Joshua (Josh) Ford

Josh is the youngest son of James and Jean, he has two older brothers, Ricky and John.

At first appearances just a stereotypical good looking jock, the star quarterback soon proves to have some depth and sensitivity.

He makes the lead in the school production of South Pacific after auditioning in secret. He knew his coach and father would be against him but he was disappointed when Sugar (his best friend) and Brooke also reacted badly. All she can see is a drama geek making her look bad. He expected better from his girlfriend. Things don't improve when they fail to have sex. Why this is isn't spelled out, but it seems to be a failure on his part.

Conflicted, he admires Lily's stand on Jehovah the frog and attends his burial where she offers him some sound advice. "Don't cave. Stay true to yourself and what you want." He stays in the musical, but his relationship with Brooke crumbles.

Sam, who has had a crush on Josh from elementary school, thinks she has a chance with him but he returns to Brooke.

Cheating on the Biology mid-term test puts the boot on the other foot. Now Josh censures Brooke for cheating and not fessing up (Nicole took the blame for her). At this time we learn he plays golf with Sugar at the Palm Coast Country Club.

After failing a magazine intimacy test, and to prove to Sam that her relationship isn't superficial, Brooke tries to display Josh to the 'rentals at dinner; but his acting skills, or is it the poor script that she has written for him, let him down. They have sex for the first time.

Next day she reduces him to tears by breaking up with him. She thought sex would fix things. It didn't. She just can't connect with him. He can't understand her at all, mainly because she doesn't understand herself. Nicole throws herself at him immediately afterwards and they have sex.

The subsequent pregnancy scare (with Brooke) puts him in a panic. He mentions his cousin, Ritchie, 23, who has 3 kids and a beer gut who works in a paint store, but he stands by her anyway.

He's still in the musical, playing well, and his grades are up when Sam and Brooke pick him as the subject of a TV documentary. He plays along in an attempt to get back with Brooke. He frankly reveals his confusion about his life on camera. James unexpectedly attends the musical, but leaves at the interval, ashamed of his son. Josh hits back with some home truths about his brothers. Ricky hates the college he is at and John is stuck in a bad marriage with 2 children.

"John and Ricky hate you, Dad. Do you know that? They hate you. And I don't want to be like that, Dad, because I don't want to hate you. But right now I do." James remains unmoved and walks away.

Josh tries to get Brooke to pick him for the Sadie Hawkins Dance, goes with Sam, but ends up dancing with Carmen. After the dance he makes out with Brooke, only for her to reject him again. Then he kisses Sam, who also rebuffs him, but more gently. He ends up talking to, then dating Carmen.

Jean finally decides to leave James after 25 years, but Josh pressures her into staying put for his sake. He is confronted by his behaviour at sensitivity camp. He is shocked to realise he is emulating his bullying father, he apologises to Lily, whom he had affronted, and supports his mother's decision to leave by coming to live with her.

His relationship with Carmen provokes a jealous reaction from Brooke and he decides to break from Carmen after a month. She also has a pregnancy scare but doesn't tell him.

He gets busted at a strip club. "But we were just here for the chicken," he protests. He likes chicken.

Josh gets back with Brooke at the wedding that never was, but feels excluded when Kelly monopolises her time over the summer break. He helps Lily try to save the forever tree. He carves 'Josh and Brooke forever' on it to prove his commitment just as she is planning to go and live in San Francisco with Kelly (she doesn't go, but not for Josh's sake, she didn't even tell him she was going).

He copes well with the pretend baby exercise but does less well at home. He has to take a job as a pizza delivery boy to pay the bills as Jean can't get a job with her out of date skills.

Brooke tries to be supportive but he feels like he's drowning and his performance on the field is beginning to slip. The new coach (Casey Krupps) finds Jean a job as the school's guidance councellor and then begins to date her.

Josh doesn't like this, or the new boy (George Austin) who is stealing his thunder. He gets suspended after a fight with him, tries to foment a walk-out, but ends up saving the game for the team with some timely advice from the touchline.

He later consoles Nicole who has also had a rough time of it and lost her place in the Glamazons. She repays him by trying to persuade Brooke to dump him for George because he's more popular.

Thanks to Nicole, he is paired with Lily on a Biology assignment and is quickly converted to vegetarianism. He then helps her to free Bruce the gay chimp and in doing so gets closer to Lily. Brooke sees this and calls him on it. By now he is tired of the breakup-makeup cycle and he allows her to break it off to save face, but she is deeply hurt by the rejection nonetheless.

Soon after he is making out and drinking cough syrup with Lily. When caught out by a snap urine test he uses a sample provided by Harrison which unexpectedly comes up positive. Lily fesses up and stands by her man, much to Brooke's surprise.

Suspended from football, Lily persuades him to audition for Equus and ends up playing against him. They are both worried by the nude scene, find out they are to wear bodysuits, then do the rehearsal in the nude anyway.

He falls out with Sugar over the time he spends with Lily, but soon misses his best friend and makes up with him.

His love of poultry proves to be vital in the The Big Head Challenge quiz and gives KH the victory. I told you he liked chicken.

He ends up marrying Lily against parental advice and living with Ms Glass in difficult circumstances. It's clearly doomed from the start and the marriage would have broken up in the third season had we got that far.

Note: The part was originally played by Kip Pardue but he was replaced when the show went into production. However, some publicity photos of Kip as Josh were issued.