Potatoes in Disguise:
Why Kids Incorporated is
both good and good for you
About six episodes into
the series, Kids Incorporated becomes less after-school special and more
creative writing project. The show does do a fairly good job of uniting fantasy
with reality – when it wants to. A lot of kids’ shows tend to make everything
“all a dream” because it’s quick and tidy and can’t be argued against since
dreams don’t adhere to real-world standards. A show with the lofty goal of
promoting upstanding values has a very big spoon to fill, and needs to go to
great depths to find enough sugar. Here, most everything is prearranged so that
it is reality, or a logical conclusion to be jumped to. A historically popular
malt shop, situated next to a nightclub, would most likely attract celebrities.
Foreign embassies usually are in bigger cities (notice there is no grass, and
the school has a number, not a name). Were these stretches? Possibly. But as
kids, we needed some stretching to warm up before starting our strenuous adult
lives.
But the crucial thing about fantasy versus reality, which Kids
Inc. was fairly unique in acknowledging, is that one does not have to live
exclusively in either realm. Children have sizable imaginations; they know how
to stretch that tenuous border between the two without actually breaking it.
What’s important is not dissolving fantasy, but knowing when and where to use
it. Fantasy is a safe place, a place where you are free to try things not
possible in real life. Yes, there are leprechauns, aliens, and wisecracking
bicycles. But - and this is often overlooked in the show’s critiques - there are
also skeptical adults. Reality is not lost in the shuffle. Both rival factions
are given equal footing while the show remains impartial. Maybe that kid from
another planet really was just pretending. The bicycle didn’t actually talk.
But...what if it did? Nothing is actually decided in just 22 minutes. This is
what, I believe, kept the show in the hearts of its teen and preteen audience,
who were also straddling the dividing line between child and adult, buckling
under the pressure to choose a side. This show hasn’t. You don’t always have to
substitute grilled vegetables for your French fries. Guess what? They are
secretly potatoes in disguise. Slip them into the menu and no one is the wiser.
Admittedly, most fries are pretty greasy. It’s becoming less possible to
integrate pop culture into kids’ shows without also upping the maturity level.
This isn’t something that can be accommodated for by watering down Top 40 tunes
and animating attitudes. Green and purple ketchup seems appealing at first, but
all that food coloring leaves a bad taste in your mouth after a while. Equally
as important as hanging on to your imagination is the necessity to temper it
with realism.