Kids Incorporated - Production and Broadcast History

Production and Broadcast History

The original pilot was produced by K-Tel in an attempt to sell compilation albums. The original concept, writing and direction was done by Carmi Zlotnik. Another original producer was Michael Hill. Alan Cordover, an executive of K-Tel participated as a director. The original pilot film for Kids Incorporated was produced in 1983 and shopped to several networks by producers (after buying the property from K-Tel)Thomas W. Lynch and Gary Biller.

The series was not picked up by a major network, but, distributed by MGM/UA Entertainment Co. Television, began a syndicated run in the fall of 1984. The original four cast members, Stacy Ferguson, Marta Marrero, Renee Sands and Jerry Sharell, were joined by Rahsaan Patterson and a company of five backup dancers.

In syndication, the show was usually shown on Tuesday or Sunday evenings; this, of course, depended on decisions made by local television stations. For example, KTRV in Boise, Idaho aired the show at first on Tuesday, then Saturday nights at 6:30 PM, while WNBC in New York City aired it first on Sundays at 1:00 PM then moved it back to 9:00 AM. KPTV in Portland, Oregon first aired it Saturday mornings at 10:30 AM, then moved it back to 9:30 AM. The shuffling time slots affected the ratings, and KI was cancelled the weekend of May 25, 1986. Reruns aired on CBN (now ABC Family) from 1985-1986.

It was due to the positive ratings from the CBN reruns that in the summer of 1986, Kids Incorporated was given a second chance when The Disney Channel acquired the rights to the series. It resumed production with the same cast, and new episodes began airing on November 3, 1986. Disney's buyout package also included the entire syndicated run; as such, edits had to be made to remove fee plugs & commercial outros. The show's main time slot on the Disney Channel was 5:00 PM ET/4:00 PM CT.

After the sixth season (1989) was filmed, Kids Incorporated was put on hiatus for two years, during which time most of the cast moved on to other projects or "aged out." The only performers who were invited to return to the show in 1991 when it resumed production were Kenny Ford and Love Hewitt.

Budget cuts and the expiration of Disney's lease with MGM prompted another hiatus in 1993, after only ten episodes of Season 9 had been filmed. The last episode of this season, which aired on February 9, 1994, proved to be the series finale. By the summer of 1995, when the show was scheduled to resume production, most of the cast members were graduating from high school or college, or getting married, and they could no longer sustain the Kids Incorporated image as a result. Thus, the show did not continue.

The format of the show would have changed, giving the songs less importance and placing them in breaks in the main storyline action. Some proposed scripts had no songs at all. In addition, the show's filming would have moved from Los Angeles to Vancouver, Canada. There was some hype created for the new Kids Incorporated project in Los Angeles and New York, but it never came to fruition.

After its default cancellation, Kids Incorporated continued to be shown in reruns on The Disney Channel until May 30, 1996.

Kids Incorporated was filmed at Hollywood Center Studios in California for its entire run. It was one of the only shows, along with The Mickey Mouse Club, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and You Can't Do That on Television, in which the complete season took place within the calendar year, instead of the traditional fall-through-spring shooting/broadcast schedule. For instance, if an actor was with the show from 1985 to 1988, he actually appeared in four seasons, not three.

A significant amount of time passed between the filming of each season, accounting for the speed at which the kids in the cast seemed to age. Excepting specials, such as the 1986 holiday show Rock In The New Year (also known as "Rockin' In The New Year" or Season 3, Episode 14), production took place during July and August of each year. In later seasons, this schedule was moved to the spring.