THE J PAGE - FROM JELLY BRACELETS - TO - JUNK FOOD

JELLY BRACELETS - ( SEE JEWELRY )

JERKS - ( SEE CHARACTERS )

JEWISH - ( SEE RELIGION & BIRTHDAYS )

JOBS - ( SEE WORKING GIRLS )

JOURNAL - ( SEE DIARY )

JUDGEMENTAL - ( SEE CHARACTERS & INDIVIDUAL VS CONFORMITY )

JUNIOR - ( SEE HIGH SCHOOL )

JUVINELLE FICTION -

JEALOUSY - ( SEE CHARACTER TRAITS )

JEWELRY - BROACHES , PINS , EARRINGS , RINGS , NECKLACES , JELLY BRACELETS , BRACELETS , BANGLES ,

JUNK FOOD - ( SEE ALSO FOOD )

THE H PAGE - FROM HAIR - TO - HUMOR

HAND CLAPPING RHYMES -

HAIR - ( SEE ALSO BEAUTY )
- STYLES
- ACCESSORIES

HALTER TOPS - ( SEE FASHION - TOPS )

HAMMOCKS - ( SEE HOUSE AND HOME - BACKYARDS )

HANDSOME - ( SEE BEAUTY & CHARACTERS - LOOKS )

HEALTH - ( SEE ALSO CHARACTERS )

HIGH SCHOOL - SOPHMORE , JUNIOR , JUNIOR , SENIOR

HOBBY - ( SEE ALSO GYMNASTICS & HORSE CRAZY & ART & CRAFT & AMBITIONS ) GYMNASTICS , HORSEBACK RIDING , DRAWING , PAINTING , MUSIC LESSONS , WRITING , POETRY ,

HORSE CRAZY -
HORSES -
HORSE-BACK RIDING LESSONS -

HOSPITAL - ( SEE ALSO BROKEN LIMBS & HEALTH & AMBITION & WORKING GIRLS )

HOT HEADS - ( SEE CHARACTER TRAITS )

HANG OUTS - ( SEE ALSO PLACES )

HOUSE & HOME - KITCHEN

- BATHROOM

- BEDROOMS

- BACKYARDS

- GARAGE


HOUSEHOLD OBJECTS - BATHROOM - TOWELS - ESPECIALLY BEACH TOWELS , SHOWER CURTAINS , TOOTHBRUSHES

- KITCHEN - PLASTIC TABLE MATS - CORALE DISHES - MUGS WITH CARTOONS & RAINBOWS ETC. -

HUMOR - SPOOF -

THE F PAGE - FROM FAIRY TALE AND FANTASY - TO - FUR

FABRIC - ( SEE MATERIAL )

FAD -

FAIRY TALE & FANTASY -

FAKES - AS IN FAKE I.D. - AS IN FAKE PERSONALITY - LIARS PRETENDING TO BE SOMETHING THEY'RE NOT - FAKE CELEBRITIES - FAKE BRANDS - FAKE T.V. SHOWS - FAKE FADS

FAME - ( SEE ALSO AMBITIONS & ACTING )

FAMILY - SIBLINGS
- MOTHER
- FATHER
- GRANDPARENTS
- COUSINS & AUNTS AND UNCLES


FASHION - TOPS , SWEATERS , SWEATS , BLOUSES , DRESS SHIRTS , T SHIRTS , CROP TOPS , BAT WING SLEEVES , SLASH SHIRTS , SLASHED SLEEVES , SLASHED SHOULDERS , TUBE TOPS , TANK TOPS , TIE TOPS , SHOULDER TIE TOPS , BUSTIER

- PANTS - JEANS - CALVIN KLIENS , BUBBLE GUM JEANS , GLORIA VANDERBUILTS , LEE , 501 BLUES , CHIC , COLORED JEANS , CUT OFFS , DAISY DUKES , DIRTY DANCING STYLE CUT OFFS , CAPRI STYLE , PEG LEG , TAPERED , BAGGY , ROLLED CUFFS , PINNED CUFFS , ZIPPERED CUFFS , ZIPPERED SIDES ,

- SKIRTS - BUBBLE , DENIM , LONG PRAIRIE STYLE , FULL SKIRT , FLARED SHORT SKIRT , TIERED SKIRTS , TIERED SKIRT GATHERED AT SIDE , PIN UP STYLE SKIRT ,

- DRESSES - HALTER DRESS WITH STRING TIES , TAILOR-SHIRT / WAITRESS DRESS , WRAP DRESS , THE PROM TIERED SKIRT DRESS , SLEEVELESS PARTY DRESS , DROP-WAIST , SLIGHTLY IMPROVED SACK DRESS ,

- SUITS - 40'S LOOK - PADDED SHOULDERS , MILITARY TOUCHES , UNSTRUCTURED JACKETS ,

- OTHER THINGS - UNDEROOS , SOCKS , KNEE SOCKS , STOCKINGS OF EVERY GLITTERY GADGET AND COLOR , MENS BIKINI UNDERWEAR ,

- STYLE -

FANTASY -

FAST GIRLS - ( SEE TABOO )

FAST FOOD - ( SEE ALSO JUNK FOOD )

FEAR - ( SEE ALSO ACTION & DANGER )

FEATHER EARRINGS - ( SEE JEWELRY )

FEELINGS - ( SEE EMOTIONS )

FEUD - ( SEE ALSO CLIQUES )

FIGHTS -

FIRE - ( SEE DANGER & ACTION )

FISH - ( SEE PETS & ANIMALS )

FLAVOR - ( SEE FOOD & TASTE THE 80'S )

FLIRTING -

FLOOD - ( SEE DANGER & ACTION )

FLOWERS -

FLORESCENT - ( SEE NEON )

FOOD -

FORTUNE TELLING - ( SEE FAIRS )

FOSTER CHILD - ( SEE CHARACTER )

FOX - ( SEE SLANG )

FRECKLES - ( SEE CHARACTER - LOOKS

FROG DISECTION - ( SEE SCHOOL - CIRRICULUM )

FRUIT - ( SEE FOOD & JUNK FOOD - VS FRUIT )

FUGITIVE - ( SEE DANGER & ACTION & CHARACTER - VILLAINS )

FUR - ( SEE FASHION )

FRATERNITY - ( SEE SCHOOL - HIGH SCHOOL & COLLEGE )

FUNNY - ( SEE HUMOR )

FITNESS - ( SEE TRENDS & SIGN OF THE TIMES & FASHION )

THE D PAGE - FROM DAINTY CHARACTERS - TO DREAMS

D
DAINTY - ( SEE CHARACTER TRAITS )

DANGER -

DATES -

DAY-GLO - ( SEE ALSO NEON )

DEAF - ( SEE CHARACTER - CHALLENGES )

DEATH - ( SEE TABOO )

DEFECTING - ( SEE SIGN OF THE TIMES - COLD WAR )

DELINQUENT - ( SEE CHARACTER TRAITS )

DENTAL / DENTIST -

DIARY -

DILEMMA -

DIORAMA - ( SEE SCHOOL - CIRRICULUM )

DISGUISES -

DISHES - ( SEE CHORES & HOUSE AND HOME - KITCHEN )

DIVORSE -

DOLPHINS - ( SEE ANIMALS & PLACES & TRENDS )

DRAB - ( SEE CHARACTER TRAITS & FASHION )

DRESSES - ( SEE FASHION )

DRINKING / DRUNK - ( SEE TABOO )

DRUGS - ( SEE TABOO )

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS - ( SEE GAMES )

DUNGAREES - ( SEE FASHION - JEANS )

DETENTION - ( SCHOOL )

DISECTION - ( SCHOOL - CIRRICULUM )

DETECTIVE - ( SIGN OF THE TIMES & TRENDS )

DRAMA -

DREAMS -

** WORK IN PROGRESS**

THE B PAGE - FROM BABYSITTING TO BOYS VS GIRLS

B
BABYSITTING -

BAD HABITS -

BARS -

BALLET -

BATTLE OF THE SEXES -

BALLOONS - ( SEE ALSO SYMBOLS )

BEACH - ( SEE ALSO PLACES )

BEAUTY - ( SEE ALSO HAIR & BODY )

BEEFCAKE - ( SEE ALSO CHARACTERS - HANDSOME )

BETTING - ( SEE ALSO COMPETITION )

BICYCLE -

BLIND - ( SEE CHARACTERS - CHALLENGES )

B*TCHES - ( SEE CHARACTERS )

BLACK OUTFITS - ( SEE FASHION )

BLACKMAIL -

BLINDS - ( SEE BEDROOMS )

BEDROOM & FURNITIONING - ( SEE HOUSE AND HOME - BEDROOMS )

BODY - ( SEE ALSO CHARACTERS - LOOKS & PUBERTY )

BRAIDS & BOWS - ( SEE HAIR - ACCESSORIES )

BRACES -

BROKEN LIMBS -

BROACH - ( SEE JEWELRY )

BRUNETTES -

BUTTONS AND PINBACKS - ( SEE ACCESSORIES )

BIRTHDAYS -

BREAKFAST - ( SEE ALSO FOOD )

BLACKBOARDS - ( SEE SCHOOL - CLASSROOM )

BUBBLEGUM - ( SEE CANDY )

BULLYING -

BUTTERFLIES - ( SEE SYMBOLS )

BOYS VS GIRLS - ( SEE BATTLE OF THE SEXES )

** WORK IN PROGRESS SEE CLIQUEY PIZZA 2 **

The Fabulous Five - #1 - Seventh Grade Rumors & 80's Back to School Supplies

The Fabulous Five - Seventh Grade Rumors - Back to school supplies ,

Ah , school. The beginning of a new year with that mixed pleasure of reuniting with friends separated by summer camps , possible new friends to be found all spiked with the nausea of homework , crabby teachers and obnoxious classmates. I never went to Junior High so I couldn't exactly relate to the Fabulous Five and even when I made that nerve wracking jump from top of the heap eighth grade to bottom of the barrel nineth grade , I had made more of it then I needed to. As for this first book I was totally psyched ( as they used to say ) for it’s arrival. I had just bought The Truth about Taffy Sinclair and had saw the enticing bit of ballyhoo for The Fabulous Five emblazoned like movie advertisements - Coming Soon! To a bookstore near you complete with chapter segments. I waited appeasing my anticipation by eye-gobbling up the rest of the Taffy books. By then I thought I knew the characters backwards and forwards but the first book throws us a bit of a loop - gone is the I p.o.v. which I didn’t mind , and because of this a lot of Jana’s incessant worrying , she was at times borderline neurotic , is gone. Although in this first
book Jana has some genuine worries.
She and her friends will be entering Wakeman Junior High - dubbed Wacko and they also learn they have competition - four girls calling themselves The Fantastic Four. The girls quickly formulate a plan on how not to make themselves look like nerds - pretty great idea actually! And
after writing down important stuff to remember they head to the school to scope out a hangout
spot so they don’t look too intimidated by just wandering around.
Unfortunately the next day guess who is standing in their spot - yup the Fantastic four , if that wasn’t bad enough , in an attempt to squeeze into their spot they learn by the cool but catty leader Laura that she has heard about them - and that Beth is the show off. Meaning someone - not the Fantastic four has described them to the Fantastic Four in some possibly and probably cutting terms. Who’s the culprit - Marcie Bee? Alexis? Shawnee?
Later on boys grading the girls in the hall give Melanie and Jana three and a half tops , and Laura with her top knot braid hanging all the way to her waist gets a 10. I’ve had waist length hair and
to pull it up at the top of your head and braid it takes off a couple of inches meaning Laura had looooong hair. Jana’s day perks up when she meets a superfriendly girl who has found her schedule card , ran after her to return it and helps her tape it into her notebook. This act of kindness sparks instant friendship signals in Jana until the girl shyly introduces herself as Karen Janelle - a.k.a Funny Hawthorne. One of the dreaded Fantastic Four. After Jana introduces herself they promise to get together but as it would fate does it for them. They share English class and send each other a series of funny notes about their eccentric teacher.
Meanwhile Melanie Edwards the sweetheart of the group , has a fullblown crush on Shane Arrington who owns an iguana named Igor and looks just like River Phoenix! In fact Melanie decides to approach him urging her friends to go with her to inquire if the iguana rumor is true. But Shane is a pretty cool character he sees the gullibility in Melanie’s big blue eyes ( it’s interesting that Melanie as a bit of a ditz is a redhead not blonde ) and tells her that Igor uses the bathroom. Lizards as pets were making the rounds on t.v. - I recall Saved by The Bell had Slater mourning the loss of his pet chameleon. And a couple of class oddballs in movies had lizards as pets.
Jana’s secret friendship is finally revealed when she is caught laughing and joking with Funny in the hall - about all things if Jana wouldn’t please slip her a little information about the boys from her old grade school - namely Melanie’s backup boyfriend Garrett Bolt and Beth’s boyfriend - Keith Masterson. Jana giggles that her lips are sealed. Her friends think she’s a traitor
and possibly not the only one since Beth seems to be avoiding them lately.
I love the next scene where Jana and Funny decide to show their friends that their cold shoulder ( from both groups ) don’t bother them by walking to school together and it becomes like this event , kids are watching , they’re fake laughing and zipping into the school - I remember doing stuff like that when emotions ran so high as a kid that yeah walking in with a new friend had the ability of attracting like a rock stars audience of gawkers. But Jana doesn’t want to just push her friendship with Funny she wants to clear things up and calls an emergency meeting , amid spilled soda and hugs - tears from Melanie they make up only to notice Beth didn’t show in fact Beth is missing.
The group learns their problems pale compared to Beth’s her mother might have breast cancer. As the group decides to form a search party the Fantastic Four offers to help drawing the sudden scorn of Jana but Laura actually comes up with a winning idea - suggesting Beth is somewhere that she feels safe. Back at her old school. They find her and of course Beth’s mother is okay.
A pretty rousing start to a series with lots of interesting new things to take note of specifically - the gum tree - a Wacko tradition the oak tree stands majestic and colorful as the students plop their unwanted wads onto the tree trunk decorating in every flavor imaginable. This actually isn’t unheard of - I decided to google the idea and you must check out these pics they are so cool go to the San Luis Obispo’s Bubble gum alley , and here is a bubblegum tree.
And there is the notorious hangout spot Bumpers decorated with old bashed in bumper cars turned into booths. To be honest I could never picture anyone sitting in the bumper cars - in my minds eye the bumper cars dangled from the ceiling on wires , and most kids sat in ordinary booths. Strange but true.



All this talk of the first day of school got me nostalgic about school supplies - that was the highlight of back to school I just loved all that junk!



Trapper Keepers , Note Totes , little scented erasers in all shapes and colors - I remember having the strawberry - isn’t that goofy - I mean everyone even the boys probably had the little strawberry erasers. How about the pencil cases - the plastic ones were cool because they had the artwork on them of your favorite characters - Frankenberry , Strawberry Shortcake , Foofur but the ones made out of fabric were sturdier - we have a company in Canada called Kettle Creek they made all kinds of high end canvas stuff all branded with their name on thick leather plaques. I wanted one of their pencil cases so bad - everyone had one instead I had to make one out of a pair of jeans - truth be told I kinda liked the one I made it was huge - and it held everything. You could practically lose an elephant in it okay okay not an elephant but maybe a pot of my favorite Bonne Bell lipgloss or a tube of roll on Kissing Potion. I loved getting new pencil crayons - Laurentien - they were the best ever my favorite color was a mauve color called Sky Magenta. And the sounds of the pencil crayons clicking together in your pencil case or scritching over a sheet of paper. Those are the things I miss about school just little things like that - when a pencil case full of new things all clinking together made you feel probably better than a business man with a briefcase full of important papers.



Around 1986 a stationary store popped up in our town I don’t recall the name it came and went as the novelty of that sort of stuff waned and conglomerates like Staples swallowed up independents. It was one of my favorite places to browse - I say browse not shop because this was before the era of the dollar store and each little thing seemed to cost a fortune and to me it was nicer to think about having pom-pom topped pencils with googly eyes than to spend three dollars on one. Member those pencil toppers - man we must have looked insane using them - but I loved the ones with the fuzzy troll hair you’d roll the pencil super fast between your palms and make his hair fly out. Anything beat doing homework. Lets not forget making rubber pencils by waving them loosely. Did you ever scratch out letters in your Pink Pearl eraser so that it now became an ink ear eraser or a Pink earl , Pink ear , Pink Pear , Pin ear?




What kind of junk was in the stationary store? - oodles of good stuff , candy colored paper clips - good for making necklaces , liquid glitter filled pens & pencils , stationary sets with pencil , eraser & paper all patterned with rainbows or maybe Garfield. Neon spiral notepads - those I actually did invest in - they were a must for passing notes and nobody looked cooler than someone who brazenly put one at the edge of their desktop - although the teachers always threatened to confiscate them. Member all those I don’t know what they were paperweights? - some were globes others stood up like those pushbutton water basketball games. They were filled with water and blue oil. They would stay separate making it look like the sea , I had one that had a tiny windsurfer bobbing along the blue oiled sea. But there was one that was brought to school and sat on the desk of one of the most popular girls in our class , I had no idea what it was, it just one of those battery operated gadgets - I dubbed it the ink factory, it was a novel thing that had a swirly ramp and would drip blobs of blue oil that would spiral down the ramp one after another and get sucked into the bottom to make it’s journey back up to the top to start over and over again - It was hypnotic watching it. I was annoyed when the teacher told the girl to take it home. Day-glo pens? Fluorescent markers , highlighters? They were a must nothing looked cooler they writing a bubble letter note with each letter a different neon shade. White out - that was a necessity which was banned after some buffoon in our class sniffed it so much he passed out. We had the kind of teachers who didn’t mind white out , but if we had too many pen marks scratching out mistakes they would say it looks messy do it over - without white out we had to become a lot more careful.

Isn't the Fab Five cover Fabulous! It just about wins my prize for best designed covers for junior division - the fake spiral note-book coils at the side , jazzy triangle print , scrawled graffiti , and 3-d diamond to house the fat jumbo lettering of the series title. As for the painted picture giving us our first real look at the fab five since the Taffy books , Beth looks a little young and awkward before her haircut , I love Katie's perm and pink jumpsuit! see how the cuffs are rolled to mid-calf that was actually the style , Melanie looks great in her turned up coller but Jana is the best dressed - big floppy bow tied in her hair , denim skirt , striped top ( these were all standard - nobody could look bad in this outfit ) Christie looks the most mature and I was kinda bummed in later stories that she was well, kinda dull ( until she moved to London ). This painting is probably what messed me up on never picturing Bumpers as anything but a souped up coffee shop - the booths are normal but they're obviously in bumpers!

Got any school supply memories? Let me know I love hearing about stuff I've missed , or forgotten.





I found some images of old vintage erasers , some pics from an Ideals catalog circa 1984 and a page full of 80's school accessories and how do you like the Shirt Tales crayons? Aren't they wild - I picked them up for a quarter
at a used clothing store - I just love the names they gave the colors - Gotcha Green , Playful Purple , Yum Yum Yellow , Rascal Red , Giggly Green , O.K. Orange , Peachy Keen , Frisky Brown , Bogey Blue ( Bogey was the name of the Shirt Tales monkey ) , Pepper Black , Oh Oh Orange , Pammy Pink ( Pammy was the name of the panda ) Gopher Gray , True Blue , Bold Gold , and Rowdy Rust! Hope you enjoy.

I JUST LOVE TOMMY HEPP ER JOHNNY DEPP TOO! - FAKE STARS IN SLEEPOVER FRIENDS & SWEET VALLEY TWINS

“He looks just like Tommy Hepp!” Stephanie said. Tommy Hepp is our second-favorite t.v. star after Kevin DeSpain. He’s on Roadies, the new show about motorcycle cops on Thursday Nights.
From Susan Saunders Sleepover Friends Series - #27 - Where’s Patti?

Notice in t.v. shows characters guzzle Cola , not Coke or Pepsi or even Dr. Pepper but Cola , they also wash their clothes in Sudsy detergent and gobble up Corn Crunchies for breakfast , I had read that it was for a two fold reason - 1 - they didn’t want to endorse products -
imagine what havoc it could’ve caused to see Kirk Cameron on Growing Pains eating only
Capt’n Crunch. Kidding aside , in the 1938 movie It Happened One Night during the infamous bedroom scene - Clarke Gable is getting ready for bed , he peels off his shirt to reveal a bare chest - no undershirt. Of course people watching it now might think oh - ho-hum. But this actually caused an uproar , no - not for the sight of a bare chested Gable! The uproar was caused by several undershirt factories who begged the scene be removed as the sales of undershirts suddenly plummeted! 2. - if you didn’t use a brand name you had the freedom to do whatever you wanted with the product - say a character found a severed finger in his box of Corn Crunchies - Kelloggs would be near fainting if the finger was pulled out of a box of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes - with it’s technicolor token rooster in prime view. People in a way are brand names. A child mentioning Prince in the 80's would be hard pressed to find any child that would say Prince who? What Prince? Series fiction, kinda like T.V. shows, exercised the same procedure with stars as the t.v. shows did their brand names.
The biggest peddlers of fake stars were the preteen / juvenile series this was perhaps because this age group was so in tune with the idea of branding and labeling. By then a phenomenon surged in brought on the heels of the 70's for star-gazing ( and not with telescope ) , proposed between the glossy layers of squeaky-clean pin-up magazines. Centerfolds of t.v. and movie stars were promised on bright backgrounds , ‘tell-all’ interviews scraggled out nonsense about all the really important things a ditz of twelve wanted to know about her fave star - preferred pizza toppings , the name of their pet dog , favorite color and carefully coaxed opinions. In order to represent a good portion of the preteen population , writers followed suit and characters that would be the readers of said magazines were developed. In all honesty, though it was never mentioned , can anyone not picture Jessica Wakefield lounging in the local variety store thumbing through a copy of Big Bopper? Of course she would not be looking for Johnny Depp or Kirk Cameron only her beloved Johnny Buck.
So lets bring on the fake stars!
Sweet Valley Twins made almost a reoccurring character out of Johnny Buck , in fact if a fan was to try and list all of the Unicorn members or simply mention Jessica’s favorite rock star they wouldn’t hesitate to remember Johnny’s name but may stumble on some of the Unicorn’s who were mostly filler.
Who is Johnny Buck? I was positive in my mind when I read the series back in the 80's that he was created to represent Bruce Springsteen , some of my friends agreed but then it was pointed out that wait , Johnny is described as young , practically a teen himself with blonde hair.
This threw our discussion momentarily off the loop of Bruce and switched us to the possibility of Corey Hart - after all in the late 80's everyone was Corey crazy! There was Corey Hart , Corey Haim , Corey Feldman and I think their was even a football player with the name Corey! In the end it didn’t really matter Johnny Buck represents all of them - from Bruce Springsteen to Corey Hart to even perhaps Michael Jackson - anyone that can instigate an aficionado. Jessica’s quest for fame is the following shadow of the achieved goal , hoping their glittering light will shine down on her and she can step on into the spot light. It was a feeling most 80's babes craved - to become their own idol. To come full circle no longer the worshiper but the worshiped. Arrogance as it’s most tin-foil glory. Jessica’s heart palpitates for Johnny Buck with a following that boarders on cultish - she never goes that far but in book #55 the Unicorns go cukoo for a new singer named Coco - cukoo for Coco ( puffs ) ( couldn’t resist ) , and literally create a fan club. Though other singers and stars came and went - Melody Power , Kent Kellerman , Jessica was most loyal to Johnny Buck. Ironically because he is such an ‘in’ figure to adore watch what happens in book #42 Jessica’s Secret - when she is confronted that he could be ‘out’.
‘“Don’t you love this poster of Johnny Buck?” Jessica said as she examined Robin’s walls. “I have the exact same one at home.”
Robin shrugged. “It’s okay , I guess. I’m not really into Johnny Buck anymore.”
Jessica frowned uncomfortably. “Oh , me either,” she said quickly.
Elizabeth gave her sister a surprised look. If Jessica didn’t like Johnny Buck anymore, it certainly was news to Elizabeth. Up until about two seconds before, he had been Jessica’s very favorite singer.’

How typical! When Jessica is confronted with the possible sudden unpopularity of a star , she’ll ditch him , revealing how fickle , how capricious a tightrope walk the celebrity must endure for his fans! Even a fake star! I remember how many arguments I had with my friends - I had jumped on the Johnny Depp fan wagon back in 1988 but my friends were split , two of my best friends - including my very best friend adored Corey Haim , only me and my other best friend loved Johnny Depp. Their argument against Depp , he’s beautiful but too old! That may sound strange now but mind you , us being twelve meant that Depp was seventeen years older , compared to other actors like Corey Haim and Kirk Cameron who were only five and six years older than us at the time that was a huge stretch but who were we kidding - we didn’t stand a chance with any of them! They were only to be admired , eye candy for our walls and taped inside the inner cover of our Note Totes & Trapper Keepers.




Sweet Valley Twins swung full force into the 90's and with no dated stamp on Johnny Buck that would leave him for dust in the 80's - that was another good reason to use a fake star imagine trying to convince the grunge set how cool M.C. Hammer was , or Vanilla Ice? Even Michael Jackson would be a hard sell - Johnny Buck continued on as timelessly un-aging as his fans. But a sprinkling of what was going on made a hilarious appearance in book - #86 - It Can’t Happen Here ,
In the book Aaron Dallas befriends new kid / bad boy Brian Boyd who is one of those disrespectful kids that always impresses materialistic ninnies like Jessica... for a while. With his cap on backwards and oozing an aura of coolness he shoplifts c.d’s at the local record store and to prove he’s not exactly up to Sweet Valley’s more mainstream standards - those who listen to the pop rock sounds of Johnny Buck - the groups he’s into are - The Flying Lizards - probably an in-joke because they sing - Money ( that’s what I want ) - and you guessed it, Brian’s father is loaded! , but don’t laugh too hard save it for this one - The Jumping Jack-o-lanterns - yup! That’s right , an obvious reflection of the grunge mood and one of it’s top bands - the Smashing Pumpkins. I laughed like crazy when I first read it , making me wonder if boy bands would suddenly creep up for Jessica to pant over. Usually Sweet Valley High and Sweet Valley Twins kept out anything that would date the books too much - clothing was vaguely described and always things that could be read years later and still be easily pictured - jeans and t-shirts for the tweens and for the teens - khaki walking shorts , polos , and slacks.
I kind of wished Lila in Sweet Valley High would’ve made some eviscerating crack to Jessica about her love for Johnny Buck.
Other series leapt on the fake-star band wagon - The Party Line and The Fabulous Five mirrored each other in their wavering stance on using both real and fake stars. The Party Line
would mention Paula Abdul and then switch over to have it’s characters discussing their favorite singer Vermilion - in fact book #1 Allie’s Wild Surprise - is about the characters - Allie , Rosie , Julie and Becky’s attempts to score tickets for Vermilion’s concert. That’s where rule and reason number 2 comes in - being able to manipulate the reputation of a fake star , Allie is not only able to score tickets for the concert she’s able to score them from Vermilion herself! The Fabulous Five runs a similar course - while they can talk of Paula Abdul , Charlie Sheen , and River Phoenix they can also rush to buy the latest Brain Damage album , crash the group’s hotel room and manage to convince the lead singer into dedicating a song to them during a concert tour thereby one-upping their enemies the Fantastic Four. It’s a fantasy a writer couldn’t pull off with a real celebrity without becoming liable.
The Babysitters club is a real curio on this subject , I mean decide for yourself - the series is about 4 - stretching to almost 8 preteen girls - ranging in age from 11 to 13 and yet celebrities were rarely discussed. I never noticed this at the time - though I remember wishing they’d go to the mall more to flirt of course. Basically , I had noticed their was something missing just not sure what exactly. As accurate as the girls are portrayed that’s a key point to miss - and movies when they are discussed are often dated - The Parent Trap , Meatballs , Mary Poppins. It’s not until book #10 Logan Likes Mary Anne - that a fake movie star is really gushed over and by Mary Anne of all characters who declares her soon-to-be-steady-boyfriend , looks exactly like her heartthrob Cam Geary. Later on the series goes for a more accurate stab in book # 87 -Stacey and the Bad Girls. Having left the 80's far behind it’s now 1995 and grunge is rearing it’s ugly head , Stacey has begun hanging out with girls who wear sly grins , nose jewelry and black lipstick as if it were the norm. Well the norm for Stacey. Considering Stacey is a cheerleader I’m still not sure what she was ever doing with them these were girls who had the ease to throw food in someone else’s house , raid their friends cupboards , buy things on sale and return them at cost for a free lunch , and sneak liquor into a concert ( but exclude one of their so-called friends). Most of all I thought how could they possibly have the same tastes in music?! U4ME I assumed was a boy band - though Stacey’s mother assumes it’s a grunge band , Stacey assures the reader it’s not , and because Stacey’s boyfriend can’t stand U4ME there’s not a lot of options left for it to be anything but a boy-band. Strange - grunge girls going to a boy band concert with little bottles of liquor hidden under their hats?! Rereading it , it seems a little hard to take.
Considering what I recall of the 80's I pegged both Stacey and Claudia as girls who were so concerned with being hip , they would pour over magazines , watch the latest videos and check out the new shows but after scouring the books I begin to doubt wether these girls ever watched t.v.
On the flip side Sleepover Friends offers a virtual buffet of fake stars but then , it is a series probably most accurate in describing fifth grade girls. Lets be honest, flashback to 1987 ,
as a fifth grader , if you didn’t know that Growing Pains wasn’t just an expression that it was a t.v. show you would’ve probably have been considered a nerd. If your friend said how cool the new boy’s hair looked - just like Billy Idol and you said whose he? You’d probably have some serious explaining to do. If nobody tried to fake you out with Fleetwood Mac’s Big Love song as being a couple actually making love well then you just haven’t experienced culture. You couldn’t escape it , especially as a child nor sometimes did you want to , that being said I give you Sleepover Friends own celluloid csar - Kevin DeSpain.





Over six feet tall , looking fantastic in a bathing suit he is described as having wavy dark hair , piercing green eyes , and an adorable dimple. He is not a teen , not a singer just a t.v. actor - often burned by Kate as - ‘He’s not an actor at all. He’s a....a...t.v personality like Spunky the wonder dog!”’- book #20- Lauren in the Middle. They watch him with slavish loyalty wether it’s in his weekly series Made for Each Other where he plays a detective with bionic powers who travels around in an antique bi-plane solving crimes with his beautiful co-star Marcy Monroe or
if it’s a mini-series co-staring the sexy Tanya Colter or even a box-office bomb at the theaters called Endlessly. Susan Saunders deftly handles the spoofing of said stars gently - for instance she could’ve just said a detective who travels around in an antique bi-plane - I mean bionic powers! And sticking in antique bi-plane brings to mind all the detective shows that had just about exhausted all modes of transportation. A talking car - K.I.T. from Knight Rider , the Screaming Mimi helicopter from Riptide , retro corvettes - Riptide again , Simon & Simon and new corvettes - Miami Vice , red ferraris Magnum P.I. , cigarette boats - Miami Vice , not to mention the lamborgini-ish fantasy car from Hardcastle and McComick. Interestingly, though Kevin is described as very much a man when he finally appears on the cover of book #21 - he looks quite a bit like River Phoenix. To show you how much Kevin is a part of the series I decided to find out just how many books he is discussed in - out of 39 books he is mentioned in 19 - that’s half! That’s not bad considering he’s not mentioned until book four. The girls follow Kevin DeSpain’s on again off again romance with Tanya Colter his co-star in several movies. They make his date-night chili , they have all his key ‘info’ , they stalk him when he blows into town to film and wonder of wonders they actually get to meet him. I have to give credit where credit is due - Susan Saunders came up with the most interesting star-meeting I’ve ever read! Rather than bump into him in the usual way - hotel rooms , restaurants , backstage - they, having taken in a stray dog and given him a temporary collar , lose the dog only to have it found by - you guessed it Kevin DeSpain who now wants the dog , Lauren whose p.o.v. the stories are mainly taken from thinks she’d give him anything - including her brother if he wanted him.
As for the other fake stars there is the Boodles - Great name! ( Boodle means booty - you know the loot taken in a robbery ) and their hit - I’ve gone dotty over you. They play a key role in book #2 - Starring Stephanie.


( Flipping through a Rolling Stone magazine ( or should I say Star Turns?, I found this ad for Boodle liquor! What I love about this ad is they assume nobody else knows what Boodle means either. They make it sound like some sort of dance - let's Boodle!) Joel Carter and Carter Grant in Surftown ( which may or may not be a subtle Miami Vice spoof ) , The Fabulous Flynn brothers - a.k.a Marx Brothers , The Gruesomes - rather than the Addams Family. Tangles an all girl rock band with hair practically to their knees ( Bangles ) , The Bounder Sisters ( ahem Pointer Sisters? ) who sing Get Down , Heat with it’s sexy lead singer Chaz who has spiky hair and a snake earring , Suzy Q from the Hot Tamales , Jangles ( I’m not sure if this is a mistake from Tangles - to Jangles or really a different band but it’s actually mentioned twice ) , the Grady Gang - Brady Bunch , The C-47's with their hit Funky Shack , the B-29's and in book #14 - Lauren Takes Charge - a fifteen year old singer is mentioned who started her career in malls , with only a cheap cassette player to back her up , ( sound familiar? ) her trademark is poufy red bands and a pillbox hat - so cutesy they scoff! Her name is Lavonne and she inspires this accurate stab out of Stephanie ‘for someone who can’t sing , she has a pretty good career going,”but my all time favorite star spoof is in book #27 Where’s Patti when the girls notice the older brother of a pair of rowdy twins looks exactly like Tommy Hepp. I laughed like crazy when I first read it - in fact I almost rolled out of bed. I recognized immediately whom she really meant. Johnny Depp and that’s all the writers usually want is for us to relate to the characters - their adoration of Johnny Buck , Brain Damage , Kevin DeSpain - Tommy Hepp mirror our love , they are the thinly veiled stars decorating our walls - Corey Hart , the Smiths , River Phoenix , Johnny Depp.
Hope you love the pictures - the 21 Jumpstreet shot is a full length poster that was incredibly hard to get , they were all sold out at the local Woolco and I managed to convince them to sell me their display model. I had dormer style ceilings and taped him right over my bed and a few times the tape unstuck just at the top and I would wake up with beautiful Depp , hanging down in front of me! The Bruce Springsteen shot is from a Rolling Stones ad - I cropped out some lettering at the bottom - to me this is the infamous Johnny Buck. Though there is something to be said about Corey Hart. Okay I still can't make up my mind.

Who's got the better board game - Sweet Valley High or The Babysitters Club?

Toy marketing in the 80's was a booming business. Everything it seemed, as the joke went, was made in Taiwan. It was no holds barred as toy makers leapt at every opportunity and a kindof bizarre Alice’s mirrored world effect took place as toys spawned cartoons or was it cartoons spawned toys. Did cereal art and potato chip bags and Kodak film produce toys or was it vice versa? Everything spawned anything. Often the spawn-child made no sense and you had a feeling it’s momma & poppa cringed at their bizarre offspring but that didn’t stop them from producing more and more. In 1988 Sweet Valley High had spawned a board game. Why a board game you may ask. In answer - who knows. I do know however that board games were extremely popular in the 80's and every creature , character and doohickey seemed to have it’s own board game (even, again, if it didn’t make much sense ) There were board games for the cartoons -like The Wuzzles , arcade games - Donkey Kong , Q-Bert and Pac-Man , T.v. shows - Family Ties , dolls - Holly Hobbie , Strawberry shortcake - even comic strips - Garfield. So why not books.
Offered up by the top board game company Milton Bradley, Sweet Valley high the board game incorporated a look that was still familiar to the readers but blazing with a new insignia - a pastel sphere and flapping flag that was also simultaneously appearing on the backs of the series books replacing the letterman arch. Other than that the fan could tell there would be few surprises, a fact reinforced by the game’s questioning selling point. Can you find your boyfriend in time for the big date? Hmmm , a wee bit vapid even for series fiction. I would’ve found the game more exciting to guess which of Jessica’s boyfriends was a psychopathic dope fiend , or had the players scrambling through Sweet Valley to buy the new dress in Lizette’s before your opponent. I opened the game , read the instructions and surveyed the board - truth be told it’s not a total loss - it’s just a bit of a letdown. The board layout is rather like Clue - with four room/like areas all taking place in - of course- Sweet Valley High. Oddly enough there is a coldness to this layout , they can’t be bothered to call the French Room , Mrs. Dalton’s French Room and there is no designated spot for the school newspaper room! Considering it’s a game for super-fans only I would think this would grate on their nerves. The game plays a lot like memory - cards are laid face down in each room section. Each player takes a board depending on which character you chose to be - for instance if you’re Liz - you’ve picked Weekend Bike Tour and it’s your goal to find all the items to fill up your board - one boyfriend Todd Wilkens , one backpack , a biking outfit , a bicycle and Mr. Collins. Where it gets confusing is that you are permitted to swap or steal boyfriends - not a bad idea because if you pick Enid Collins , which from the almost pristine condition of the card , I’m not sure many players did - you’re stuck with of all boyfriends - not the hunky Hugh - but get this , Winston Eggbert?! On a positive note though , this gives fans a rare glimpse of never before seen characters as painted by the wonderful James Mathewuse - gorgeous Mr. Collins who does resemble Robert Redford , Mrs. Dalton ( of the jell-o in her sleeping bag fame ) , and Winston Eggbert - even though the bespeckled Winston looks rather grim. Look closely at all the characters and some of them , especially the guys look as though they’d rather be elsewhere than beefcake for a girls board game - it’s a scream!





















Some of the cards describing the characters actions are spot on to a fault - Elizabeth gives Enid some good advice with Enid uses , some are unbelievable - Lila donates a large sum of money to a local charity , Bruce helps Jessica set up for the prom , Jessica’s plot to break up Winston and Enid does not work?! ( huh say what? Why would Jessica care about those two? ) You know things are a little loopy however when out of four cards - each devoted to an action - from the four boyfriends , Bruce turns out to be the most sensitive! Ken is duped by Lila , Winston is attracted to another girl ( poor Enid! Despite her good grades , she has the most boring cards of all , she just can’t win , not in the series , not here - could be the name - remember Enid in Taking Care of Terrific by Lois Lowry who says that Enid was a horrible name that all disgusting words like squalid and fetid echoed Enid. ) Even Todd’s card , though faithful to his character, is nonetheless jerky - Todd believes a rumor about Liz. Here’s some cards I would’ve liked - Enid, in revenge to Jessica’s rumor, shaved Jessica’s head during a slumber party making it impossible for Jess to win Prom Queen! Nobody shows up for Lila’s super-once-in-a-lifetime-every-weekend party leaving her so outraged she is arrested for driving her Triumph across the football field nearly clipping Ken during his game-saving goal. Elizabeth dumps Todd and decides to actually do something constructively charitable like take out someone who isn’t ultra-gorgeous and ultra-popular. Todd faces this rejection bravely, after about two minutes of wallowing he asks out a curvy tenth grader he already had his eye on as backup. The game sums up as so-so , I’m neither here nor there about it , I guess I was disappointed that it didn’t really showcase some of the sights we’ve only imagined in Sweet Valley - I mean where’s the Beach Disco? Lizettes , The Dari Burger , Lookout Point , Kelly’s Bar , Jessica’s bedroom the Hershey Bar , I mean for gosh sakes they could’ve made it a rip off of Monopoly!










But as bad as anyone thinks this game is , I found the Babysitter’s Game to be far worse. It too was offered up by Milton Bradley , two years after the release of Sweet Valley High suggesting it was successful enough to try their hand at exploiting er-capitalizing on a second franchise. Opening the box , I was immediately overwhelmed by the amount of cards , pieces , notepads , tokens it contained and totally underwhelmed by the flimsy pastel playing board and equally bummed that the men were not those nifty little cardboard player cutouts wedged into little holders , no, the pawns were just those plastic thimble things in pastel shades.

What does that have to do with the Babysitter’s club? There is no- I get to be Stacey or Claudia or any of that , if I was twelve I’d feel ripped off. Not to mention frustrated . The game is also jammed with too many ideas , there are four sets of cards each colored peach , gold , green , purple each adding to another facet of the game - Peach cards are for collecting points if a square under the picture of the babysitter matches your token , green cards are for babysitter’s club trivia with questions like which club member’s bedroom looks like a nursery all pink and white? Or who usually needs the Pike barf bucket on car trips - (well I don’t know about Margo but anymore aspects to this game and I might just need it...) Gold cards are the kind of -what if while babysitting - like - You discover that your new babysitting charge is a monkey , not a child! What do you do? Feed him your kid kit and hole up in the nearest closet.( Kidding! ) Purple cards - are truth or dare - dares of which your friends get to judge, by giving you points if you performed well. The game is okay in the most generous sense of the word, I guess to me , it just seems thrown together , and not really for fans. A much better board game along the same lines is Girl Talk. I don’t know why they didn’t model a game after say, the game of Life - with moolah and obstacles , like items for the kid kits , dues day , babysitting jobs and a goal maybe to arrive at a dance with enough money to attend. I wonder if anyone designing the games even read the books or were given basic trivia and information like a list of ingredients if so , they really screwed up the formula.
So whose got the better game between SVH and Babysitter’s Club - Sorry Babysitter’s club it’s hands down - Sweet Valley High

The Stars are Shinning on Sweet Dreams & Caprice & First Love From Silhouette- Jennifer Connelly & Courtney Cox & Lori Loughlin!

Finding books I don’t have is always a treat , I practically pounce on them like a miner discovering gold! It’s an even bigger treat when there’s a nice surprise on the cover! Is it just me or is that Courtney Cox on the cover of Sweet Dreams? It is! - looking like she did back when she was pulled on stage for a dance with Bruce Springsteen - staged of course but who cares! And who’s that on the cover of Caprice - could it be? Yes it is - Jennifer Connelly!
As for the others I’m not too sure about I just thought they’d be fun to include. One looks like a dead ringer for Kate Jackson , and though I know the dates are really off one of the cashiers at Value Village pointed out that the girl on Kiss Me Creep , Sweet Dreams looked exactly like Thora Birch. The guy on Kiss Me Creep actually looks a lot like John Philbin from the New Kids 1985 - the movie with Lori Loughlin. The other Sweet Dreams cover looks like someone I can’t put my finger on an actress from the 80's wait - Meredith Salenger - that’s it! From Journey of Natty Gann and Dream a Little Dream , and get a load of the guy on First Love From Silhouette he’s got kindof a Flock of Seagulls thing going with his hair.

** Just found a new one! First Love From Silhouette #54 - Picture Perfect by Carrie Enfield. That's Lori Loughlin looking ravashing as always! She was without a doubt, one of ( if not ) the best looking brunette of the 80's. She had the most magnificient sparkly eyes and the sun-shinniest smile. I love how she is bathed in a warm buttered toast glow on this cover. It's kind of interesting that I should find Lori Loughlin after just maybe perhaps recognizing her co-star of the New Kids on Kiss Me Creep. If you haven't seen The New Kids check it out - it's not much of a horror , more of a psychotic teenager played with lizardy villainry by a bleached blonde James Spader , ( he was the ultimate 80's slimeball! ) harassing two new kids that have moved into his quiet Florida town. Orphaned they have come to live with their aunt and uncle at their rundown Santa's workshop carnival. Lori Loughlin makes the movie better than it is with her spunky , level headed charm - she turns Spader down flat which sparks the out and out war he wags against them, and her brother hunky newcomer Shannon Presby isn't bad either. Doesn't Lori Loughlin have the best hair? It hasn't changed much , she knew what looked good on her and stuck with it , but I love that loop of bangs that arches over her forehead like a feathered visor brim.

Just to show you celebrities aren’t snobs ( or maybe they just don’t have the rights to their pictures ) check out this cover of Helene ( not a Series book but I thought it was cool ) that’s Brooke Shields on the cover - looking about thirteen which is strange because the book is not about a Lolita relationship well not that much of one! The girl in the story is seventeen. If you know of anymore celebrities on covers let me know , maybe I missed a few.

Hope you like the pics sorry the Caprice cover is in such rough shape!

I've finally figured out how to duh! handle the comment-replies and moved my answer to it's proper location. That reminds me - feel free to ask questions about series books or pop culture , maybe there is a shadowy book whose title is on the tip of your tongue but you can't recall it - if you've got a few clues maybe I can help out! No promises , but I always give it a shot and if I come up blank someone out there might have the answer.

Cheerleaders #12 Staying Together - Shady photographers , Fallen Angel 1981 & the Equalizer

The 80's was filled with t.v. shows that featured dramas filled with rip-snorting action , though seldom was anyone in any real danger - the A -team could convert their van into a tank , the trio on Riptide would skim across the water in hot pursuit of their villain , the Fall Guy
would find his stunt player skills coming in handy as he’d leap from moving vehicles , while Magnum P.I would duke it out almost comically over some damsel in distress and bikini. This
style converted nicely to teen fiction giving them nail biting action plots that eeked out towards the end of the 80's as P.I. shows began fazing out. Cheerleaders had their fair share of exciting
action packed episodes that had them lured by shady photographers , out running an avalanche and kidnaped at gunpoint!
Cheerleaders - # 12 Staying Together - 1985 - Diane Hoh
Honey blonde hair Angie Poletti ( not to be mistaken with corn silk haired Mary Ellen ) wallows in loneliness that her computer geek boyfriend Arne isn’t paying enough attention to her perhaps she could console herself with some Rocky Road ice cream , and for a moment wishes she were a computer or a typewriter anything with wires that would interest her boyfriend. ( Careful now remember the over-computing boyfriend in Wes Craven’s Special Friend - he put the mind of his robot into the body of his dead girl friend! ) Wondering wether she can actually keep a boyfriend leaves her with a touch of resentment towards the ultra-gorgeous Mary Ellen. ( Ever wonder if Mary Ellen was named after Mary Ellen from the Walton’s - I always thought so , it’s such an unusual name , old fashioned yet with a strong persona. Just a thought )

Mary Ellen works at Marnie’s ( okay now that has to be a homage to Hitchcock’s Marnie! ) a posh boutique where she models clothes and gets to wear interesting do-dads - a raspberry knit top and skirt ( but no raspberry beret - sorry the Prince reference slipped out! ). She is actually something like a live mannequin! ( Was this actually a practice? I know from old movies that store models would put on a fashion show for the clients - one of my favorite scenes is in How to Marry a Millionair in which Marilyn Monroe , Betty Grable & Lauren Bacall play such models. Incidently Marilyn wears these terrific stacked see-thru plastic heels held on with red ribbons! ) Mary Ellen then notices a strange young man watching her who introduces himself as Reece Oliver a photographer who wants to do a portfolio for her , but Mary Ellen is no dummy she takes in his colorless eyes , impatience and the fact that he wants to do the photo shoot in his motel room and turns him down flat. Annoyed Reece , brushes her off as if he didn’t need her anyway because he works for American Sports magazine.
Reece makes the rounds spooking Nancy Goldstein who takes his card ‘as if it were a pamphlet from a religious cult’ and quickly brushes him off though wonders when the man drops Mary Ellen’s name is Mary Ellen silly enough to pose for this ahem traveling photographer.
Meanwhile Mary Ellen having seen Reece’s name in her father’s copy of American Sports calls herself Dope! Dope! Dope! And tries to leave a message for Reece changing her mind. Still thinking about it she decides she’ll take her younger sister Gemma to his motel room for the photo shoot knowing with her there , she’ll be perfectly safe. Meanwhile lecherous Reece has come to the football game and has decided healthy looking Angie Poletti is perfect!

But Perfect for what?! The reader by now has all kinds of horrors running through her mind.
Back to Mary Ellen - seeing Reece as her one way ticket out of Tarenton she decides it’s stupid to get to overly involved with hunky garbage collector - Patrick and begins pulling away form him. As for Angie she is more excited about being chosen by Reece to photograph over gorgeous Mary Ellen who when she finds out is horrified - in fact her face drains of color we are told till her complexion is the color of smoke. Her little sister Gemma tries to pick up her spirits by suggesting too bad their wasn’t a store department for pushing people off cliffs dissolving Mary Ellen and herself into a fit of giggles. Marnie’s second outfit mentions teal suede boots. Did anyone own suede boots at sixteen in the 80's? The closest I came was cowboy boots with red stitching in the early nineties. And Villainous Vanessa ( whom Mary Ellen mistakenly thinks was chosen over her by Reece ) is wearing black leather trousers. Fashion police alert! While Olivia and Walt plot to include lonely Angie along on their date she is wearing an orange sweater that clashes violently with his cranberry turtleneck! Cranberry turtleneck - yikes , is that part of Walt’s sense of humor? Angie is unavailable ( no it wasn’t the turtleneck that scared her away ) she had a date with Reece who rather than take pictures of her has a strange request of having her show him around town. Though voices of unease nudge Angie she is so blown away by the fact that he picked her over Mary Ellen she ignores her doubts. It doesn’t help either that when her parents are introduced to him , they too ,don’t seem to think anything is wrong with their daughter spending time with a man who claims he’s a photographer and that the shoot will take place in his motel room - huh? Say what!?

When he starts asking for an advance on his fee you’re wondering where is this story going , my first thought was pervert! The old I’m going to put you in the movies routine or some underground dirty magazine called Naughty Nymphets or something. But by page 75 I was thinking scammer he’ll drain her for every penny. But is doesn’t quite go that way. While Mary Ellen’s ego has taken a nose dive , thoughts filled with maybe I doesn’t have what it takes , Reece keeps showing up on Angie’s arm like a date.

There is an interesting moment in the story where Mary Ellen throws herself at Patrick almost deciding to make love to him on the spot to erase the humiliation of not being picked - but realizing that , she backs off ( not wanting to cheapen the act ) and changes track to abandoning her goal of branching off to New York , she’ll stay within the confines of pokey old Tarenton
As Angie wishes Reece would just get on with taking her picture , the doubts her friends have about him as a fraud are finally given some evidence during a basketball game when the coach recognizes Reece as an ex student called Billy Slocum , a loner who never fit in but loved basketball even though he didn’t make the team. Angie on frosty terms with the other girls on the team hasn’t discovered Reece’s true identity and has gone off to his motel to take pictures. The girls Mary Ellen & Olivia hoping to confront Angie discover she’s gone off to the motel and decide to go over there in an interesting move ( Sweet Valley High never takes this route unless they want to fling a damsel in distress ) the girls decide to do this consciously- without men. Though Olivia briefly wishes she could tell Walt ( she always feels safer when he’s around ) Mary Ellen steamed with woman’s lib scolds her - you don’t think we women can handle this? Olivia reprimanded also agrees with one good reason not to call in the male-calvary - they would just think the girls were jealous with over active imaginations.

The girls storm in , but the scene is not the seedy underworld an anxious reader might have envisioned first off , Reece Oliver a.k.a Billy Slocum is just a self-pitying crumbbum who graduated two years ago from their high school with a thorn in his side for cheerleaders recalling the ones that rejected him. Meanwhile Angie is mortified to discover she’s been tricked - worse still is Billy seems to be enjoying the fact that he’s tricked her. As Angie’s eyes fill with tears she whispers - ‘ "Oh, no. No , I’m not that stupid. I’m not.’ Billy flatly says ‘Guess again."’
After Billy rants about how cheerleaders all think they’re high and mighty and run the school , the girls with a small amount of sympathy but not much tell him to get some help and if he ever tries to do it again they’ll inform everyone that he’s a sleaze and a cheat. The kids quickly form a party to cheer up Angie whose harsh tone oozes with sarcasm - ‘ "What’s this a therapy session? Good friends gathered around the bereaved to mourn the loss of her pride."’ - wow not bad. But in the end Angie comes around and her friends hope she won’t loose that honest , trusting spirit that makes her so special. The girls then promise to branch out more, admitting they felt rather sorry for all the Billy Slocum’s out their - but we’ll see. Do they don’t they?

Angie’s fate could’ve been a lot worse - Shady photographers popped up in the 80's mainly as plot devices for t.v. movies of the week and action series. All of them were up to no-good and the girls didn’t escape their fates as easily as Angie who’s pride was the only part of her wounded. One of my all-time favorites was Fallen Angel a t.v. movie put out in 1981 about a young girl ,12 just turned 13 yr old Jennifer Phillips who is frustrated by her young mother’s new relationship. Her mother is played by Melinda Dillion ( you might recall her from A Christmas Story ) she does a terrific job of playing that vivacious single mother ( I recall some mothers who were like this back in the 80's ) friendly , childlike but fiery - calling their daughters Missy as in listen Missy! when they got mad. She is a waitress who wears a bouncy ponytail and friendly smile at the diner where she works , flirting with the male customers- for tips mainly ( she whispers to her daughter ) but also because she likes men and encourages Jennifer to take an interest, after all she is growing up. All fine advice, if not for the fact that Jennifer is bored during her summer and meets up with Howie in the local arcade. Howie is a baby faced pedophile ( played by the marvelous Richard Mazur - who was in License to Drive ) who frequents the kids hang outs looking for fresh prey. He instantly latches onto Jennifer and starts a powerful psychological attack on Jennifer hoping to keep a wedge between her and her mother. Treating her like an adult he invites her to join his softball team , even gets her a dog from an animal shelter and begins taking harmless Polaroid pictures of her. Howie is even introduced to Jennifer’s mother who takes him as a friendly , harmless man who has given her daughter a new interest in sports.

Due to the beginning of the movie we know exactly what Howie is up to , his real job is filming dirty movies starring all the children he’s seduced into his trust. And when they are burned up ( too drugged out , and emotional ) they are tossed away. Even Howie is unsure of allowing his ‘Angel’ as he calls her to possibly succumb to this fate and wants to keep her for himself , his boss laughs at him and urges him to start her and soon. Jennifer is reluctant at first until her mother drops the bombshell that she is marrying her new boyfriend ( who’s not a bad sort , but Jennifer just isn’t ready for the change. ). After seeing some of the children at the house where they film the movies ( the little boy looks slightly like a Chad Allen - real cute) , Jennifer is eager to become a star ( not for what they have in mind! ) but becomes uneasy by one of the children a curvy twelve year old pro painting her toenails who purrs flash ‘em some skin and you can have anything you want. Jennifer is soon urged to kiss the Chad Allen lookalike while Howie takes photos , Jennifer doesn’t really mind and the boy is strangely kind and friendly ( one wonders what goes through this little boy’s mind when he asks in a hopeful eager rush if Jennifer is coming to live with them?! ) Pretty soon the two kids don’t need urges to kiss anymore and finally Howie takes it a step further. Faced with Howie telling them both to take off their suits at a secluded pond the boy doesn’t hesitate , Jennifer embarrassed says no. But Howie puts on the pressure claiming to be her only friend , and that if he’s not friends with her , her dog Fred would have to go back to the pound and you know what they do there - Jennifer cries stop and struggles for a moment before giving in trembling with embarrassment.

Later on we see Jennifer playing rather aggressively with Fred after her mother has come home to confront her , her boyfriend has shown her a dirty magazine left behind at a truck stop that he noticed some of his crew members passing around and laughing about and points out an advertisement for a movie called Lollipop Lovers and says Tell me that’s not Jennifer.
Confronted with the ad , Jennifer scoffs it telling her mother she’s crazy in a jovial way, lying with ease. But faced with the fact that her mother is now suspicious Jennifer writes a goodbye note admitting she won’t be able to face her and runs off to Howie.

In this one scene we discover the kind of damage that has been done to Jennifer she has gone from a carefree shy young girl to a manipulative survivor. When Howie urges her to go home , she demands he put her up at his place and then turns on the charm knowing Howie has a soft spot for her. Running her fingers seductively up and down his chest she says I’m getting better and older - a lot of dubious promise in that statement. Up until now, we, as viewers assume that any action Jennifer has had was with the boy , who is her own age, not with Howie , not with a grown man. It’s enough to make your stomach do a flip to see that she is a breath away from becoming the tart , the pro whose only motivation seemed to be getting things. Howie takes her back to his place where three other ‘stars’ live , three boys one of them Jennifer’s kind co-star. He orders them pizza and as soon as he is alone with Jennifer begins to put the moves on her.
Meanwhile Jennifer’s mom has been searching everywhere and do to the fact that a run-in with Howie has made her suspicious - he admits hesitantly to taking the harmless Polaroids of Jennifer that she manages to wrangle his address out of an overworked police officer.
As Howie is all set to kiss Jennifer the doorbell rings , he gets up to answer it , hears a mumbled reply to who’s there and opens the door to let Jen’s mom come flying in. Enraged and pissed off - it seems she was peeking through the window , she hits him with her purse as Howie cowers , even Jennifer tells her to stop it. The three boys come out to see what all the commotion is about and the mother grabs all of them and leads them out telling Howie that he is sick! Sick! But Howie protests that he loves them , loves them all , they’re all he has and stumbles over to the door to watch them leave.

The end comes to a decision that has to be made wether or not Jennifer will testify against Howie. Her mother says absolutely not and wants to put it behind her , the boys have disappeared and if something isn’t done he’ll walk. Howie even manages bail by his disgusted lawyer who is irritated by Howie’s inability to see that what he does is wrong and tells him the first girl at the beginning of the movie - Michelle is now in a nut house. Howie literally shakes with this knowledge on the brink of cracking himself. Jennifer finally resolves the issue of accepting her soon to be step dad by asking him what he thinks she should do testify or not? Weighed with the responsibility of now being asked for his opinion knowing he’s taking the opposite stance as her mother , he tenderly tells her yes she should testify.

Jennifer out and about thinking with Fred sitting in the basket on the front of her bike she runs into Howie who grabs Fred and tries to manipulate/intimidate her into not testifying , he makes no real threats but implies that people with think she’s a whore and it will be embarrassing. Jennifer realizes that Howie won’t hurt her and gently takes back Fred. She tells him that she believes he truly loves them ( her and the others ) but he needs to discover it’s not right and she says maybe I was whore - she trails off barely getting it out - but I’m not anymore. With that she rides away stunning Howie. The last scene is her passing Howie in the courtroom to testify.
Terrificly well-done, well acted movie displays many emotions - Jennifer doesn’t just hate Howie that’s the kicker, part of her still thinks of Howie as a friend , she passes him on the way to take the stand in court with an almost apologetic smile. Their only fault lies in showing Howie in a too sympathetic light , and he’s left as scapegoat for the other monsters who financially back perverts like Howie to get away.

Jennifer is played by Dana Hill ( Audrey in National European Vacation ) she is adorable with apple cheeks and a charming overbite. She looks like a common twelve year old -the way I remember being at twelve year old - flat chested , thinnish , puppy fat , small. I look at kids nowadays and I’m a loss guessing ages! It must be those steroids they shoot into our beef - twelve year olds now are tall , husky and developed!

Another shady photog pops up in an episode of the Equalizer - remember that show I just loved it! It was so 80's icy-noir I think they filmed most of the episodes during the months of November in New York just to give it that frosty look - also so McCall could legitimately wear his trade mark trench coat. If you don’t know or remember it , the show was about an ex- C.I.A?
Agent Robert McCall whose retired and runs an ad in the paper Odds against you? Need help call the Equalizer. Basically he was a bit of a vigilante mixed with strong arm. The first season’s out and it’s worth buying or at least renting. This episode isn’t out yet - The episode starts with a twelve year old girl running away from home taking the bus to N.Y. to escape her violent father who spends most of his time yelling / arguing with his wife. After sleeping in an alley she meets Judy a streetwise 14 yr old prostitute ( from the looks of it ) in a coffee shop. Judy is dressed in tight jeans a bomber jacket , has teased hair with a short side ponytail section held up with a small plastic bow shaped barrette , she carries a hard little clam shell round purse and smokes cigarettes , she urges the girl to do like the best line in a movie she ever hear go home ( E.T. ) but the young girl is stubborn and naive and Judy takes her to a ‘photographer’s place though she grinds her teeth for the young man to give the girl a ‘straight’ job.
Meanwhile her mother calls up the Equalizer. Unfortunately as he drops by to talk to them , the girl after a night on the town decides maybe she just better go home and starts to head for their hotel room hears them violently arguing and runs back out of the building. ( I think they’d left their whereabouts on their answering machine. ) McCall recognizes her and wants to know why their daughter changed her mind about coming home causing the parents to take a good look at themselves.

The young girl stays with the photographer , he feed her and though she is uneasy is eager to work. At first the pictures come across like ad’s for a Sears catalog , The girl poses grinning in jeans holding a big teddy bear. He takes the pictures and shows them to his boss who runs an underground magazine behind the facade of an actual magazine. He comes across like the actual pervert going hmmm over the pictures and demands the photographer to speed up her progress. After posing in a tank style bathing suit the young man starts the next step holding out a flimsy blue nightie set for her to put on. The young girl gulps, you can see right through it. He keeps urging, she takes it and goes off to change only the room she picked holds some copies of her fate - the dire magazines. The young girl comes out fully dressed wearing her coat -( I loved that coat - it was featured in Sears I had one just like it , it was red kindof a felt material heavy wool I think with frog closures mine looked like something Little Red Riding hood would wear.)
The man is furious and starts to strong arm her , till McCall comes in, gun drawn, to save the day. Forcing the guy to tell him who and where his boss is , McCall crashes the bosses glamorous party , publicizing his new magazine. McCall however has a stack of dirty photos which he flings at the party guests informing them of the man’s after hours publishing.

The girl is reunited with her family and though wants them all to go home together , the father has enough sense to admit he has to get help first. Just enough wise-up stories to make any girl cautious in the 80's who wanted to be the next Brooke Shields.

Hope you like the photos - some are from Fallen Angel , some are from the Equalizer episode.

JESSICA WAKEFIELD SECRET MINI-POPS WANNABEE - 80'S ROCKIN' KITSCH & HEY BABE 1980

Remember the mini-pops? they were kind of a guilty indulgence , you just couldn’t win with something so kitschy. Depending on your age, most kids over twelve thought they were annoying , grown-ups thought they were annoying and creepy - after all little girls dressed up with lipstick , lisping through Sheena Easton’s Morning Train had most cringing with hope that they eliminated the lyrics - ‘Night time is the right time ...we make love.’ But for kids under twelve and perhaps a few mums-the-word twelve year olds they were a heady rush of jubilant wish fulfillment. I mean who didn’t want to dress up like Madonna and pretend to be a star?
Best of all they had an audience who were buying their records - they weren’t just wishing , they technically were stars - it was the kind of dream fantasy every kid goes through only the mini-pops were living it. I can recall only one video - I admit it I watched the mini-pops - guilty! It was a twelve year old girl doing Material Girl and they’d decked her out like Madonna. White boxy tank top baring a strip of midriff , white lace capri pants , a white crinoline , and a scrap of white lace tying up her tawny tangle of Madonna curls. They’d even drawn on a little mole. She even had the vixen stare down perfectly! I remember thinking how cool she looked - perhaps even better than Madonna because it was so unexpected. It’s takes a twelve year old a great deal more effort to look cool.

The 80's were the perfect time for kitschy kid music I don’t know if the minipops spawned other things but it certainly got the ball rolling and snowballed a lot of other bizarre/likable ventures.

How about Kid’s Incorporated? If you don’t remember or want a memory jog open another tab go to You Tube and type it in. You won’t be disappointed! Those kids were talented! Renee Sands is great - she nails all the Madonna songs with her slightly husky voice. And Stacy Fergeson as in yup Fergie does a good job of the bouncier songs like Belinda Carlisle’s Heaven is a Place on earth. Forget some of the cheesier elements of the show and just enjoy the whole feel of it. The outfits! I think that’s why I love the 80's so much it was such a fun time for fashion , for music , for series fiction everything was just so light hearted. I shudder when I think of some of the outfits kids will have to look back on nowadays - jogging pants with the words Juicy on their butt , pants cut so they can show off the wedgie-inducing thong. Check out some of the Kid’s incorporated performing outfits -
Side ponytails , fluffy perms , denim jackets studded with rhinestones , blue sequined vests , short-jumpsuits with wide belts in hot colors like pink and blue. Hoop earrings , cotton t shirt dresses , layered socks , men’s tail shirts with rolled cuffs. Grey denim. Bold colorful prints , cinch belts , skinny cotton pants.

The rocker influence had seeped everywhere - partially or maybe all to do with the fact that MTV had come out and music videos suddenly became a part of our t.v. schedule - cartoons even became musical - Kidd Video immersed live action and cartoon - I dare you to listen to the theme song and not tap your toe. Corny but it’s the 80's who cares! The incredible , unimitatable Jem and their original songs. The format was even something akin to a new kind of musical - chopping up into an outrageous music video moments - things that could only happen in a music video - Pizazz growing giant size to knock Jem & Kimber’s hand glider’s out of the sky etc. Barbie and the Rockers followed suit and then their were the regular cartoons that you could say well nobody could relate to those - however Muppet Babies with their catchy songs - Merry-Go-Round , Trackin’ , and especially fueled by the fact that they behaved like children much older than their labeling of tots - they’re fantasies were fueled by pop culture , movies , Miss Piggy even imagined once she was Molly Ringwald in Pretty in Pink playing out the scene where Andrew McCarthy asks her out. She even often dressed like a rock star - Madonna and dreamed of stardom. Alvin and Chipmunks were preteen like faux-children who lived like mini-popstars , traveling, giving concerts, escaping raving fans etc. I even remember an episode of the Gummi Bears where Sunni Gummi ( the young preteen gummi bear who seemed your typical child of the 80's she even sported what looked like a flippy Vidal Sassoon pompadour , her sherwood-knottingham garment looked like an 80's dress with a shredded hem paired with a nifty slouching belt ) , decided to enter a costume contest. Her outfit is a mishmash of everything 80's epaulets , crinoline , mardi gras beads , lace gloves , hair clips. The other gummi’s burst out laughing. Frustrated and hurt , she declares someday it will be what everyone is wearing -well everyone imitating Cyndi Lauper.

One of my favorite 80's movies that reminds me most of the minipop phenomenon is a movie called Hey Babe - it was done in 1980 and stars Buddy Hackett and Yasmine Bleeth - believe it or not in her first major role. Basically they were taking the formula that had made Brooke Shields famous and made their own little rip off movie. Yasmine Bleeth plays 12 year old Teresa a cynical , streetwise orphan who lives in a group home that resembles a correctional facility where the sullen inmates sit in hallways and smoke up. Teresa however is not content to stay at the facility and usually escapes - at the beginning of the movie she literally crashes the filming of a music video by sliding down a bar of neon! ( you have to see it to believe it ) , grabs the mike from the bewildered singer and takes over singing. She is thrown out of the building but not before eyeing a poster advertising a theater school. Managing to squeeze herself into the theater school by lying that her mother is a producer she still has to come up with the dough to pay for the school. The next thing we see is Teresa dancing in a new wave shop - love the disco-y song they’re playing I think it’s Two hearts Explode by Experimental Warriors which I can’t find anywhere, along with the glitter faced shop clerks , distracting them she winds a boa around one after clamping on a flashing pin & belt ( pretty cool accessory - but we’ve come a long way from merely blinking belts ) she grabs a pile of accessories ( scarfs , pins , bangles ) and rolls out the door on her roller skates.The shop clerk gives chase but Teresa hops in the open side of a Coke truck helps herself to one and drinks it down before flipping it over head behind her when she realizes the truck is coming to a stop and the shop clerk is picking up speed. ( I love the way the music plays a part in this scene as the song builds up to it’s title - two hearts explode - the Coke bottle smashes on the pavement. ) She winds up hiding in an abandoned building which turns out to be an old theater and home to Buddy Hackett - Sammy Cohen- an ex-vaudeville star turned alcoholic homeless man. He’s quirky , lippy and at first frightens Teresa - not that she can’t take care of herself she pulls a knife on him and as he says I want to make you a star she says - talk to my a** they ain’t got no ears! But she’s intrigued and when he follows her home on a subway she gives him five minutes in an eatery , but basically brushes him off. Still hoping to get some dough for her classes and having hocked the stolen accessories , Teresa comes up with a rather bizarre idea ( for what’s advertised as a family movie! ) by taking the boys to the basement and doing a striptease with a padded bra , a slip and stripped socks for gloves. Unfortunately her punchline - taking off her slip to reveal a nude body stocking with comic-ly drawn breasts as circles leaves the boys grumbling and taking back their money. Faced with the realization she’ll have to actually strip , Teresa humiliated starts to peel only to have her careworker storm in.

Having been thrown into a solitary cell , a lock down , Teresa is rescued by her ardent admirer and takes her belongings and moves in with Sammy. He is outraged but also enjoys the company , while he sleeps in a hammock Teresa lines an empty bathtube with dark red velvet to sleep in. Thus starts their weird make-shift union. Her ,playing wifey, rather like Shirley Temple, cooks , cleans ,while he grumbles and plays the sour-puss , his temperament wavering every time he thinks of his lady love and partner from the old days.

Then Teresa hocks his beloved victrola for her tuition money and Sammy spanks her shouting you must learn people are more important than money - Teresa in tears outraged - shouts that he’s a crummy old drunk. But she sort of apologizes / explains and they team up starting a street act, vaudeville style, and make enough money to get his victrola out of hock. At school the teachers notice her style is becoming more polished , and secretly Sammy is calling in some old contacts for Teresa - unfortunately she takes one look at his contact - a woman, gets jealous and while they’re in a disco club with flashing colored floors , lighted tables and three transvestites singing oh Daddy , 40's style, she lights the woman’s polyester jacket on fire and it burns up like lightening creating havoc. It’s such a bizarre, beautifully strange scene. How is she allowed in such a club? And Transvestites - ai yi yi.

While the kids back at the group home are sent off to find Teresa , Teresa celebrates getting a part in her theaters production of Cinderella - a small part - however the celebration is her washing Sammy’s back in the tub which is full of bubbles. As Sammy playfully pulls her in , several men from the group home accompanied by police officers show up and catch them in the tub only they both stand up - Both are wearing clothes - Sammy has on one of those old fashioned striped bathing suits.

Told she can never see him again , as if , she goes straight out and sees him , and later manages to get the lead in the school play when the lead ( a barely fifteen years old girl) gets pregnant and can no longer fit in her Cinderella gown. Rushing to tell Sammy the good news who meanwhile has gone and bought Teresa a present - an old fashioned make-up case complete with make-up has fallen down in the alley walking home and died.

Teresa finds other homeless people in Sammy’s place listening to his victrola dancing , divvying up Sammy’s belongings and learns what happened. Dressed in her sensational Cinderella gown - looking like the princess in The Neverending Story - I love those jeweled forehead pieces! - she goes to the morgue says her goodbye’s to Sammy, where the morgue attendant gives her the present. Teresa unwraps it and almost gives up wallowing in her grounding until recalling Sammy’s show- must- go-on attitude incorporates her ever-loving devotee for help. He steals the group home school bus and drives Teresa to the theater. The play goes off without a hitch till at the end - her furious careworker storms in huffing and puffing ready to yank her off the stage. Teresa startled freezes then improvises and starts singing a rather jazzy song - that has nothing to do with the play but livens up the audience till they are dancing in the aisles , she strips off her Cinderella gown and does some jazz-baby dances in her slip and the movie ends with how it starts a music video - only the dream realized has come full circle - what Teresa hoped to be most of all - a star , has come true. Over the end credits she is singing a pop version of the song Sammy loved ( I gotta whole lot...I gotta whole lot of you babe ) dressed in a spunky pop art style black and white jumper with full skirt in emphasized tiers rimmed with black ribbon , a headpiece of pop art style daisies - she is surrounded by matching girls surrounding her platform like Busby Berkley babes brandishing lit sparklers. The woman who’d kicked her out of the crashed music video before is now watching behind the scenes, pleased.

*The strangest thing ever was to call this a family film - there is a strange Lolita-ish moment when Teresa offers herself to Sammy to make-love he turns her down saying - there are many reasons a woman gives herself to a man one is because he’s the most important man in the whole world to her and another cause he’s the least important man. I’m not the most important.
Not bad advice. And it also saves the movie from becoming too creepy.

I adore Yasmine Bleeth’s wardrobe in this movie! It’s so kid playing dress-up. And because it hinges on 1980 it’s still got that 70's influence but it’s also got that glitter/glam punk look. Teresa has a black leather jacket with the Rolling Stone’s tongue on the back , she also wears a black Rocky Horror Picture show t shirt. Ringed knee socks that are pink and purple glitter over white fishnet stockings , blue denim hot pants with a heart decal on the back. Strappy two inch heels , a purple sequined soft beret , a purple , silver and pink sequined boob tube , with a string of plastic fruit roped around her neck like some daffy sort-a boa , glitzy glittery scarfs , feather roach clips , Lolita heart shaped sunglasses , her make-up is glitter-glam. Two fuchsia lighting bolts on her cheeks , blue glitter lips , and later heavy red lipstick , a half moon beauty mark , rhinestones glued on her cheekbones , red-hot streaks of blush and when they are performing she paints on a mask of heavy purple glitter.

The best part of the child as star is, for me, the dress up part - but I know for one of my old friends from childhood it would have been the performing part every time she came over to my house she wanted to sing for my dad. He was too polite to say anything to her face , he would merely glower and later tell my mom , would you get her outta here! She had a very supportive mother however , one that lied through her teeth and told her she sung like an angel.
She was terrible! She needed a group that could drown her out to sound good. I loved the idea of being a rock star - my mother had this old heavy crocheted black gown, I put that on , really troweled in on the drabs of her make-up ends - blush like tire tracks , eye shadow bright as tent awnings , and every gob of junk jewelry I could get my hands on. Fancying myself as the next mini-Madonna I discovered I couldn’t sing and would not even punish my own ears with my warbling, instead I loved lip syncing , my friend and I would line up our stuffed animals and put on a gala performance - oddly enough I don’t recall lip syncing to a Madonna song - our favorite was Tina Turner’s Typical Male.

**I didn’t forget the book element - here goes - Sweet Valley Twins - Jessica the Rock Star - a definite mini-pop. Jessica has to be one of the most infuriating characters ever written in teen series-dom - of course I didn’t miss an episode - be it Sweet Valley High or Sweet Valley Twins - I could never decide which Jessica was my favorite - 12 year old Jess with her Unicorn posse or 16 yr old Jess, always making a fool out of herself in her ever-loving quest for her 15 minutes of fame. This book Jessica the Rock star ( svt ) came out in November of 89 as we were about to kiss the 80's goodbye. The story starts up with Jessica keeping Liz awake reliving their exciting night at a Melody Power concert - did 12 year old go to concerts? I remember once wanting so badly to go to a Debbie Gibson concert that was playing in Toronto I was tempted even to go as a mini-Debbie complete with ripped jeans , painted knee - the whole sha-bang. Nobody in my family ever liked driving to Toronto so it was out even if the tickets weren’t outrageously high. I always wondered who was Melody Power modeled after - I mean she goes back to the 80's so I’m trying to pin point her first mention in the series to really nail it down. Unfortunately I don’t have time to skim through every book nor do I even have every book below 34. But considering the heavy make-up the pile up of scarves bracelets , and colors one would assume Melody Power is modeled after Cyndi Lauper who’s album I Drove all Night was released in 1989. Of course she could also be modeled after Madonna who’s Album Like A Prayer came out in 1989 - could also be Debbie Gibson - Electric Youth , Stacey Q? Mmmm? Hard to tell - parents who approve of a singer in the 80's? So she couldn’t be too tarty. Melody Power is described as growly voice with purple hair , knotted scarves? , and an album called Powerful my guess it’s she’s just a mishmash of all female singers. Young , hip , outrageous.

Jess’s rock star look - a Melody Power t shirt , her shortest miniskirt , electric pink tights , and matching high top sneakers , in addition it looked like she’d put on every necklace and scarf she owned - including a few of Liz’s who gasps that’s my coral necklace! Elizabeth laughs at Jess’s eyeshadow overdose and tells her the heavy layer of lavender makes her look like she has a black eye. Jessica wipes off the shadow but warns ‘when I’m a big star , you’ll be sorry you didn’t appreciate me."

At school Jess is basking in the attention she receives from having dressed like Melody Power ( accept for the Melody Power t shirt ) , Lila is pouting and struggling to change the subject because her father couldn’t get tickets and she feels left out. Jessica not wanting to let the attention slip from her grasp dramatically announces that - drumroll- she has decided to become a rock star. This gets a mixture of gasps and Lila’s wonderful statement - ‘Forget it Jess , you’ll never make it!’

Her family wavers in their support as well , Steven laughs ‘that it looks like the contents of her closet fell on her , oh what do you know? Jessica grumbles - enough not to wear thirteen colors at once.’ Jessica’s plans however start to grate on even her closest friends nerves when attempts to steer the conversation back to Melody Power are suddenly derailed. Nobody can keep Jessica down for too long and before you know it - basically an eyeblink later she finds an advertisement wanting a girl singer. Boy band alert! Aaron Dallas , Peter Jeffries , Scott Joslin and Bruce Patman - I love how sometimes in series people who don’t have much to do with one another will suddenly get thrown together. The band’s name is pretty cool though NRG.
Jessica’s competition - Sandra Ferris and Dana Larson natch - I almost fell over when I read Dana Larson’s outfit - blue jeans and a simple cotton sweater - what happened to Dana’s leopard print!

Disaster strikes the auditions - like any teen band - nobody wants them in their house , garage , block and Jessica spotting an opportunity airly says ‘you can hold the auditions at my house my parents are pretty cool’. Without telling anyone - of course, and Liz is upstairs with a good book and is nearly given a heart attack by the first deafening cords. The auditions play out and Jess of course is hired Liz ( not an Amanda Howard mystery reader for nothing ) has suspicions that Jessica is only part of the band for the use of her basement.
Liz pokes around in the following days of practice to discover that Jess has been reduced to status of groupie painting the bands names on their instrument cases ( perhaps with a bit more artwork - she could windup with a cool skeleton drumcase like the one in Desperately Seeking Susan ) , she even brings them cookies and when Bruce mockingly calls her a real gem - Jessica contemplates it as a stage name. Gem , Gem , Truly Outrageous!

Jessica happily relishes her delusions of rock star status not helped by the fact that after she sings Bruce suppressing a shudder tells her she sounds like a pro , while Liz is torn trying to decide wether she should tell Jessica how awful she sounds. While Jessica puts up posters she painted at a mall , and gets them a job , the boys are still treating her like a slave yet refusing to let her sing and annoyed that she might skip a rehearsal for a Unicorn club meeting because she won’t be there to shlep their drinks. After recording herself on tape Jessica finally realizes how awful she sounds trying to imitate Melody Power’s husky voice.

Then that coninkadink moment that might have you rolling your eyes - Elizabeth just happens to overhear Bruce and the others shopping for band uniforms , plotting to exclude Jessica from the party by giving her the wrong time so that she can save Jess. But really how else would you do it - predictable but nice - Jess’s none Melody Power performing outfit is cool
- Blue and red sweater , blue denim miniskirt , blue suede shoes , a silver and coral belt , a silver necklace and silver bracelets. But for all of Jessica’s bravado she suddenly needs Liz to come along for support and Liz is only to willing to come watch the show. As a twist the overly confident band wasn’t doing too well before Jessica showed up and suddenly her singing livens everyone up , people are dancing and calling out ya Gem! Even Lila who wrangled an invite to the party is impressed. The book ends with Jessica - er - Gem a hit and in the basement Bruce is now fetching lemonade and everyone is eager to get Jessica’s approval and advice. Jessica however has had it with singing and wants to go back to the Unicorns - ‘why didn’t you tell us that before we brought all our stuff over.’ Bruce demands ‘I though you could use my advice’ Jessica says cheekily squeezing them out as the Unicorns pile in to plan one of their many upcoming parties.
Pretty cute , and at the time nice to see a girl get one up on boys that are blatantly using her.

Hope you like the photos it’s my first attempt with photo shop so it’s not quite perfect - I had to make the album cover sorta peachy because white kept bleaching things out. The ‘stars’ were taken from various book covers - Jessica from Jessica the Rock star - Lila from Lila’s Music Video , Allie from the Party Line - Allie’s Big Break , Deena from the Cranberry Cousins and Lynn - from Alone in the Crowd , Andrea from Rock Star’s Girl and Dana from Starting Over. SVH
The others are from Hey Babe - and that’s Yasmine Bleeth.