The Baby-Sitter's Club Book Netflix Couldn't Adapt 

Have you seen my red ribbon?

Can we just take a moment to appreciate that the teenagers are played by actual teenagers?

Can we talk about how the babysitters spent THIRTEEN years in 8th grade, celebrating all the holidays and having 13 summers? Fucking wild..

You forgot Claudia’s 4th love: sweet and savoury snacks that her parents don’t approve of!

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

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.

Claudia’s outfit descriptions in the books were iconic for me.

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.

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

“Her dad is a paranoid control freak,” And oh my gosh, of COURSE he’s played by Kevin Cozner. I can’t 😂

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

“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.

Adaptation episode title: Claudia Existing at the Same Time as at Least Two Phantom Phone Calls

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.

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.

I instinctively paused and said "her dad is kevin??" (from b99) when mary-anne's dad showed up on screen

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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

no because this video is upsettingly unnoticed, like... you could write this as a college essay and get in.

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 !!

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.

say what you want about the Netflix version, but Claudia’s room was spectacular- as it should be

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.

this is criminally underrated

Stacey’s parents’ reaction to her diabetes always confused me so much.

I would reread the same books multiple times. You don’t understand I was obsessed

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.)

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 remember liking the book where Mary-Ann gets that weird flower seed necklace and everyone thinks it's cursed

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.

honestly, with the current true crime craze i could absolutely see this plot being adapted. creepy anonymous messages are very much still a trope in the scary stories kids tell each other, and imo they could’ve adapted that perfectly with smartphones. they could’ve even kept the stalking plot by changing how it was framed in the end and showing the girls standing up for themselves and telling off the creepy boy, since that sort of behavior is unfortunately still not taken nearly as seriously as it should be and upsettingly common

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

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.

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 wonder why they never tried to make a TV series out of the Junie B. Jones books back in the day?

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.

I would 100% watch you do an episode by episode dissection of the entire series - I was obsessed

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.

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!!!

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 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

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 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.

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.

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’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 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

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!

They should of added Alan Gray and Pete Black and all of Stacey and Claudia's lunch group.

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 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!

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’m so old. 😭 I read these books in the 80’s when they still made sense.

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 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

I remember reading the Little Sisters books! I always liked Kristy and her sister Karen. c:

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.

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

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.

this was truly a blast from the past, thank you almighty algorithm for giving me this gift of a video essay

This randomly showed up in my recommended. I was intrigued and well-rewarded for my click! Great analysis.

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. :)

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.

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.

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.

I actually never read the Babysitter's Club, but I remember reading all of The Babysitter's Little Sister books. I really liked Karen, Hannah, and the third one who's name I can't remember

I always think about the unofficial graphic novels by the author of smile. Anyone know which one I'm talking about?

I loved the books. Abby was one of my favorite characters and even though I felt a little old to be reading the books at that point my grandfather got me Abby's lucky 13 right before my bat mitzvah. I certainly younger than most people who grew up with the books, second grade was a lonely time for me and my second grade teacher had nearly the full collection. Anyway I ended up attending a college in a real town named Stony Brook. I'm not saying those books were the reason but they influenced me.

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.

Big shout out to the RU-vid algorithm serving me this video this was amazing

I was OBSESSED with the BSC as a preteen and teen, and that was in the 00s 😂 but my house actually used to get a lot of cold calls like these, sometimes right as my parents car would pull out from the driveway, and because of this book i was flat out convinced it was a criminal trying to case the house...... Eep. We never had a break in though 🤷🏽‍♀️

Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls has always been my favorite 🥺

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 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’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.

Oh wow, I loved those books so much in elementary school. Weirdly, I remember liking Alan /much/ more than Bart, the nemesis of my six-year-old heart, despite the stalking and pranks, which probably says something about what 90s media set up as signs of a crush-worthy boy, honestly.

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

I feel like it could’ve mayyybe worked if Alan had been a little closer with the girls, maybe close enough to be friends but still too nervous to make a move on her romantically (i use the word romantically very loosely lol I mean these are children), and if he had gotten the info on where they were in some other way... idk that aspect would still be kinda creepy, but again, maybe less creepy if he’d already known the girls. But on the other hand if he did know them better, they might see his actions as like a betrayal of trust or something. Hmmm. Really interesting topic lol. Also I always thought the call inside the house trope came from the movie black christmas lol. I am alas an uneducated horror baby.

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

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. 😆

subbing because this is your least viewed video and after the iceberg one i want you to grow and review weirder things

Aghhh I just remembered the orginal show they did for the babysitters club back in the 90's and how obssesed I was with that in elementary school!

I honestly love your nostalgia themed videos despite not really having any nostalgic ties to a good chunk of the stuff you talk about. I got into a lot of the stuff you talk about very late in life via the internet since my mom HEAVILY regulated the content I consumed to such a degree that I didn't even get to enjoy the stuff most 2000s babies did. The Babysitter's Club, Degrassi (got into that in my very late teens well after TNG ended), and even just sleepovers. But Now thanks to the power of the internet, I've found your channel! And despite you spoiling a good chunk of what you talk about, I will actively seek out these franchises and enjoy them with *no* shame in my early twenties, cheers!

As a 80s child and fan of the BSC I enjoyed watching this adaptation with my daughter who I introduced to BSC after finding the whole series at a book sale. I have to admit that I also remember and enjoyed the BSC series that was on HBO in the 90s a little more because they were a little older in the show.

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

please make more vids about weird babysitters club books

I have no idea about anything on these books or the show, but great video!

"I loved the babysitters club, Claudia was my girl." - King Shark