These Easter Eggs In Netflix's 'The Baby-Sitters Club' Are Major Throwbacks
The Baby-Sitter's Club was something of a no-brainer for Netflix to develop into a series. After all, its biggest hit is Stranger Things, a story of four kids in a 1980s small town. Even though the revamped BSC series updates the setting to modern-day, Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, and Stacey perfectly fit that mold, and the show even references back to retro times whenever possible. Here are some of the best easter eggs in Netflix's The Baby-Sitters Club that will make you feel so nostalgic.
Warning: Spoilers for Netflix's The Baby-Sitters Club follow. The biggest callback in the new series, naturally are the episode titles. Out of 10 episodes, eight are named directly from the first books in the series by Ann M. Martin. They're some of the most famous of the stories as well: "Kristy's Great Idea," "Claudia and the Phantom Caller," The Truth about Stacey," "Mary Anne Saves The Day," "Dawn and the Impossible Three," "Claudia and Mean Janine," "Boy-Crazy Stacey," and "Kristy's Big Day." In a way, this opening season functions as a greatest-hits package for fans of the book series, as well as the older screen adaptations that came before Netflix's version.
But those aren't the only easter eggs. Here are a few others.
01The BSC Has The Exact Phone From The Books
I'm not sure it's explainable how *cool* this phone was in 1986 when Kristy's Great Idea came out. The idea of the see-through telephone with all the parts colorfully visible was something out of science fiction made in real life and matched the neon fad of the era. When this phone shows up onscreen, it's proof the adaptation understands what readers found important when the books first came out.
02The Street Signs Are Lifted Directly From The Novels
The new series named each episode after novels, but it also made sure to rebuild the location as well. The details of Stoneybrook's layout stick faithfully to the book's neighborhood mapping. The area Watson Brewer lives in, for instance, is across town from Kristy's house because the family's moving in with him needs to come with a real culture shock. Even the street signs are book-accurate.
03Claudia Still Dresses (& Spells) Creatively
Claudia has been one of the book's most famous characters since the start of The Baby-Sitter's Club. During a time when Japanese American characters were hard to come by, especially in kids' books, Claudia was a beacon of representation when the book series came out.
For the show, writers stayed true to the Claudia from the books: Her artistic talents bursting out all over are spot on, the outfits are on point (especially since everything mid-1980s is pretty fashionable again), and (my personal favorite) her "creative" spelling, a hallmark of the series, has remained.
04The Candy Details & Stacey
Stacey's diabetes story is one of the original books' most memorable stories, and the show does a great job of building up to it. It also gives the series an excuse to brings in Claudia's love or candy and all her hilarious hiding places for stashing it.
05The Flashlight Code
This was a surprise easter egg from the books, since cell phone technology pretty much eradicates the need for morse code by flashlight. But the show got creative in finding ways to keep these older methods of communication in, like Mary Anne's lack of technology bringing the flashlight back into the fold.
06Bonus: Kristy's Mom is Not So 'Clueless' After All
Though The Baby-Sitter's Club is a story about the babysitters themselves, the parents are pretty fantastic too. Casting Marc Evan Jackson, better known as Shawn from The Good Place, as Mary Anne's father, for instance, is a stroke of genius. But none is more perfect than Alicia Silverstone (best known as Cher from the 1995 classic Clueless) as Kristy's mom. Of course, Kristy tells fans by the end of the opening episode that her mom is not so Clueless.
