The television series The Summer I Turned Pretty has introduced a new generation of fans—whether they’re Team Conrad or Team Jeremiah—to the Golden Age Charles Strouse-Lee Adams-Michael Stewart musical Bye Bye Birdie. The Amazon Prime series isn’t shy about paying tribute to classic films and musicals—with nods to Casablanca, The Notebook, It Happened One Night, Sabrina, Funny Face, and many more.
But theatre lovers may notice that the show’s third and final season pays repeated homage to one classic musical: Bye Bye Birdie.
The connections go far beyond just the name of the musical’s title character (yes, one of the central characters is literally named Conrad). But the parallels run deeper. Like teen idol Conrad Birdie, The Summer I Turned Pretty’s Conrad Fisher (Christopher Briney, from Off-Broadway's Dilaria) has a magnetic, almost hypnotic, pull on the show’s main character, Belly Conklin (played by Hadestown former cast member Lola Tung). Belly shares many personality traits with Birdie's Kim McAfee. Both Kim and Belly are 16 years old when we meet them. Just on the edge of “that happy grown-up female feeling,” these young women still have a lot to learn about love, life, and relationships.
However, there is very little that the two Conrads share in personality besides their pull on their love interests. Birdie is a motorcycle-riding, arrogant rockstar, whereas Fisher is a quiet, 1990s Leonardo DiCaprio-esque sensitive young man. At the same time, Conrad’s brother in Summer, Jeremiah Fisher (played by Gavin Casalegno), does resemble Birdie's Hugo Peabody: fiercely possessive, jealous, and resentful of Conrad's hold on Belly.
Despite Belly being engaged to Jeremiah throughout much of Season 3—a parallel to Hugo “pinning” Kim in Bye Bye Birdie—her emotional compass points to Conrad. Belly, like Kim, constantly denies her feelings for Conrad to Jeremiah. The result? Broken engagements and bruised egos, culminating with Jeremiah—like Hugo before him—punching his romantic rival, his own brother.
Season 3 of Summer also features some visual Easter Eggs to Birdie. In Episode 2, we catch a quick glimpse of a Bye Bye Birdie poster on Belly’s college bedroom door.
But the most poignant nod arrives in Episode 6, in a flashback to a movie night Belly shared with her mom, Laurel. Every Wednesday night during her childhood, they would watch a classic musical together. Belly’s favorite? You guessed it: Bye Bye Birdie.
As the scene plays out, we see young Belly beaming while the song “We Love You, Conrad” plays on the screen. In the original books by Jenny Han, this song is Belly’s favorite to sing around the house—not to Conrad Birdie, but to her own Conrad Fisher, the boy of her “preteen dreams.” The series changes this moment by showing young Belly singing the title song into her bathroom mirror, belting out “Why’d you have to go?” and “Guess I’ll always care” into her child-sized toothbrush. Rather than simply expressing a youthful crush like in the books, the show layers in deeper themes of longing and enduring love. No matter how far apart they grow, Belly will always carry a piece of Conrad in her heart.
This makes the later scene where Conrad says (what he thinks are) his final goodbyes to Belly on her wedding day all the more sad. After Conrad kisses her on the forehead and leaves the room, Belly’s voice-over says, “bye-bye, Birdie”—a final goodbye to her childhood love.
Despite the parallels, the characters of Bye Bye Birdie and The Summer I Turned Pretty have very different fates. Kim chooses the safe, reliable Hugo, who represents the ideal teen boy of the early '60s, over the morally loose rock 'n' roller Conrad. This ending adheres to the strict societal values of small-town America at the time. In The Summer I Turned Pretty (spoiler alert) this time Conrad gets the girl. Belly chooses the one who makes her feel alive and challenges her, over the well-meaning, but overly protective, “good guy” Jeremiah. This change not only subverts the expectations for fans of the musical, but it also allows for a different kind of ending: a 21st-century happy ending for a modern ingenue.
Many younger viewers may have never encountered Bye Bye Birdie before watching The Summer I Turned Pretty. They have now been introduced to its legacy through Belly’s journey—one that echoes Kim McAfee’s coming-of-age story, reimagined with modern dynamics. By weaving in meaningful Easter Eggs and thematic parallels, The Summer I Turned Pretty invites fans to discover Belly’s favorite classic musical for themselves and understand how it has shaped her view of love.
In doing so, the series doesn’t just reference Bye Bye Birdie—it reintroduces and revitalizes it for a new generation.
In the hours following the premiere of the final episode on September 17, The Summer I Turned Pretty's official Instagram confirmed that Belly's story isn't over just yet; a movie is in the works to wrap up the series. Here's hoping it brings even more musical reference. Clearly, many fans are not ready to say "bye bye Belly" just yet.
