The Honorable Justice Sandra "Sandy" Cooper was a former resident of Nantucket who attended Siasconset High School with Joe Hackett. She was played by Valerie Mahaffey.
Bio[]
Sandra "Sandy" Cooper grew up on Nantucket living just a block away from Joe and Brian's childhood home. She attended Siasconset High School along with Joe, Helen, Brian, Casey and others. While in high school, Sandy developed an obsessive crush on Joe and began following him home from school practically everyday, sat in the front row at all of his baseball games and took pictures of him, and even secretly cut off a lock of his hair. On prom night June 5th, 1978, Sandy waited by the phone all night for Joe to call and ask her to the dance, sitting in her prom dress and watching "Donnie & Marie" with her parents (Joe actually attended the dance with Jannie Jordan). The next day, Sandy went to the tuxedo rental shop that Joe used and purchased his tux (2 Good 2 Be 4 Gotten).
After graduating high school, Sandy moved away from Nantucket, went to law school, passed the bar examine, and became a successful prosecuting lawyer for the district attorney's office in Chicago. She was also married once for two weeks (2 Good 2 Be 4 Gotten).
When Sandy Cooper returned to the island to visit her parents, Helen and Brian went out to dinner with her at The Club Car while Joe tried to initially avoid her. When Joe confronted Sandy in front of everyone about her odd behavior in school, she had innocent explanations for all of it: she "followed" Joe home from school because she lived one block away, she took pictures at his baseball games because she was a photographer on the school's newspaper, and she cut off a lock of his hair as part of her initiation into a high school sorority. Embarrassed, Joe asked to take Sandy out to dinner that night. After their dinner, Joe helped Sandy carry a box down to the basement of her parents' home where she trapped him and forced him to reenact their prom night. Sandy made Joe wear his old tux, try her punch, and dance. Joe was able to escape, but no one believed his story (2 Good 2 Be 4 Gotten).
Eventually, Sandy was appointed as a circuit court judge. When Sandy learned about Joe and Helen's upcoming wedding, she came to the island to marry Joe first under the guise of picking things from her parents house which was just sold. While staying with Helen's house, Sandy had a fake wedding with Joe where she married them as a judge. She then forced Joe to eat wedding cake, give a toast, and dance the Hokey Pokey. Then they went on their honeymoon to Hawaii and Paris. After learning where Helen was, Joe stormed out. Again, no one believed him (She's...Baaack)
A year later, Sandy ran into Brian in Boston while she was guest lecturing at Harvard and they pair began dating. Joe tried to trick Sandy into admitting her feelings for him, but his erratic behavior resulted in Helen scheduling a psychiatric evaluation for Joe. During his second appointment with Dr. Grayson, Sandy showed up in his office and forced Joe to do marriage therapy with Dr. Sydney Rosenbear, a teddy bear. Sandy then pretended to be pregnant and give birth to baby. Much to Joe's frustration, no one believed him (One Flew Over the Cooper's Nest).
Trivia[]
- Sandy's nickname for Joe in Joey Bear ("like Teddy Bear but with Joey" (2 Good 2 Be 4 Gotten).
- Sandy was the chairman of the decoration committee for the prom and worked on it for three months even though she didn't attend (2 Good 2 Be 4 Gotten).
- Sandy wears a locket around her neck filled with hair she cut off Joe's head in high school (2 Good 2 Be 4 Gotten).
- Oddly, Sandy did not return to Nantucket for the Siasconset High School class reunion in Remembrance of Flings Past (Part 1).
