The Baby-Sitters Club

I LOVED these books when they first came out and until several years after, so of course I had to try the silly TV series that was spawned from them. How was it? Well, I think I was 10 when I first watched, and I didn't even like it then. That was when I took "The Baby-sitter's Club" seriously, and I didn't like how they used different plots. Also, I was not crazy about the actors. They could have done better with many of them. The one who played stupid Mary Anne doesn't even REMOTELY look like the dumb character on the book covers.(but to give her "credit", the actress is pathetically probably one of the "better" ones.)

Anyway, when I was 10, I saw the show, didn't like it and went on with life. Several years later, I discovered that they were showing reruns on the Disney channel, so I decided to check one out. How was it? Well, it was still as corny as ever. If it had been more popular, it would have been to TV in the '90s what Full House was in the '80s and what The Brady Bunch was in the late '60s and early '70s. Those girls are supposed to be 13 and they act about 35! In one episode, when stupid Kristy (who I never liked in the books, and most certainly don't love in the show) was helping some third grader run for class president, and she and her pals were thinking up slogans in the street. When they finally found one, they chanted it over and over again and squealed and giggled as that silly theme song played in the background. Yuck! "Real" people would never be caught dead doing such a thing. Another particularly nauseating episode was when some boys tried to join the BSC.

Well, the episodes may have been nauseating, and I don't care for many of the casting choices. Stupid Dawn was supposed to be from California, and sounds like some reject from New York, and Kristy simply bugs me. The other's aren't much better. It is these flaws and the fact that it also tends to be BORING that make me not exactly take this show seriously, but it is entertaining, neverthless. What a "classic."

There are thirteen tapes, thirteen episodes of the Babysitters Club show. Why they didn't make more I will never understand.

The young actresses in this film are brilliant, they are believable as the characters because they are just normal girls, you could imagine them living down the street playing with your kids.

Each video presents a wholesome and fun experience for your daughter. Just like the books do. Some of them are mysteries and some are just fun stories.

If you want to provide your daughter with a good series to watch or read that presents a moral foundation you can be proud of this is it.

The film version pales in comparison to this series. You may recognize a lot of the actresses in the feature film but they don't embody the characters like these girls did.

Here are the names of the tapes in the series if anyone is interested in obtaining them.

Mary Anne and The Brunettes Dawn and the Haunted House Stacey's Big Break Kristy and the Great Campaign Baby-Sitter's Special Christmas Claudia and the Missing Jewels Dawn and the Dream Boy Claudia and the Secret Passage Jessi and the Stolen Secrets The Baby-Sitters and Boy Sitters Dawn Saves the Trees Stacey Takes a Stand The Baby-Sitters Remember

They Never made an episode out of one of Mallory's stories though...I never got that.

I haven't seen any of the episodes in quite sometime so I don't know how I would feel now - I would probably not enjoy it as much. I loved this series of books when I was 9-15 (I have over 100 books if you count the other series it spawned - and I don't plan on getting rid of them), so when I saw there were videos of it, I was happy, I own a few of them as well. When I watched them, I liked the episodes and I wasn't expecting it to be plots from the series (though a few came close) - It felt like I was watching another story to the series of books. The girls in books always seemed older to me, even when I read one at 16, they still seemed like they were not 13 but much older, so if they seem older in the episodes, it was ok. A quick little story - Once my Science teacher in 5th grade showed one of the videos and I was excited and my classmates basically knew already that I liked the series but if they had any doubts those doubts were cast aside.

I decided to take a look back at the BSC series here on IMDb. I agree with many of the other comments, it was definitely well casted. Much more so than the movie. While I did like the movie, the casting didn't make much sense. They chose to cast well-known actors, for the most part or at least more well known than were on the series. Larisa Oleynik had Alex Mack, Rachel Leigh Cook had Tom & Huck and whatever else she'd done by that point.

It wasn't about making the series we so treasured come to life. It was just about making as much money as possible, during that summer of 1995.

My only problems with the series was that it was too short and didn't expand enough on its own. It could have become an offset while mixing aspects of the books into them. Like what there lives were like in between each book.

I'm not sure why i'm writing about this 12 years later. But hell, I'm off today, so why not?

As a member of the "Babysitter's Club Generation", I was probably the only 9 year old not reading the books (there were what 250 books?). But now as a 20 something, I, for some reason, find the re-runs of the show irresistible. If I flip through the channels and it is on, I find it almost impossible not to stop and watch. Yes, I know that the show is incredibly stupid and the acting is quite lacking, maybe it is the escape back to my childhood that I need. I don't recommend anyone watch it, but don't feel shame if you do.