‘BABY-SITTERS’ ENTER DIGITAL AGE
Show carries same heart from beloved book series
SThirty-five years ago, a fictional phone number was introduced in a book series that connected desperate parents to a group of five middle school baby-sitters.
A new Netflix series premiering Friday adapts “The Baby-Sitters Club” novels for 2020 and this time, its seventh-grader heroines are more grown-up.
“Having cell phones and internet access, we’ve been pushed into the real world a little bit earlier than some people may have been growing up in the ’80s or even the early 2000s,” 14-year-old Shay Rudolph, who plays boy-crazy Stacey, told the Daily News. “You can get exposed to so much more amazing information about activism and you can form your own beliefs and interests a lot faster and easier.”
Being bombarded with so much information on social media at such a young age has its pluses and minuses.
“It’s really draining sometimes,” Rudolph admits. “You’re constantly hit by information and it feels like you just can’t turn it off.”
The core values of the beloved franchise that launched in 1986 are still there though. And so is the see-through landline phone that moms and dads use to call 555-3231 three times a week, purchased on Etsy by Claudia, the creative one, because it’s “iconic.”
Across dozens of “The Baby-Sitters Club” novels, 36 of which were written by creator Ann M. Martin, a 13-episode series on HBO in 1990 and a box-office film flop in 1995, the franchise represented joy, friendship and childhood angst. As the club grew, so too did the girls’ adventures, misadventures and friendships. Rounding out the group is Kristy, the tomboy and team leader, Mary-Anne, the bookish one, and Dawn the California hippie.
The five baby-sitters have kept most of their traits from the original series, so they’re easy to keep track of and are relatable to almost everyone. Kristy still has her baseball hat and Stacey has diabetes. But Dawn (Xochitl Gomez) is now a Latina with long dark hair and a gay father, rather than a blue-eyed blond.
“We have to develop a thick skin,” 13-year-old Gomez told The News. “A lot of people were mad that I was a Latina!” She cried, she said, but never fought back online.
Momona Tamada, who plays Claudia, said she deals with internet trolls by posting something and turning off her phone, but that doesn’t always help.
It’s hard not to look at the new cast, all either 13 or 14, and think they know more than you did at that age.
In a video chat with The News, the five girls flitted between talking about Instagram, FOMO — fear of missing out — and racism. Sophia Grace, the 14-year-old actress who plays Kristy, and 13-yearold Malia Baker, who plays Mary-Anne, call themselves feminists. Rudolph identifies as an eco-activist.
“The Baby-Sitters Club” represents changing norms, too. Beyond dealing with obstacles like new stepparents and pop quizzes, the girls tackle LGBTQ rights and a labor strike at summer camp, which includes a conversation about crossing a picket line.
“If you see it on screen, you tend to believe that it could