is that she doesn't take junk from nobody and takes action when necessary.

But i've always wondered what her past was like?

BTW i loved her "sowwy jokes" and in the dinner episode where she is like: I have been a bad bad girl in that kiddy voice lol.

But what i also think is that the many IF at fosters don't truly appreciate for frankie of what she truly is, they probably just think of her as another maid or something, unlike wilt or mac who truly appreciate her, and she has kinda become an almost underrated character in some terms.

I don't know if this has been brought up already, but I think it's more-or-less reasonable to assume that Frankie is related to Madame Foster via her father, given that they both share the same surname. But then again, it wouldn't be at all out of the question for Frankie to have inherited the name from her mother's side of the family, particularly if she spent more time growing up with her grandmother than with her parents themselves.

So yeah, that's all I've got to contribute to the discussion right now. It's not much, but it's just a little observation I made.

That does seems to be the consensus, that Frankie's father is Madame Foster's son. I think that's the most likely scenario, although there are certainly others, some of which might make for a more interesting background for her. Hopefully we'll find out eventually. :frankiesmile:

Regarding Frankie's parents the only things that I could conclude are three potential clues:

1: Madam Foster had had a son who married and had Frankie, thus the Foster name.
2: Madam Foster had a daughter who decided to keep her last name or...
3: Madam Foster adopted Frankie herself.

Now I will admit that it has been quite a long while since I've actually watched any Foster's so my memory may be iffy. But seriously, there are so many possibilities about Frankie's parents that my brain would likely twist itself into a pretzel if I tried to think about them.8D

The only referrence Frankie has ever made to her parents was in Who Let The Dogs In?, when she told Mr. Herriman that her parents said there's no such things as ghosts. That's all; anything else is pretty much just speculation. :frankiesmile:

I was sure that her parents were mentioned in the first season at some point. Thanks for the reminder, Cass!:D
While it is fun to speculate on her family, I almost hope that we don't get an episode that would answer our questions. I would hate for an episode that started out well, a tip of the hat to her fans, but fumbles and ends up adversely affecting her character or image. Pretty much another "Little Peas" fiasco again but multiplied.
But I'm sure that it could be pulled off. Wilts special was handled beautifully, filling in the blanks and also letting Wilt's character grow. If they can pull off the same quality for a Frankie story than I couldn't ever ask for more.

Frankie's Imaginary Friend
 

So, I have a thought, one would imagine that when Frankie was little, she probably created an Imaginary friend of her own. Am I the only one that could see it being Duchess?

Now, this may seem unreasonable at first, but think about it. It seems to me that Frankie and duchess probably would have gotten along until Frankie had to be the one to deal with all of Duchesses complaints.

I moved your post here because this particular subject has come up before in this very thread. Nothing personal, mind you. ;)

I think if Duchess was in fact Frankie's IF there would have been some indication of that on the show by now. Plus I like to think Duchess would have a much better attitude. While it is admittedly a possibility I think it is highly unlikely. I stand by my original theory, which is that Frankie never had an IF of her own and it's because her parents wouldn't allow her to have one. I can't prove it, but it's always felt right to me for some reason. :frankiesmile:

I don't think Frankie ever had an IF either, simply because she grew up around so many, she never felt the need to create her own. Which also brings me to the speculation that, isn't Duchess older than Frankie? From "The Big Picture" we see that Wilt and Duchess were the first friends Madame F seemed to have taken in. And Frankie wasn't even in the pictures yet for another few years (and then appeared to be maybe 3 or 4 years old). Of course we have no proof but I always saw Duchess to be the oldest friend, maybe as old or even older than Uncle Pockets. So to sum up, I personally don't think Duchess is Frankie's IF. Although the idea that IFs are the "opposite" f their creator, it does kind of fit, heh. :frankiesmile:

A valid point. But this of course leads to another question of who is >:('s creator? I'm hopin' for trailer park trash...

A question I'd love some screen time devoted to, but doubt will.

My theory is that after the scribbles incident, Frankie was much too "sowwy" to create an IF. That, or she was too worried about Herry chewing out her IF if it broke rules and whatnot.

I could definitely see that being the case.:D

I think she probably plays video games or flash games.About her work: I can't imagine Frankie siting behind a desk and signing papers *...doh...*
But I shoore like Frankie the way she is,she totaly Rocks!!! Her character is super!!! Her room looks cool. A...Mr.H surely works her hard *...doh...* ,poor Frankie,but she never gived up,you know. Am... in the edn: She is just a perfect character for me!!! :frankiesmile:

As I was watching "Duchess of Wails" it occurred to me that the way Duchess pronounces "Frankie" in the beginning, oddly sounds very much like "Ferengi". Now I've watched zero Startrek so all I know about these creatures comes from a couple of youtube videos I watched just now (also to double-check the pronunciation), and the wikipedia article.

Seems like it's just an odd coincidence, as Frankie doesn't act the least bit profiteering and cheat-loving as the Ferengi seem to act.

It may have been discussed before, but I have to ask: What part of Frankie's features are endearing to you?

I love her long eyelashes, wholesome voice, and the fact she is a redhead! Oh, and how could I leave out those cute pipe cleaner legs:-*

I can't really think of anything to say about Frankie that hasn't already been said. But strong female characters are a rarity, and it's great to see that "Foster's" has its very own. And it's good to see that she keeps on going, even if she doesn't get near enough appreciation for what she does.

And I like red hair on a woman.::D

Do you think that if fosters ends that frankie should get her own spin-off, like she finally moves out of fosters and goes to college and we get to see her adventures and whatnot?

Or will it descend into a pit of fail?