New Version of ‘The Baby-Sitters Club’ Coming to Netflix, Will “Reflect Modern-Day Issues”

February 28, 2019

Baby-Sitters Club Netflix

Say hello to your friends: Netflix has just placed a ten-episode order for The Baby-Sitters Club, a contemporary adaptation of Ann M. Martin‘s beloved book series about a group of young teen girls who team up to form their own babysitting business. New iterations of characters like Kristy Thomas, Mary Anne Spier, Claudia Kishi, Stacey McGill, and Dawn Schafer are all coming back for stories that will “reflect modern-day issues.”

The Baby-Sitters Club was a huge deal for kids who grew up in the 1990s, who absorbed it either through reading the books (there are over 200 in the series, which have sold more than 180 million copies thus far) watching the 1995 movie, or checking out the first live-action TV series adaptation. That HBO show premiered in 1990 and only lasted 13 episodes, but aired in syndication through the mid-90s on Nickelodeon and The Disney Channel.

Now Netflix is interested in bringing the property to a whole new audience in a dramedy that follows the “friendship and babysitting adventures of five best friends” who live in the fictional town of Stoneybrook, Connecticut. And lest you think this is going to be a dark, sexy riff on the original formula in the vein of something like what Riverdale did with Archie comics, the press release specifies that this is going to be a family-friendly adaptation of The Baby-Sitters Club.

Rachel Shukert (GLOW) will serve as showrunner and Lucia Aniello (Broad City) will serve as director and executive producer for the Walden Media-produced series, and Michael De Luca is on board to executive produce. De Luca has produced movies like The Social Network, Captain Phillips, Moneyball, the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, and multiple Academy Award broadcasts, just to name a few.

“I’m amazed that there are so many passionate fans of The Baby-Sitters Club after all these years, and I’m honored to continue to hear from readers – now grown, who have become writers, editors, teachers, librarians, filmmakers – who say that they see a reflection of themselves in the characters of Kristy and her friends,” said original author Ann M. Martin. “So I’m very excited about the forthcoming series on Netflix, which I hope will inspire a new generation of readers and leaders everywhere.”

“The themes of The Baby-Sitters Club still resonate 30 years after the original book series was released and there has never been a more opportune time to tell an aspirational story about empowering young female entrepreneurs,” said Melissa Cobb, vice president of Kids & Family at Netflix. “Together with Ann M. Martin and the team at Walden Media, our ambition is to contemporize the storylines and adventures of this iconic group of girlfriends to reflect modern-day issues.”

The biggest question now is: will the new show’s theme song be as catchy as the original?