| Misadventures in Babysitting | |
| |
| Episode Information | |
| Episode #: | 8 |
|---|---|
| Air Date: | April 6, 2001 |
| Writer(s): | David Blum Stacey Kramer |
| Director: | Mark Rosman |
| Prod. #: | 107 |
| Credits | |
| Starring: | ■ Hilary Duff as Lizzie McGuire ■ Lalaine as Miranda Sanchez |
| Recurring: | ■ Ashlie Brillault as Kate Sanders |
| Guest(s): | ■ Diana C. Weng as Mrs. Shin ■ Randy McPherson as Policeman |
| Episode Guide | |
| Previous: | Aaron Carter's Coming to Town |
| Next: | Election |
| Chronological Order | |
| Previous: | Jack of All Trades |
| Next: | Election |
Misadventures in Babysitting is the eighth episode of the first season of Lizzie McGuire.
Summary
Lizzie finally convinces her parents to let her babysit Matt, but the evening proves more challenging than Lizzie expected. When Sam gets nervous and sneaks back home to check in on Lizzie, things get...wacky.
Synopsis
When a babysitter cancels on the McGuires, Lizzie suggests that she's old enough to do the job watching Matt, but Jo and Sam say no. After much persuasion from Lizzie they relent, Lizzie's best friends Miranda and Gordo come over to help. After Sam and Jo leave, Matt generally causes havoc, spilling grape juice on the rug, acting bratty and taking advantage of Lizzie, who badly wants to impress her parents with her responsibility.
Miranda and Gordo aren't much help, as they won't follow Lizzie's instructions either. At the restaurant, Sam wants to sneak home and check on Lizzie and Matt; Jo doesn't like the idea, but relents, warning Sam not to let the kids see him. Meanwhile at the house, Matt has knocked out the power. Sam tries to peer in the window and injures himself on a lawn gnome. The kids think he's a burglar and call the police. Sam tries to get in the locked house and the kids wage a battle against him reminiscent of the movie Home Alone. The police arrive to arrest Sam. After all is straightened out, Lizzie's parents apologize for not trusting her. They reward her by assigning her to babysit Matt the next week.
Trivia
- This episode was filmed from October 15 - 19, 2000.
- Lizzie is 13 in this episode, and Sam mentions that Matt is 10 years old.
- Mike McGaugthy portrayed the stunt double for Sam McGuire.
- Kate wears her hair straight and down in this episode.
- This episode was based on the 1990 smash hit film Home Alone.
- The McGuire's have previously used the following babysitters:
- Debbie Gottschalk
- Mrs. Givens (who enjoys country-western dancing)
- Mrs. Harvey (who "smells dead")
- Tami from up the street (who makes more money per hour than Jo)
- Mrs. Jaffe (who had let Matt drink a quart of maple syrup)
- Lizzie mispronounces Kate's last name as "Saunders" rather than "Sanders" for the first time here. She consistently mispronounces the name throughout the series.
- The restaurant hostess remarks to Sam and Jo that they "haven't been in since the Year of the Tiger." The most recent Year of the Tiger was 1998, more than two years ago. For the hostess to seat them at their "regular table," they must have been big customers, at one time.
- This episode has no musical montage. Neither is there a Matt-centric subplot, both rarities.
- The episode of Lizzie McGuire aired on Toon Disney on January 9, 2002 and April 6, 2003.
Pop Culture
Title: Misadventures in Babysitting
- Adventures in Babysitting[1] is a 1987 film where Elizabeth Shue plays a babysitter who must battle her way through the big city after being stranded there with the kids she's looking after. Directed by Chris Columbus.
Sam: Where's Mrs. Doubtfire when you need her?
- Mrs. Doubtfire[2] is a 1993 film where Robin Williams plays a divorced father who disguises himself as a nanny in order to be with his children. Also directed by Chris Columbus.
Gordo: Let me guess: That's how tall Tom Cruise is.
- Tom Cruise[3] is an American actor, best known for Top Gun and the Mission: Impossible film franchise. Compared to other action heroes, Cruise is notably short.
Gordo: Tyra Banks would be the mayor [of my perfect town].
- Tyra Banks[4] is an American television personality and hostess of the television series America's Next Top Model.
Lizzie: I won’t follow the trail of breadcrumbs to the gingerbread witch’s house.
- In the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Hansel and Gretel,[5] the brother and sister are kidnapped by a witch who lives in a house made of gingerbread. They are lost in the forest after birds eat the trail of breadcrumbs they had left behind to find their way back out.
Animated Lizzie: I'm Queen of the world!
- In the 1997 film Titanic, Jack Dawson stands on the prow of the ill-fated liner and shouts, "I'm the King of the world!"[6]
Lizzie: You're gonna watch Willy Wonka.
- Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory[7] is a 1971 film about a poor but hopeful boy who seeks one of the five coveted golden tickets that will send him on a tour of a mysterious chocolate factory.
Matt: What is it? I'm scared!
- Matt shines a flashlight under his face during this shot, an homage to The Blair Witch Project,[8] a 1999 faux documentary film.
Matt: I see dead people.
- This line is used in the 1999 film The Sixth Sense,[9] by a boy who communicates with spirits.
Goofs
- When Gordo enters the room saying raccoons wouldn't stay for Miranda's singing, you can see an X on the floor where he stops.
- Miranda sings a terrible off-key version of "My Country 'Tis of Thee", even though it's shown in Random Acts of Miranda that she's actually a good singer. Perhaps she was just trying to raise a ruckus to help scare off whoever was outside, but good singers would usually balk at purposely singing badly, no matter what the reason.
- Matt holds up a book on the end of a vacuum cleaner nozzle, but when the power goes out, the book doesn't fall to the floor like it should, but instead stays on the nozzle, even when Matt drops it.
- When Matt spills grape juice on himself, Gordo agrees to take him upstairs for a clean shirt. But when he comes back, the juice is still on Matt's shirt.
- After the opening credits when Miranda and Lizzie are in the lunch line, Miranda delivers her first line and starts to grin, then looks at the camera for a moment as if she expects the director to say, "Cut!”, but he doesn't and the scene continues.
- In the flashback scene where Miranda is changing her infant sister's diaper, it's actually a doll.
Quotes
Sam: Matt came very close to actually kicking the ball, didn’t you, Champ?
Matt: Oh, yeah....
Sam (mouths): No way.
Lizzie: When will I be old enough to trust? When I'm fifty?
Sam: Maybe...we'll see...