Series / My Babysitter's a Vampire

My Babysitter's a Vampire is a 2010 TV movie and then later a 2011 TV series developed for Canadian television that was later brought to the Disney Channel. It's made by Fresh TV, the same people behind 6teen, Total Drama and Stōked. It is notable for being one of the very few live-action works originally commissioned for the Canadian cable animation network Teletoon (others being Mudpit, Majority Rules, Beyond Human, Just Kidding, and Splat!).

The series follows the adventures of a geeky fourteen-year old boy named Ethan Morgan (Matthew Knight), his best friend Benny (Atticus Dean Mitchell), and his vampire Babysitter/Best Friend/Love Interest Sarah Fox (Vanessa Morgan).

The show has similarities to Nick's The Troop and the '90s Fox Family show Big Wolf on Campus (incidentally also a Canadian show), but My Babysitter's a Vampire is Darker and Edgier in terms of content matter and what is shown.

Despite very high ratings, Teletoon has decided not to renew the show for a third season. However, Fresh TV later announced it was exploring the possibility of making a second movie that would continue where the story left off at the end of Season 2. This didn't happen though.

Not to be confused with My Babysitter Is a Vampire, the 1991 book series created by Ann Hodgman, which this is not an adaptation of.

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Tropes:

• Action Survivor: Aside from his psychic powers, Ethan is an average teenager with no special abilities or skills. However, he's able to take down monsters and work his way out of tough situations using his natural resourcefulness.
• Afraid of Needles: Ethan, and verging into Rule of Funny with it. This becomes a major plot point in "Blood Drive", where he has trouble giving blood because of this phobia. Later a pair of vampires who took Erica and Rory hostage agree to release the two in exchange for a pint of Ethan's blood. Ethan goes through with it, but only if Sarah takes the blood as he's the only one he trusts to take his blood.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: combined with Gaia's Vengeance in "Die Pod". After the oldest tree in Whitechapel is cut down, the tree takes its revenge by growing weeds inside the school's computer system. The weeds then start attacking people who use computer devices.
• All Guys Want Cheerleaders: Ethan and Benny are more than happy that Sarah's the only one who can wear a cheerleader's uniform. The happiness fades, though, when the guys have to go along and "Suit up!" just like Sarah — when Rory shows up, and likes what he sees...
• All Part of the Show: In "Mirror/rorriM", everyone thinks that the group's actions to capture the episode's antagonist are all part of a creative reimagining of the school play.
• Almost Kiss: Between Ethan and Sarah in "Halloweird", though they would have been Kissing Under the Influence.
• Anti-Villain:
  • While Erica is perfectly willing to indulge her vampiric desires, she does show some standards and is willing to help fight evil on occasion. The show also frames her as sympathetic for being bullied for years before her transformation.
  • Rory does often engage in evil deeds, but this is usually because he's not very intelligent and easy to manipulate. There are many times when he doesn't seem to realize what he's doing.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • "All the awful things people said I did today- all the swearing, cutting off Kelly's hair, putting glue in Mrs. Murray's shoes-"
  • "Most troublemakers clog toilets. You two rewire PAs, break office windows, talk about space demons..."
• Ascended Fangirl: Erica, a vampire fan who becomes a vampire herself.
• Badass Boast: Ethan's promise to Kurt in "Friday Night Frights": "Prepare to get Ethan-ized!"
• Bad Date: Ethan and Sarah's because of the Stern drama, and Erica sabotaging the date by sending them to a Vampire restaurant.
• Big Bad
  • Jesse, in the movie, and season one, where he doubles as a Final Boss.
  • Season two has Stern, the new Vice Principal of Whitechapel High School.
• The Blind Leading the Blind: Benny trying to give Ethan advise on how to ask Sarah out. It's pointed out by both, and played with by Benny, who mentions that he's got access to info because his dad's getting back into the dating scene.
• Boomerang Bigot: Erica despises and poorly treats people with a lower social status despite formerly being someone who was bullied before her transformation into a vampire.
• Brain Bleach: Sarah's reaction to Benny and Ethan dressed as cheerleaders.
  Ethan: I just had a terrible vision.
  Sarah: Ditto! I'm gonna have to wash my eyes out with soap!
• British Brevity: The first two seasons only have 13 episodes each.
• Caretaking is Feminine: In the Pilot Movie, Ethan's parents hire a girl who is the same age as he is to be his (and his little sister's) babysitter since he is considered too irresponsible to be left alone, much to Ethan's humiliation. When Erica ditches the babysitting gig to attend a party, Ethan's crush Sarah takes her friend's place (in part to get away from her jerky vampire ex-boyfriend), and Ethan's parents barely question it, despite how disheveled she looks.
• Car Fu: Inverted in "Fanged and Furious", when the gang tricks the Vampire Car into a trap, flip it over, and then stake it like any normal vampire.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: It's not uncommon to hear the gang make conversation with each other while fighting off enemies. Subjects have included things like Star Wars, pizza, and once with a Mook, which season of Battlestar Galactica was the best.
• Cat Fight: Two good ones in "Smells Like Trouble", when the two girls from the martial-arts fight to see who gets to kill Benny — and then, the still entranced Erica and Sarah show up to beat them down before they move on to the boys...
• Child Mage
  • Benny — and although his antics may border on Inept Mage territory, he's actually quite competent but for the fact that his thoughts are somewhere else.
  • In both The Movie and "Guys and Dolls", Jane showed that she has an affinity for magic.
• City of Adventure: Whitechapel. Justified by its history, events that have happened there, and the current and former residents.
• Covering for the Noise: In the pilot movie, Sarah is forced to speak with Ethan's mother while the house is being attacked by her vampire ex-boyfriend. Hearing shouting and thumping in the background, his mother asks what's going on, and Sarah frantically insists the boys are playing a video game.
• Crazy-Prepared
  • Benny, who hides water guns filled with holy water in various places around the neighborhood.
  • Both Ethan and Benny, who jury-rig the fire sprinklers at the theater with holy water.
  • Benny has even sent a spell via e-mail to Ethan for Ethan to use on Benny in the event that he's ever Brainwashed and Crazy.
• Cruel Cheerleader: Played with. The head cheerleader is kind of bitchy, but it has more to do with the fact that she's an immortal witch planning to suck the souls of the student body than her being a cheerleader.
• Darker and Edgier: Than most of the shows aired on Disney Channel. It's the only Disney series of that era to be consistently rated TV-PG.
• Dark Is Evil: Vampires are kept alive with dark energy. This trope played straight with most vampires, but subverted with Sarah.
• Deadly Prank: "Mirror/rorriM" reveals that a girl was pranked by her classmates while she was starring in the play Rainbow Factory, and it ended in her untimely death. Her ghost would haunt the school's theater once it started running this particular play again.
• Deal with the Devil: Ethan offering a pint of his blood to the nurse vampires, in exchange for Rory and Erica.
• Declaration of Protection: Sarah's feelings towards Ethan, when danger arises. Subverted in "Friday Night Frights", when she tells him that she can't fight a ghost, and specifically invoked by Sarah in "Welcome Back Dusker".
• Delivery Guy Infiltration: In The Movie, Jesse sends one of his mooks to capture Sarah in Ethan's house disguised pizza delivery guy. Ironically, this trope is very convincing because Benny actually did order a pizza.
• Demonic Possession: Sarah ends up this way in "Three Geeks and a Demon", and possibly the origin of the "Breath of Death" in "Welcome Back Dusker".
• Designated Girl Fight: between Sarah and the vampire nurses, in "Blood Drive", and in "Smells Like Trouble", between the girls who were attracted to Benny/Ethan and Erica/Sarah. Guess who won.
• Deuteragonist: Sarah. In the movie, however, she was the main character while Ethan and Benny acted as the Supporting Protagonists.
• Downer Ending: Due to the unresolved Cliffhanger. Season 2 ends with a massive explosion presumably killing all of the main characters, except Rory and Erica who were hypnotized by another vampire into fleeing the city. The only way this may change is if another season or movie is ever made... which seems unlikely considering how long it's been and how much the actors have aged.
• '80s Hair: Doug Falconhawk is rocking that mullet (even though it's only a wig).
• Either "World Domination", or Something About Bananas: In the season 2 episode "Hottie Ho-Tep", Mr. G is reading some hieroglyphics by a mummy, and says that it translates to a declaration that his spirit will never go to the afterlife without finding his true love... either that or it's cleaning instructions.
• Enemy Mine
  • Ethan and the Vampire Council, as of "The Date to End All Dates, Part 1".
  • And in "Part 2", Ethan, Benny, and Sarah team up with Jesse.
• Even Evil Has Standards: In "Friday Night Frights", Coach Ed specifically states that he isn't willing to get Ethan killed in his quest for a new trophy for the school.
• Everyone Can See It
  • Played straight with most of the cast in relation to Ethan and Sarah and possibly the reason Jesse bit Ethan in the season one finale, in order to force her to become a full vampire.
  • Specifically used by Coach Ed in "Friday Night Frights" to get Ethan to wrestle, as he shows him a Bad Future where Sarah is Happily Married to Kurt "The Hurt" Lochner.
  • Confirmed in "Welcome Back Dusker", when a vampire sent by the Vampire Council specifically points out that they'll go after Sarah's 'vampire-hunter boyfriend' (namely, Ethan) if the vamp-on-vamp attacks continue. Also, one of the seniors in "Flushed" tells Ethan that "his girlfriend is polluting the bathroom" (because Sarah is still feeling the effects of drinking too much blood).
  • In "The Date to End All Dates, Part 1", Jesse seems mildly impressed (and not angry) when he finds out that Ethan is out on his first actual date with Sarah.
• Evil Costume Switch: Erica's clothing choices after she's bitten in the pilot movie. She even lampshades this as a reason for wanting to become a cheerleader and wear the uniform.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: In the pilot movie, Jesse actually sucks an Innocent Bystander's blood dry and collects her soul in a Soul Jar, with most of the act being shown onscreen. Kate (the freshman girl in "Flushed") has a particularly gruesome end in the girl's bathroom.
• Fangirl
  • Erica, over Dusk — and as "Smells Like Trouble" and "Welcome Back Ducker" show, even becoming an Ascended Fangirl hasn't lessened her Squee moments over anything associated with the franchise.
  • In "Three Geeks and a Demon", it's revealed that Sarah is a Justin Bieber fan.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Sarah. And how. She's probably has the strongest moral compass on the show, is often referenced as a wet blanket, and always sticks up for the little guy. Also played with in Rory's case.
• Freudian Excuse: Before being turned, Erica was a nerd who took a lot of crap. Afterwards she decided that this justifies her being a bitch.
• Fur Against Fang: Werewolves and Vampires are ancestral enemies and have an almost instinctual dislike of each other. Erica subverts this by trying to imitate a Twilight expy.
• Gasshole: Vampires who drink too much blood have plentiful farts whose smell has been described as burning tire and skunk.
• Genius Ditz: Rory is a complete buffoon in common sense, but he has his moments of intelligence (such as in "Three Geeks and a Demon" and "Fanged and Furious").
  Rory: Did you try the on switch?
• Genre Savvy: Ethan, Benny, and Rory, especially given that all three are nerds. Benny's grandmother also qualifies, and Sarah is starting to pick up on things.
• Glory Days: Benny's Grandma touches upon this in the movie, when she says that after living in Whitechapel for almost a century, one learns a few things.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: The only way we could tell Evil!Benny from Benny prime was the evil clone's leather jacket. Mostly, it's an aversion though — Sarah and Erica have leather jackets but don't wear them often and they wouldn't fit the boys' nerd image, making this one of the few supernatural-themed teen shows that doesn't drape the whole main cast in black leather.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The usual outcome of many of the boys' misadventures, and the way a surprising number of the bad folks end up in the show. Subverted by Jesse, who's now Back from the Dead — although, although being already undead, counts more as a 10-Minute Retirement.
• If I Wanted You Dead...: A variation from the Pilot Movie:
  Sarah: If I wanted to eat you, I would have. I just want to talk.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: The reason Sarah sucked the venom from Ethan. She chose to become a full vampire so that Ethan could have a normal life.
• Kissing Under the Influence:
  • Erica kisses Benny after he puts a Love Potion on her and Sarah in "Smells Like Trouble".
  • Subverted in "Halloweird" when Ethan and Sarah almost kiss when transformed into Dusk lovers, only to awkwardly back off when the spell is broken.
• Literal Transformative Experience: Before being bitten, Erica was a shy nerd, awkward and unpopular. Her transformation into a vampire not only increased her beauty, but also gave her a personality makeover; she was suddenly a confident, but mean, Alpha Bitch. This contrasts the other new vampires in the film, Rory and Sarah, who pretty much keep their personalities intact after being bitten.
• Logic Bomb: In "Independence Daze", Ethan and Benny use several of these to confuse a cyberdonist long enough for Sarah to simply flip his off switch.
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: After being turned into a vampire, Erica adopts a stereotypical Alpha Bitch persona. However, she's still nice towards Sarah and is willing to help her out on occasion. The show also gives her the Freudian Excuse of being bullied before becoming a vampire and implies her post-transformation personality is her trying to overcompensate for this.
• Love Potion: In "Smells Like Trouble", Benny creates one to make Erica and Sarah fall in love with him and Ethan, but ends up having all the girls in the school be affected as well... before going Ax-Crazy on them moments later.
• Meaningful Name
  • Kurt "The Hurt" Lochner is a championship heavyweight wrestler.
  • Also, "Whitechapel" is the name of a Victorian London district where a certain fellow used to do business...
  • It's probably no coincidence that Benny Weir is just one letter away from being "weird."
• Monster of the Week: Lampshaded in Part One of the Season 2 finale:
  Benny: It took you a full year to get one date. This happens every week.
• Most Definitely Not a Villain: Benny pretending he's a vampire at the party.
• My God, What Have I Done?: The look on Sarah's face in "ReVamped", after sucking the venom from Ethan.
• No Name Given: Benny's grandmother, at least until "Independence Daze", which casually reveals her name to be Evelyn.
• Not a Date: Sarah unconvincingly tries to tell Erica that the date with Ethan isn't really a date. Even though Sarah knows it's a date.
• Not What It Looks Like
  • Subverted in the Pilot Movie:
  Sarah: Whatever you saw, it's not what it looks like!
  Ethan: You're a freakin' vampire, who eats animals and drinks their blood!
  Sarah: Okay, so it is kinda what it looks like.
  • Played straight in "Smells Like Trouble", when Ethan's father listens in on Ethan and Benny's webchat.
• Oh, Crap!: Ethan's reaction when he realized that Doug knows Sarah's a vampire in "Doug the Vampire Hunter".
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Coach Ed (the deceased Whitechapel wrestling coach in "Friday Night Frights") acts as a Spirit Advisor to Ethan, in order to win a sports trophy for the school — and shows him a Bad Future in order to make him comply.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Zombiefication works here in much the way vampirism works in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe: once a person dies, the soul moves on, and a demon enters the revived body.
• Out-of-Character Alert: In the episode "Guys And Dolls", Jane brings her favourite doll, Debbie Dazzle (a parody of Katy Perry), to life with Benny's spellbook. Ethan tries to distract Debbie so Jane can turn her back into a doll by dressing up as Debbie Dazzle's male counterpart, Dazzle Dan (a parody of Barbie and Ken). Unfortunately, he accidentally gives himself away by asking Debbie to take a ride on his speedboat, which Dazzle Dan doesn't have.
• Pants-Pulling Prank: On two separate occasions during the episode "Friday Night Frights," the ghost of Coach Ed casts a spell that causes Ethan's pants to fall down. Both times, the embarrassed Ethan is left standing in his boxer shorts in front of his friends. The first time it happens, he is also seen by his crush Sarah, who mocks the outer space theme of his boxers.
• Picky Eater: Erica. According to Sarah, she once refused to feed from someone simply because she didn't like what they were wearing.
  Erica: People with bad taste taste bad.
• Pilot Movie: A Made-for-TV Movie about how they met Sarah.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "You wanna raise the stakes? Fine, we can do that."
• Seers: Ethan (and it's insinuated in The Movie that that it's a familial trait, so his children might have the same gift). As of the end of Season 2, Ethan's powers have evolved to outright Telepathy by touch.
• Shout-Out
  • Turn one goldfish inside-out, suddenly you're Lord Voldemort.
  • "Die Pod" has one to the Rickroll.
  • "Halloweird" has a guy dress up as Doctor When.
• Socially Awkward Hero: Ethan. Benny and Rory as well, but they're much more out going than shy little Ethan.
• Stealth Mentor: Benny's grandmother qualifies as of "Independence Daze", considering that she sent Benny, Ethan, and Sarah into alternate dimensions to face their individual worst fears, all to teach them a lesson about working together.
• Supernaturally Delicious and Nutritious: Ethan, who has a rare blood type that is especially appealing to vampires, as revealed in "Blood Drive".
• Take That!
  • Dusk is a major satire on The Twilight Saga. It's even a somewhat-major plot point in the TV movie pilot, which also includes an Edward Cullen expy.
  • Also, during Ethan, Benny and Rory's seance:
    Benny: Will the world end near 2012 as the Mayans predicted? No? Dang it.
  • Ethan, when discovering plant material in the school's computer wiring:
    Ethan: It's like it's half-alive, half-plastic! Kinda like Heidi Montag!
  • In "ReVamped", Sarah calls Ethan and Benny "Fearless Vampire Hunters".
  • In "Siren Song", when the gang's wondering how a girl can cause people to riot just from sound of her voice, Ethan jokes that she's really Justin Bieber.
• Ten Minutes in the Closet: Rory and Erica, in the bloodmobile. This leads to a "Shut Up" Kiss session that Erica doesn't seem all too angry about, after they are released.
• Thinks Like a Romance Novel: Erica thinks like a Vampire Werewolf Paranormal Romance novel in "Blue Moon". She becomes attracted to David after finding out he's a werewolf and assumes that their relationship will play out like it did in Dusk, with David's pack trying to keep them apart. Not only does David not have a pack, but it's shown that his condition means he will turn into a dog, instead of a Beast Man like Erica was expecting.
• Title Drop: In the TV movie pilot, by Ethan after he and Benny see recently vamped Sarah sucking the blood of an animal.
• Token Evil Teammate: Subverted by Erica. She's got both the general disregard for the well-being of others and the willingness to use her powers selfishly, but her friendship with Sarah prevents her from going over the edge, as does the fact that Sarah is Genre Savvy enough to keep an eye on Erica whenever she suspects she might be up to something.
• Translate The Loan Words Too: Sort of. When Benny gets transformed into his costume, El Merlo Loco, in the Halloween episode, the subtitles refer to him as "The Crazy Merlo," which is what "El Merlo Loco" means, even though even in English he's referred to as "El Merlo Loco".
• Trademark Favorite Food: Evident by how Benny orders a pizza in the movie.
  Benny: Hi, it's me! Regular Friday night order, thanks. Oh, and I'm next door, so just bring it there.
• Trophy Violence: Played for Laughs when a vampirized pizza-boy is menacing the main cast in the pilot. In an effort to ward him off, the trio ends up stabbing him in the hand with the sharp edge of a debating trophy, much to his confusion.
• Uncool Undies: In "Friday Night Frights", when Coach Ed uses a spell to pants Ethan, Sarah laughs at Ethan for wearing space-themed boxers, mockingly telling him that she would've guessed that he wore Spider-Man underwear.
• Vampire Bites Suck: The one time we see someone bitten onscreen, Ethan ends up writhing on the floor in agony until the venom is sucked out.
• Vampire Procreation Limit: Humans bitten by vampires will typically become vampires themselves, however there are two ways of getting around this; a fledgling vampire that does not drink blood will die in 28 days if they can't find a blood substitute to sustain them, while also not having all their abilities. A human who has the vemon drained from their blood before transformation will be spared from transforming at all.
• Vegetarian Vampire: Sarah is averse to drinking human blood and mentions getting her fill from animals and later a magic potion that acts as a blood substitute. In "Blood Drive" Erica, who otherwise has no compulsions against eating humans, volunteers at a blood drive hoping to steal the blood. It turns out that the nurses who organized the drive are actually vampires who were planning to use the blood for themselves.
• Weirdness Censor: You'd think that Ethan's parents would have noticed and commented on some of the ongoing weirdness. Also, the local news and the school's administration haven't seemed to catch on to the weirdness.
• Wham Episode
  • "ReVamped". Jesse returns from the dead, brainwashes Erica, and bites Ethan to force Sarah to become a true vampire by sucking out the venom.
  • "The Date to End All Dates, Part 1". Ethan and Sarah go out on their first date, Ethan works with both Jesse and the Vampire Council, the Vice Principal is revealed to be the being that attacked the kids in "Independence Daze", and he gets hold of a device that can kill all of the vampires in Whitechapel.
  • "The Date to End All Dates Part 2". Ethan, Benny, and Sarah team up with Jesse to stop Vice Principal Stern, the Vampire Council evacuates the city, Ethan and Sarah may or may not have gotten a Relationship Upgrade, and the Lucifractor explodes, possibly taking the whole city with it, leaving the fates of our heroes (and Jesse) up in the air.
• "What Do They Fear?" Episode: "Independence Daze". In order: Sarah — a version of herself who feeds at will, without restraint or conscience. Benny — A cyborg dentist from one of his favorite movies. Ethan — Losing the people he cares about.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Ethan and Sarah to Erica, at least insofar as she can be considered a hero, in "The Date to End All Dates, Part 1", when it's revealed that she set up their first date at a vampire restaurant where standard procedure is to have any humans present become the main course.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Sarah's view on being a vampire. Half the season is her trying to find a way to regain her humanity through magical means. Other vampires actually taunt her on this, with one vampire specifically mentioning that she'll probably forget about Ethan and Benny after a couple of centuries, and Sarah herself saying that they will move on, get married and live fulfilling lives, while she will be 17 forever.

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