Eliza and Shane

I'm surprised no one has brought this up. At least not to my knowledge.

I'm not really a fan of adding a teen popstar to this show, and I suspect that Shane was added as a character solely because teen popstars were big fads at the time. He wasn't needed. However, that was the least of the problems with adding Shane.

No, the main problem was making him the love interest of Eliza. It has been stated at least twice in the show's run that Eliza is 12 years old. Shane is at least the same age as Debbie, who is 16. That means he is way too old for Eliza.

If the final season of The Wild Thornberrys fast forwarded in time and showed Eliza being a few years older, that may have been different. But no, she was still the same age as she was during the seasons before. It would have made more sense for Shane to start dating Debbie, I don't care if that would have been seen as predictable. She's still the only other teenager around, and he obviously can't date Marianne considering she's taken and a fully grown adult woman.

Eliza didn't need a love interest, she did just fine without one. But what's even worse is that the writers thought it would be a good idea to have it be someone who was significantly older than she was while she was STILL A PRETEEN and hadn't gone through puberty yet, AND have them kiss. 4 years may not seem like a big deal among adults who are dating, but it's a SIGNIFICANT difference for adolescents. I can't believe Nickelodeon actually green-lit this.