How the Netflix show adapted a 90s hallmark for zoomers (and their parents).
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Lucia Aniello has seen a lot of potential reboots cross her desk.
She almost always passes.
There is only one thing, Aniello responded.
And itsThe Baby-Sitters Club.
They loved it, then started the search for a writer with whom Aniello could partner.
That fall, Kitada suggested Rachel Shukert, aGLOWwriter (andformer Vulture recapper) the producer had worked with.
Soon after, Shukert got an email from Kitada asking if shed readBSCgrowing up.
With a newborn baby at home, she was only half-conscious at work.
I could barely remember my own name, I was so tired, she said.
But I rememberedeverydetail ofTheBaby-Sitters Club.
It all came back.
My entire childhood wasTheBaby-Sitters Club, she said.
This is my lizard brain.
Shukert signed on as showrunner, to Aniellos delight, and the team was locked in by December.
Netflix wouldnt enter the picture for another year and a half, butThe Baby-Sitters Clubfelt like a surefire idea.
Rachel and I immediately seemed to have the exact same point of view on it, Aniello said.
How would this club work now?
Aniello and Shukert quickly agreed that the series shouldnt go in theStranger Thingsdirection, set in a Technicolor-tinged past.
The books werent written as period pieces, Shukert said.
They were written to be immediate.
The logistics of it were the first piece that had to be solved, Shukert said.
How would this club work now?
(Ever wonder why Comcast insists on bundling a landline with marginally less expensive internet?
Turns out they were laying the groundwork for thisBaby-Sitters Clubreboot.)
The Etsy shop I bought it from said its fully operational.
Sure, the girls do also have cell phones, but they dont exactly have unrestricted use of them.
(Mary Annes strict dad condemns her to a flip phone … the cruelty!)
Claudias retro phone suddenly made a lot of sense, even for the zoomer generation.
After clearing that logistical hurdle, Shukert and Aniello were confident that the emotional core ofTheBaby-Sitters Clubwouldnt feel dated.
It felt like a good antidote to a lot of things.
Theres nothing all that 90s about the big-ticket dilemmas.
You still have a lot of the same stuff going on.
You still love and need your friends.
Youre still trying to figure out who you are and what you want to wear and who you like.
Theres also plenty of ripped-from-the-page Easter eggs for book fans to spot.
Kristys collie Louie is really a collie!
Kristy really sits in a directors chair!
The jaguar is the mascot of Stoneybrook Middle School!
None of their lives are perfect, she said.
They have complicated families.
They go through divorce.
Stacey has a chronic illness.
Claudia is struggling in school.
But Mary Anne isnt a wallflower just because.
Theyre really well-rounded characters.
Auditions took place in May 2019; casting was finalized by the end of the month.
Over 2,650 actresses submitted for the five leads and they auditioned more than 1,000 of them.
We saw every teen over 10 and under 16 in North America.
We saw some girls in Australia, some girls in Dubai, Aniello said.
We looked at 11-year-olds, but they were too young.
Their voices havent dropped at all.
And we wanted to find girls that were naturally like the characters already, Aniello added.
We all know which babysitter we are.
For the record: Aniello is Kristy with Stacey rising and Shukert is Claudia with a Kristy rising.
The casting for Claudia called for authentic Japanese-American actresses, but the other parts did not specify ethnicity.
Take Mary Anne Spier.
In the new series, shes a biracial character portrayed by Malia Baker.
Once she convinces her dad to loosen his grip on her self-expression, she blossoms.
It was a really wonderful opportunity for her to express herself.
In the Netflix series, Dawn is played by Xochitl Gomez, a Latinx actress.
Dawn is a California girl coming back to the East Coast, Aniello said.
But it doesnt have to be that way!
We all know her as being this huge star, and she is!
Aniello says of Silverstone.
What if somebody like that plays a single mom with four kids just trying to make it work?
For us, it was a cool notion of subverting who you think would be playing it.
We wanted the parents to feel special in their own way, Shukert said.
These girls are so amazing, the people that raised them have to be interesting.
This also makes it something of an escapist wonderland for those of us living in nonfictional America today.
Kristy and her crew dont, say, follow the president on Twitter.
Breaking news alerts dont interruptBSCmeetings.
And, as Shukert pointed out, Theres no COVID in Stoneybrook.
(Shooting on the season began last August and wrapped in mid-October.)
But Shukert feels like shes sending out this sunbeam of a series into what can feel like all-consuming darkness.
For me, its like, what do I want to put forward in the world?
What are the values I want to impart?
How can we get back to this without hammering it in a dogmatic or rhetorical way?
How are you modeling what you want to see in the world?
How are you being a good citizen, a good caretaker, a good friend?
How are you putting forward the values of honesty, love, loyalty, and tolerance?
