Kids Incorporated

 

My favorite show in 1984 was Kids Incorporated (or Kids Inc. for those in the know) and I was obsessed with it.

Cut To Episode Recap List

 

The show was centered around a bunch of kids and teenagers that formed a band and performed most of their sets at a soda shop/small concert venue called The P*lace.  The show was a half an hour long and in that half hour there would be a problem, hi-jinks would ensue and then it would wrap up with a nice little moral and a bow.  All within 30 minutes…with commercials of course.

The show was cheesy AF and not believable in any way shape or form, but it had all the current music that I loved and well, I was only ten so … you know.

The show lasted nine seasons and if I remember correctly, began in syndication.  In my little corner of the world it was broadcasted on Saturday mornings.  Later, after the 2nd season, it was pulled from syndication.  I’m not sure if it was cancelled and then brought back or purchased outright, but eventually I do know that the Disney channel picked it up and brought it back on their network exclusively.

I know this because we did NOT have the Disney channel in my house.  And we did not ever GET the Disney channel in my house.  At that point my parents had divorced and my dad took all his money with him when he left.  My mom was working 60 hours a week just to keep us clothed and fed and we had no money for such extravagant things.

You see, back then the Disney channel was a stand alone paid channel on the cable box.  Like HBO and the other movie channels.  As much as I begged and pleaded (because I was a kid and I didn’t understand that not having money meant you had to make sacrifices) we never did get the channel.

But sometimes…every once and a while, they would do a “FREE PREVIEW WEEKEND!!!!” to try and hook you into purchasing the network.  Those were some glorious weekends and if memory serves they would sometimes have Kids Inc marathon on one of those precious previews.

I eventually stopped watching all together when the last remaining original cast member left.  I just never got invested in the new cast members and by that time I was a teenager.  At that age watching a kids show was “uncool” and “uncool” was the last thing a teenager wants to be.  So I traded out the bubble gum pop stuff for glam metal, but I never forgot my favorite childhood show.

The reason I started watching the show in the first place was mostly because I thought the lead male “Mickey” was too dreamy for words.  Gorgeous AND talented? Sign my little ten year old heart up!  I harbored a crush on him for many years after he left the show.

Mickey (played by the very talented and I would eventually find out, very gay-I still think he would have fallen in love with me anyway-Jerry Sharell) left after season one and I was devastated.  I cried real tears and vowed to hate his replacement Ryan Lambert for the rest of my days on earth.  HOW DARE HE TAKE MY BELOVED JERRY’S PLACE?  HE IS NOT HALF THE SINGER HE WAS!  STUPID SPIKY HAIRED LOSER!  … Yeah, a lot of that.

Of course Jerry had to leave because at that point he was like six feet tall (I have no idea how tall he actually is) and was towering over the rest of the cast.  No matter how talented you are, you have to leave a show called “Kids” Incorporated when you no longer resemble a kid.

And leave the show they all eventually did.  As stated above, I lost interest with the revolving cast after awhile, but for this purpose of this page I am going to try to watch them all now and review them for your reading pleasure.  Well, mostly for my writing pleasure, but if you like it that’s a bonus!

Please note that these will be laced with sarcasm and spoilers and quite possibly a bit of profanity.  I’m reviewing these as my adult self, not the child fangirl I once was.

Enjoy!