Its theme song will always be stuck in my head.

I guess I just took it for granted that I'd be able to share it with my kids someday. Sure, it had its cheesy moments (remember Mr. Angel?), but all in all, Kids Inc. was a happy, upstanding show that you didn't have to worry about your kids watching.

I'm not sure what drew me to it at first.  I think maybe it let us all live out our fantasies; to be famous, to be in a band, to belong to something.  How many of us grew up in a town that had a club for kids?  Not me, that's for sure.  It was like Chuck-E-Cheese minus the puppets, games and (gasp!) adult supervision. I don't know about you, but I really wanted to live there!

Personally, Kids Inc. was a save haven for me, an escape from my un-tv like life. I was the typical fan: looked up to Gloria, identified with Renee, had a crush on Ryan, thought Richie was annoying, laughed at all of Riley's dumb inventions, etc. And every time someone would come up behind me, look at the screen and say, "Hey, they're not really singing!", I would immediately jump to their defense!  Seeing as half of them went off and got recording contracts (was that in their contracts or something?), I must have been right!

Another thing Kids Inc. did for me - it helped gain me musical independence from my parents. Remember being old enough to protest their stations while in the car? It was in the 80's that I would suddenly hear a song on the radio and think, "They did that on Kids Incorporated!"  Then of course, I'd find out that the lyrics had all been "Disney-d" 

And yet, after all these years, my mom still credits herself with turning me onto it.

Just for the record, point of obsession #7 was just an accident.  I never meant to call my little sister Stacy. See, she's my little sister and she was annoying me, and the show had just went off. It's called a Freudian slip, people!