Line #19 Series/TheBabySittersClub1990


1	[[quoteright:490:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bsc_tv.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:490:[[ThemeTune Say hello to your friends!]]]]
3	''The Baby-Sitters Club'' is the 1990's [[TheShowOfTheBooks television adaptation]] of ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub'' book series, during the height of early popularity of the series. The series ran for one season of thirteen episodes, which aired on {{Creator/HBO}} from November 1990 until February 1993, it then [[{{Rerun}} reaired]] on the Disney Channel from October 1994 until January 1997. The first handful of episodes were released as direct to video specials, starting in September 1990, before airing on HBO soon after.
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5	The series assumed watchers already knew the foundation of the series and characters, and did not start from the founding of the club.[[note]]However it's seen in the last episode, "The Baby-Sitters Remember", as Kristy's memory.[[/note]] Notably the episodes did not specifically focus on events from the book series, instead creating original plots among the characters.
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7	Compare to the [[Film/TheBabysittersClub 1995 feature film]] and the [[Series/TheBabySittersClub2020 2020 Netflix series]].
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9	!!This series provides examples of:
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11	* AdaptationalJerkass: Dawn. Obviously, she's not the nicest of girls in the series, but here she's portrayed as more stubborn and argumentative.
12	* AllElectionsAreSeriousBusiness: "Kristy and the Great Campaign" has Kristy and the club helping a shy girl named Courtney run for the third grade student council elections. The club ends up helping her overcome her shyness, gets school students chanting "Count on Court" and defeating her opponent Jeremy Marver.
13	* AnimalWrongsGroup: "Dawn Saves the Trees" has Dawn becoming upset by a building contractor who was going to clear out a forest for new construction, and even confronted the group at a hearing. Fair enough, but she also decided to angrily break a date with the contractor's son and actively avoids him in spite of him not being involved whatsoever with the project.
14	* CannotKeepASecret: "Jessi and the Mystery of the Stolen Secrets" had the girls' reputation take a hit because they were seemingly telling intimate/embarrassing secrets about their charges. Turns out, they didn't and no one else [[ExactWords overheard]] these secrets; a friend of the children was the one innocuously repeating the facts, and the boy, who was hearing impaired, learned the secrets by ''reading their lips'' instead.
15	* CoolOldLady: Claudia's [[spoiler:late]] grandmother, who taught the girls how a Japanese tea ceremony goes and was a kindred spirit with her granddaughter.
16	* CoversAlwaysLie: The VHS covers showed artwork covers from the published book series; however, the plot lines rarely aligned. For example, the cover image for the VHS for "Stacey Takes a Stand"--which is about Stacey dealing with conflict between her divorced parents--is the book cover from the super special ''New York, New York!'', which is about the girls taking a vacation to New York City together. The only thing in common with the book is that Stacey is in New York.
17	* DemotedToExtra: Mallory never starred in an episode all her own; Jessi only received one. The sitting clients were also downplayed, with episodes instead more about the girls themselves and their inter- and intra-personal issues as tweens and teens.
18	* EdutainmentShow: The show focused more on imparting moral lessons to children rather than the characters or any book plots.
19	* MaliciousMisnaming: One episode had a rival of Kristy's repeatedly call her "Crystal", in spite of her angrily trying to correct him.
20	* PieInTheFace: "Mary Anne and the Brunettes" has [[BewareTheNiceOnes Mary Anne]] do this to the obnoxious ex-girlfriend of her boyfriend, Logan. Marci harasses her all episode long and this finally came about while at a carnival where she was to (jokingly) pie Kristy in the face for a game; the latter was participating in when Marci bragged she'd never told Mary Anne about what a good kisser Logan was.
21	* PuppyLove: More than one episode revolves around the 12- and 13-year-old protagonists having crushes on boys. Much more than the book series does (where only Mary-Anne has a steady boyfriend for the majority of the series).
22	* TheShowOfTheBooks: The series adapts the children's book series ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub''.
23	* ShoutOut: The Valentines Day episode ends with a [[DancePartyEnding huge dance]] where the background music is an instrumental of [[Music/RickAstley "Never Gonna Give You Up".]]
24	* SlumberParty: The final episode consists of the girls sharing memories at a sleepover.
25	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
26	** In the ChristmasEpisode "The Baby-Sitters Club's Special Christmas" Stacey decides to "cut loose" and indulge in more holiday treats than usual. Problem is, she's an insulin-dependent diabetic and while a ''rare'' treat can be harmless (especially if your sugar count is low), you can't overdo it.[[note]]This is less true nowadays due to the advent of fast-acting insulin, which allows diabetic people to compensate for what they eat in real time rather than having to follow a specific diet, but this technology wasn't widely available in 1990.[[/note]] Needless to say, the poor girl ends up hospitalized on Christmas Day.
27	** Episode 10, "The Baby-Sitters and the Boy-Sitters", has Logan and his friends bond with the girls' charges to the point where the clients come to prefer them to the girls, due to being more fun-loving and not disciplining them like they do. While they obviously got along with the kids, they soon realize how ill-equipped they are to actually sit for them, easily getting overwhelmed when they go to an arcade center for the day.
28	* ThemeTune: "Say Hello to Your Friends" by songwriter Glen Roven. It later became seen as the theme song for the series as a whole and was used in the 2020 series.

Context Series / TheBabySittersClub1990