Mary Anne and the Brunettes (TV#1)

Netflix has the BSC television series! I don't consider the shows canon, but why not recap them? The show aired from 1990-1993 and had thirteen episodes. I've only seen two episodes ("Mary Anne and the Brunettes" and "Dawn and the Haunted House"). I had those two on VHS and watched them a lot as a kid. I thought the casting of Kristy was spot-on, and the other girls okay, although Mary Anne was way taller than I pictured her and Dawn's Boston accent confused me. But all the actors seemed to have a great time portraying the girls, and they certainly seemed to be doing their best. However, I could have done without the theme song.

The main cast:
Kristy Thomas: Avriel Hillman (1995 movie: Schuler Fisk)
Claudia Kishi: Jeni F. Winslow (1995 movie: Tricia Joe)
Stacey McGill: Jessica Prunell (1995 movie: Bre Blair)
Mary Anne Spier: Meghan Lahey (1995 movie: Rachel Leigh Cook)
Dawn Schafer: Melissa Chasse (1995 movie: Larisa Oleynik)
Mallory Pike: Meghan Andrews (1995 movie: Stacey Lynn Ramsower)
Jessi Ramsey: Nicolle Rochelle (1995 movie: Zelda Harris)
Logan Bruno: Eric Lawton (1995 movie: Austin O'Brien)
Shannon Kilbourne isn't in the TV show or the movie, and of course both were before Abby Stevenson's time.
Ghostwriter Jeanne Betancourt was also one of the writers for the show, with Ann M. Martin and Mary Pleshette Willis.

These will be pretty short...I'm going through them while I have not only a toddler and an infant needing attention, but also a husband who's recovering from a tonsillectomy. Plus there's work and all that, and each episode is only a half hour. For hilarious in-depth reviews, I recommend these at bsc-snark, especially the ones by 3_foot_6: http://bsc-snark.livejournal.com/tag/tv%20series

What happens:

The first episode revolves around Mary Anne worrying that she'll lose Logan to the Brunettes, a trio of girls (Marci, Patti, and Kathi; why it wasn't Cokie and her crowd I have no idea) the BSC has thus nicknamed because they basically act like Logan's groupies and are coincidentally all dark-haired. One of them bets the leader, Marci, that she can't steal Logan away from Mary Anne for the upcoming costume party. She starts flirting with him and getting his attention. Mary Anne insists that she trusts Logan, but the rest of the BSC is adamant that she needs to have Logan clarify what he's doing spending so much time with Marci. Mary Anne gets stressed out about the situation and snaps at Logan, sparking a brief spat while she's sitting for the Rodowsky boys. Jackie is the one who ends up encouraging Mary Anne to actually talk to Logan about what's going on, and while the BSC is defending Mary Anne's honor against the Brunettes, Mary Anne searches for Logan to sort things out. Logan explains that while he did like the attention, Mary Anne's the only one for him and he was only spending time with Marci because they're partners for a science project. Mary Anne apologizes for not  telling him what was going on, and he's actually pretty understanding and encouraging of her.


Things I noticed:

Kristy tries on a right-handed glove instead of one for a left-handed person, while Logan tries on a left-handed glove. Seconds later, Kristy bats right-handed. (She's supposed to be right-handed, while Logan's dominant hand was never mentioned)

Mary Anne wants pierced ears in this show.

Logan's hair is so nineties! His haircut looks like the style of the guys in my middle school classes. Speaking of nineties, Mary Anne wears culottes.

The girls have HUGE bedrooms.

This episode takes place after Mary Anne and Dawn become stepsisters. Shannon's not mentioned. I wonder if she will be later.

Kristy and Mary Anne do something in the show that has always annoyed me: calling a woman Miss LastName when she's clearly Mrs. (Logan's mom and Mrs. Rodowsky here). They don't sound like they're saying Ms., which would have been fine with me. People in my high school starting doing that randomly during senior year, to teachers they'd been calling Mrs. previously. It made me especially twitchy when they started doing it with our English teacher, who had been widowed years before. It struck me as so lazy and disrespectful, since the teachers in question had introduced themselves to us as Mrs. LastName. Okay, rant over.

Random clients not appearing in the books: Emma, Zoey

Special guest stars: Jonathan Davis as Archie Rodowsky, Mathew Donofree as Jamie Newton, Noah Fleiss as Andrew Brewer, Eric Gaffan as Shea Rodowsky, Jamie Mills as Pattie, Randi Moll as Marci, Danny Tamberilli as Jackie Rodowsky, Grace Francies Vella as Jennie, Jessica Zoel as Kathi,

(Speaking of Avriel Hillman, she's battling avascular necrosis, and raising money for an adult stem cell transplant. Adult stem cells are not associated with the controversy that embryonic stem cells are; bone marrow transplant is a type of adult stem cell transplant. For information or to donate, visit this page: https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/j1v1/cureavnfoundation?utm_source=giveforward&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=update&hid=2623197&cid=1851141 The fundraiser goes until the first week of December 2013.)