Sweet Valley High, the books & the TV series

[Dustyblue]

I was tempted to put this in the Telly section but this seemed better.

As a massive fan of the books (I have a few hundred of them... they're getting harder and harder to find in decent condition) I've watched many of the TV series episodes. Even though they butchered the books, I'm that much of a fan I kept watching 😁

The actors who played Elizabeth & Jessica, Brittany & Cynthia Daniels, are interviewed here years later. Wow, what a story... Francine Pascal herself didn't come up with this!

Brittany Daniel Had a Baby Using Her Twin Sister Cynthia's Donor Egg (people.com)

Thanks, I've found copies and am definitely ordering. I'm definitely not a Sweet Valley twins. However I am originally from Wakefield and I do have twins. Spooky.

Excellent!
Hopefully it meets your expectations.

Im loving looking through this thread, lots of nostalgia!

flowers in the attic/my sweet Audrina was a favourite among us in school.

Also ‘the fat girl’, does anyone remember that one?

@PaperSky was that Marilyn Sachs? Jeff and Ellen? He was so awful, even though he was the protagonist.

i went to boarding school. First year, Forever was passed around, read out in the dorms and we’d collapse giggling, we all knew the rude pages. I loved the rest of the Judy Blume books too, particularly Then Again, Maybe I won’t, and Otherwise known as Sheila the Great. There’s a fab programme about her on Prime atm.

By 13, we were all inhaling FITA and My Sweet Audrina - seriously fucked up book but oh so readable! I read it quite recently when I was ill in bed and was like WTF….even more messed up than I remembered! 😂😂

I also loved the Lois Duncan books, anyone remember those?

What was My Sweet Audrina about? I honestly don't remember that book.

My Sweet Audrina was full-on wasn't it! Basically, Audrina was gang raped as a young child, and her parents decided to brainwash her into thinking it had happened to her dead younger sister. Put her age forward by a few years, removed clocks from the house, it was insane. Then the other evil relatives, bit of amputee sex, it's really something.

There's tv movie of it too but they left a lot out, too much for even Lifetime!

When you think about it, Virginia Andrews must've been a highly messed up & damaged person. Amazing we were all allowed to read them in our young teens!

@Namechangeforthisthread45 I loved Lois Duncan and still have all those!

Locked in time and stranger with my face were my favourite. Oh and daughters of eve. I didn’t keep mine but have subsequently replaced them, or reread them on Open library. They hold up well I think.

Very sadly LD’s daughter was murdered in a drive by shooting; I don’t think it was ever solved despite LD’s efforts to do so before she died.

She was a more talented writer than many of the others on this thread - which I am greatly enjoying!

@Dustyblue have you had the chance to watch GOS yet?

@newrubylane if you haven't read the second Wakefield saga I highly recommend the Double Love episode on it. It was about 3 hours long and I laughed constantly, particularly over one scene that is completely unexpected!

@Namechangeforthisthread45 I've seen part 1 of 3. Bless them, they just keep going.

So, am up to the bit where Olivia lays down the law to Malcolm about Alicia's pregnancy. Freaking memories, I tells ya! I was utterly swept away. That fucking swan bed! As I recall, this is pretty damn faithful to the book. Also loving some of the clothes and furniture.

Jennifer Roper kills it as Olivia. She can do the dowdy-but-scary look, but I bet if she were made up differently, she'd be a stunner.

Sorry everyone, as you were 😍

Just re-reading this thread & somehow missed your comment @TakingTheHorseToFrance

in one if the books it mentions Jessica put on her jeans and then soaked them wet in a bath and would let them dry while wearing them so they would be skin tight. Like how random is it that is burned into my mind.

Burnt into my head too! She boasted to Lila that she'd sat in a hot bath etc, and would probably never be able to take them off. As if it were the most normal thing in the world. I remember thinking "But but... how long did it take them to dry? Weren't you all manky and disgusting by then?".

It was an early SVH... might look up my collection later to check 😂

jemima Rooper is awesome isn’t she? And yes, she is a stunning looking woman. I wish they’d redo the other four films with the same level of depth - to be, this one is in a different league in terms of quality. I do love the other four films but they are definitely in the ‘so awful that they are brilliant’ camp and done the same way as GOS, they would be genuinely incredible.

Anyway, enjoy the rest - I may have to rewatch them all now!

@Namechangeforthisthread45 I will most certainly enjoy the rest!

Confession- I still have the DVD's of the 1st four. "Petals on the Wind" and "If There Be Thorns" are memorable for Heather Graham's performance as Corrine Foxworth- she was gorgeous but way too young for the part. Although, The Swan Bed was even better!

I do agree though, the period detail in GOS is different & better. God we're both bloody tragics, so glad it's not just me.

I guess in California jeans wouldn’t take too long to dry - probably just had to sit in the garden for a couple of hours and done! Wouldn’t work in Britain…

I'm in Australia. If I soaked myself wearing tight jeans in hot bath, then sat outside in 38 degree sun.... bleurghh.

Yes they'd dry quick but the sweaty mankiness within would be putrid. And they'd be welded to you. Full waxing when you peeled them off. There is no way to make this scenario sensible! 😅

That was A Thing, shrink to fit jeans! You’d get in a bath wearing them.

Jesus, the 80s were weird.

I just got distracted by SVH #19 "Showdown", where Lila picks up a guy called Jack outside her father's office building... he's a lowly construction worker but he's HOT. Lila has one of her brilliant parties & Jessica immediately cock-blocks Lila, by following them into the Fowler mansion in her 'miniscule turquoise bikini". As you do.

"Quickly she picked up the matches, struck one, and then blew it out. She used the charred tip to write her number on the inside of the matchbook cover."

Ah Jessica, you were a classic slut and a lesson to us all.

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I must give a public shout-out to @PaperSky
for telling me how to find the 1978 movie-of-the-week adaption of Judy Blume's book 'Forever'.

I've searched extensively over the years and thought I might go to the grave without seeing it. I ordered the DVD knowing the risk it might not arrive or might be unplayable. But it's here, it plays and I AM SO HAPPY!!!!

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH 😍😂

Ah brill! Hope you enjoy 😊

It had me from the opening track (Fleetwood Mac's thunder only happens when it's raining) and just got better. Reasonably faithful to the book with some weird changes (hiking instead of skiing for example) and some changes that were brilliant.

The hot tub definitely wasn't in the book. That was a vexing scene, did they actually do it in the tub? In the book they did it on Sharon & Ike's bedroom floor.

Loved the 70's vibe! The fondue party was in the book but the Renaissance Fair wasn't- that was fucking awesome.

I'm going to watch it again tonight. Now I just have to find the film of Are You There God It's Me Margaret. Never released in Australia. My next challenge!

I seem to remember that Jessica seduces Liz's uni boyfriend and it was big deal because Liz was still a virgin.

Then in a later series Jessica runs off with Todd. What a horrible cow she is.