Sit Me Baby One More Time Bonus - The Baby-Sitters Club: The Movie (1995)

Summary

Overdue Podcast — Sit Me Baby One More Time Bonus: The Baby-Sitters Club: The Movie (1995) Date: March 27, 2026 | Hosts: Andrew & Craig (Headgum)

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Episode Overview

Andrew and Craig cap off their "Sit Me Baby One More Time" mini-series by watching and discussing the 1995 film adaptation of Ann M. Martin’s The Baby-Sitters Club books. They reflect on the film as both a 90s cultural artifact and a unique lens on the beloved series, comparing it to the books, exploring its production history, casting, and discussing its enduring legacy. As always, they offer warm, humorous, and deeply nostalgic commentary on a childhood staple.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Movie’s Place in BSC Canon & 90s Context

• Film Timing: Released mid-90s during peak Babysitters Club popularity ("Peak BSC"—[05:56]), not at the beginning nor the end of the book series.
• Target Audience Disconnect: Protagonists are 13- to 14-year-olds, but the stories are written for slightly younger kids—an "aspirational" YA move ([07:12]).
• Format: Movie is structured as a series of loosely connected vignettes, aligning with the episodic nature of the books (Groundhog Day/Christmas Story style—[10:12]).
• "It's a pretty vignette in the style of like a Groundhog Day or a Christmas Story." – Andrew [10:38]

Adaptation & Production History

• Director: Melanie Mayron, a Philadelphia native and actor known for “thirtysomething.” She’d never read the books and took the job largely to explore a moment in girls’ confidence before puberty ([12:09], oral history by Jessica Goldstein for Vulture referenced at [11:19]).
  • "I've still never read the book... but there was a New York Times Sunday magazine cover called 'girls confident at 11, confused at 16.' ...that's the main reason I wanted to do this movie." – Mayron (read by Andrew, [15:19])
• Writing & TV Movie Energy: Script by Dalene Young, veteran of TV movies. The film’s pacing and small stakes give it “TV movie energy” ([17:46]).
  • "You told me while we were watching it, you were like, 'this has TV movie energy.'" – Craig [17:48]
• Novelization Oddity: The film, based on a book series, inspired its own novelization, written by prolific BSC ghostwriter Peter Laurengis under the name Al Singer ([21:13]).

Casting Highlights

• Lead Actress: Skyler Fisk (“Nepo baby,” Sissy Spacek’s daughter) cast as Kristy. Her audition featured Spacek reading lines off camera ([32:26]).
  • "We faxed scenes to her husband Jack's farm in Virginia and they taped her audition with Sissy reading lines off camera. An Academy Award winner reading off camera lines." – Andrew [33:14]
• Notable Cast:
  • Larisa Oleynik (Dawn) – Already famous as Alex Mack.
  • Rachel Leigh Cook (Mary Anne) – Later of “She’s All That,” famous for “This Is Your Brain on Drugs” ad ([29:43]).
• On-Screen Chemistry: Cast spent a week bonding before filming, resulting in lived-in group dynamics ([41:25]).
• Cameos and Crew: Ellen Burstyn as Mrs. Haberman (neighbor turned ally), Peter Horton as Christy’s “floppy-haired” dad (noted for being hot by the cast—[41:18]).

Plot Structure & Thematic Threads

• Summer Camp Plot: Kristy’s big idea is to run a day camp in Dawn’s yard for the summer, turning the BSC into a business venture, meeting the real parental anxieties of summer child care ([38:03]).
• Permits & Authority: The girls largely ignore practical considerations like permits; local government is almost comical in its absence ([40:10]).
• Individual Arcs:
  • Kristy: Central plot—her absent/hapless father returns, wants to keep his presence secret; Kristy is caught between hope and truth ([57:05]).
  • Stacey: Develops a romance with older European teen, Luca. The age gap is called out and lampooned by the hosts ([46:09], [35:49]).
    • “Y’all gotta wait at least a decade for this not to be weird, I think.” – Andrew [48:05]
  • Claudia: Summer school struggle; passes a science test only after her friends stage a science-themed rap ([51:29]).
  • Dawn: Develops rapport with curmudgeonly neighbor Mrs. Haberman, converting her to an ally ([48:30]).
  • Mallory & Jesse: Largely sidelined, function as vibrant comic relief but lack significant storylines ([24:01]).
  • Mary Anne: Main role is bearing Kristy’s secret—her own arc is secondary to her loyalty ([25:05]).
  • Koki & the Mean Girls: Provide antagonism more reminiscent of 90s kid movies than the books; described as “Bulk and Skull from Power Rangers” ([25:28]).

Memorable Scenes & Recurring Bits

• The Science Rap: A delightfully cheesy mid-movie performance to help Claudia pass her test. The recurring line:
  • “The brain, the brain, the center of the chain.” ([51:23], [53:38])
  • Hosts repeatedly reference and lampoon this line throughout the episode.
• Koki & the Mean Girls’ Comeuppance: Their shoes get stuck in wet cement during the greenhouse repair—classic 90s kid-movie justice ([55:37]).
• Product Placement: Noted Jif peanut butter placement, even in Claudia’s art ([63:27]).
• Parental Absence: The world contains almost no adults, drawing Peanuts and Star Trek allusions ([45:07]).
• Nostalgia for 90s Media: Recollections of VHS classics, TV airings, taping commercials, and the lack of YouTube ([09:29]).

The Film’s Legacy & Critical Take

• Commercial Performance: Didn’t make a huge box office splash; found lasting success as a VHS and syndicated TV staple ([18:09], [18:43]).
• Oral History & Audience: The 2015 Alamo Drafthouse reunion screening drew generations of women who grew up with the movie ([16:53]).
• Critical Perspective: Film not a perfect adaptation—the director’s focus on girls' confidence comes at the cost of BSC’s sitter/child dynamic. Cast performances are generally praised, particularly Skyler Fisk and Rachel Leigh Cook ([69:09]).

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Notable Quotes & Segment Highlights

• On the Target Audience:
  • “It’s that aspirational YA age thing, right? ... your reader wants to be 10 or 11 thinking about themselves as a 12 or 13 year old.” – Craig [07:12]
• On the Director’s Approach:
  • "...She doesn't necessarily care about the relationship between the babysitter and the babysat, which the books are often about. She is like, hey, I've been thinking about girls about this age...” – Craig [16:28]
• On the Movie’s Structure:
  • “It’s pretty vignette in the style of like a Groundhog Day or a Christmas Story.” – Andrew [10:38]
• On Casting:
  • “We faxed scenes to her husband Jack’s farm in Virginia and they taped her audition with Sissy [Spacek] reading lines off camera. An Academy Award winner reading off camera lines.” – Andrew [33:14]
• On Rachel Leigh Cook’s “This Is Your Brain on Drugs” remake:
  • “I was just really blown away that they made a new one of those and that she held up that egg.” – Craig [32:21]
• On the Science Rap:
  • “The brain, the brain, the center of the chain.” – both hosts, repeatedly ([51:23], [53:38], [81:36])
• On Parental Absence/90s Worldbuilding:
  • “There are only like four adults who exist in the entire world and they each have their own little problems.” – Craig [15:53]
  • “There's an episode of Star Trek… where there's, like, a virus that kills all the grownups... I do wonder if... the Babysitter's Club movie is... at some point in that virus's development because there are just not adults around.” – Andrew [45:07]
• On Legacy:
  • “I would be excited to have my kid or a kid who I knew read [the books]... the characters are interesting and have different, like, interesting relationships with one another.” – Craig [77:00]

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Timeline & Timestamps for Key Segments

| Time | Segment | |----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:06 | Spoiler warning and the show’s premise | | 05:37 | Adapting the Baby-Sitters Club: Where the movie fits in the book series timeline | | 07:12 | The aspirational age gap between protagonists and target readers | | 10:11 | Andrew’s personal connection and 90s VHS/TV culture | | 11:19 | Vulture oral history referenced | | 12:09 | Director Melanie Mayron’s background | | 15:19 | Mayron’s quote on why she directed (confidence before/after puberty) | | 17:46 | TV movie energy—budget, release timing, box-office performance | | 21:13 | Film inspires its own novelizations—meta adaptation trivia | | 24:27 | Breakdown of which Baby-Sitters get arcs in the film | | 29:43 | Rachel Leigh Cook’s “This Is Your Brain on Drugs” and other commercial roles | | 32:26 | Skyler Fisk’s (Kristy) “Nepo baby” casting story — Sissy Spacek connection | | 35:49 | The awkward age gap in Stacey/Luca storyline | | 38:03 | Plot summary: Kristy’s summer camp idea and its "realness" for parents | | 41:25 | Cast bonding before filming and on-screen chemistry | | 45:07 | Parental absence—Star Trek "planet full of kids" comparison | | 46:09 | Stacey meets “hunky” European Luca and begins her controversial romantic subplot | | 51:29 | Claudia’s science rap performance (“The brain, the brain, the center of the chain”) | | 53:38 | Full science rap breakdown | | 55:37 | Koki & the mean girls get stuck in cement—genre staple comeuppance | | 57:05 | The heart of Kristy’s plot—her dad's sad return | | 69:09 | Skyler Fisk’s performance praised for emotional depth in Kristy's arc | | 73:01 | 90s music and movie soundtrack—lack of iconic needle drops, "ambiently 90s" atmosphere | | 74:00 | Reflections on reading the books now as adults and as educators/parents | | 75:41 | Gendered barriers—neither host would have read these as boys in the 90s | | 80:53 | Call for listener feedback and Patreon plug | | 81:32 | End-of-episode in-jokes: "The brain, the brain, the center of the chain!" |

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Final Reflections and Takeaways

• The Film: Both a relic and a worthy capstone—faithful to the spirit of the books if not the literal relationship dynamics. The hosts found retroactive comfort in the performances and appreciated the focus on young girls’ confidence, even as they poked fun at quirks in structure, production, and casting.
• The Series: A lasting work of middle-grade fiction that the hosts recommend to today’s young readers, praised for its aspirational storytelling, positive representation, and subtle education in empathy and self-discovery.
• The Podcast: “Sit Me Baby One More Time” closes as the hosts look ahead to another deep-dive project: Tolkien's Silmarillion ("The Sillymarillion").

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Memorable Wrap-Up Quote

Craig [81:36]: “The brain, the brain, the center of the chain.” Andrew [81:49]: “We’re the babysitter’s club. And we’ll always be rapping.”

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For further listener engagement: catch the Overdue Podcast at overduepodcast.com | Twitter/@overduepod | Patreon for bonus content.

Transcript

[Andrew]

This is a Headgun podcast.

[Craig]

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[Andrew]

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[Craig]

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[Andrew]

Yes, we did get one of their comforters. We got set of their jammies. I'll tell you what, this comforter does put the comfort in comforter.

[Craig]

I love it. Well, our folks at home would love to know that purchasing from Cozy Earth is risk free. Take advantage of the hundred night sleep trial. If you do not love their products, you return them hassle free. But why would you? They've also got a 10 year warranty because you want comfort that endures. So discover how care in every detail transforms simple routines into moments of true comfort and ease. Head to cozyearth.com and use our code overdue for up to 20% off. And if you get a post purchase survey, be sure to mention that you heard about Cozy Earth right here. Experience the craft behind the comfort and make every day feel this episode is brought to you in part by Mint Mobile. I don't know about you, but I like keeping my money where I can see it. Unfortunately, traditional big wireless carriers also like to keep my money and they love to sit on it like a big dragon on a mountain of treasure it enough. It is time to ditch the crazy high wireless bills, bogus fees and free perks that cost more in the long run. It is time to switch to Mint Mobile. You could be saving so much money by switching to Mint it's unbelievable. Like a valiant knight, Mint is here to rescue you from those big dragons sitting on your money. They've got plans starting at 15 bucks a month. You bring your own phone and phone number. No long term contracts, no hassle with we love Mint Mobile here at Overdue. We love that they are a much more affordable option compared to those big wireless carriers and they've got great premium service ready and waiting for you. If you like your money, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop [e-mail] overdue that's mintmobile.com overdue upfront payment of $45 for 3 month 5 gigabyte plan required equivalent to $15 a month new customer offer for first 3 months only. Then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. While Andrew and Craig believe the joy of discovery is crucial to enjoying any well told tale, they will not shy

[Andrew]

away from spoiling specific story beats when necessary.

[Craig]

Plus, these are books you should have read by. Sit Me Baby One more time. Welcome to our podcast where each week one of us talks about. Wait. Well, my name is Craig.

[Andrew]

My name's.

[Craig]

Hey.

[Andrew]

Hey. This is the podcast where we talk about the Babysitters Club.

[Craig]

It's a subsidiary podcast of overdue. A podcast about the books you've been meaning to read.

[Andrew]

You know Craig, what would help you do a better job intros is if you used your brain. Your brain, the center of the chain.

[Craig]

Oh, you're right, I forgot to that. That would have.

[Andrew]

I believe you forgot about your brain. Your brain.

[Craig]

That would have grounded me as an opener if I had brought in. If I had rewritten the lyrics to not that anybody really could. They're too perfect.

[Andrew]

And every. And listen and you know, every bit of podcast that we do after the intro is like taking a test on the book or whatever it is.

[Craig]

You're right.

[Andrew]

Watched.

[Craig]

It'll help me study.

[Andrew]

And yeah, so it's an important study. The brain, the brain, the center of the chain. And as soon as you start thinking about it, then you'll remember all the other stuff that you want to come and talk about.

[Craig]

The 90s when everyone discovered rap.

[Andrew]

What a time to have been alive.

[Craig]

What a time. The end of history.

[Andrew]

What a time to have peaked as a country. As a country.

[Craig]

When you look back on it, maybe

[Andrew]

I don't think anybody did it better than whatever it was that the United States was doing back in the 1990s. Boy, well, whatever that was that we were doing, we were do it. We were the best at it.

[Craig]

This is our series Sip Me Baby One More Time where we went through many books of the Babysitters Club series by Ann M. Martin. We met eight members of the Babysitters Club and then we thought we might wrap up the series by Talking about the 1995 film the cinematic Universe of

[Andrew]

the Babysitters Club just as a starter because I think we talked about adaptations in episode zero and we talked about how this had been like predated by some like TV movies. Yeah, stuff. And then there's a more recent Netflix reboot that had nothing to do with this, but this was sort of like peak bsc.

[Craig]

This was. Yeah, for sure.

[Andrew]

And I timed like I looked up where in the book series we were and we're like in the 80s or early 90s somewhere, like in terms of like the numbered Baby Sitters Club books. Okay, okay, so the series is not like petering out yet, but it's, it's been well, well established. We're in like, I don't remember what year of 8th grade that we're in, but we're, we're like caught, caught in the loop. But what was your, what was your level of exposure to this movie basically when it was happening?

[Craig]

Basically, basically.

[Andrew]

Because you have, you had sisters, but they were older and not young.

[Craig]

They were older. I bet they read some of the books. But. But by 95 they were 14 and 15, so like probably aging. Maybe they saw it, but I don't, I don't know. I wouldn't guess. It was certainly not playing on repeat in my house. But like it becomes a VHS classic or get, or is getting run on tv. They are definitely not watching it.

[Andrew]

Yeah, because you've got this. And I don't think we've talked a ton about it, but there is this very small but important disconnect because the, the book series and this movie also are about like what, like 13 or 14 year olds? But they're, I feel like they're mostly written for people a few years.

[Craig]

It's always, it's that aspirational YA age thing, right. Where like, yeah, your reader wants to be 10 or 11 thinking about themselves as a 12 or 13 year old.

[Andrew]

Right. And then there were some Babysitters Club offshoot books that dealt a little bit more with adult themes, but they, they really weren't books about, I don't know, like puberty and like growing up. And like, there are, there are elements of that for sure. But the formula of the Babysitter's Club books as we've encountered them is like girls babysit, something else happens.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Return to status quo.

[Craig]

Yeah, well. And like, you're right, it doesn't go in the books we read. It never goes full like Judy Blume. Right. It's not, it's not, you know, going in that territory. Are you there, Christy? It's me, the Crushers.

[Andrew]

Right. There's not, I mean, I could do a control F on the wiki page, but I don't think there's a BSC book that's like Dawn's period or whatever.

[Craig]

Don't think so. But the interesting thing about the books that we read is that you're right, Andrew. It has the like, it is kind of squarely four a 10 or 11 year old in some ways because you've got the little kids that they're always babysitting and you're like, well, I'm older than those kids.

[Andrew]

Yeah, those kids are babies.

[Craig]

And you've got the big kids. You're like, well, I want to be like them. And yes, they're dealing with like, you know, a divorce and somebody passing away maybe, which happened in a book that we didn't read that is alluded to in the film.

[Andrew]

Like, who's gonna go to the Halloween hop with me?

[Craig]

Yes. And those are things that you can imagine yourself like caring about as a kid. Maybe you experience a version of it yourself, but it isn't, you know, as Martin likes to address, you know, some serious topics head on. But she. We did not read anything that spoke to that experience.

[Andrew]

Yeah, by the time you're 13 or 14, you're like, I don't know, you're reading Face on the Milk Carton. You're reading those other. Some other YA classes.

[Craig]

Maybe you're reading Fear Street. Maybe you're sticking your hand in a garbage disposal. No, I had no exposure to this film. You did?

[Andrew]

No. My sister was two years younger than me and she was big into like Baby Scissors Club was heard series, other things that she was into at varying times in the mid to late 90s. Hanson.

[Craig]

Oh, spice Girls.

[Andrew]

Big into Spice Girls.

[Craig]

Yeah, sure.

[Andrew]

Those things hit like one after the other. It truly was like a wholesale trading of Hansen for the Spice Girl, as I recall.

[Craig]

It's a pretty good exchange rate actually.

[Andrew]

Like, and, and they, I, I have this crystal clear memory of Hanson, like performing in an Eggo commercial. Like there was an Eggo commercial that had BoP in it. And we had to like, we had to tape it. We had to. Somebody had to be on VCR duty in case that commercial came on because we had to tape it because my sister wanted to watch it over and over again. And that's what we did instead of YouTube in those days.

[Craig]

It's here, it's here.

[Andrew]

But my point being, I was, I was hyper aware of this movie. I probably have seen it all the way through a couple of times in the way that you watch the Groundhog day on the TBS superstation where you watch like different 15 minute chunks of it out of sequence until you've seen the whole thing and then you can cobble it together in your brain.

[Craig]

This movie kind of Seems built for that, to be honest. A little bit.

[Andrew]

It's pretty. Yeah, it's pretty. Vignette in the style of like a Groundhog Day or a Christmas Story. Groundhog Day has a stronger through line.

[Craig]

More Christmas story. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andrew]

There's a lot of. And just reading this, like Vulture did this long oral history of the Babysitter's club movie in 2020 and reading about how they like had to handle their shooting schedule and stuff. Some elements of that, like out of order shooting schedule manifest in the film. Like, pretty, pretty.

[Craig]

Yeah, they said it was like very weather related. Like they were just like, who in the trailer has makeup on? Let's do. Do their scene.

[Andrew]

Yeah, right. Yeah.

[Craig]

That is a. It's a great article. We will probably reference it a lot. Jessica Goldstein has the byline on it for Vulture.

[Andrew]

Oral history from like mid-2020 also. So, like, I don't know, we're.

[Craig]

We're all just timed around the Netflix show, right? Right.

[Andrew]

Timed around the Netflix show. But also, you know, we're all stuck in our houses. We're all. Yes, they were gathered around the warm glow of our computer screens writing and also reading way too long oral histories.

[Craig]

There were a lot of oral histories that kind of tumbled out in 2020 and 21. Oh, it's the 17 year anniversary of something. I could get actors on a zoom call for like no shade. You had nobody doing anything. You had to write stuff.

[Andrew]

And now it's part of the historical record.

[Craig]

It is, it is. So this is a 1995. Wow. I got so excited.

[Andrew]

Film right in the middle of the 90s. It doesn't get more 90s than this.

[Craig]

It really doesn't. Directed by Melissa Marin, a Philadelphia native, born in 1952. Studied at the Academy, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the Actors Studio. Was an actor by trade. Had been in a few movies, including Girlfriends, before appearing on a Mary Tyler Moore spinoff show. Wrote and produced something called sticky fingers in 1988.

[Andrew]

Which Mary Tyler Moore spinoff. Roda.

[Craig]

Roda. Yeah.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Craig]

She also made a Kirstie Alley Tooth Fairy movie that I vaguely. I don't remember what it's called, but I vaguely remember the poster when I saw it.

[Andrew]

Every time I think about the stuff that Kirsty Alley was doing in the. The listen in like the 90s era.

[Craig]

Who's talking?

[Andrew]

Actually, yeah, it's like you did not come back to the Star Trek franchise after your star turn in Star Trek to the Wrath of Comic because you did not want to be typecast. But I Feel like being typecast as somebody in Star Trek is better than some of this.

[Craig]

Look who's talking. Good film. The rest of them,

[Andrew]

you don't have to look at who's talking.

[Craig]

Though I did watch the. Speaking of movies that were on tv, I watched the third look who's Talking on TV a lot as a kid.

[Andrew]

Which one was that?

[Craig]

Look who's Talking Now.

[Andrew]

Now. Okay.

[Craig]

Do you remember who was talking now, Andrew?

[Andrew]

I don't remember who was talking.

[Craig]

Dogs.

[Andrew]

Was that a theatrical release or is that a. Because we want. We watched a fair amount of Home Alone 3, which was definitely a direct to VHS and did not involve anybody who had been in the first two movies.

[Craig]

I believe it was Danny DeVito and Diane Keaton were the dogs.

[Andrew]

Danny DeVito.

[Craig]

Each of the kids had a dog and the dogs talked now, anyway, that's a different. Melissa Mayron was also a primary cast member on a show called 30 Something, which I think she won an Emmy for. I just. I had never. I don't think I'd ever heard of this show, Andrew.

[Andrew]

I'd heard of 30 something.

[Craig]

It won Emmys. I think it was set in Philly. Like, it was like, what if all the counterculture boomers then had to, like, live through the 80s? Just kind of interesting.

[Andrew]

It was like. It was a. It was a known thing. It was a hit thing for a while.

[Craig]

Yeah. Marin also directed a lot of tv, including episodes of Glow and Jane the Virgin. I believe she was the feminist literary advisor on Jane the Virgin. The woman who advises Jane on her book. Huh. I think that was her.

[Andrew]

Okay.

[Craig]

And I think it was in the oral history where she said she had never read the books ever.

[Andrew]

She. She said she still never read any of the books. She. What did she say? She says. This is the article. Around the time Scholastic Starter started ordering books by the dozen, the company's film division, led by Jane Starts, reached out to Melody Mayren about directing a movie based on the Beloved series, best known for Emmy winning portrayal of Melissa Stedman on the coming of age drama 30 something. Maren had never directed a feature film before and she never read a babysitter's club book, let alone watch the straight to VHS specials or HBO series that predated the movie. I've still never read the book, she told Vulture this month. But there was a New York Times Sunday magazine cover called girls confident at 11, confused at 16 about how young women, before they hit puberty, are speaking their mind. They very serious and confident about whatever they're thinking. And then when Puberty starts and they want the attention of boys. They all of a sudden couch their words. They don't answer as confidently anymore. And I thought to myself, you don't get that confidence back until you're 40 and you've been through a bunch of therapy. And that was the main reason I wanted to do this movie.

[Craig]

Yeah, that tracks. Actually. Just thinking about the macro structure of this film where it takes place over a summer. The girls are going to run a day camp.

[Andrew]

There are only like four adults who

[Craig]

exist in the entire world and they each have their own little problems. Some problems bigger than others, but we never really get with like they're minor kids that, that they babysit. And some of it's a function of like you have the babysitters movie, babysitter club movie. You have to fit all the girls in there. You know, what time are you going to have to flesh out any of their, you know, wards?

[Andrew]

Yeah. Unlike some of the books. Yeah. You're right. That none of the babysat are no characters at all.

[Craig]

And that is that to me, that's just what the movie is. And I don't want to like fault it for it. But this quote, that quote you just read from Marin also is like, yeah, she didn't read the books. She doesn't necessarily care about the relationship between the babysitter and the babysat, which the books are often about. She is like, hey, I've been thinking about girls about this age. Here is a story that will let me talk about that and work on that.

[Andrew]

Yeah. And I think that's reflected in the movie's legacy as well. Like this vulture piece talks a lot about a showing in, what was it, 2015 at the Alamo Drafthouse, where a bunch of the cast members and Marin I think were all there and it was quote, a sold out audience of 20 and 30 something women who grew up wearing out their BSC cassettes and to this day approach the cast and Marin to thank them for. For bringing Martin's books to life. First, there's a footnote in the article. I don't know if you saw this or not. Specialty cocktails served at the screening. The Kid Kit.

[Craig]

Oh my God.

[Andrew]

The Ann M. Martini.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Andrew]

In the Boss.

[Craig]

Nice. The film was written by Dalene Young, who only recently passed away, was an actress, wrote a lot of TV movies, which at one point you told me while we were watching it, you were like, this has TV movie energy.

[Andrew]

There's an element of TV movie to it.

[Craig]

Sure.

[Andrew]

And I can't put my finger quite on what it is, but because there's a lot of, like, if you're talking about 90s movies, you're still talking about a time when a movie, like, people are still making a lot of rom coms. You can have a movie come out and, like, make a small profit, and it's fine. It's not considered, like, a total failure.

[Craig]

It made nine on a budget of six, which is not amazing.

[Andrew]

Yeah, I made, like, 3 million bucks. And then it ended up being, like, a. Some of the. The cast members and the Marin also, like, blame the release.

[Craig]

They said it should have come out four months.

[Andrew]

Like.

[Craig]

Yeah, yeah.

[Andrew]

It was supposed to be timed to, like, back to school in September. And Scholastic was supposed to have a big push around it, but then it got, like, bumped, like, backward to August.

[Craig]

No one goes to movies in August. It's a bad start.

[Andrew]

Nobody goes to movies in August. But then it became. That apparently spent 11 weeks on Billboard's top video sales chart in 1996.

[Craig]

What a chart. What a chart.

[Andrew]

But, yeah, I mean, that happened a lot, though. Like, you know, shows that didn't succeed when they were first running, but they found success in, like, syndication. Things that. That were flops. The other thing, theater, but, like, did big on dvd. Like, this was total. It's totally a thing.

[Craig]

They also talk about how it got beat by Mortal Kombat, which is a movie I did see in movie theaters. I did.

[Andrew]

You could have been seeing Baby Sisters and it failed because of you.

[Craig]

Well, Babysitter's Club didn't have Goro in

[Andrew]

it, so it didn't.

[Craig]

It didn't have the part where Johnny Cage punches Goro in the crotch and then Goro doesn't, like, flinch at all because he's too strong.

[Andrew]

Yeah. There are no scenes where Goro is, like, trying to date one of the

[Craig]

babysitters and being like, goro's got four arms. He would be a good babysitter. Probably.

[Andrew]

Yeah. I mean, a lot. Yeah, a lot of. Except for the blood, especially early parenting is just about.

[Craig]

How many arms do you have?

[Andrew]

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[Craig]

Oh, no.

[Andrew]

We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together.

[Craig]

We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird.

[Andrew]

Yeah, the bird looks out of your league anyways. Only pay for what you [e-mail] Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty.

[Craig]

Should we run down the cast, Andrew?

[Andrew]

We can run down the cast. I did want to say my one. My one absolute favorite 90s snake eating its own tail. Thing about the Babysitter's Club movie is that there were multiple novelizations of this movie based on the book. Like, this movie is based on books, and then there is a book based on the movie that has nothing to do with the rest of the book series.

[Craig]

That's amazing.

[Andrew]

Credited to Al Singer, based on movie writer Dalene Young's script. Would you like to guess who Al Singer is in real life?

[Craig]

Peter Lauren. Just.

[Andrew]

It's our boy Peter.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Andrew]

Or at least according to the BSC fandom wiki, which I am taking goodness gospel on this. On this particular man. Yeah. Peter Lauren, just prolific main series ghostwriter, wrote the novelization of the movie about the books.

[Craig]

Oh, my God, that rules. And then.

[Andrew]

But. And there's no book that the plot of this neatly maps to, but apparently there's like a Christie's diary.

[Craig]

Okay. I have the thing. I have.

[Andrew]

I have notes on that of this. This movie. So, yeah, that's kind of where it is in the conversation.

[Craig]

The book apparently combines plots of. This was from. I think I saw this in the Wiki. Christie and The Baby Parade, book 45. Marianne and Camp BSC 86 and Christie's book, which is a. What they called portrait books, where.

[Andrew]

Yeah, that's. That's a spin off. I was thinking.

[Craig]

Yeah, the. The one character would, like, have a bunch of little stories from their perspective. I couldn't figure out what the overlap for the Baby Parade book was. I don't really know who put that note in there.

[Andrew]

There's no Baby parade in this.

[Craig]

No, the camp BSC is like, what if there was a camp? Like, that's the overlap, I think.

[Andrew]

Right.

[Craig]

And then the Christie's book thing is where the main Christie plot comes from. We'll talk about this more. Christie's plot is not like, is she a good boss or not? Well, in a way it is because she kind of becomes an absent boss as she deals with her absent father, who shows up out of nowhere and demands that she keep him a secret, like an imaginary friend while he Waits

[Andrew]

for somebody to maybe give him a part time sports job in the sports section at the paper.

[Craig]

The paper. And she in that story, she does lie to everyone but Marianne. And it puts Marianne in a weird spot similar to the film. So like somebody read that book and was like, okay, we, this Dalene Young probably read that book. Was like, all right, that, that's something. I think Anna Martin not really work on the film directly.

[Andrew]

No. She visited the set at least once according to the oral history. But she did not respond to Vulture's requests for sure. For the story. It's. Yeah, it's the movie. The structure of the movie is interesting because most of the babysitters get some kind of small conflict or goal. I don't think Mallory or Jesse really get a ton to do.

[Craig]

I was thinking about that and Mallory

[Andrew]

as like the younger members of the

[Craig]

really care for like a kind of transition comic relief. Like whenever we are coming into the babysitters club camp, there's usually some hijinks with little kids happening and Mallory and Jesse are often on the front lines. Right. They're very, they have like really good vibes from those kids, like really strong performances. But they, they don't have like a little arc or anything.

[Andrew]

But it's definitely Christie's movie. Like to the extent. Yeah, like Stacy, Stacy gets a lot to do. Don gets some to do. Claudia gets a little bit to. To do in her like summer school, like C plot thing. But then like Marianne's conflict is. Yeah, well, I have to keep Christie's conflict a secret. Well, Marianne's arc in the movie is like, boy, Christy, you really put me in a bad place when you told me about your thing. Then I had to keep secret.

[Craig]

Also I was scrolling through some, some like summaries to make sure I hadn't missed anything because I was like, what did Marianne do in the movie?

[Andrew]

And Marianne bears Chrissy's secret and gets a lot of, gets a lot of blowback about it.

[Craig]

Also Cokie wants Marianne's boyfriend. And so like what's interesting is the way that it ends up shaking out is that like Koki and her. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern like have their own movie that.

[Andrew]

Yeah, they have their own thing. And it's like their whole vibe is like the mean girls from the movie Mean Girls meets Bulk and Skull from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

[Craig]

It was giving me big like Lion King hyenas energy. But yes, it was also that. But no, like they are like set off by the fact that Marianne has a Boyfriend. But it is. And there. There's lots of, like, little digs, but that's not. It's not a thing that, like, I think Marianne learns something about herself. She. The. The little, like, character development she has has to do with my sister, my friend. My friend, my sister. Like, that. She has to. You know, we'll talk about their plots. Let's talk about the actors real quick, Andrew, because we've got, like, a range of folks here. You know, we've got Stacy Lynn Ramsauer, who is playing Mallory. She was on hey dude for a little while. And then also in Tank Girl and Quicken the Dead and then this, and that's about that. There was Trisha Jo playing Claudia, unfortunately passed away tragically young in 2021. This was, like, her biggest project. I don't think that she even responded to the. The oral history request. I think she was not.

[Andrew]

Yeah. And I don't. I didn't. I didn't see her in the pictures for the reunion.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

The screening thing either. So. Yeah. I don't know.

[Craig]

You have Brie Blair, right? Or is it Blair Brie was. I have that.

[Andrew]

Brie Blair.

[Craig]

Brie Blair. She played Stacy. Right. And she had. She kind of, you look. Has one of those, like, resumes. I love that. It's like an episode in every show. Just like.

[Andrew]

Yeah, right.

[Craig]

A decade of episodes.

[Andrew]

Zelda Harris as Jesse has a similar. Well, as I recall, she's. She was in a. She was in a movie before.

[Craig]

She was like, knock. Like, sort of the focal point. I don't. I have not seen Crooklyn by Spike Lee, but she's like the point of view character for, you know, this family unit in a Spike Lee movie that's well regarded. So the. In the oral history, they keep talking about how, like, she was in a Spike Lee movie.

[Andrew]

She was in a movie that everybody thinks is cool. And even Larissa Oleynik, who plays dawn, friend of the show. Larissa Oleynik was like, man, she was in a movie. Larissa Oleynik was.

[Craig]

Had already become Alex Mack. Yeah. She'd gotten the Radioactive already turned into,

[Andrew]

like, a pile of Capri sun metal goop on tv. But even she was impressed by the movie thing.

[Craig]

Yeah. Zelda Harris went on to some film and TV and some singing and then I think became a teacher. You've got, as we said, Larissa Olanik, who has just had probably the longest career of the bunch. Like her and Rachel Leigh Cook, she. I did not realize that Olanik broke out on a tour of Les Mis was like one of her big things before Alex Mack. Then of course Pete and Pete, boy meets world. 10 Things I Hate about you. I forgot that she was on Third Rock from the sun. But she was on Third Rock from the Sun. She was on Madman, Mad Men. Big run on Mad Men.

[Andrew]

Ken Cosgrove's sometimes seen wife and then Mad Men. You might remember Ken Cosgrove from that guy who was the character model for that Rockstar game.

[Craig]

That guy.

[Andrew]

Do you remember him?

[Craig]

I do. What, what was that? L A Noire. Yeah, yeah, the. The lie button that you had, you know, and then kind of full circle, like. One of her more recent projects was a short lived Nickelodeon show called Aaron and Aaron about two, two teenage step siblings with similar names.

[Andrew]

I think modern day Nickelodeon has reached back in its.

[Craig]

They have. They've been bringing people back, I think.

[Andrew]

I think Kel got some stuff. He was, he was maybe on some shows and like did some consultant.

[Craig]

Yeah, she was a. She was a mom on that show. Which I think is just Kel, of

[Andrew]

course being Kel Mitchell from. He's the Kel from Kenan and Kel.

[Craig]

Yes, of course. Good Burger, etc.

[Andrew]

Kenan, of course, is trapped in SNL forever. Like in Are youe Afraid?

[Craig]

The man is.

[Andrew]

And they won't let it. They won't let him. I don't know.

[Craig]

Yeah, so that's Oleynik. And then of course we mentioned Rachel Leigh Cook. This. Okay, Andrew, we'll talk about her whole career first. Right, like this is her first film. She goes on to be in Josie and the Pussycat. She's all that. Of course we all remember.

[Andrew]

Of course she's all that. She's all that. But what movies was she in?

[Craig]

Well, of course she was in Kingdom Hearts 2 as Tifa. Andrew, please. She was Tifa Lockhart. She was the voice of Tifa Lockhart in Kingdom Hearts and Advent Children, but not the new Final Fantasy 7 games. She was in a lot of Hallmark movies recently. She's making a lot of Hallmark movies. Get Paid. Filming your.

[Andrew]

Are we just talking like straightforward romances or just like specifically Christmas or.

[Craig]

I think a mix of both. But I've seen her in some Christmas films. Get, get paid to shoot a movie in Atlanta in July and pretend that it's Christmas. Just go have fun.

[Andrew]

Yeah, pretend it's Christmas. That boy from the. That man from the big city. You're going to teach him to love Christmas.

[Craig]

It's true, Andrew. So do you also remember what big commercial was she from? Do you recall the Big ad that she was in.

[Andrew]

Rachel Leigh Cook. Yes, I know the oral history said that she was on like milk bone boxes or something. So you're so.

[Craig]

So I'm sending you the, the, like the anniversary ad.

[Andrew]

Is this going to be like Aaron Paul in that corn pops commercial or whatever it was.

[Craig]

He was in the this is your brain on drugs ad. Ah, the smash the egg ad.

[Andrew]

Right. Were there multiple ads of that ad or.

[Craig]

I don't. The one I don't know.

[Andrew]

But she made it being kind of like a Got milk? Sort of.

[Craig]

Yes. Can you watch the first 15 seconds of the video I just sent you, which is a your brain on drugs remake ad that she made in 2017 released on 420.

[Andrew]

Nice. Yeah, excellent. Just make sure my audio's playing out of the right.

[Craig]

That's fine. This is like kind of a little revisionist in a way. I support. Based on the first ad, she still got the egg.

[Andrew]

Oh, okay. Okay. Rachel Leigh Cook. So she holds up a white egg and she says, this American's not going to be charged with drug crimes. And then she holds up a brown egg and says, this American is going to be charged with.

[Craig]

It goes there. I had no idea that they made another one and that she fully collided.

[Andrew]

I don't like the egg SWAT team.

[Craig]

No, I don't like cartoon swat. Little egg lawyer. It's really awful. And then there's like a white egg family that like, you know, gets off scot free, which fair. You know.

[Andrew]

Look at the little egg doctor, though.

[Craig]

She does splat. The. The egg family that doesn't get convicted for egg. For egg drug crimes. I was just really blown away that they made a new one of those and that she held up that egg.

[Andrew]

She did. She was holding up all kinds of eggs. Look at all these little cartoon eggs.

[Craig]

The last cast member that we have not talked about is the lead of the film, Skyler Fisk. Do you remember from the oral history, Andrew? Like, where she came from? Because they were struggling to find a Christie, I believe Marin talked about how they needed somebody with tomboy energy. And when you're. I think the quote she said was like, you're looking for someone a little bit younger. Quote, younger. Young women's bodies are all developing at different ages. So you need to get a girl who like, carries herself with a lot of confidence but maybe hasn't developed in the same way that like, Stacy has. It's like an interesting.

[Andrew]

Yeah, yeah. So I clocked like when I was first looking at the cast list and just trying to See, okay, are like do the what. What are these actors doing now? Like I clocked this year was an EPO baby.

[Craig]

Yes, she is an EPO baby.

[Andrew]

Marin says in the. In the oral history. Sissy Spacek is one of my oldest friends. We had the same manager when we were 20, 21 in New York. We'd both been in the movie Missing together. Her nephew Steven Spacek was my assistant at the time and he said, you know, Sissy's daughter Skyler is in the seventh grade doing musicals back in Virginia. So we've fax scenes to her husband Jack's farm in Virginia and they taped her audition with Sissy reading lines off camera. An Academy Award winner reading off camera lines. Jack had to drive to a FedEx store in a storm and drop off the videotape. Which I think for a Nepo baby, like that's the, that's a lot of work. That's what counts as struggle is like you had to drive to a FedEx when it was like raining out. That's mean. She's good, she's good in the film. Skyler Fisk is good in this movie. She, she has, she's asked to carry it as a child actor.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

And she does it.

[Craig]

She does. But she, you know, her career has.

[Andrew]

This is probably whole thing is just like I'm going to cast every friend that I've ever worked with.

[Craig]

Yeah. Cuz she cast, she cast Ellen Burston who is a very celebrated actress, but she knew her from like an early movie that she'd been in and was able to like rope her in. She got Christie's dad was on what was that show called 30 Something with her, I think.

[Andrew]

Okay.

[Craig]

But no, the thing with Skyler Fisk, right. She's, you know, she had a career with what she was in some movies, she's been on some tv, she released some albums. The thing when you talk about Nepo baby stuff that did make me laugh. She was in a film in 2022 called Sam and Kate that was starring Dustin Hoffman and Dustin Hoffman son Jake and Spacek and Skyler Fisk and directed by Amy Adams's husband in his feature directorial debut. She was an executive producer. So everybody, this is one of those like hey, what do you all do in next month? Should we make a movie? Let's make a movie.

[Andrew]

Who's hungry for second bananas all of a sudden?

[Craig]

Wants to make a movie.

[Andrew]

Who's like cousins are around and wants to make a movie with each other.

[Craig]

I did see, I did like in the oral history that Oleynik talked about auditioning for, like, three different roles. I think they were also considering Rachel Leigh Cook for more than one role. And, like, a bunch of the girls did not want to be Stacy because they didn't want to have to do

[Andrew]

a kiss because Stacy needs to kiss somebody.

[Craig]

And it was Brie Blair's first ever kiss, and she did it.

[Andrew]

And she also got, like, her first period with a man who was 22

[Craig]

at the time of filming.

[Andrew]

Rachel Lee Cook says the absolute only thing I can say in defense of that age gap in casting is I ran into him at another casting ten years later, and he still looked the same. No, but a 22 year old and a 14 year old.

[Craig]

Not great.

[Andrew]

No. You're not at a libertarian convention.

[Craig]

You're just making cast.

[Andrew]

Babysitters club.

[Craig]

Oh, God. But it's a fun. It's a fun movie, though.

[Andrew]

It's a fun movie, which now we can talk about.

[Craig]

Now we can talk about it. Yeah. We've. We've alluded to the major plots. They want to. They want to run a camp. Well, it opens with the Hona Na Hay song, which is its own plot.

[Andrew]

Yeah. And we get, like, a very nicely done little sort of montage y thing where it's like flipping through a calendar that has stuff written on it.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Andrew]

And it establishes, like, Craig and I, as Babysitter's club fans.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

We can put ourselves in the shoes of somebody who would have been watching this movie, having read all the books. So we know the universe of this film is roughly the status quo that exists, like, from the end of the Jessie book to the beginning of the Abbey book that we read.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Andrew]

So all of these girls are the members of the club. Claudia's grandmother Mimi is dead. She died. Which apparently happened. And I was really upset.

[Craig]

That was. That was like, someone whipped a glass bottle at me from a car while they were driving by.

[Andrew]

Like, I was not, like, mention it at the end.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

The whole time I'm sitting there in the movie, like, when's Mimi gonna come? Like, who's. How's Mimi gonna enter it?

[Craig]

One of the six adults. Y. She can't be here. Christie has a baseball team, like, established.

[Andrew]

These crushers have T shirts that were printed.

[Craig]

It's a pretty like. Yeah. The club is not in any risk or danger as an enterprise. It's not new.

[Andrew]

Cornered the market.

[Craig]

Yep. And they're wrapping up a school year. Like, that is kind of what they're teaching us, which is not really a thing that we've experienced in the books too much. No.

[Andrew]

But we, we do know they're going right back. No. That the school, school years do wrap up.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

And then they do restart.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Andrew]

And nobody asks, oh, is this eighth grade again? Am I eight? Am I age? Maybe? I mean the books can't be about coming of age because nobody is like, you age once between seventh grade and eighth grade and then you don't age again anymore. Like you're just stuck there forever.

[Craig]

I don't remember exactly how it comes about that. Just Christie has this idea that they.

[Andrew]

Part of it is like Chrissy loves to have ideas. What are you talking about, Chris? Christie is an idea machine.

[Craig]

That's true. I think there's like a little bit of like, oh, it's summer. Like, are we going to like get cast to the winds in our various like things we're going to get involved in? What if we had a scheme to like make some extra Babysitters Club money and spend the summer together? Like that is certainly a thing that Christie lays out.

[Andrew]

Like, what if we have a business venture profit margin? I read, I read the 10k forms for the Babysitters Club and they, they're operating with very thin profit.

[Craig]

Yes, that's true. What?

[Andrew]

So yeah, Christy, Christie wants to do a summer camp. And Craig, you are not, you are not in this part of parenting quite yet because Simon is still in a daycare where it doesn't matter what day it is.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Just kind of goes to daycare, including in the summers.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Andrew]

But as soon as you get to a place where the calendar is tied to the school calendar at all.

[Craig]

Huh.

[Andrew]

You don't really think like as a kid, you think, oh, summer vacation, it's great. I'm gonna hang out, I'm gonna hang out, I'm gonna do nothing. I'm gonna play video games, I'm gonna chill with my buds, whatever.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Andrew]

But when you're a parent of a kid like that, it's like, well, now I gotta put up, I gotta find, I gotta put them somewhere. Yeah, I gotta find a place to put. And so the Babysitters Club starting a camp where parents on the go. And it is the 90s. So you know, everybody's, everybody's working.

[Craig]

Every parent has a big car phone

[Andrew]

y and shoulder pads and jobs and everything.

[Craig]

Uh huh.

[Andrew]

I was, I was just very like this, this is real.

[Craig]

It is surreal.

[Andrew]

As, as the original Babysitter's Club idea showed. Like Christie can identify market needs and then she can move to address. And I find that impressive.

[Craig]

You're not Wrong. I do think that maybe there should have been some like they, they do meet with the civic committee later in the film as they attempt to rehab a decrepit greenhouse. But the, the city seems largely unconcerned with a 12 week day camp operating in a girl's yard with porta potties. I don't. And like at one point there is a threat to revoke their permit and they all seem surprised at the notion of a permit.

[Andrew]

Well, but then, and then Christy says later, well I checked when we don't need a permit. Everybody was like, well Christie, you weren't around. You weren't around because you were hanging out with your hot deadbeat dad too much. It would have been nice to know that when this lady was over here threatening us. So yeah, I don't have a ton of other things from the oral history, but my other, my last favorite thing from it is all the girls who played the babysitters being like men. Peter Horton, we all thought Chrissy sat.

[Craig]

We thought Chrissy. That was hot. Yeah. Well the other thing that he is

[Andrew]

hot in a very specific like floppy haired 90s kind of way.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Craig]

The other thing I think that you mentioned to me earlier was that they all got like at least a week hanging out together like in the hotel and like bonding and like writing letters.

[Andrew]

One of the like on screen the vibe to be a little lived in and a little realistic.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Andrew]

And you're still, I think you're still at that age. Like you're still making friends real fast. You can, you can still find a best friend very quickly. Real, real quick, lickety split.

[Craig]

It's like, it is like summer camp. It's like they had a summer camp where they like were all put together for a week, they bonded and then they got to make a movie together, you know. But no, so as we alluded to Claudia is there's no mention of her like super smart boy who became a computer sister.

[Andrew]

Doesn't have a sister. She doesn't have parents. Her grandmother's dead. Mallory doesn't, Mallory doesn't have a million siblings.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Stacy has a mom who lives in

[Craig]

a big house by herself.

[Andrew]

Lives in a big house by herself and is really into the idea of her 14 year old daughter dating an 18 year old from Europe. Yeah, from Europe. Otherwise is not really a factor. Like Christy has a mom and a

[Craig]

stepdad and a dad and a younger

[Andrew]

brother, but she's got all the parents that anybody is going to have in this movie.

[Craig]

There's lots of shots of dawn and Mallory, dawn and Marianne in what I presume is Dawn's house. But we never see just in an

[Andrew]

empty house, like shades of like, I don't know, like, like Marianne's dad died.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

And they're just like pretending that he's still alive so they don't have to go into the foster care system or something. They just like sit around reading books and evenings and whatever.

[Craig]

It's really fun. I also don't have a lot of like I, I liked the costuming in this film a lot. Like Mallory's costume rules. Mallory's little, you know, her big hair and her glasses.

[Andrew]

Stacy Lynn Ramsauer.

[Craig]

She hated it. She hated the costume.

[Andrew]

Quote from the. Again from the oral history. I'm sorry, I'm doing it again. I was pretty devastated at the first costume fitting. Looking back on it now, I feel totally different. But for a 12 year old girl who felt super awkward in her skin, I did not want to wear suspenders and bow ties. I rem costume designers telling me how much they love dressing me. Paisley shirts and a briefcase in oxford's. They dyed and permed my hair. It was a complete and total change physically. And when we did see Mallory walk onto the screen, I believe my knee jerk out loud reaction was, oh, look at the cute little lesbian. Like she's stressed. She's dressed like she's cosplaying Paula£ yeah,

[Craig]

it's very, it's very Paula Poundstone coated. And yeah, like Jesse's costume is straightforward. Claudia looks fun. Christie's like kind of tomboy stuff is great.

[Andrew]

The thing that's very high fashion.

[Craig]

The thing that stood out to us though was also like what, what era of Marianne are we in? Like Marianne is like power lady. She's like girl boss lady.

[Andrew]

Yeah. She's very, she's very like I'm gonna have, I'm gonna go have a meeting at the country club.

[Craig]

Yeah. It did not have, you know, we've moved past sheltered Marianne, I guess.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Craig]

So she's found her own version of maybe like a kind of uptight fashion.

[Andrew]

But her dad doesn't exist in this reality.

[Craig]

That's.

[Andrew]

We don't know what their relationship.

[Craig]

That's true. But Claudia has to pass summer school and also the girls have just decided that her house is too small for the babysitters club. So like that's gonna show.

[Andrew]

There's a lot of people. There's a lot of people in her room.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Which is the only, again, the only part of her house that we see. There's an episode of Star Trek, the Original Series, where there's, like, a virus that kills all the grownups, and so there's, like, a planet that's all kids.

[Craig]

Oh, yeah, sure.

[Andrew]

I do wonder if the, like, Earth, as we see it in the Babysitter's Club movie is in. Is at some point in that virus's development because there are just not adults around.

[Craig]

Sure. It's very peanutsy, you know, babies watching babies, baby watching babies. Stacy 1. Stacy is one of the few that we see, like, do a babysitting job briefly before the camp starts, which is how she meets this hunky European boy, Luca.

[Andrew]

She brings her kid kit.

[Craig]

She brings her kid kit and goes and gets ice cream.

[Andrew]

We were both hooting and hollering about when they mentioned the kid kit. We were like, yeah, it's just like, the bugs and.

[Craig]

No, this, like, she goes to babysit this little girl, and she's like, oh, and I heard your cousins here from Europe. Why could babysit them too? And this, like, hunky boy comes down the stairs, and he's like, oh, I like movies. Let's go to see the movies.

[Andrew]

I am from Europe.

[Craig]

I am from Europe. Do you have movies here?

[Andrew]

Do you have movies and age of consent here?

[Craig]

Because he's, like, 17. And they start spending.

[Andrew]

Is he 17? I thought, okay, yes. He's not 18.

[Craig]

He's not.

[Andrew]

They do talk. They do talk about, yeah, him coming back next year.

[Craig]

At the end of the movie, I'm gonna. We could do Stacy's plot real quick.

[Andrew]

And he says, like, I forget how the exact exchange goes, but it's like, he. He says, I'll be 18. And then she says, I'll be 14. And as though I don't. This has solved some part of the problem instead of just, like, making it slightly worse.

[Craig]

I think it's even weirder. Andrew. I don't even think he says 18. So their whole plot is. First she has to reveal that she's diabetic. So they go for a hike, and she, like, faints, and she's like, oh, no, I'm diabetic. And he's like, it's cool, baby.

[Andrew]

And he does. He does, like, the bare minimum of, like, you're not. You're not a freak because you have diabetes.

[Craig]

Yeah. And then they go to New York City, and they go to a teen club, and she's.

[Andrew]

What is this club?

[Craig]

She's not allowed. I. I don't think that these teen clubs ever existed. I've only seen them in movies and tv.

[Andrew]

They only exist on tv, it's like the Bronze on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Like, what is this nightclub where they're just serving, like, single sodas to 17 year olds and they stay open all the time and they get all these, like, the biggest indie bands of the 90s to come play all the time. What is this club?

[Craig]

But no, she's not allowed in because she's only 13. To which Luca is like. 13. And then, yeah, it ends with him, like, saving the day a little bit or whatever. And, like, with his car, I guess. And then he tells her, he says, like, I'll be back next summer. And she goes, good, I'll be 14.

[Andrew]

Y' all gotta wait at least a decade for this not to be weird, I think.

[Craig]

And then, like, Dawn's whole thing is they're running the camp at her house. She winds up with the, like, you know, the one adult relationship other than Christie's dad with Mrs. What's her name? Mrs. Haberman. Yes, Mrs. Haberman, played by Ellen Burston,

[Andrew]

who begins as an antagonist, but then slowly develops into an ally.

[Craig]

She begins largely as a woman beset by flying projectiles. Who then a woman who is harried

[Andrew]

by this babysitter's club. Camp.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Andrew]

And really, I mean, in the scheme of things, holds out for a pretty long time before she starts threatening to get their permit.

[Craig]

There's like half a dozen shots of her just kind of tut tutting these kids before something really bad happens. And she threatens to call the cops

[Andrew]

as they just like, launch stuff into her yard randomly.

[Craig]

Yeah, but so, like, dawn develops a relationship with her. There's like, the scene later in the movie where she's like, yeah. Sitting down and talking and whatever.

[Andrew]

Really, it's just a bluff anyway, because, like, what adults exist in this universe to enforce law? To, like, make and enforce laws? Nobody.

[Craig]

And also, there's an annoying boy named Alan who likes dawn, and he's the Neb. The Nib.

[Andrew]

The Neb.

[Craig]

The Neb. Because Nebbish. Yes. Okay. Yeah, yeah, he's the. Yeah.

[Andrew]

I don't know. I don't know what to make of the Neb.

[Craig]

I don't know, man.

[Andrew]

He's a. I don't know if it's anti Semitic.

[Craig]

I don't. I don't think it is.

[Andrew]

But are you sure? Because they call him the Neb and they all hate him. Well, and he's a big dweebo. Dweebus.

[Craig]

Yeah. I don't know, man. I don't like him as a character. I think he's kind of annoying.

[Andrew]

No, I think he's off putting, but I just don't like. Oh, calling him the thinking about diversity in this movie where there's like Jesse, fair enough. Who doesn't have a family and so she is the only black girl.

[Craig]

That's correct. Yeah.

[Andrew]

And then the neb.

[Craig]

And the neb. No, he kind of stinks. And it's hard to tell what his vibe is if he is like in a. If he's like purposefully in another movie or what his deal is. He's like some sort of like medieval court jester character.

[Andrew]

He does look like a weird, like a grown up little rascal or something. Like I don't know what his vibe is.

[Craig]

But by the end of the movie, she like, she likes that he's into her and he helps things. He helps them learn the rap to save Claudia's day. Because Claudia does pass her test based on the rap.

[Andrew]

Let me see if I can find.

[Craig]

Just find the lyrics to the rap, please. Yeah, Claudia, we're kind of saving Christie's plot for the last discussion because that's like the big thing in the book. In the movie, Claudia needs Christie's help and of course Christie is dad crazy so she can't help her. But Claudia does pass the test after they do this amazing rap. And then when she's taking a multiple choice summer school test, she can. Some. Some kids in the room start tapping their pencils and she goes, oh, yes,

[Andrew]

the rap, the rap, the brain, the brain, the brain, the center of the chain.

[Craig]

Did you find them?

[Andrew]

I have found some lyrics. I'm still looking for like the whole thing. Somebody on a live journal post in 2008 has one public live journal into the cerebellum. It's the best thing that could happen because we're the babysitters and we'll always be ra.

[Craig]

So fun.

[Andrew]

Which does fulfill the, the, the most important like load bearing part of any 90s rap. Which is to. To mention the fact that you are rapping.

[Craig]

Yeah. It's very fun.

[Andrew]

The only thing that's more important is to announce who you are.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

And.

[Craig]

And what you're here to say.

[Andrew]

And what you're there to say. Yeah.

[Craig]

What you're here to do in a major role.

[Andrew]

How well do you know the rap from the babysitter's.

[Craig]

What year Was that published?

[Andrew]

2015.

[Craig]

Wow.

[Andrew]

I'm going to fill in all of these quiz answers in the hopes that it will give me the lyrics at the end.

[Craig]

Okay, that's fair.

[Andrew]

I do have a chain. The cerebellum I don't want to.

[Craig]

I don't want people to misunderstand. Like, we're kind of, like, having our jokey fun with this summary. Like, we did enjoy the film. We liked the performances. We didn't necessarily care for the neb.

[Andrew]

Did not.

[Craig]

And I thought the. The koki stuff was, like, pretty whatever I did. Like, when they got koki in the. In the garden sprinklers, that was fun.

[Andrew]

If you want to run, if you want to jump, you got to get your left and right ventricles to pump through the heart, the center of it all. If the ventricles aren't pumping, you might just fall down to the ground, which will cause you pain. But that'll never happen if you use your brain. The brain, the brain, the center of the chain. You run from the cortex of the frontal lobe past the hypothalamus. It's good to go into the cerebellum. It's the best thing that could happen. We're the babysitters, and we'll always be rapping and singing and thinking is the best. Now you better go and study. So you pass your science test, And then you just do the brain, the brain, the center of the chain over and over again.

[Craig]

Yeah, yeah.

[Andrew]

Until as the song fades out and

[Craig]

the entire camp full of children cheers the rap.

[Andrew]

All of these scenes at this camp were clearly shot over, like, tops, like, two days of filming because everybody's just in the same chaos costumes the whole time. And so they have to, like, for the kayfabe of the movie to work, they act like each day is like a themed, like, one's cowboy day, and then they have this, like, rap day.

[Craig]

Yep, yep, yep, yep.

[Andrew]

And it just barely conveys the. The sense that the time is. Well, the.

[Craig]

The other.

[Andrew]

Because everybody's dressed the same the whole time. And they keep, like, going back to this, like, timeout zone.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Andrew]

And clearly the timeout zone was all shot in just, like, one hour with all the kids who were there. But in the movie, it's supposed to be a thing that's, like, happening over the course of multiple weeks.

[Craig]

The other thing that kind of was strange to me about the camp is, like, it's all taking place in Dawn's yard, but then after they discover the greenhouse randomly, then various long stretches of camp are taking place in this, like, unnamed field where they make all the

[Andrew]

kids come and, like, help refurbish their greenhouse.

[Craig]

Yeah, yeah, it's. And it's. Where were. Where were they? I don't really honestly they.

[Andrew]

They do not make a ton of progress on the screen.

[Craig]

They really do not.

[Andrew]

No, they don't make it worse, but it doesn't get a lot better than.

[Craig]

They almost don't get possession of it from the city until Ms. Haberman steps in.

[Andrew]

Yeah. And then all the city council people come in, and they're, like, kind of skeptical, but then it's really hot in there, and so they're like, just do whatever you want.

[Craig]

That's government for you.

[Andrew]

The two things I remember about this greenhouse plot is that they. They get it from the city because the council people are like, man, it's really hot in here. Just. Just do whatever. And then the other thing where the two boys use way too much water in their cement to pour a new sidewalk, and Koki and the other mean girls get their.

[Craig]

Stuck in it. Yeah, it's pretty funny. Funny. Let's talk about the Christie plot. Andrew, bring us home.

[Andrew]

Talk about the Christie plot. Christie's dad is back in town. We never met him in the books. We've. We encountered him only as, like, a distant presence who is mostly not in anybody's life anymore.

[Craig]

And it's an interesting, like, relationship to set the. The whole series up with. With Christie. Right. That you have, you know, a. An absent father, divorce. Like, you've got her mom with, like, juggling four kids. Like, it makes total sense that Christie is prepared to be a good babysitter. And then the immediate, like, pressure on her of this, like, oh, no, my mom's getting remarried. What is that like? And then, as we learn in the other books, she has moved neighborhoods. So, like, then she's in, like, a different socioeconomic class and is further away from her friends. And, like, some of that is, like, hinted to. Like, we see her in that house

[Andrew]

here, but, like, and her mom, like, her mom and stepdad are not super on top of what is happening with Christy or why she's gone all the time. But in their defense, Christie's mom is dealing with a very complicated haircut situation.

[Craig]

She really is.

[Andrew]

And. And Chrissy's stepdad, his brain appears to have been severed from his spinal cord at some point. And so I don't know, like, what capacity they're supposed to use to address these. These issues with their daughter.

[Craig]

We do see them interact with her, which is more than we can say for most of the parents in this movie. Yeah, it's not.

[Andrew]

It's not just, like, Stacy's mom, where she exists only in this foyer, like,

[Craig]

nowhere else, dressed as her, the same color as her stairs, you know, just hanging out. But no. Then one day, Christy is coming home from camp and there's a bizarre camping truck bus thing outside of her house.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Like a, like a small rv.

[Craig]

And a floppy haired, attractive man is there and he says hello. And Marianne is like, see you later, Christy. This is strange.

[Andrew]

Christie's dad lives a life of quiet desperation. That really bummed me out a lot. Really? Because he's clearly living in his van. He's lying to Christy about his job prospects.

[Craig]

He's staying at the B and B. Andrew or whatever says that, like, that's

[Andrew]

the number that he leaves. But you know that he's giving somebody like $20 a night so he can sleep in his van in the parking lot and take a shower in the morning. Yeah, it's pretty bad.

[Craig]

Well, and because doesn't he like, then he's. He shows up and he's like, don't tell anybody I'm here. Yeah, I'm waiting.

[Andrew]

But I want to be in your life. And I'm gonna get a job.

[Craig]

I'm gonna be around my friend, like Chris Adair or whatever very specific name I've made up.

[Andrew]

My friend at the newspaper is gonna let me write about sports in the newspaper.

[Craig]

Yes. And I need to wait a week or more to find out about this job. Will you please go have a secret pizza with me? You can bring your friend.

[Andrew]

I will give you beer.

[Craig]

Yeah, he.

[Andrew]

He doesn't actually give them beer, I don't think. But there is a scene where they're eating pancakes that he made in his car, which I thought where he hands them big cans and the vibe is very much like, I got this beer for you.

[Craig]

I know.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Craig]

I thought it was supposed to be that it was a pizza night and. No, they were out in his camper.

[Andrew]

No, he made, he made pancakes in his car for that.

[Craig]

Uh huh. Is that the scene?

[Andrew]

Marianne is like, I'm gonna go.

[Craig]

There's amazing line delivery from cook in that scene where she says something like, I'm gonna go. And it's very well done, very funny. But no, this man is very sad. And Christy doesn't know what to do. So she listens to him when he says, don't tell anyone I'm here.

[Andrew]

She's appropriately skeptical of him in the beginning.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

And then he like shows up and does fun dad shtick enough that she put. He. She lets her guard down and it's like, what if, what if it's gonna happen this time?

[Craig]

Yep, yep. And so. And so she allows herself to be convinced that keeping quiet will, like, help it happen somehow. Doesn't make any sense, but.

[Andrew]

Well, because she believes. She believes him when he's like, oh, just a little longer, Just a little longer, like, everything will fall into place. I just. I just. I don't want to. I don't want to go to your mom before I have all my ducks in a row, because I don't. I don't want. I want her to see how serious I am about making all this stuff work. But it's just so. The whole thing is just so sad because he lives in his car and he won't stop talking about stuff that she really loved doing when she was, like, five or six years old.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Andrew]

And especially as a parent, like, I can't imagine just, like, leaving Henry's life and then coming back in, like, five or six years and being like, hey, do you remember when you wanted to talk about your groin all the time, but you pronounced it like goin? And you liked doing really big, exaggerated pratfalls all the time? And you would say, ow, my goin. And then when you would ask. When I would ask you what part of your body the goin was, you would say, the whole thing of your body is the going. I've told you many times,

[Craig]

because that's the age. Do you remember.

[Andrew]

Do you remember when you did that? Yeah, like, do you remember when you did that? And Henry would be like, sure, dad.

[Craig]

Because he's been.

[Andrew]

How's that? How's your job at the paper working out, dad?

[Craig]

Hasn't it been like, half a dozen years or something?

[Andrew]

Yeah, he's been. Yeah, because she's, like, supposed to be, what, like 12 or 13?

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

And he talks about stuff that they did when she was a little kid, and she, like, remembers it, but all. She also was a little kid, and that's not who she is anymore. So, yeah, like, her dad being around is a. Is a living memory for her. But he's also clearly been out for so long that she is at the beginning of the movie. She's used to him not being there

[Craig]

whenever I think about their scenes together. And there's not a single scene where she is even talking about the babysitter's club to him. Really bums me out like that. Yeah, that's the big thing that bums me out. Is that your big idea? That's her whole idea. She has half a dozen close friends that, like, she does this whole thing with, and he's just like, whatever, let's pretend to play baseball. Let me, like, walk you into this random minor league baseball stadium where I seem to know everyone because I'm gonna like.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Craig]

Be a journalist. A sports journalist. Yeah.

[Andrew]

Let me, let me buy you a dress. You're a girl and this is something I think you like. And then Christy, like, wears the dress because she wants.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Andrew]

Her dad to. She wants to bond with her dad. But then she knows if anybody who I know in my real life sees me in this dress, they're going to immediately know that something is up and ask me about it. So it's like even more hiding and secret having.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Andrew]

It's very isolating.

[Craig]

Yep. Well, and then everybody starts thinking that she like, has a boyfriend or something that she won't talk about because she's always like, she's on the phone with him a bunch.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Craig]

I really hate this.

[Andrew]

Can you imagine being on your giant 90s cordless phone in your house in front of your parents, like, crying on the phone and talking to somebody and then you hang up and they're like, who's that? And you're like, oh, nobody. Like, and they have no follow up questions like, what are you doing? Christy's parents.

[Craig]

Yeah, that's true. Her mom. Like, her mom spends all of her

[Andrew]

time, like, positioning jars of Jif peanut butter so that the label faces the camera. Like, that's the only thing that she does.

[Craig]

There was definitely some Jif product placement in here. It's not pronounced Gif, it's Jif. There was a painting by Claudia of a jar of peanut butter. Pretty good. But no, he's just, he just stinks and he, you know, makes a big deal. So, like, the girls are also planning a birthday party for Christy. This is the thing that feels very. Makes the movie feel extra vignette, Andrew. Is that like, it's not building to. And then at the end of camp, there will be a big show. Like, it's.

[Andrew]

Yeah, right.

[Craig]

It's like stuff is just happening and. Oh yeah, over here we're talking about how it's going to be Christy's birthday soon. And over here she's hanging out with her dad. And like, the things collide, but not in a way that, like, it feels the script is specifically setting them up to collide.

[Andrew]

Yeah. There's another version of this movie with more adults in it where they have to do something where they have to have to put on a big show to save the gazebo or something. Yeah. That's just not what happened.

[Craig]

No. And that, and that would feel even more like the books, but it, you know, yeah.

[Andrew]

Just thinking about that carnival. The whole town carnival.

[Craig]

So silly to get.

[Andrew]

To get money for the art at

[Craig]

school that that man paid for the bumper cars.

[Andrew]

All these people who show up with bumper cars, you know, they have voted no on every, like, 1% tax levy that every school district has ever tried to pass.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

And then they're like, well, let me hire. Let me hire some bumper cars for the carnival.

[Craig]

No one to raise money for the arts, Andrew. No one thanks you for paying your taxes. They thank you when you rent the bumper cars. That's. That's how these people work.

[Andrew]

Effective altruism.

[Craig]

They want recognition. Anyway, we should just thank people for paying their taxes. New. New plan. That's what we should.

[Andrew]

We should make it a contest. Like, you pay. Oh, you paid the most taxes. Oh, good job. You get a little. You get, like, a little sticker and a personal pan pizza.

[Craig]

Ooh.

[Andrew]

I think we can fix this. I think we could fix the.

[Craig]

Andrew's big idea.

[Andrew]

Andrew's big idea.

[Craig]

But no, Christy, because what have you got?

[Andrew]

Like, cool. What have you got? Like, cool rewards. Points for paying your tax.

[Craig]

I think, unfortunately, it's. It's rigged up the exact opposite way right now, is that you get cool rewards for not paying them. If you do.

[Andrew]

If you do it in the form of, like, money and influence and stuff.

[Craig]

Yeah. No. So Christie's dad's gonna take her to the carnival on the same day that her friends are gonna throw her a birthday party. She bails on them. It stinks. All the stuff where they're all upset at each other, like, hurts. And it's like, that stuff is all well done because it's clear that they do all care about each other as performers and people. And there's, like, this big, dramatic rainstorm. She's, like, at the carnival by herself, like, looking for her dad, which is also very sad.

[Andrew]

Just approaching every bearded guy in a flannel shirt.

[Craig]

It's no good.

[Andrew]

And then she gets, like, me trying to find Craig in a park on a day when the Phillies play.

[Craig]

She gets. She gets locked in during the rainstorm. Then she has to, like, go home in the rain, and her friends have to find her, and they have a very hard time.

[Andrew]

When it starts raining at the carnival, you have five minutes to get out or you are forever. Yeah.

[Craig]

And then her friends find her, and it's very, like, you know, they have a very heartfelt reunion. She explains what's been going on, or I guess Marianne had already told them what was going on because of how serious things were because everybody was like,

[Andrew]

marianne, you have to tell us because

[Craig]

she could have been kidnapped. Yeah.

[Andrew]

Things are gonna go bad.

[Craig]

And then she has like a, you know, a one on one with her mom where her mom's like, yeah, your. Your dad sucks. Like, he just.

[Andrew]

She doesn't.

[Craig]

That's not even what she does.

[Andrew]

She does. She's like, oh, your dad. Your dad means so well. And like, And I, I can. My parents are not divorced and I am not divorced. I do, I do think modeling a version of divorce where your parents don't talk bad about each other in front of the kid. Like, that's.

[Craig]

That was what my mom did.

[Andrew]

That's. That's great and good for. For people who are big enough to do that. But Chrissy, Zed so clearly has not earned.

[Craig]

Nope.

[Andrew]

The, this benefit of the, of the doubt that he's being extended here.

[Craig]

Anything. You can, I guess, imagine that he's been so absent that, like, there aren't a lot of, like, immediate heartbreaks and failure. And that's certainly where I got to, like, with my dad personally, where it's like he was just gone for long enough that it, like, didn't really matter. Like, that's not the case for everybody in my family who are older than me, you know, and that I, I imagine if you had other. We don't get any of Christie, like, Christie's older brothers don't exist. So, like, that can't that complicate things either?

[Andrew]

Next time you, if you ever act weird around me, okay. For any reason.

[Craig]

Okay. You're just gonna.

[Andrew]

The first thing I'm gonna think is, like, man, I'm gonna look for vans parked on the street because I guess his dad is back and he doesn't want to tell me about it.

[Craig]

Craig's on the phone crying and then not telling me who he's talking to.

[Andrew]

He stopped showing up for podcast recordings and he just.

[Craig]

He went to a rainy carnival instead of coming to my house to hang out. Weird.

[Andrew]

Yeah, your breath smells. Your breath smells like car pancakes.

[Craig]

So gross. But no, I, I, you know, we were talking about Skyler Fisk earlier. Like, she does a great job with all this stuff. Like, it's very.

[Andrew]

She's.

[Craig]

She does.

[Andrew]

She does very well.

[Craig]

Very affecting.

[Andrew]

Every once in a while, a Nepo baby. Really, really, really does a good job.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

And they what in something which I like Jack Quaid a lot. Okay, who is on Amazon? The Amazon original. The Boys.

[Craig]

Oh, sure.

[Andrew]

And the Star Trek animated show Lower Decks.

[Craig]

Okay.

[Andrew]

He's Meg Ryan and the Good. Quaid's kid. Right.

[Craig]

Who's. Who's my favorite Nepo baby?

[Andrew]

Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid. The virtuous Quaid. Not Randy.

[Craig]

I'm wondering who my favorite Nepo baby is.

[Andrew]

I don't know that I think about it, I guess. Yeah, everybody's got to have a favorite. Everybody's got one Nepo baby where it's like, basically the. Like, it works out at roughly the same rate as it does in the general population. You'll get a good one sometime.

[Craig]

I mean, Jamie Lee Curtis is a pretty good Nepo baby.

[Andrew]

Sure.

[Craig]

That'll do for now.

[Andrew]

Because I think of her as being kind of grandfathered in because she's been around for so long.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

That's not fair. Yeah.

[Craig]

No. So what, like, a little.

[Andrew]

Think of, like, Eliza Minnelli or something? Like, she is a Nepo baby, but you don't really think of.

[Craig]

You don't know her as one because

[Andrew]

she's been older than me for the whole time that I've been alive.

[Craig]

Yeah, that's true. So then, yeah, the movie ends with them kind of reunited and understanding Christy better. And Marianne has revealed to dawn, like, why she was keeping her secret, which makes them better sisters. Dawn has a boyfriend now. Stacy's gonna kiss that boy again when he comes back from Europe. Claudia is not gonna get held back, even though they're all gonna get held back in eighth grade again by time by.

[Andrew]

Yeah, but we don't. We don't never get the sequel, so we never have to talk about it.

[Craig]

And they, you know, they give the greenhouse away, and it's very charming. Andrew, to wrap up, do you want to talk about the music in the film? As you just alluded to it, how you thought that there was going to be music. We knew in the movie, I would have.

[Andrew]

You could have put a gun to my head, and I would have been like, the. The song Dreams by the Cranberries is in this film.

[Craig]

Oh, yeah.

[Andrew]

I have such clear memories of it playing over, like, the end credits of the film. And it turns out that it was associated with the film, but it was only in trailers for the film.

[Craig]

Not even on the soundtrack. Like, not even on, like, a mute. Like a. I don't think they'd even done the, like, music inspired by or, like, music to watch the movie to.

[Andrew]

And all the, like, all the actual songs in the movie are just kind of the blandest 90s nothing. I think that, like, the movie part of what made it feel TV movie to me is just, like, it lack of Prominent needle drops.

[Craig]

Yep, you're right. You're totally right. Because you think about something, like, even a few years later, you know, 10 things I hate about you, four years later, it's a teen comedy and it has a bunch of needle drops in it. You know that. That is one of the things that comes to mind is like. And you're right, like, Clueless has a bunch of them too. Not that this is like a teen rom com, but it does. You're right. It's. It kind of lowers the ceiling of the. Of the splashy vibe a little bit,

[Andrew]

but just like looking. Even looking at this soundtrack, like, the only thing on it, like, there's like a. There are like, Matthew Sweet and Letters to Cleo, deep cuts. And that's about as close as you get to like.

[Craig]

Yeah. Not even their artists, not even their real songs that, you know, not even that.

[Andrew]

Not even their hits. These are already, like, you know, between two and five bands removed from, like, the absolute top of the chart.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Andrew]

And you can't even. You can't even get their. Their big ones, you know, but it's still.

[Craig]

It still felt 90sy. It just didn't feel.

[Andrew]

It felt 90s, but just in like a. I don't know, the way looking at a jazz cup feels like the 90s.

[Craig]

Sure. Yeah. I know it wasn't like.

[Andrew]

It wasn't like impressively 90s, just kind of ambiently 90s.

[Craig]

No, it didn't like. It didn't trigger any other sense memories in like, oh, I heard this song here. Oh, you're playing brass monkey. I can picture the roller rink, you know, that sort of thing, that funky monkey. So, yeah, that's the movie. I had a good time. I think it's fun. People should watch it if they're curious, if they haven't.

[Andrew]

Yeah, we had fun. We watched it for free on some Roku channel and only had to sit through like, a couple runs of like, ads for AMC shows I've never seen,

[Craig]

or very bizarre ads, but that's fine. Andrew, what do you think about the Babysitters Club as a property now that we've, you know, kind of immersed ourselves in it for three quarters of a year?

[Andrew]

I like these books a lot.

[Craig]

I do like these books a lot.

[Andrew]

I think. I. And I, you know, I think the. The earlier ones have more, like, specific stuff that I like than the. The one like late series one we read. Not that the late series one was bad, but just like, at that point they're kind of writing to it formula. And it's not doing things with as much like care or specificity I think as they were maybe in the early.

[Craig]

Yeah. The first ones felt like really specific and I. And I don't know how much that like, where does that start to fall off? Is it just because they're going through the. The batting order of the girls like four times or is it the ghost riders taking over? A little bit of both. You know, it's clear that the books were good enough to be popular past the first like ten of them. Right.

[Andrew]

Yeah. And then, you know, I think we encountered this kind of thing with Goose. Goosebumps too. Even though Joe, he definitely wrote all

[Craig]

of them and you know.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Jovi. Jovial Bob will go to his grave.

[Craig]

His grave?

[Andrew]

Yeah, his extremely spooky grave where his name will be written on it in the Goosebumps font. Swearing that he never used ghost writers. Even though ghosts are the spookiest kind of writers.

[Craig]

Yeah, you're right.

[Andrew]

That you could have, honestly. But like even by the time you get to the late series Goosebumps books, it's like this is like tonally kind of weird, but I'm still enjoying myself.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

And that was the vibe I got with Baby Sisters Club two. But yeah, it's, you know, these are, these are girl books and we're boys and so at a. When we were the like right age for these, I never ever would have been pushed. Nope. In the direction of reading them. Nope ever.

[Craig]

Yep. It's close minded.

[Andrew]

And now reading them, reading them as a doll, I'm like, yeah, these are, these, these are good.

[Craig]

I think I also, you know, reading them for the show, reading them as someone who's worked in education a bit. Reading it as a parent now, like, I definitely appreciate things that Anna Martin was doing in the books that I probably wouldn't have. Right. As a, as a kid reading them too. Just in, in terms of like her approach to her and just like I'm going to think about representation. I'm going to think about but like also tie them into plots and like have it.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Craig]

Be about girls learning about themselves and learning about different people in their community.

[Andrew]

And also just to, just to be able to do that in a cultural atmosphere where there's not like a million freaks on TikTok being like, oh, woke M. Martin is back again with another, with another babysitter.

[Craig]

You did say the 90s were the best decade earlier and maybe you are. Maybe you're right. I don't know if you're totally right.

[Andrew]

The 90s just fall for us personally, that falls at that point where everybody thinks everything is the best, which is like when you were a kid and you didn't know how to worry about it.

[Craig]

Yeah, it's true. But, you know, these are books that, like, I would be excited to have my kid or a kid who I knew read like that. That was my big takeaway because it would be, like, interested to talk about the stories with them. The characters are interesting and have different, like, interesting relationships with one another. And at least in this first run of books that we read, like, Martin is, you know, interested in them learning a little bit about the world as they, as she writes them. They're not just kind of kooky stories. So not, not to, you know, our friend Jovial Bob writes some wonderfully kooky stories, but he's not like, teaching me how to be, you know, more tolerant of other people necessarily or anything.

[Andrew]

He's kind of teaching you to be less tolerant of other people and be

[Craig]

a little more, like, nervous. Yeah. What's in his basement? You know?

[Andrew]

Yeah. Like, this guy is part plant. This guy's like a time traveling wizard who lied to you about your whole personality.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

It's just like breeding an atmosphere of distrust.

[Craig]

Not a fan.

[Andrew]

Like, this guy's gonna sell you monster blood, then you're gonna go back to get more advice and the shop's not gonna be there anymore. Like, what kind of a message is that to send to kids? You're operating without a safety net. Kids. This is the real world.

[Craig]

Well, yeah, R.L. stein's preparing.

[Andrew]

Don't let your dog eat the monster blood.

[Craig]

Yeah. Both A and m, Martin and R.L. stein, are preparing us for the real world. They're just doing it in different, different ways.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Craig]

Also, the real world's on TV while these books are coming out. We're all getting prepared for the real world, you know?

[Andrew]

Yeah. We're all getting real.

[Craig]

Yeah. Thanks for reading these whole books with me, Andrew. This is fun.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Thanks for, thanks for reading these books with me. Thanks for watching the Babysitters Club film.

[Craig]

Hey, man. Hey, anytime. That's it, everybody. We'll. We'll have another long read for you soon. By the time you're listening to us, you've probably heard that we are diving into Tolkien's silmarillion in a series we're calling the Silly Marillion.

[Andrew]

Boy, I hope we didn't make it silly.

[Craig]

It's almost.

[Andrew]

Boy, I hope we're not writing checks that we can't cash on the silliness of the thing.

[Craig]

Yeah. Basically forcing us to find a way to make it silly.

[Andrew]

We're gonna read J.R.R. tolkien's dwarf Bible. I hope that everybody thinks that it's very funny and silly.

[Craig]

It'll be fun.

[Andrew]

It'll be good.

[Craig]

Just like this was fun.

[Andrew]

I'm looking forward to revisiting it with, with you, with somebody with a. With somebody with fresh eyes.

[Craig]

I have no idea what's in there.

[Andrew]

You've got no particular reason to like, if you weren't doing it for this podcast for money, it would never. You would not be. Like, my relationship with this author and this fictional universe is so strong that I'm gonna grip my teeth and get through this book.

[Craig]

No, I would prefer to like, like carve out time to watch the movies again. And maybe I will do that as well in advance of this read. I don't know. But I, I would probably not make it part of my life to read that book. And so I'm excited to see what's in there.

[Andrew]

Yeah. And there is, there is some fun stuff in there. There's just also like a lot of. I don't know, I don't even know whether to call it filler. It's just like it is, it is very, very high and dry. This, this book.

[Craig]

I like reading Wikipedia. It's the Wikipedia. Anybody can edit this one. A couple people edited the Silmarillion. I understand.

[Andrew]

So the, the encyclopedia that J.R.R. tolkien's son and some 23 year old assistant of his can edit.

[Craig]

All right, everybody, if you have thoughts on the Babysitters club, you can send them to us over to pot gmail.com hit us up on social media at Overdue Pod. Thanks, Nick Laurengis who composed our theme music? Andrew. Folks want to know more about the show? Where do they go?

[Andrew]

Overdue Podcast.com is the Internet website. If you're listening to this in June of 2025, even though it's technically our episode for May.

[Craig]

Sorry.

[Andrew]

Whoops. You already know about the Patreon project. Patreon.com overdue pod but if you were listening to this on the main feed some months from now, you can get these episodes and others like them early.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Andrew]

By [e-mail] overduepod and you help buy us books and support the show and help make it so that we can keep doing it.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Andrew]

You also get access to our Discord community and to our newsletter and to streams and some other stuff.

[Craig]

So join the conversation. As they used to join the.

[Andrew]

Join the Conversation. The brain, the brain, the center of the chain.

[Craig]

Andrew. So what do we say at the end of every episode of Sit Me Baby? One more time?

[Andrew]

The brain, the brain, the center of the shape.

[Craig]

We're the babysitter's club. And we'll always be rapping.

[Andrew]

That's true. We will always be rapping. That was a Headgum podcast.