Eric Tramer is Jessie Spano's obnoxious stepbrother whose only appearance was in a two-part episode in the series.
History[]
Not much is known about Eric's past except that he lived with his father in New York (what became of his mother has never been mentioned). At his school, he was a prankster and class troublemaker. His father met Jessie's mother and they married with the family moving to her house in California.
Eric seemed less than thrilled to leave New York, the place he had known all his life and having to live another life. He made this clear when he first arrived at the Spano's house. Jessie however was thrilled to have a brother and tried her best to make his stay as comfortable as possible.
She invited two of her friends Kelly Kapowski and Lisa Turtle who arrived a jar of cookies for him. As soon as Eric met Lisa, he became smitten with her and made plans to date her. Eric started becoming a nuisance to Jessie with his rudeness, taking her diary and demanding to take part of her room.
At Bayside High, he met Zack Morris, Jessie's boyfriend A.C. Slater and Screech Powers who helped him to fit in and continued to try and get Lisa to go out with him, though she kept telling him she wasn't interested. One day when he and Screech were watching a Dodger's game that Screech had taped for him in Jessie's room, further infuriating Jessie who had just come out of the bath and wanted to get dressed, they saw Zack in the audience. Zack had pretended to be Jewish and attend a Jewish holiday so he could skip school and watch the game. Bigmouth Screech revealed this to Eric and knowing that Zack would get into the trouble with Principal Belding if he found out Zack's ploy, blackmailed Zack into giving him the baseball he caught during the game, his locker and ten days of free school meals for his silence.
Later he also recorded a intimate conversation in Jessie's room between Jessie and Slater, during their study date. Eric then blackmailed Jessie into having her room all to himself or he would play it on the intercom in the Principal's office. Slater then came to Eric the next day and demanded the tape, which he then stamped on. Eric however had gave him a blank one and said he had more copies where that came from. He demanded having Slater's car to drive at his own leisure in exchange for the rest.
Having had enough of Eric's schemes, Zack, Slater and Screech decided to beat him at his own game. Zack bribed Lisa with some M.C. Hammer concert tickets in exchange for a date with Eric. Instead of giving him Slater's car, Slater gave him Mr. Belding's wife Becky's car that he had brought her as a present. They were hoping to take a picture of Eric driving Mrs. Belding's car in a chosen area so they could blackmail him into giving them the tapes he made of them. The date with Eric and Lisa went well and he let her drive the car back. When Screech took the picture to expose Eric, he didn't realize Lisa was the one driving and the camera flash blinded her, resulting in the car hitting a brick wall, backfiring the blackmailing scheme.
Later Eric found out that Zack, Slater and Screech had also rigged a fake lottery to make money to repair the car and decided to use it as another blackmailing scheme. In retaliation, Zack and Slater told him that Lisa had only gone out with him because of the concert tickets. At the Max, Eric confronted Lisa about this and without listening for an explanation, told her that he never wanted to see her again, leaving Lisa who had now grown to be fond of Eric, heartbroken and in tears.
Having now had the money to fix the car, Zack and Slater left it to be repaired in the Auto shop class. However Eric spitefully told the teacher to dismantle the car, despite Screech's protests, so that Zack and Slater would have no way of fixing Mr. Belding's wife's car. Later Jessie, who now knew about the car, told Eric how upset Lisa was and that she really liked him. Eric said that if she really liked him, she would have never helped Slater and Zack set him up. Jessie protested that Lisa had never been a part of it and it was he who had started the vendetta in the first place.
Eric then revealed about dismantling the car to teach them a lesson, shocking Jessie saying that they could be expelled, asking Eric if he cares about who he hurts. Eric callously answered that he didn't just as long as it wasn't him, which shocked Jessie even more. Jessie was furious and called Eric a selfish and inconsiderate excuse for a human being, even feeling like punching him if she was a guy. Eric then finally crossed the line by calling Jessie "just a chick", resulting in Jessie truly punching him, giving him a black eye, which left him surprised and angry. Jessie replied that she had been looking forward to spending time with Eric and had hoped to be a real family, but Eric's behavior had spoilt it all and now she no longer wanted a brother.
Now feeling ashamed of his actions and fearful of now being hit by Jessie, Eric repaired Mr. Belding's wife's car and handed the tapes back to Zack and Slater, saying that he had lied about the other copies. He then said he would now be moving back to New York as he didn't feel like he was fitting in California.
Later as Eric was in Jessie's room, packing his things and planning to go back to live with his aunt, Jessie appeared and told him how pleased she was with him for setting things right and apologized for hitting him. Zack, Slater, Screech and Lisa arrived, persuading Eric to stay. Zack said that Eric kept him on his toes and Lisa told him that if Zack hadn't bribed her, she wouldn't of got to know him and would miss him if he left. After the gang walked out, Jessie told him that it must have been hard for Eric to move to California and start a new life and asked if he would give it another chance. Eric had never really wanted a sister, but then decided it wasn't so bad so he agreed and the two then hugged. Eric was never seen again after this.