Meet the sisters from Sumner who are obsessed with New Kids on the Block

In the 1960’s there was Beatlemania. And in the 1980’s, girls swarmed and screamed for the five teen heartthrobs known as the New Kids on the Block.

“I was, I think, 12 when it started and was immediately drawn to it. Me and all my girlfriends, we were obsessed with New Kids on the Block,” says Sumner’s Telley Driskell.

Now, at 39 years old, Telley is still obsessed.

“Joey McIntyre’s my guy and then I have huge Donny tendencies because he’s just so amazing. He’s a bad boy but he’s a sweetheart and he’s just so involved in us, in his fans.”

When the New Kids broke up in 1994, Telley moved on. But when they got back together, in 2008, she hopped right back on the bandwagon. She actually has an entire room in her apartment dedicated to her New Kids paraphernalia.

“This is my second bedroom in my two bedroom apartment, which I live in by myself. This room is completely and 100% dedicated to New Kids on the Block. So this is the bed, I’ve got a [New Kids on the Block] sleeping bag, sheets, vintage, it’s like ’82ish, ’84ish. We have the New Kids on the Block phone, it works but you have to have a landline.”

The room is covered in posters from then and now, she has the New Kids trading cards and puzzles, lunch boxes and action figures, cassette tapes and DVDs. It appears she has everything, but she still wants more.

Telley’s sister, 33-year-old Sarah Dutcher, lives next door. The sisters also work together and share their intense love for the New Kids.

“If I have a bad day I’ll come over to Telley’s and I will be like ‘Let’s just sit in the New Kids room. Let’s drink some time, let’s talk,’ Sarah says. “The New Kids room,” Telley sighs. “It’s everything to me.”

That’s a clip of the sisters on the new reality show, “Rock This Boat.” The show documents the annual New Kids on the Block cruise, and the superfans who attend. The cruise literally sells out in 10 minutes. And out of 3,000 screaming fans, 99% of them women, Sarah and Telley were chosen for the reality show. They’re being branded as the “Seattle Superfans.” Sara left her husband and two kids at home when she went on the cruise. As for Telley:

“I don’t have babies and I don’t have a husband because I’m married to Joey McIntyre,” Telley laughs. “Kinda. He doesn’t know it yet. I’m his second wife.”

Okay, so what is it? What is this fandom about? I was a huge fan in 1989, when I was 9 years old. But the boy band fantasies just don’t hold up for me anymore.

“When they came back to us in 2008 you went to that very first concert and all of a sudden you were brought back to when you were 15. You’ve had bills and mortgages and stresses and marriages and divorces. All of these awful and great things in life that have made you a grown-up. You’re now brought back to being a 15-year-old. You’re free and you’re excited and you’re happy and you have something to look forward to. So it was like the best feeling ever.”

And the sisters are passing the fandom on to the next generation. I asked Sarah’s 7 year old daughter, Lilly, if she likes the New Kids.

“I don’t like them, I love them.”

See Sarah and Telley get their matching New Kids on the block tattoos on “Rock the Boat,” Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. on Pop TV.