the part where there going to the school dance has a black woman dressed as a cow that looks like she's 30. it creeped me out because all the kid are played by kids make the extra look really creepy.
they're, like, 12, right? you physically can't have an adult play a 12 year old. I feel like kids - like, pre-teens and younger - are usually played by kids.
Reminds me of the Ouran high school host club manga that had little 4th wall breaking notes saying things like “we’re just gonna ignore graduations” and “it’s spring again-please ignore how many springs it’s been” XD
I remember reading 2 separate books that both take place around Valentine's day... One had Mary Ann and Logan dating with side characters thinking Logan was cheating on Mary Ann (spoilers, he wasn't.) The other had them breaking up, on Valentine's Day. Both occur while they are 13 and in 8th grade.
Yeah i recently decided to reread of the books and read book 24, set in may of 8th grade, then read the graduation one, set in June of 8th grade and there was supposed to be a multiple overseas trips, new babies born, weddings, Mallory moving schools, Maryannes house burning down and being rebuilt, among other things 😂
@@juliaware7504 I remember in one of the books the author's notes included the decision to keep them 13 because otherwise they'd have ended up in college which... Honestly I would like to have read that. None of them were really "poor" persay but given the way the series handled certain topics (like Claudia being held back a year) it would have helped a lot of us back then. There were so many sub series that a HS and then college spin off would have been appreciated. R.L. Stine had that with the Fear Street books!
i appreciate that the kids are played by kids. i remember imagining them as older because i was like 8 when i read the books and 13 year olds were super cool to me lol anyways i didnt know ann m martin is gay!! my life has been illuminated
@@springray2323 omg right. Especially the book where the high school girls are stealing their business because they can stay out later and drive. That all seems so ridiculous now that parents would rather hire 12 year olds
@@springray2323 lol I had my first babysitting gig at 11 and have had a pretty steady stream of clients since then. Most ppl stop babysitting around 15-17 when they get real jobs so like it makes sense that Middle Schoolers and High School freshman have most the gigs.
@@Aqua-oz4nb they were worried about it attracting bugs. I think they also didn’t understand why I was trying to hide it bc they wouldn’t have actually cared that much if I had just kept it in the pantry. 😂
@@penina8438 my mom didn't care what we ate and made sure to save ones we liked for us. *_But_* if you hid food and she found it, she'd eat it all and let you do what you want about that! 🤣🤣 I found her evil trick out as an adult and was horrified. My sister does this to manage ants in her house with her toddlers.
I think they quit posting in 2018, but there is a fin blog called What Claudia Wore that you should check out if you aren't already familiar, which you might be. Lol.
@@larissatom6910 I remember the book vividly when she got her hair cut short, and it was so descriptive like “she could feel the air on the back of her neck.” I really feel like checking out the books again, even though I feel so old to be reading them haha, for a total nostalgia kick 🙂
This just made me realise how stalking is romanticised in Miraculous Ladybug. Marinette knows Adriens schedule so well, that she knows where he is every second of the day. And smh that is put as something completely normal when you have a crush, in 2021? wild
Adrien is a public figure in their universe. His modeling schedule wouldn’t be likely to be some secret. She isn’t any more of a talker than older people who sit on computers compulsively refreshing to see what the latest celebrity news is.
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria honestly it says a lot more about how we romanticize the dehumanization and idealization of celebrities. It’s considered weird but ultimately harmless to know every detail about a celebrity, but it adds to the culture of invading the privacy of celebrities and forcing them into difficult emotional situations for entertainment. It’s also concerning bc the line between regular person and celebrity are very blurred in the internet age-where a regular person from a regular background is treated LIKE a celebrity, but doesn’t have any of the “training” that traditional celebrities get (publicists, often already wealthy, etc) So I think you both have a point that Marinette’s behavior is normalized and a part of fan-culture, but it would also be kind of concerning if she were a different person
The implication is that since Marinette and Adrien are soulmates, Adrien would love to have someone as obsessed with him as his father is neglectful. But I think that as a children's show where Chat Noir and Ladybug are supposed to be role models for the kids watching it, it's unrealistic. And I don't mean the akumas and the poor worldbuilding and the impossible love square. I mean Marinette being obsessed but unable to talk to Adrien and Adrien acting more respectful than any living boy on this earth. The show was made to sell toys, I get it. But god, they're milking it.
@@wickandwax the fact that the show is having 7 CONFIRMED seasons isnt helping, so many shows cant even get 3 and a formulaic show like miraculous can get 7
So originally Stacy was going to have aids not diabetes, that’s why there was a lot of secretism and shame written into the books. The idea was to destigmatize aids but unfortunately people were highly against the books when they got to that part, because of the negative associations with the disease. So they changed it last minute. you can still find original editions of the first publication where it says she has aids and not diabetes.
@@hananalm3898 I think the point (at least in the show) was that there was a video posted of Stacey having a seizure and the rumor mill made people think that she was on drugs and there was a lot of rumors spread about her to the point where it was a bad environment for her
@@hananalm3898 Right, that was ridiculous. And she was in New York in the first place, like could she not just go to a different school if she was bullied so bad?
Ok I'm only 7 minutes in but as someone who has never read or watched any Babysitter's Club stuff before: 1. It's so funny to find out how essential landline phones are to the whole premise of the books lmao. 2. I'm SUPER surprised and glad Netflix didnt try to "Riverdale" it. LET THINGS BE LOW STAKES AND DELIGHTFUL! 3. Claudia to me seems like exactly the kind of kid who would end up being super successful in the 2020s. 3. Maryanne's dad needs to go to therapy asap cuz his behavior towards her is gonna set her up for some SUCKY future relationships.
Lmaoooo as a 90s kid, I have to laugh so much at how essential land lines were overall, and remembering the BSC being a huge factor in my pitch to my parents as to why I needed my own phone in my room 😂😂😂😂 90s+landline=necessary AF! 😂😂😂
I use to imagine that eventually Maryanne would end up with Charlie(Kristy's Older brother). Like way in the future when both are in their Twenties. (Charlie is only a little over 4 years older, so it's possible).
@@PrincessKLS in the fourth book, after she kept calm during the emergency with Jenny getting sick and going to the hospital she got him to let up a little, she no long er had to wear her hair in braids or skirts/dresses all the time.
I loved the books as a kid, though as a kid I was more into the books with Karen the little stepsister of Kristy. I'm just glad that the show actually had kids playing kids, instead of teens or young twenty something playing tween girls. Especially since they are so young in the first part of the book series.
I wanted to smack Karen. She annoyed me so much. She’s one of those kids who will grow up to be a Karen (ironic name) who thinks rules don’t apply to her since her daddy lets her off all the time.
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria I get that, but when I was a kid I liked things from her POV. I haven't read any of the series in years, so I don't remember a lot of what happened.
Yeah! I remember the one where Kristy last saw a soon to be missing child and they ended up doing search parties. I liked that one because it was a realistic kinda scary.
Also. My whole childhood to just wanted to BE Claudia. She was so beautiful, and so artsy, and so cool. Honestly, at almost 34, I still want to be the 1990’s version of Claudia. She’s still cool.
the babysitters plot that lives rent free in my head is in the movie when they decided it was okay for stacey be 13 and lie about her age and date a SEVENTEEN YEAR OLD and they decide to ~wait for each other~ even though he kept yelling "THIRTEEN"at her. i've literally not stopped thinking about this since i saw it as a child.
Didn’t in the books the 17 year old freaked out about her being 13 and never spoke to her again? Why would the writers make them date in the movies that’s cray 😭
Another book that I can’t see them adapting is Kristy and the secret of Susan. I recently reread it and oh my gosh. The way it views and talks about autism is so reflective of the time period. I mean having Kristy attempt to convince the parents that Susan is a real person and she deserves to stay in Stony Brook while also exploiting Susan’s ability to play piano.
As a mother of an autistic child, I actually don’t want this book to basically disappear. It’s actually an important one as it does reflect how autism was seen at the time, which helps show the progress that we have made. I’ve noticed as we’ve removed things that reflect views of various time, that a lot of young people today don’t understand that what we see as regressive today was actually progressive in previous eras, and so they ask why didn’t people of past decades (or even centuries) understand how wrong they were, and this is important to understand since there are views we have today that we see as progressive that will be seen as regressive. Our descendents will wonder why we didn’t see what we have wrong.
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria "As a mother of an autistic child," as an autistic i checked out here. they said "i cant see them adapting this because its problematic" if you are somehow agreeing that its problematic then the rest of this is not needed about your moral high ground about how these bad things used to be "good" because all the not normal people of the world had to kinda savor the table scraps they got before social media arose to prominence. like. im not gonna thank the heavens im not locked in a mental institution and get the bare minimum. lmao checked right the fuck......
Except she wasn't exploiting Susan's ability. She thought she was helping her make progress socially and that the kids in the neighborhood were actually looking at Susan as a friend. Honestly, yeah, it would undoubtedly undergo changes if it was made today, but it could also be a terrific tool for the ways in which people see disabilities/conditions/disorders that others don't understand, and how that lack of understanding can lead to accidental harm, but the most important thing is learning from it.
@@kateworkman921 her having people come into Susan’s house without either of her parents knowing just to listen to her play music sounds like exploiting to me. Plus one of the neighborhood boys made people pay to come see the “piano playing freak”. The Pike kids saw Susan as a friend but the Pike’s weren’t the ones coming to pay to hear Susan play music, that was other neighborhood kids who did that and they all made fun of Susan.
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria as an autistic person yes the book does reflect the time but that doesn’t mean we should continue to show that to kids. If we show them an updated version of autism and especially an updated version of non verbal autism we can teach kids more than we would by just showing them an outdated 90s version of autism. Just because it was progressive for its time doesn’t mean it currently fits that model for what is progressive. Also I grew up on these books, that’s the model of autism I had growing up as an autistic kid. I understand why they had that narrow minded view of autism but that doesn’t mean I want my kids or anyone’s kids seeing that as the done deal for what autism is.
“Have you found my red ribbon?” I haven’t read these books in decades, but this plot is one I’ll always remember! My friends and I also adapted this code phrase in case we needed help.
I've only watched the show and read the 2nd book of the graphic novel... but hear me out at least tv Claudia has inattentive-type ADHD. She's inconsistent, disorganized, forgetful and hyper focus is art
Those symptoms can also be reflective of autism, which her sister most likely has. We know that Claudia was unpopular, maybe around this time Claudia learnt how to Chameleon?
I think I remember reading that Martin wanted her to not have a specific learning disability, so that there wasn't a "solution" or maybe so more kids could identify with her? That said, she sounds profoundly inattentive ADHD (I was an early superfan like Kat)
@@babycakelings Yeah, I think someone mentioned it in the comments. Idk, haven't personally read the books. It was some book about an autistic girl who was good at playing the piano and her family didn't really treat her well?
@@vamplizzard oh yeah that book, from memory the girl was never said to be autistic, but basically she couldn’t talk or play with other kids, she just liked to play the piano. I don’t remember anything wrong with the parents but I was quite young reading it.
I remember a version of the urban legend where the caller was actually the overprotective parents of the children who stayed home to make sure the babbysitter was doing a good job
My only issue with the adaptation is that Logan doesn’t have a southern accent. His ‘slow southern drawl’ is so iconic to his book character and I’m annoyed about the lack of it.
as a 14 year old girl, its so refreshing to see ppl actually looking like the age theyre supposed to be. i think that these girls would realistically be ppl i would see walking around my school.
I was wondering why Mary Anne’s dad’s over protectiveness sounded so familiar. And THEN I remembered the Babysitter’s Club Friends Forever series book 8. And I just remember thinking Mary Anne’s dad seriosuly needed therapy.
It’s kinda crazy to me that they were in 8th grade the whole time. I mean, I read them in middle school and I guess always imagined them as older then me even as I aged. Seeing them played by kids so much younger then me was jarring at first. It’s definitely a good thing though.
Oh, is that why babysitters in all those old cartoons are horribly irresponsible and just want to talk on the phone with their boyfriends? Interesting.
Hell, this shows up in modern cartoons. While Timmy's parents are still awful, Vicky represnts the evil babysitter trope from the 80s in that she wants to torture and possibly murder Timmy
This even shows up in the BSC books. The BSC end up competing with another babysitting organization, this time with *spooky* highschoolers. The parents start leaning towards the new organization because the “highschoolers are more responsible and can take care of my babies too!” except that’s not what happens. The teens from the organization don’t take care of the children and, at one point, let a veryyy young kid play in the street alone without supervision. This uncovers a web of incompetence within the rival organization, and the BSC prevails against the “older” kids.
I remember surreal ones like the time Mallory and one of the other babysitters get snowed in with her siblings for like two days with no parents because they were doing an overnight (because leaving a 13-year-old and an 11-year-old to babysit seven kids overnight is a good idea, apparently), or the one where they all got stuck on a desert island.
I kinda wish they didn’t modernize it, just because that was part of the charm when I read the books. I remember my landline as a kid and sitting at the old laggy family computer
The new version is actually so good. I'm happy it exists. I enjoyed it as an adult fan of the old stuff, and I hope it helps kids get into the older stuff because of it.
Both are great but considering how trendy the 80’s/90’s are now I feel like they would be pretty popular even if it’s targeted audience doesn’t relate to parts of it
I think stalking is still one of the least seriously taken crimes. The police will probably still just say, "well what do you want there is no crime yet" and then the murder case later on is one big oops to them
My 5th grade teacher had like all of these books on hand. I absolutely loved them. Maryanne was my favorite. My favorite books were the one where Jessica became a dance teacher and another one of the dance teachers had an eating disorder, the one where Stacey moves back to New York, and the one where this little girl named Jenny is jealous of her baby sister because her mom seems to favor her, rather than loving them equally.
My favorite books were when Claudia's grandma passed(sucker for sadness, i guess) and when Stacy goes to the hospital for eating outside her regluar diet(same thing but add misunderstanding;) I got my collection from a yardsale that sold them in a 20+ bulk. Which was great for me and my love of reading. And let me say I was hooked on this series in middle school. I love the way this series handles serious topics and doesn't do it in a condescending way either. I think it's great a whole new generation can enjoy it just like we did.☺
@@penina8438 Even when I was a kid still, stuff like this annoyed the hell out of me. I had friends who were ballet dancers too, and they were bothered by it. I think Ann was trying to make the black girl into this totally super awesome girl, but in the end, just made her the most outlandish, and not in good ways. Like Jessi was the mall Santa? And allowed to stay home alone with her little siblings for a weekend? Even at the time, that wasn’t believable. (I was the target audience. I’m old, but I was the same age, so know what was done.) And when Jessi went to Europe, she was able to just borrow pointe shoes and dance in a professional performance without practice?
I still wish Alan Gray was in the TV series. I actually really enjoy his character. I'd love to see more baby-sitters club episode/book dissections like this
I kinda wished they kept it taking place in the 80s. Not everything needs to be modernized. 99/100 times modernizing something makes it feel cringy and disconnected and ironically....dated. The past exists. And it's a great setting.
It shows that the situation is still relatable to tweens/teens now. I think it can work either way. The show being cringy isn't because it's modern. It's because the adults writing the show are bad at writing. It wouldn't have been any better if they set it in the 80s.
@vanillabeanic neither was i but everybody loves stranger things. There are ways of doing historical shows well without it being confusing to the audience
It’s so much extra effort to make all the cars and clothes and everything match the historical time period. Since it doesn’t really matter, it makes sense that they chose the simpler option (that’s also more understandable and relatable to modern kids in the audience)
If you reread these books as an adult (without the nostalgia rose coloured glasses ) you’ll notice how strange these books are 1. Mallory is eleven and she used to help babysit her siblings when she was ten, yet the triplet’s who are also ten, can’t even wipe their own milk and Mallory has to do it for them. 2. Why can Mallory and Jessi babysit, they’re eleven they’re still little girls,they still play horses at recess, I’m not trusting my child to an eleven year old unless it was a sibling or family member . 3. Why does Kristy have so much power, there have been books where some of the girls have been late to meetings for legit reasons and she still acts like they’ve committed a cardinal sin. This girl is 13. 4. Outside of babysitting,what do these girls have in common, they get upset if any of them make friends outside their inner circle, like in one of the earlier books when Claudia made a new artist friend or if they change their appearance like when Mary Anne cut her hair short. 5. There was a book where the club broke up and stopped babysitting and the entire town was absolutely devastated, like seriously you guys can’t take care of your own kids ,how dependent are you on these girls. 6. Why don’t Claudia’s parents want her reading Nancy Drew, wouldn’t Mrs. Kishi who’s a librarian just be glad her daughter is reading something, if I was a librarian and my daughter who hated reading found a book series she liked, I would be happy she was reading anything. 7. Why hasn’t Claudia been tested for anything (unless she has and I never read that book) I know there was a book where she had to repeat the seventh grade, but she obviously has some sort of learning disability.
This video is so well done! I remember the phantom phone call book, it scared me a lot as a kid, probably where my fears of people randomly showing up underneath my bed come from lol. My favorite book when i was actively reading it was actually one of the earlier books, I believe the 4th one? -- the one where MaryAnne helps the little girl with strep throat get to a doctor after she notices she has a fever. I really really saw myself in MaryAnne in general when i was younger and the resolution of the story always made me so happy
Worked as a pa on the first season of the Netflix series. the actresses playing the girls are so sweet and genuine!! Crew was fantastic and was full of lgbt people. SO glad to see videos on it !!
I remember reading this book and keeping the idea of stacking cans in front of a door as an alarm system if I thought someone would break in, especially if I was home alone.
Netflix could have said that the phantom caller used an app or website to change the caller ID and called random babysitters then broke into the house they're babysitting at.
Actually, Trevor didn't come up top Claudia in school. He called her, she flipped out on the phone, and he finally spoke up, saying that he'd been the one calling her, but got nervous and hung up, and knew that this time, he needed to say something because he heard about what happened with Alan. (Btw, that initial footage where you say that isn't Alan, it actually is. That's him and Dawn, because in the movie, he had a crush on Dawn and constantly acted like an idiot around her because he didn't know how to tell her.)
Okay so, I haven’t read the books but like here’s a way to maybe adapt things if they had Alan, I guess? Mary Anne still mentions the phantom phone caller as something she learned about from like an online news source so that’s still there and they decide to just in case create a code word cause they’re like 13. So to fix the Alan thing, maybe he mentions he wants to ask Kristy to the dance to Mary Anne and she’s like “okay so ask her, she’s right over there,” and he’s like “what if she says no? I’m too nervous!” So Mary Anne ends up giving him her old phone, the one with the unknown called ID. He ends up calling usually calling when Kristy is babysitting more by sheer coincidence but before he can say anything he hangs up. Maybe Alan also lends the phone to Claudia so she also gets unknown calls. By the end of the episode Alan ends up asking Kristy in person and regardless of the answer gives Mary Anne her old phone and when Kristy asks he’s like “oh I borrowed it to ask you but got nervous, and I lent it to Trevor,” so when Claudia and Kristy look at their recent calls and click the unknown number, it’s like the same. And because it’s a smart phone and not a landline Alan (and also Trevor) wouldn’t be calling the house. And there’s no stalking.
Also just thought of how you could do with without Alan by having Trevor be the one to ask Mary Anne since maybe they know each other (easiest why I can think of is like assigned lab partners), since he feels like the way he asked her was bad and is afraid he’ll mess up again if he talks in person. Somehow it leads to Mary Anne giving him her old phone with Claudia’s number and mentions she’s babysitting on this day in like a “don’t call” way but he misinterprets it and does call leading to the phantom calls and then he finally gets the courage to ask Claudia again in person and again gives Mary Anne her old phone back. Again, there’s zero stalking so it’s an improvement.
I was like a kid in a candy shop watching the series on netflix. I was pointing out all the characters and plots to my sister she was kind of annoyed how I was freaking out about everything lol
I’m so glad I found someone else who is an adult talking about how great this show is! I’m so far out of the demographic but I really loved it- it reminded me why I loved these books as a kid and was just so sweet.
I never got into the babysitter's club books because I was like "ew babysitting is too girly and dumb" but you make me wanna read them now, haha. I just binged most of your Neopets essay-type videos and I'd love to see you expand because this video was also sooo good!
I wasn't into Babysitter's Club either my grandmother bought me the books but I traded them for more advanced books. I did watch the TV series that showed on Disney in the 1980s to 1990s, but I just didn't get it. Also most of the kids I babysat who were into them kind of idol worshiped for whatever reason
I hate the stigma around diabetes. It can be really seriously but most people value their health and it’s not a hard thing to manage especially if you’re type 1 and use to it.
@@lucasgarcia8285 Agreed. The Netflix show only added to the stigma surrounding diabetes and really ruined Stacey's character for me. Especially when they didn't even bother properly showing her check her bg or use her pump. Even the alarm sounds were not the same as the medtronic pump she was using!
I felt like the show actually made more sense than the books. Stacey's family had a reason other than her being diabetic to move (because of bullying on social media) Vs in the books it was very much an affliction just to have it
@@shadowmaster1313 Yeah I get your point. I think it would feel different for people. When I was diagnosed it was treated as an affliction by my peers and I felt a lot of shame. I liked Stacey because she went through the same experiences. I'm not saying it's perfect, but I thought it was a lot better than the whole 'seizure because of insulin shock' plotline, which felt insulting.
this was nostalgic for me, and i was born in the 2000s! Growing up the original babysitters club books were just in my local public library and house. I think more than the plots of these books, the iconography of the cover images really stuck with me (but Claudia was my favorite character). I loved this video so much!
@@iwatchytwhenimbored1636 its an std and sort of a progression of hiv, usually leading to a very weakened immune system and (in the past) was often fatal due to miseducation on the topic. it had a LOT of stigma in the past because many believed it was only transferred through gay men having unprotected sex, which is possibly why stacey was changed to have diabetes in the final release
I really really really hope they adapt that one book where claudia was babysitting and the family was low key racist, because that book is probably so relevant esp now
In the books it's implied that Claudia and Janie are first born Japanese-Americans of their family in U.S. Since both their parents (their Mom with Mimi and her dad and their dad with his parents) coming here as kids or teens. But in the series it's implied they're 2nd generation to be born in U.S at least since it's Mimi who came to the U.S when very young since according to the Netflix adaption of "Claudia and the Mean Janie"- Mimi and her family was put into the Japanese camp during WWII. So it doesn't really make sense for me on why the parents are strict in the Netflix version vs. it makes more sense in the books.
Still makes sense, if your raised one way chances are that unless it harmed you you’ll raise your kids the same. You can find many cases of this in real life.
@@nuhaomar9542 in one of the first couple of books (can't remember which one might have been in Claudia and the Phantom Phone calls) its mentions that Mimi was an adult (32 years old) at the time she came to U.S. with her husband and daughter. It means that Janie and Claudia are the first Japanese members of the family to be born in America making them first Japanese-Americans in the family. And I guess in other books (before Claudia and the Said Goodbye) she talks about a Happy childhood" in Japan and being closer to her own older sister.
I haven't watched this show but Mary Anne's dad is Sean from the Good Place! A literal demon. That shot when he turns on the lamp is so much more creepy to me because of that.
As soon as you mentioned Mimi I remembered how much I cried when I read my first Babysitter's club book, Claudia and mean Janine because Mimi has a stroke. I was never brave enough to read Claudia and the sad goodbye, I was like 6 or 7 so I couldn't really deal with the death of a loved one(even if it was in print). And by the time I was 9-10 I was already hooked on reading Agatha Christie, Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle novels and short sories (they were my grandmas and still are me and my dads favorite books, so we have more than a hundred combined), so I never revisited the babysitters club, I kinda want to now.
Me at the beginning of this video: Oh, yeah, they probably just figured it’s not appropriate to really touch that much on a story with connotations about murder in a campy, pre-teen show. Me at the end: WAIT WHAT THE F-
I was somewhat into the main series and graphic novels as a kid but I was OBSESSED with the Babysitter's Little Sister series. Karen deserves more credit!!!
I loved them a lot too! Karen on the show is just as odd as the books made her out to be, andi. Think was a p good adaptation. I think she's my favourite on the show, even if she isn't really one of the main characters.
I love all the love these books are getting. I'm 42 now and I read these growing up. I think I outgrew the series before she stopped writing them but at the time I was reading them I was always eagerly waiting for a new book to come out. I loved them so much and I consider them the very beginning of my life long career working with children. (Claudia was always my favorite :0)
I loved these books! Kristy was my favorite as a kid, but I was much more of a Mallory. I think most of us were Mallory. Claudia and I do share a birthday, which I've loved for years. I still have my BSC avon pin my mom got me for Christmas one year. Sometimes I wear it to work (I teach english but college english). I also found the Claudia large doll at a thrift store as an adult and had to rescue her and give her a wild outfit. I had the barbie sized Kirsty and Karen set back in the day. I started by reading the Karen books when I was about eight and then graduated to BSC with the book about the town Baby Parade. Man, thinking about the crazier plot points is insane now. The whole Mary Anne issue with the grandparent custody drama as a baby. The surprise adoption of Emily Michelle! The time the middle school got jobs at the mall for two weeks as part of a class! The trip to Europe where Stacey swapped suitcases with a man traveling to Normandy with his army buddy's ashes... I'm so glad you tube randomly sent me to this video! I could think about this all day.
this was one of my favorite BSC books as a kid but I don't remember it being this wild, I guess I gotta dig my old books out of the garage and give them a reread
As a lesbian born in 1980 precisely, I can confirm that the 1980’s version of my little lesbian self would’ve def said yes to the dance w the weirdo stalker because polite- even though I would’ve been SCREAMING on the inside that I just wanted to go to the dance with my gal pals!!!
OMG! thanks for making this video! I'm a queer guy who was OBSESSED with BSC when I was a kid. I probably continued being fan far longer than I should have, I think I was like 16 or 17 when I finally gave up BSC! BTW, I still think the original BSC TV show from the early 1990's is better than the movie version.
I saw a bit of the show but I didn’t read the books. I just wanted to say this was really well written/narrated and straight up entertaining. Props to you Kat. :)
I loved this series, never read the books but I love how they treat Claudias grandmothers CVA it's really well done from a neuropsychological point of view, they talk about the diagnosis and prognosis and they show it's aftermaths
i always headcanoned that stacy was bi. there was a scene in a friends forever spinoff book where she was going on and on about how pretty this girl was… lol. and in claudia and the new girl, she had to have had a crush on ashley!!
I've only read 8 of the graphic novels, and I have to say I wish they made a book of Claudia and the Phantom Caller. I loved all of the graphic novels. And I don't know how Dawn was portrayed in the original books, but she's the best character in the GNs.
Yeah... it's really hard to adapt something so... obviously 80s. Like, it's not just the tech (ie the landline. Today you'd probably make it about a Babysitters club app) but also the fact that even people who don't know what the boys were doing was wrong aren't told it was wrong and why. LIke, I remember how big "Facebook stalking" was when you freely post this stuff to the wide open world on Facebook or Twitter.
I missed the popularity of it but I did read the prequel, couple of the graphic novels when I was in middle school, and the rerelease of the phantom caller. I think they changed a few things because when reading it in 2011ish there wasn’t anything that was confusing or super dated. That one was the only one I owned so I remember read it on repeat it slapped. Also I am as a fellow lgbt I think I loved it because I related to Mary Ann and did realize I had a crush on kristy when I was little
This was a really interesting video! I loved the Netflix series, but my first introduction to the BSC was actually Raina Telgemeier's graphic novel adaptations, so it's cool to learn about the original series!
Shoutout to the Baby-Sitters Club Club podcast, since their Facebook group introduced me to this great video. I really liked the spooky / mysterious BSC books the best when I was a kid. It's a pity that some of them just aren't adaptable. I look forward to that video.
While I was watching the Netflix series I was thinking about it. I remembered the book, but definitely forgot some of the details, which I think let me enjoy the episode more. Now as for why I remembered the book and the episode well enough, but still watched this entire video all the way through? I guess that's just well made content for you. 😆
I think about Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls every time I get a spam call and the caller doesn't say anything... until now I barely even remembered what happened in the book or why it was scary to get a call with no one on the other end of the line but it still lives in my head rent-free.
You could make adapt it to where he was setting up a “prankposal” and make it to where he somehow where she would be. Still creepy, but not enough where it’s unadaptable.
I've never consumed any media related to the babysitters club but this video got me into it. I really like all of the research you put into the video. Especially with linking back to the societal fear of women leaving the home
I LOVED the BSC books when I was younger and I would love to see you talk about books that would never be remade or I wish we be remade. Idk if the topic of Claudia and the terrible truth is too deep but I would love to see what an adaptation of that would look like since it is an important topic (child abuse)
I could not figure out why the theme song for the old bsc show was stuck in my head last night. Finally got it out of my head and then I stumble upon your video and here it goes again 😩🤣
I’m a part of the “haven’t read the books” squad. ‘Sup. Though I do get why, in the books, the police only reported the incident to the parents. These characters are supposed to be, what? 13-14? I’m pretty sure everyone at that age is impulsive and have lapses in judgement that they seriously cringe at as adults. While kids might do shitty, sometimes criminal things like bully people or even minor theft it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll keep doing those things into adulthood. If it’s a one-time thing and Claudia wasn’t fearful of this kid after the fact, then putting something like that on his record feels somewhat extreme. If he does it again after being told why what he did was wrong, then make a note of it. If anything, I think that it speaks a lot about our society today where kids have virtually no wiggle-room to make major mistakes. Yes, stalking is really frickin creepy. Yes, it can be a red flag. And I personally think that the decision to have Claudia accept his dance proposal is really stupid since I got the impression that she really dislikes him. (And I think it’s important to emphasize that those tactics will NOT get you what you want and that this kid is really weird for doing it,) But I feel putting that on his record is just too extreme. If he was 17-18 it’d be a different story since you should really know better by that point.
The history of the whole baby sitter and the killer troupe was so interesting! I love horror and it’s so interesting to read about the history of it and how most of the time it reflects real world issues going on at that time.
gonna be honest, it's entirely believable that police officers today would see the stalking behavior of a 12 or 13 year old boy as harmless. also tv is constantly telling us that juvenile records are sealed, so no red flags for future allan's potential victims.
okay so, I didn't read the original babysitters club but I was obsessed with the Baby Sitters Little sister spinoff series as a kid like, so much. It was one of my favorite book series and I had a lot of them because we got a big collection of them from a yard sale for cheap
Having neither seen the show nor read the books it’s always fun to watch a real cool video essay where having seen neither I still learned a ton and maybe now want to actually go see the source material.
I just wanna say when I was young reading this book, that one line Kristy said about how boys do weird mess like that cause they just like girls had a negative effect on my young mindset. Took me a minute to unlearn that since other media at that time wasn’t too much better.
this was such a great video, had a lot of fun watching it, all the stuff about the culture part of babysitting was super interesting to find out about!!! thank you so much for making this videooOoO
Have you seen my red ribbon?
No, the blue one
I flushed it down the toilet my bad
@@bobc7557 lolol
@Judy Wagz I was going to say that!
Ohhh that’s what it was! I thought I saw something red in the trash. Sorry sis/bro
Can we just take a moment to appreciate that the teenagers are played by actual teenagers?
Which makes them feel too young because we're so used to watching adults play teens...
the part where there going to the school dance has a black woman dressed as a cow that looks like she's 30. it creeped me out because all the kid are played by kids make the extra look really creepy.
yup unlike some other shit netflix shows
looking at you thirteen reasons why
Love it!
they're, like, 12, right? you physically can't have an adult play a 12 year old. I feel like kids - like, pre-teens and younger - are usually played by kids.
Can we talk about how the babysitters spent THIRTEEN years in 8th grade, celebrating all the holidays and having 13 summers? Fucking wild..
Reminds me of the Ouran high school host club manga that had little 4th wall breaking notes saying things like “we’re just gonna ignore graduations” and “it’s spring again-please ignore how many springs it’s been” XD
M*A*S*H going on for 11 years, when the Korean War was three years long.
I remember reading 2 separate books that both take place around Valentine's day... One had Mary Ann and Logan dating with side characters thinking Logan was cheating on Mary Ann (spoilers, he wasn't.) The other had them breaking up, on Valentine's Day. Both occur while they are 13 and in 8th grade.
Yeah i recently decided to reread of the books and read book 24, set in may of 8th grade, then read the graduation one, set in June of 8th grade and there was supposed to be a multiple overseas trips, new babies born, weddings, Mallory moving schools, Maryannes house burning down and being rebuilt, among other things 😂
@@juliaware7504 I remember in one of the books the author's notes included the decision to keep them 13 because otherwise they'd have ended up in college which... Honestly I would like to have read that. None of them were really "poor" persay but given the way the series handled certain topics (like Claudia being held back a year) it would have helped a lot of us back then. There were so many sub series that a HS and then college spin off would have been appreciated. R.L. Stine had that with the Fear Street books!
i appreciate that the kids are played by kids. i remember imagining them as older because i was like 8 when i read the books and 13 year olds were super cool to me lol
anyways i didnt know ann m martin is gay!! my life has been illuminated
omg same i remember imagining them as older teens
@@springray2323 omg right. Especially the book where the high school girls are stealing their business because they can stay out later and drive. That all seems so ridiculous now that parents would rather hire 12 year olds
I started to read them at age 10 and by 12 I moved on to the Sweet Valley books.
@@springray2323 Some people would, babysitting is considered acceptable for young teens to do.
@@springray2323 lol I had my first babysitting gig at 11 and have had a pretty steady stream of clients since then. Most ppl stop babysitting around 15-17 when they get real jobs so like it makes sense that Middle Schoolers and High School freshman have most the gigs.
You forgot Claudia’s 4th love: sweet and savoury snacks that her parents don’t approve of!
I loved how she hid all the snacks in her room. Such a smart kid!
I tried to store candy in my room like she did and I didn’t understand my my parents were horrified. 😂
@@penina8438 why?
@@Aqua-oz4nb they were worried about it attracting bugs. I think they also didn’t understand why I was trying to hide it bc they wouldn’t have actually cared that much if I had just kept it in the pantry. 😂
@@penina8438 my mom didn't care what we ate and made sure to save ones we liked for us. *_But_* if you hid food and she found it, she'd eat it all and let you do what you want about that! 🤣🤣 I found her evil trick out as an adult and was horrified. My sister does this to manage ants in her house with her toddlers.
Claudia’s outfit descriptions in the books were iconic for me.
MaryAnn’s were for me, because I was what is known as a nerd.
I think they quit posting in 2018, but there is a fin blog called What Claudia Wore that you should check out if you aren't already familiar, which you might be. Lol.
@@Aster_Risk yeah! I checked it out a while back but thanks for reminding me! Gonna go read it again haha 🥰
@@larissatom6910 I remember the book vividly when she got her hair cut short, and it was so descriptive like “she could feel the air on the back of her neck.”
I really feel like checking out the books again, even though I feel so old to be reading them haha, for a total nostalgia kick 🙂
@@Ashethetics And talked about how long and graceful her neck looked
This just made me realise how stalking is romanticised in Miraculous Ladybug. Marinette knows Adriens schedule so well, that she knows where he is every second of the day. And smh that is put as something completely normal when you have a crush, in 2021? wild
Adrien is a public figure in their universe. His modeling schedule wouldn’t be likely to be some secret. She isn’t any more of a talker than older people who sit on computers compulsively refreshing to see what the latest celebrity news is.
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria honestly it says a lot more about how we romanticize the dehumanization and idealization of celebrities. It’s considered weird but ultimately harmless to know every detail about a celebrity, but it adds to the culture of invading the privacy of celebrities and forcing them into difficult emotional situations for entertainment. It’s also concerning bc the line between regular person and celebrity are very blurred in the internet age-where a regular person from a regular background is treated LIKE a celebrity, but doesn’t have any of the “training” that traditional celebrities get (publicists, often already wealthy, etc)
So I think you both have a point that Marinette’s behavior is normalized and a part of fan-culture, but it would also be kind of concerning if she were a different person
The implication is that since Marinette and Adrien are soulmates, Adrien would love to have someone as obsessed with him as his father is neglectful. But I think that as a children's show where Chat Noir and Ladybug are supposed to be role models for the kids watching it, it's unrealistic. And I don't mean the akumas and the poor worldbuilding and the impossible love square. I mean Marinette being obsessed but unable to talk to Adrien and Adrien acting more respectful than any living boy on this earth. The show was made to sell toys, I get it. But god, they're milking it.
@@wickandwax the fact that the show is having 7 CONFIRMED seasons isnt helping, so many shows cant even get 3 and a formulaic show like miraculous can get 7
I’ve always said this I think they should make her less desperate and stalkerish
So originally Stacy was going to have aids not diabetes, that’s why there was a lot of secretism and shame written into the books. The idea was to destigmatize aids but unfortunately people were highly against the books when they got to that part, because of the negative associations with the disease. So they changed it last minute. you can still find original editions of the first publication where it says she has aids and not diabetes.
Source?
@@virginia3937 I see what you mean, but there is quite a big difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes
@@carlottamelfi Yh but it’s not shameful to the point we’re you move city’s
@@hananalm3898 I think the point (at least in the show) was that there was a video posted of Stacey having a seizure and the rumor mill made people think that she was on drugs and there was a lot of rumors spread about her to the point where it was a bad environment for her
@@hananalm3898 Right, that was ridiculous. And she was in New York in the first place, like could she not just go to a different school if she was bullied so bad?
“Her dad is a paranoid control freak,”
And oh my gosh, of COURSE he’s played by Kevin Cozner. I can’t 😂
All I see is Sean from The Good Place. I'm like hes gonna kill her. Run Mary Anne, he is not your father! 😆
Meanwhile I keep waiting for Cheddar to come by...
@@_kim123 right?!? I keep going, “your dad’s a demon who tortures humans! Get out of there!”
He's played by Marc Evan Jackson... lol
@Jessamine Langston LMFAO that’s exactly what I was thinking
Ok I'm only 7 minutes in but as someone who has never read or watched any Babysitter's Club stuff before:
1. It's so funny to find out how essential landline phones are to the whole premise of the books lmao.
2. I'm SUPER surprised and glad Netflix didnt try to "Riverdale" it. LET THINGS BE LOW STAKES AND DELIGHTFUL!
3. Claudia to me seems like exactly the kind of kid who would end up being super successful in the 2020s.
3. Maryanne's dad needs to go to therapy asap cuz his behavior towards her is gonna set her up for some SUCKY future relationships.
Lmaoooo as a 90s kid, I have to laugh so much at how essential land lines were overall, and remembering the BSC being a huge factor in my pitch to my parents as to why I needed my own phone in my room 😂😂😂😂 90s+landline=necessary AF! 😂😂😂
I use to imagine that eventually Maryanne would end up with Charlie(Kristy's Older brother). Like way in the future when both are in their Twenties. (Charlie is only a little over 4 years older, so it's possible).
I think her dad did get less possessive over time though, so at least that's good!
In the books, I remember Mary Anne standing up to her dad. She eventually got through to him and became more grown up.
@@PrincessKLS in the fourth book, after she kept calm during the emergency with Jenny getting sick and going to the hospital she got him to let up a little, she no long er had to wear her hair in braids or skirts/dresses all the time.
I loved the books as a kid, though as a kid I was more into the books with Karen the little stepsister of Kristy. I'm just glad that the show actually had kids playing kids, instead of teens or young twenty something playing tween girls. Especially since they are so young in the first part of the book series.
I wanted to smack Karen. She annoyed me so much. She’s one of those kids who will grow up to be a Karen (ironic name) who thinks rules don’t apply to her since her daddy lets her off all the time.
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria I get that, but when I was a kid I liked things from her POV. I haven't read any of the series in years, so I don't remember a lot of what happened.
same as a kid i binged these books at my school
@@eleanor7 she was VERY spoilt 😂
@@babycakelings Oh for sure, but I just liked the adventures she got up to and her friends. But she was clearly a little spoiled diva.
Y’all remember the MYSTERY books? Like “Mallory and the Ghost Cat” and the one where Dawn finds a secret passage in her house? Those were INSANE
The secret passage one made me terrified as a kid! I hated/loved how it was implied there was actually something supernatural going on😨
I loved those books. And the Super Mysteries. Those where fun.
Yeah! I remember the one where Kristy last saw a soon to be missing child and they ended up doing search parties. I liked that one because it was a realistic kinda scary.
The mystery ones were great, but Dawn discovered the secret passage in her house in the regular series. I think it was the ninth book.
And the one where (I think stacy) is house sitting and there's an unknown man in the house who broke the vase and did the dishes
Also. My whole childhood to just wanted to BE Claudia. She was so beautiful, and so artsy, and so cool. Honestly, at almost 34, I still want to be the 1990’s version of Claudia. She’s still cool.
SAME! She has ALWAYS been my favourite, dawn a close second
Honestly mood
Facts!
omg I was obsessed with claudia, I would’ve done anything to be her back when I was a kid lol
the babysitters plot that lives rent free in my head is in the movie when they decided it was okay for stacey be 13 and lie about her age and date a SEVENTEEN YEAR OLD and they decide to ~wait for each other~ even though he kept yelling "THIRTEEN"at her. i've literally not stopped thinking about this since i saw it as a child.
Didn’t in the books the 17 year old freaked out about her being 13 and never spoke to her again? Why would the writers make them date in the movies that’s cray 😭
“Next year I’ll be fourteen”
“I know”
It just gets more illegal
Another book that I can’t see them adapting is Kristy and the secret of Susan. I recently reread it and oh my gosh. The way it views and talks about autism is so reflective of the time period.
I mean having Kristy attempt to convince the parents that Susan is a real person and she deserves to stay in Stony Brook while also exploiting Susan’s ability to play piano.
As a mother of an autistic child, I actually don’t want this book to basically disappear. It’s actually an important one as it does reflect how autism was seen at the time, which helps show the progress that we have made. I’ve noticed as we’ve removed things that reflect views of various time, that a lot of young people today don’t understand that what we see as regressive today was actually progressive in previous eras, and so they ask why didn’t people of past decades (or even centuries) understand how wrong they were, and this is important to understand since there are views we have today that we see as progressive that will be seen as regressive. Our descendents will wonder why we didn’t see what we have wrong.
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria "As a mother of an autistic child," as an autistic i checked out here. they said "i cant see them adapting this because its problematic" if you are somehow agreeing that its problematic then the rest of this is not needed about your moral high ground about how these bad things used to be "good" because all the not normal people of the world had to kinda savor the table scraps they got before social media arose to prominence.
like. im not gonna thank the heavens im not locked in a mental institution and get the bare minimum. lmao checked right the fuck......
Except she wasn't exploiting Susan's ability. She thought she was helping her make progress socially and that the kids in the neighborhood were actually looking at Susan as a friend. Honestly, yeah, it would undoubtedly undergo changes if it was made today, but it could also be a terrific tool for the ways in which people see disabilities/conditions/disorders that others don't understand, and how that lack of understanding can lead to accidental harm, but the most important thing is learning from it.
@@kateworkman921 her having people come into Susan’s house without either of her parents knowing just to listen to her play music sounds like exploiting to me. Plus one of the neighborhood boys made people pay to come see the “piano playing freak”. The Pike kids saw Susan as a friend but the Pike’s weren’t the ones coming to pay to hear Susan play music, that was other neighborhood kids who did that and they all made fun of Susan.
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria as an autistic person yes the book does reflect the time but that doesn’t mean we should continue to show that to kids. If we show them an updated version of autism and especially an updated version of non verbal autism we can teach kids more than we would by just showing them an outdated 90s version of autism. Just because it was progressive for its time doesn’t mean it currently fits that model for what is progressive. Also I grew up on these books, that’s the model of autism I had growing up as an autistic kid. I understand why they had that narrow minded view of autism but that doesn’t mean I want my kids or anyone’s kids seeing that as the done deal for what autism is.
“Have you found my red ribbon?” I haven’t read these books in decades, but this plot is one I’ll always remember! My friends and I also adapted this code phrase in case we needed help.
Fun fact in the original cover of this book, Kristen Dunst was the little girl that Claudia is holding.
wait whatttt?That's not a picture though. Was the painting drawn based on a picture?
@@yamyam493 Yes
wait HUH that is an incredibly fun fact
I've only watched the show and read the 2nd book of the graphic novel... but hear me out at least tv Claudia has inattentive-type ADHD. She's inconsistent, disorganized, forgetful and hyper focus is art
Those symptoms can also be reflective of autism, which her sister most likely has.
We know that Claudia was unpopular, maybe around this time Claudia learnt how to Chameleon?
I think I remember reading that Martin wanted her to not have a specific learning disability, so that there wasn't a "solution" or maybe so more kids could identify with her? That said, she sounds profoundly inattentive ADHD (I was an early superfan like Kat)
@@vamplizzard wait wasn’t there a book on that, because I swear there was I swear.
@@babycakelings Yeah, I think someone mentioned it in the comments. Idk, haven't personally read the books.
It was some book about an autistic girl who was good at playing the piano and her family didn't really treat her well?
@@vamplizzard oh yeah that book, from memory the girl was never said to be autistic, but basically she couldn’t talk or play with other kids, she just liked to play the piano. I don’t remember anything wrong with the parents but I was quite young reading it.
I remember a version of the urban legend where the caller was actually the overprotective parents of the children who stayed home to make sure the babbysitter was doing a good job
My only issue with the adaptation is that Logan doesn’t have a southern accent. His ‘slow southern drawl’ is so iconic to his book character and I’m annoyed about the lack of it.
Yesss!
as a 14 year old girl, its so refreshing to see ppl actually looking like the age theyre supposed to be. i think that these girls would realistically be ppl i would see walking around my school.
Adaptation episode title: Claudia Existing at the Same Time as at Least Two Phantom Phone Calls
I instinctively paused and said "her dad is kevin??" (from b99) when mary-anne's dad showed up on screen
I thought the same thing. I was like Kevin are you living a double life 😂
Also Shaun from the good place! And jean ralphios lawyer from parks and rec!
when I watched the show the whole time I imagined Kevin after the reform of the bad place becoming an over protective dad ;-;
I was wondering why Mary Anne’s dad’s over protectiveness sounded so familiar. And THEN I remembered the Babysitter’s Club Friends Forever series book 8. And I just remember thinking Mary Anne’s dad seriosuly needed therapy.
What happened in book 8?
@tate.obsessed k I know that the last few babysitters club books were extremely weird BUT WHAT!!??
@tate.obsessed is it bad to say that I don’t even question that that could be a actual thing in one of the books?
@sleepy_mushr00m what did they say b4 their comment got deleted?
@@JustLezah I can’t remember but I do vaguely remember being about a serious subject
It’s kinda crazy to me that they were in 8th grade the whole time. I mean, I read them in middle school and I guess always imagined them as older then me even as I aged. Seeing them played by kids so much younger then me was jarring at first. It’s definitely a good thing though.
Oh, is that why babysitters in all those old cartoons are horribly irresponsible and just want to talk on the phone with their boyfriends? Interesting.
Hell, this shows up in modern cartoons. While Timmy's parents are still awful, Vicky represnts the evil babysitter trope from the 80s in that she wants to torture and possibly murder Timmy
This even shows up in the BSC books. The BSC end up competing with another babysitting organization, this time with *spooky* highschoolers. The parents start leaning towards the new organization because the “highschoolers are more responsible and can take care of my babies too!” except that’s not what happens. The teens from the organization don’t take care of the children and, at one point, let a veryyy young kid play in the street alone without supervision. This uncovers a web of incompetence within the rival organization, and the BSC prevails against the “older” kids.
I remember surreal ones like the time Mallory and one of the other babysitters get snowed in with her siblings for like two days with no parents because they were doing an overnight (because leaving a 13-year-old and an 11-year-old to babysit seven kids overnight is a good idea, apparently), or the one where they all got stuck on a desert island.
The island one, OMG! I loved it as a kid for some reason, and still remember it fairly well 😂
I kinda wish they didn’t modernize it, just because that was part of the charm when I read the books. I remember my landline as a kid and sitting at the old laggy family computer
@@cormorantcolors Most of the people that watch it now long for the simpler times that the baby sitters club provided.
The new version is actually so good. I'm happy it exists. I enjoyed it as an adult fan of the old stuff, and I hope it helps kids get into the older stuff because of it.
Both are great but considering how trendy the 80’s/90’s are now I feel like they would be pretty popular even if it’s targeted audience doesn’t relate to parts of it
@@cormorantcolors I have a daughter in the target demographic. They LOVE 80’s and 90’s stuff.
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria Huh. I stand corrected.
Holy shit, I remember the “check on the children “ Story. I’m a late 90’s kid, so that story really got around.
It’s ten o clock , do you know where your children are.
It's weird that every generation pretends people their age were the only ones who heard it. The gatekeeping is getting ridiculous.
I think stalking is still one of the least seriously taken crimes. The police will probably still just say, "well what do you want there is no crime yet" and then the murder case later on is one big oops to them
My 5th grade teacher had like all of these books on hand. I absolutely loved them. Maryanne was my favorite. My favorite books were the one where Jessica became a dance teacher and another one of the dance teachers had an eating disorder, the one where Stacey moves back to New York, and the one where this little girl named Jenny is jealous of her baby sister because her mom seems to favor her, rather than loving them equally.
My favorite books were when Claudia's grandma passed(sucker for sadness, i guess) and when Stacy goes to the hospital for eating outside her regluar diet(same thing but add misunderstanding;) I got my collection from a yardsale that sold them in a 20+ bulk. Which was great for me and my love of reading. And let me say I was hooked on this series in middle school. I love the way this series handles serious topics and doesn't do it in a condescending way either. I think it's great a whole new generation can enjoy it just like we did.☺
I love the world of the babysitters club where an 11 year old can become a dance teacher
Jenny didn’t understand that babies have higher needs. Not uncommon for parents in these books to not explain this stuff.
Jenny didn’t understand that babies have higher needs. Not uncommon for parents in these books to not explain this stuff.
@@penina8438 Even when I was a kid still, stuff like this annoyed the hell out of me. I had friends who were ballet dancers too, and they were bothered by it. I think Ann was trying to make the black girl into this totally super awesome girl, but in the end, just made her the most outlandish, and not in good ways. Like Jessi was the mall Santa? And allowed to stay home alone with her little siblings for a weekend? Even at the time, that wasn’t believable. (I was the target audience. I’m old, but I was the same age, so know what was done.) And when Jessi went to Europe, she was able to just borrow pointe shoes and dance in a professional performance without practice?
this is criminally underrated
no because this video is upsettingly unnoticed, like... you could write this as a college essay and get in.
It's so weird seeing actors my age when I'm so used to them being 18-21
I still wish Alan Gray was in the TV series. I actually really enjoy his character. I'd love to see more baby-sitters club episode/book dissections like this
Alan is such a great side character, he’d be so fun to throw in!
I always had a difficulty remembering the difference between Allen and that other dude, Bart or something. They felt the same lol.
Also I remember shipping her with Allen though for some reason I never read Claudia and the Phantom Caller so that kinda changes things a little
I hope they add him in season 2!!
Wait hang on who is alan grey again? I wanna say something with Claudia or Mary Anne, but I think that's wrong
I kinda wished they kept it taking place in the 80s. Not everything needs to be modernized. 99/100 times modernizing something makes it feel cringy and disconnected and ironically....dated.
The past exists. And it's a great setting.
True, the shows OK but I prefer 80s. It would have been cool to see it based in a different time because I kinda disliked the way they modernized it.
i mean i wasn't alive in the 80's so seeing it modernized made it more understandable to me
It shows that the situation is still relatable to tweens/teens now. I think it can work either way. The show being cringy isn't because it's modern. It's because the adults writing the show are bad at writing. It wouldn't have been any better if they set it in the 80s.
@vanillabeanic neither was i but everybody loves stranger things. There are ways of doing historical shows well without it being confusing to the audience
It’s so much extra effort to make all the cars and clothes and everything match the historical time period. Since it doesn’t really matter, it makes sense that they chose the simpler option (that’s also more understandable and relatable to modern kids in the audience)
If you reread these books as an adult (without the nostalgia rose coloured glasses ) you’ll notice how strange these books are
1. Mallory is eleven and she used to help babysit her siblings when she was ten, yet the triplet’s who are also ten, can’t even wipe their own milk and Mallory has to do it for them.
2. Why can Mallory and Jessi babysit, they’re eleven they’re still little girls,they still play horses at recess, I’m not trusting my child to an eleven year old unless it was a sibling or family member .
3. Why does Kristy have so much power, there have been books where some of the girls have been late to meetings for legit reasons and she still acts like they’ve committed a cardinal sin. This girl is 13.
4. Outside of babysitting,what do these girls have in common, they get upset if any of them make friends outside their inner circle, like in one of the earlier books when Claudia made a new artist friend or if they change their appearance like when Mary Anne cut her hair short.
5. There was a book where the club broke up and stopped babysitting and the entire town was absolutely devastated, like seriously you guys can’t take care of your own kids ,how dependent are you on these girls.
6. Why don’t Claudia’s parents want her reading Nancy Drew, wouldn’t Mrs. Kishi who’s a librarian just be glad her daughter is reading something, if I was a librarian and my daughter who hated reading found a book series she liked, I would be happy she was reading anything.
7. Why hasn’t Claudia been tested for anything (unless she has and I never read that book) I know there was a book where she had to repeat the seventh grade, but she obviously has some sort of learning disability.
This video is so well done! I remember the phantom phone call book, it scared me a lot as a kid, probably where my fears of people randomly showing up underneath my bed come from lol. My favorite book when i was actively reading it was actually one of the earlier books, I believe the 4th one? -- the one where MaryAnne helps the little girl with strep throat get to a doctor after she notices she has a fever. I really really saw myself in MaryAnne in general when i was younger and the resolution of the story always made me so happy
I would 100% watch you do an episode by episode dissection of the entire series - I was obsessed
Worked as a pa on the first season of the Netflix series.
the actresses playing the girls are so sweet and genuine!! Crew was fantastic and was full of lgbt people. SO glad to see videos on it !!
I remember reading this book and keeping the idea of stacking cans in front of a door as an alarm system if I thought someone would break in, especially if I was home alone.
Netflix could have said that the phantom caller used an app or website to change the caller ID and called random babysitters then broke into the house they're babysitting at.
Actually, Trevor didn't come up top Claudia in school. He called her, she flipped out on the phone, and he finally spoke up, saying that he'd been the one calling her, but got nervous and hung up, and knew that this time, he needed to say something because he heard about what happened with Alan. (Btw, that initial footage where you say that isn't Alan, it actually is. That's him and Dawn, because in the movie, he had a crush on Dawn and constantly acted like an idiot around her because he didn't know how to tell her.)
Alan had a crush on Krisrty
@LE-zy2od In the books, yeah. But not in the movie.
Okay so, I haven’t read the books but like here’s a way to maybe adapt things if they had Alan, I guess?
Mary Anne still mentions the phantom phone caller as something she learned about from like an online news source so that’s still there and they decide to just in case create a code word cause they’re like 13.
So to fix the Alan thing, maybe he mentions he wants to ask Kristy to the dance to Mary Anne and she’s like “okay so ask her, she’s right over there,” and he’s like “what if she says no? I’m too nervous!” So Mary Anne ends up giving him her old phone, the one with the unknown called ID. He ends up calling usually calling when Kristy is babysitting more by sheer coincidence but before he can say anything he hangs up. Maybe Alan also lends the phone to Claudia so she also gets unknown calls. By the end of the episode Alan ends up asking Kristy in person and regardless of the answer gives Mary Anne her old phone and when Kristy asks he’s like “oh I borrowed it to ask you but got nervous, and I lent it to Trevor,” so when Claudia and Kristy look at their recent calls and click the unknown number, it’s like the same. And because it’s a smart phone and not a landline Alan (and also Trevor) wouldn’t be calling the house. And there’s no stalking.
Also just thought of how you could do with without Alan by having Trevor be the one to ask Mary Anne since maybe they know each other (easiest why I can think of is like assigned lab partners), since he feels like the way he asked her was bad and is afraid he’ll mess up again if he talks in person. Somehow it leads to Mary Anne giving him her old phone with Claudia’s number and mentions she’s babysitting on this day in like a “don’t call” way but he misinterprets it and does call leading to the phantom calls and then he finally gets the courage to ask Claudia again in person and again gives Mary Anne her old phone back. Again, there’s zero stalking so it’s an improvement.
I remember liking the book where Mary-Ann gets that weird flower seed necklace and everyone thinks it's cursed
But then turned out to be a prank this jealous girl sent because Maryanne was dating the guy she liked😂
Mustard seed. Mary Anne’s Bad Luck Mystery.
😄
I would reread the same books multiple times. You don’t understand I was obsessed
I was like a kid in a candy shop watching the series on netflix. I was pointing out all the characters and plots to my sister she was kind of annoyed how I was freaking out about everything lol
Same I loved the Netflix series even though it wasn’t perfect
Did anyone else get randomly thrown this by the algorithm 4 years after it was posted?
I’m so glad I found someone else who is an adult talking about how great this show is! I’m so far out of the demographic but I really loved it- it reminded me why I loved these books as a kid and was just so sweet.
I never got into the babysitter's club books because I was like "ew babysitting is too girly and dumb" but you make me wanna read them now, haha. I just binged most of your Neopets essay-type videos and I'd love to see you expand because this video was also sooo good!
Feminine things aren't really bad. It's how they are done that matters.
I wasn't into Babysitter's Club either my grandmother bought me the books but I traded them for more advanced books. I did watch the TV series that showed on Disney in the 1980s to 1990s, but I just didn't get it. Also most of the kids I babysat who were into them kind of idol worshiped for whatever reason
Stacey meant a lot to me as a young diabetic and the adaption was so so bad, really felt inaccurate and that they dramatized diabetes for the plot
I hate the stigma around diabetes. It can be really seriously but most people value their health and it’s not a hard thing to manage especially if you’re type 1 and use to it.
@@lucasgarcia8285 Agreed. The Netflix show only added to the stigma surrounding diabetes and really ruined Stacey's character for me. Especially when they didn't even bother properly showing her check her bg or use her pump. Even the alarm sounds were not the same as the medtronic pump she was using!
I felt like the show actually made more sense than the books. Stacey's family had a reason other than her being diabetic to move (because of bullying on social media)
Vs in the books it was very much an affliction just to have it
@@shadowmaster1313 Yeah I get your point. I think it would feel different for people. When I was diagnosed it was treated as an affliction by my peers and I felt a lot of shame. I liked Stacey because she went through the same experiences. I'm not saying it's perfect, but I thought it was a lot better than the whole 'seizure because of insulin shock' plotline, which felt insulting.
Hopefully in the next season they will expand on her character a bit more, instead of just making her the preppy girl with diabetes.
this was nostalgic for me, and i was born in the 2000s! Growing up the original babysitters club books were just in my local public library and house. I think more than the plots of these books, the iconography of the cover images really stuck with me (but Claudia was my favorite character). I loved this video so much!
Looking at the newspaper for fun was a totally valid 80s and 90s activity. I used to read the classifieds because I was so bored.
I feel like I’m speaking on behalf of EVERYONE when I say this, please do more babysitters club content! It’s really different and so interesting
Stacey’s parents’ reaction to her diabetes always confused me so much.
Stacey was originally written to have aids but it was changed last minute due to backlash. Which makes a lot more sense lmao
@@BadAtNames17 ohhhh that makes a ton more sense!
@@BadAtNames17 sorry, what’s aids? l
@@iwatchytwhenimbored1636 its an std and sort of a progression of hiv, usually leading to a very weakened immune system and (in the past) was often fatal due to miseducation on the topic. it had a LOT of stigma in the past because many believed it was only transferred through gay men having unprotected sex, which is possibly why stacey was changed to have diabetes in the final release
I really really really hope they adapt that one book where claudia was babysitting and the family was low key racist, because that book is probably so relevant esp now
That one was called Keep Out, Claudia! With the exclamation point.
Ohhh I remember that one!!
maybe in season 2 it’s there! (haven’t checked yet but i hoped the same thing)
It wasn't even low key I remember when Jessie shows up to babysit the mom shut the door in her face
In the books it's implied that Claudia and Janie are first born Japanese-Americans of their family in U.S. Since both their parents (their Mom with Mimi and her dad and their dad with his parents) coming here as kids or teens. But in the series it's implied they're 2nd generation to be born in U.S at least since it's Mimi who came to the U.S when very young since according to the Netflix adaption of "Claudia and the Mean Janie"- Mimi and her family was put into the Japanese camp during WWII. So it doesn't really make sense for me on why the parents are strict in the Netflix version vs. it makes more sense in the books.
Really? I thought in the books Claudia was implied to be second generation
Still makes sense, if your raised one way chances are that unless it harmed you you’ll raise your kids the same. You can find many cases of this in real life.
@@nuhaomar9542 in one of the first couple of books (can't remember which one might have been in Claudia and the Phantom Phone calls) its mentions that Mimi was an adult (32 years old) at the time she came to U.S. with her husband and daughter. It means that Janie and Claudia are the first Japanese members of the family to be born in America making them first Japanese-Americans in the family. And I guess in other books (before Claudia and the Said Goodbye) she talks about a Happy childhood" in Japan and being closer to her own older sister.
I haven't watched this show but Mary Anne's dad is Sean from the Good Place! A literal demon. That shot when he turns on the lamp is so much more creepy to me because of that.
As soon as you mentioned Mimi I remembered how much I cried when I read my first Babysitter's club book, Claudia and mean Janine because Mimi has a stroke. I was never brave enough to read Claudia and the sad goodbye, I was like 6 or 7 so I couldn't really deal with the death of a loved one(even if it was in print). And by the time I was 9-10 I was already hooked on reading Agatha Christie, Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle novels and short sories (they were my grandmas and still are me and my dads favorite books, so we have more than a hundred combined), so I never revisited the babysitters club, I kinda want to now.
Me at the beginning of this video: Oh, yeah, they probably just figured it’s not appropriate to really touch that much on a story with connotations about murder in a campy, pre-teen show.
Me at the end: WAIT WHAT THE F-
I was somewhat into the main series and graphic novels as a kid but I was OBSESSED with the Babysitter's Little Sister series. Karen deserves more credit!!!
Karen is annoying. She’s going to grow up to be an adult Karen who thinks rules don’t apply to her.
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria bruh she’s only 6, give her a chance...
I loved them a lot too! Karen on the show is just as odd as the books made her out to be, andi. Think was a p good adaptation. I think she's my favourite on the show, even if she isn't really one of the main characters.
Ikr! But I feel like the Karen on the the show doesn’t really look or act like Karen in the book series.
I love all the love these books are getting. I'm 42 now and I read these growing up. I think I outgrew the series before she stopped writing them but at the time I was reading them I was always eagerly waiting for a new book to come out. I loved them so much and I consider them the very beginning of my life long career working with children. (Claudia was always my favorite :0)
the actors look so young, so much younger than in the previous versions of BSC
I loved these books! Kristy was my favorite as a kid, but I was much more of a Mallory. I think most of us were Mallory. Claudia and I do share a birthday, which I've loved for years. I still have my BSC avon pin my mom got me for Christmas one year. Sometimes I wear it to work (I teach english but college english). I also found the Claudia large doll at a thrift store as an adult and had to rescue her and give her a wild outfit. I had the barbie sized Kirsty and Karen set back in the day. I started by reading the Karen books when I was about eight and then graduated to BSC with the book about the town Baby Parade. Man, thinking about the crazier plot points is insane now. The whole Mary Anne issue with the grandparent custody drama as a baby. The surprise adoption of Emily Michelle! The time the middle school got jobs at the mall for two weeks as part of a class! The trip to Europe where Stacey swapped suitcases with a man traveling to Normandy with his army buddy's ashes... I'm so glad you tube randomly sent me to this video! I could think about this all day.
As a person who only watched the Netflix series, I loved it. I was almost a teen at that time, and idk why, but the show just spoke to me.
Mizuki pfp spotted in the wild :3
@Ivycii-l2x AYAYYAYA
this was one of my favorite BSC books as a kid but I don't remember it being this wild, I guess I gotta dig my old books out of the garage and give them a reread
As a lesbian born in 1980 precisely, I can confirm that the 1980’s version of my little lesbian self would’ve def said yes to the dance w the weirdo stalker because polite- even though I would’ve been SCREAMING on the inside that I just wanted to go to the dance with my gal pals!!!
People (expecially 12 year olds) often feel he same anyway. It’s not something lesbians just do.
say what you want about the Netflix version, but Claudia’s room was spectacular- as it should be
OMG! thanks for making this video! I'm a queer guy who was OBSESSED with BSC when I was a kid. I probably continued being fan far longer than I should have, I think I was like 16 or 17 when I finally gave up BSC! BTW, I still think the original BSC TV show from the early 1990's is better than the movie version.
Hey, I was still reading BSC books at 17 or so. :)
I saw a bit of the show but I didn’t read the books. I just wanted to say this was really well written/narrated and straight up entertaining. Props to you Kat. :)
Thank you so much! 💖💖
I wonder why they never tried to make a TV series out of the Junie B. Jones books back in the day?
Honestly though, that would've been an absolute HIT if they made a show or movie out of it in the 2000s, probably now too.
I loved this series, never read the books but I love how they treat Claudias grandmothers CVA it's really well done from a neuropsychological point of view, they talk about the diagnosis and prognosis and they show it's aftermaths
i always headcanoned that stacy was bi. there was a scene in a friends forever spinoff book where she was going on and on about how pretty this girl was… lol. and in claudia and the new girl, she had to have had a crush on ashley!!
I've only read 8 of the graphic novels, and I have to say I wish they made a book of Claudia and the Phantom Caller. I loved all of the graphic novels. And I don't know how Dawn was portrayed in the original books, but she's the best character in the GNs.
Yeah... it's really hard to adapt something so... obviously 80s. Like, it's not just the tech (ie the landline. Today you'd probably make it about a Babysitters club app) but also the fact that even people who don't know what the boys were doing was wrong aren't told it was wrong and why. LIke, I remember how big "Facebook stalking" was when you freely post this stuff to the wide open world on Facebook or Twitter.
I missed the popularity of it but I did read the prequel, couple of the graphic novels when I was in middle school, and the rerelease of the phantom caller. I think they changed a few things because when reading it in 2011ish there wasn’t anything that was confusing or super dated. That one was the only one I owned so I remember read it on repeat it slapped.
Also I am as a fellow lgbt I think I loved it because I related to Mary Ann and did realize I had a crush on kristy when I was little
This was a really interesting video! I loved the Netflix series, but my first introduction to the BSC was actually Raina Telgemeier's graphic novel adaptations, so it's cool to learn about the original series!
Shoutout to the Baby-Sitters Club Club podcast, since their Facebook group introduced me to this great video.
I really liked the spooky / mysterious BSC books the best when I was a kid. It's a pity that some of them just aren't adaptable. I look forward to that video.
Hello! UA-cam recommended me this video and i just wanted to say it was great and i really enjoyed watching it!
this was truly a blast from the past, thank you almighty algorithm for giving me this gift of a video essay
I’m so old. 😭 I read these books in the 80’s when they still made sense.
While I was watching the Netflix series I was thinking about it. I remembered the book, but definitely forgot some of the details, which I think let me enjoy the episode more. Now as for why I remembered the book and the episode well enough, but still watched this entire video all the way through? I guess that's just well made content for you. 😆
I think about Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls every time I get a spam call and the caller doesn't say anything... until now I barely even remembered what happened in the book or why it was scary to get a call with no one on the other end of the line but it still lives in my head rent-free.
You could make adapt it to where he was setting up a “prankposal” and make it to where he somehow where she would be. Still creepy, but not enough where it’s unadaptable.
I've never consumed any media related to the babysitters club but this video got me into it. I really like all of the research you put into the video. Especially with linking back to the societal fear of women leaving the home
I LOVED the BSC books when I was younger and I would love to see you talk about books that would never be remade or I wish we be remade. Idk if the topic of Claudia and the terrible truth is too deep but I would love to see what an adaptation of that would look like since it is an important topic (child abuse)
I could not figure out why the theme song for the old bsc show was stuck in my head last night. Finally got it out of my head and then I stumble upon your video and here it goes again 😩🤣
SO HAPPY THIS SHOWED UP ON MY RECS! I was in love with the BSC book from the fifth grade up until freshman year of high school.
I’m a part of the “haven’t read the books” squad. ‘Sup.
Though I do get why, in the books, the police only reported the incident to the parents. These characters are supposed to be, what? 13-14? I’m pretty sure everyone at that age is impulsive and have lapses in judgement that they seriously cringe at as adults. While kids might do shitty, sometimes criminal things like bully people or even minor theft it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll keep doing those things into adulthood. If it’s a one-time thing and Claudia wasn’t fearful of this kid after the fact, then putting something like that on his record feels somewhat extreme. If he does it again after being told why what he did was wrong, then make a note of it. If anything, I think that it speaks a lot about our society today where kids have virtually no wiggle-room to make major mistakes. Yes, stalking is really frickin creepy. Yes, it can be a red flag. And I personally think that the decision to have Claudia accept his dance proposal is really stupid since I got the impression that she really dislikes him. (And I think it’s important to emphasize that those tactics will NOT get you what you want and that this kid is really weird for doing it,) But I feel putting that on his record is just too extreme. If he was 17-18 it’d be a different story since you should really know better by that point.
I have no idea about anything on these books or the show, but great video!
I know this was a while ago, but please do more crazy babysitters books videos even a top ten 😭
Ohmygosh i LOVED Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls!!!
This was my favorite thank youuu it makes me happy
The history of the whole baby sitter and the killer troupe was so interesting! I love horror and it’s so interesting to read about the history of it and how most of the time it reflects real world issues going on at that time.
gonna be honest, it's entirely believable that police officers today would see the stalking behavior of a 12 or 13 year old boy as harmless. also tv is constantly telling us that juvenile records are sealed, so no red flags for future allan's potential victims.
subbing because this is your least viewed video and after the iceberg one i want you to grow and review weirder things
I wish I could Like this video 10 times. Please make more BSC content!
okay so, I didn't read the original babysitters club but I was obsessed with the Baby Sitters Little sister spinoff series as a kid like, so much. It was one of my favorite book series and I had a lot of them because we got a big collection of them from a yard sale for cheap
Having neither seen the show nor read the books it’s always fun to watch a real cool video essay where having seen neither I still learned a ton and maybe now want to actually go see the source material.
I just wanna say when I was young reading this book, that one line Kristy said about how boys do weird mess like that cause they just like girls had a negative effect on my young mindset. Took me a minute to unlearn that since other media at that time wasn’t too much better.
this was such a great video, had a lot of fun watching it, all the stuff about the culture part of babysitting was super interesting to find out about!!! thank you so much for making this videooOoO