| “ | That's too much, man! | ” |
—Sarah Lynn's catchphrase as Sabrina on "Horsin' Around" | ||
| “ | Suck a dick, dumb shits! | ” |
—Sarah Lynn's catchphrase as an adult | ||
Sarah Lynn was a pop star and actress who played the Horse's precocious adoptive youngest daughter Sabrina on the fictional 90s TV show Horsin' Around and a recurring character in the BoJack Horseman series.
Design
Sarah Lynn had light brown hair with bangs that she wore styled over the side of her head and sea-foam green eyes. She had pale skin and light brown freckles on her cheeks and nose, and she wore red lipstick. She had dark circles underneath her eyes. She also had a tattoo on her right arm of a green and blue snake twisted around one another.
She wore a button-down top with blue sleeves and collar, and one side being light purple with white skulls, and the other side having a lavender and white striped pattern. She also wore black jean-shorts and yellow high top sneakers.
In the early part of her singing career, which was in the early 2000s, she wore outfits pop stars like Britney Spears wore at the time. For an interview with A Ryan Seacrest Type, she wore a white crop top, aqua blue skinny jeans, and open-toed purple high-heels.
As a child on Horsin' Around, she had shorter hair with bangs and her two front teeth stuck out when she smiled. She wore a white t-shirt underneath pink overalls with a pink headband and purple shoes.
Background
History
Sarah Lynn, born Sarah Helmulfarb in 1984, was forced by her mother at age three, to be an actress in Horsin' Around. She played Sabrina, The Horse's youngest daughter.
She expressed interest in being an architect but was shut down by her mother, saying "Mommy didn’t do what she did to the Star Search producer so that you could be an architect".
She was home-schooled, which isolated her from kids her age, by her stepfather, who is described to be a bear and a photographer and it is hinted he may have sexually abused her.
On Horsin' Around, her character, Sabrina, was apparently a fan favorite, as in later seasons, after creator Herb Kazzaz was fired, most of the episodes plots involved around her, much to the jealousy of co-star Joelle Clarke.
Following the show's cancellation in 1996, she became a successful pop singer in the early 2000s at age eighteen, with her debut album I Am Sarah Lynn, adopting a more sexualized image while doing so.
At the height of her singing career in 2007, she had her own fragrance with Kevin Kline titled Sarah Lynn's Stank. However, fame began to take a toll on her, as she became stressed and depressed that the people around her began using her for her fame.
This came to a turning point at one of her concerts in December of 2007. BoJack has just started his comeback show with Cuddlywhiskers, called The BoJack Horseman Show, which was being panned.
After receiving the show's lowest ratings, Cuddlywhiskers decided they needed a big celebrity to guest star, and Jill Pill recommended Sarah Lynn. BoJack was uneasy about this, as she was at the time “the world's biggest pop star" and he hadn’t spoken to her since Horsin’ Around ended.
Cuddkywhiskers convinced him anyway, even saying BoJack was like a father to her. He goes backstage at one of her concerts with a script and meets her, much to her excitement. She tells him how hard being famous is, and says she’s “this close to falling off the deep-end” and how everyone uses her for her fame.
BoJack ends up revealing he only came to visit her to ask her to be on his show. Sarah Lynn is saddened by this, and tells BoJack to leave it next to a large pile of other scripts she was given. She then sadly asks him to leave.
This incident pushed Sarah Lynn over the edge, as she began her downfall. Her "last few albums tanked" according to her then-boyfriend Andrew Garfield, and in her late twenties she became addicted to drugs and alcohol.
During the events of "BoJack Hates the Troops", she met with Herb Kazzaz, who had rectal cancer. He told her to get sober, and to get his book published when he dies.
After she turned thirty in 2014, people lost interest in her in favor of much younger stars such as fourteen-year-old Sextina Aquafina).
Season 1
Sarah Lynn about to take a bunch of pills
In Prickly-Muffin, BoJack, while at a furniture store with Todd, runs into her and her boyfriend Andrew Garfield. During this encounter, Andrew breaks up with Sarah Lynn, saying that when they started dating she was super popular but now that she's thirty and not popular anymore he's no longer interested.
Sarah Lynn starts having a panic attack, swallows a whole bottle of pills, and stabs herself with a bayonet that Todd was holding. She also defecates on a sofa (BoJack reveals this part to Diane when telling her about it). BoJack then checks Sarah Lynn into rehab.
However, later that day she shows up at BoJack's house after leaving rehab prematurely and patching up her stab wounds with duct tape. She asks BoJack if she could stay with him, and he agrees.
However, Sarah Lynn takes advantage of this, and she throws wild parties while there and trashes BoJack's house. BoJack believes she just needs some love, and the two spend time together at the Santa Monica Pier, which leads to BoJack learning Herb Kazzaz has ass cancer and BoJack giving Sarah Lynn his TV Guide award. The next day, BoJack learns Sarah Lynn sold his award to a pawn shop for drug money and it was purchased by Mr. Peanutbutter.
This leads to BoJack and Sarah Lynn having an argument, which ends with them having sex. She later sets his ottoman on fire, but when BoJack confronts her about it, it ends with the two having sex again.
Diane and Todd convince BoJack to tell Sarah Lynn to move out.
When BoJack tells Sarah Lynn she has to leave and get real help, she accepts, while also saying she feels she's at a place where she doesn't need to grow as a person and can constantly surround herself with sycophants and enablers until she dies tragically young.
In Downer Ending, she, BoJack, and Todd do large amounts of drugs in order to help BoJack rewrite his memoir. The drugs are provided by Sarah Lynn's doctor, Dr. Hu.
Season 2
In Still Broken, she, and the rest of the Horsin' Around cast attend Herb's funeral. They all meet up in Herb's bedroom after the funeral, but it leads to hostility, especially between Sarah Lynn and Joelle.
They’re all about to part ways when Herb Kazzaz’s blind executor delivers Sarah Lynn a floppy disk due to his last will and testament, that is said to lead to Herb’s gold.
BoJack, Sarah Lynn, Bradley, and Joelle then go on a treasure hunt for Herb's gold to honor his dying wish. They go to Herb's old office and get into his computer which only has an address for a storage locker in it.
At the storage locker, they find a briefcase labeled “Gold,” though it is empty and only has some bear fur inside. Sarah identifies it as bear fur as her stepdad was a bear. Joelle reads a letter from Henry Wrinkler, talking about a novel Herb wrote.
Sarah Lynn then remembers her conversation with Herb the previous year asking her to publish his novel when he dies. They believe Henry Winkler murdered Herb for his book, but when they go back to the funeral Henry reveals he stole the book because it was actually too terrible to publish.
Season 3
Personality
As a troubled thirty year old pop star, Sarah Lynn appeared on the surface to be selfish, reckless, and self-centered, and would act like a bratty teenager.
In the episode Prickly-Muffin, she makes a public scene in a furniture store of stabbing herself with a bayonet and defecating on a sofa, trashed BoJack's home while throwing wild parties, and constantly takes advantage of him.
She was often seen on her phone and was pretty irresponsible in her actions, such as in Prickly-Muffin when she had holes drilled in BoJack’s wall for a "cocaine sex booth” and set his ottoman on fire with no motives whatsoever.
Other appearances show her acting erratically such as constantly be seen taking drugs or heavily drinking in public, such as cocaine, crushing up a bunch of pills and snorting them, or inhaling spray paint fumes with a paper bag, or driving recklessly as she painted her toenails on the steering wheel.
However, Sarah Lynn was lonely and troubled, and was obviously suffering from substance abuse, which came from the loneliness of fame, as as most of the people in her life only wanted to be around her because they wanted something out of her. She was concerned about what people thought of her.
Sarah Lynn was quite intelligent and had a strong passion for being an architect throughout her life which was never achieved due to being trapped in a life of fame and drugs from a young age. Her speech was littered with standard terms a student majoring in architecture would use.
Flashbacks to her childhood and preteen years on the set of Horsin' Around shows she did not have good parental figures, as her mother was a controlling stage parent who forced her into show business and shot down any of her dreams that weren’t related to fame, and her stepfather was a bear and a "photographer", and it is hinted he sexually abused her as Sarah Lynn knows what bear fur tastes like. He home-schooled her, which isolated her from kids her own age, and in the later seasons of the show Joelle openly showed resentment towards her due to her popularity getting her more screen time.
She looked up to BoJack off-screen as a father figure, and flashbacks indicate that Sarah Lynn's self-destructive behavior is in part the result of BoJack, whom she idolized, neglecting and negatively influencing her as a child. At the tender age of 6, BoJack told her "The most important thing is, you've got to give the people what they want. Even if it kills you, even if it empties you out until there's nothing left to empty. No matter what happens, no matter how much it hurts, you don't stop dancing, and you don't stop smiling, and you give those people what they want".
Later, in 2007, BoJack visits her after one of her concerts and she is initially excited, and reveals how stressful her fame is and how everyone around her is only with her to get something out of her. Unfortunately, BoJack reveals that he wanted her to be on his new show, which saddens her and furthers her internal problem of being used, which ultimately sends her over the edge for the next couple of years, turning to destructive behavior just for attention.
She occasionally showed shades of being a kind, intelligent, and thoughtful person. She did care about the people close to her, like BoJack.
Her last words were "I wanna be an architect".
Filmography
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Horsin' Around | Sabrina |
Discography
- I Am Sarah Lynn (2002)
- Prickly Muffin
- Unknown Album
- My Hiney Ain’t So Tiny
Episode Appearances
Season 1
- BoJack Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Story, Chapter One (cameo, as Sabrina on Horsin Around)
- Prickly-Muffin (official debut)
- Downer Ending
- Later (cameo)
- BoJack Horseman Christmas Special: Sabrina's Christmas Wish (as Sabrina on Horsin Around)
Season 2
- Still Broken
- Yes And (voice only, as Sabrina)
Season 3
- Old Acquaintance
- That's Too Much, Man! (final present day appearance)
- That Went Well (flashback)
Season 4
- What Time Is It Right Now (cameo, as Sabrina on Horsin' Around)
Trivia
Sarah Lynn model sheet
- Her birth name was Sarah Helmulfarb before she changed it legally to Sarah Lynn.
- Her birth name Helmulfarb is a garbled up version of Himmelfarb, a generally Ashkenazi Jewish surname, implying that she may have been raised Jewish. She also mentions that she doesn't want her body to be a temple because she's been to Temple and it's boring; using "Temple" in that context implies a Jewish service.
- Sarah Lynn is a parody of former child stars that later developed substance abuse problems or reputations for scandalous or erotic behavior as a result of the toxic entertainment business.
- Examples could include Jodi Sweetin, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Miley Cyrus and Amanda Bynes.
- The Olsen twins and Jodi Sweetin starred in Full House (which Horsin' Around parodies).
- Sarah Lynn's music and, especially, outfits for the Prickly Muffin music video and A Ryan Seacrest Type interview are also strikingly similar to Britney Spears, noteably the outfits Spears wore in her video for I'm a Slave 4 U.
- In "Prickly-Muffin", BoJack attempted to check Sarah Lynn into a Promises rehab center, the same one Britney Spears and Lindsey Lohan attended for drug and alcohol abuse.
- An early draft of a script for "Prickly Muffin" from BoJack Horseman: The Art Before The Horse notes that Sarah Lynn's videos and image as a teen reflects Christina Aguilera's Dirrty phase, and Sarah Lynn's behavior in the present reflects Miley Cyrus's from around that time.
- Examples could include Jodi Sweetin, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Miley Cyrus and Amanda Bynes.
- Her character on Horsin' Around is a parody of Michelle Tanner from Full House.
Sarah Lynn funeral outfit model sheet
- Sarah Lynn's stepfather was a bear. It is heavily implied that she was sexually abused in her youth by her mother's boyfriend as she apparently knew what bear fur tasted like, and mentioned that he was a “photographer”.
- It is likely he is a parody of Terry Richardson, a photographer and alleged rapist. He is even designed to look like him.
- Sarah Lynn's mother emotionally neglected her as a child.
- Sarah Lynn wanted to be an architect growing up, however, her mother forced her to become a child actress. She references this several times during the series.
- In the episode "Prickly-Muffin" she says she wants to be an architect but her mother criticises her for not wanting to be an actress.
- She is well-versed in technical terminology about architecture, which shows her passion for it.
- In the episode "That's Too Much Man!" she comments on the playground needing parallel joists.
- Right before her death BoJack takes her to the planetarium where she reveals she's interested in the fact the building is a dome.
- Her final words were "I wanna be an architect."
- Sarah Lynn's death was foreshadowed several times throughout the series.
- In Season 1, she predicts that she will die young as a result of her destructive behavior.
- In Season 1, her Prickly Muffin music video takes place in the same planetarium her final moments take place in.
- In Season 2, at Herb's funeral, the cast of Horsin' Around joke about which of them will die next. In this same exchange, she is the only one that doesn't predict that BoJack will die next, instead stating that she's "so high I don't know where I am," foreshadowing her drug related death.
- In "That's Too Much Man", Sarah has a parody of the painting "Ophelia" in her bedroom, which depicts a woman drowning in a lake. Later in the same episode, BoJack sees that Sarah is passed out during their bender and attempts to wake her, fearing she's died.
- Sarah Lynn won an Academy Award for Best Original Song titled The Silly Banana Song (Love Theme) from the film, The Nazi Who Played Yahtzee.
- She overdosed on a strain of Heroin called "BoJack".
- She did not care much for Bradley Hitler-Smith or Joelle Clarke, her Horsin' Around co-stars.
- Her musical career was foreshadowed when she got acclaim on Person magazine for her singing (during the Horsin' Around era.)
