Kidd Video

Kidd Video is an interesting 80's cartoon. An attempt to make a cartoon that would in return, spawn a real-life band, it would last two seasons, and sadly, may never be released on any home media.

The story of how this begins is told in the intro, as Kidd Video and his bandmates, Carla, Ash, and Whiz, decide to rehearse in a storage building, however, a weird mirror in the building activates, as an evil being named Master Blaster appears, and kidnaps the band and takes them to the Flipside, planning to make them his musical slaves forever. However, at the last minute, the band is saved by Glitter, a fairy dressed in 80's workout fashion and is able to gain super strength for a short time whenever she sneezes. Now, despite being able to go home, the band decides to explore Flipside, visiting cities and ending up thwarting the plans of Master Blaster and his minions, the Copy Cats.

A neat series, Kidd Video is the result of trying to make a cartoon that would, in return, spawn a new band (which sadly, only worked in the country of Israel, as the band's lone album, which is the cartoon's sountrack, was only released there). The adventures are fantastical, with a lot of crazy designs, and the music is great (although it is also one of the main reasons why this show may never see a DVD release, as it uses songs like Electric Avenue, Footloose, and The Safety Dance, as well as music videos for such songs as Hungry Like The Wolf, which would either need to be renegotiated or replaced, with the latter ending up being a bad idea due to some of the licensed music actually tying into some of the episodes as musical riddles the band uses to figure out how to stop Master Blaster).

I loved this show since it's inception in 1984. I always had a crush on Bryan Scott who played Kidd Video. The songs were catchy and I always enjoyed singing along with them. It almost always put a smile on my face and was the very reason why I would wake up on a Saturday morning.

Kidd Video not only displayed the fashion and style of the early/mid 80s, but also featured dozens of Top Ten Hits, which played occasionally in the background of each cartoon. These hits usually spanned from 1983-1984. Additionally, a live-action music video by the band was shown after each episode before the ending credits. Although forgotten by the networks and syndicates, the bulk of us who grew up in the early 80s remember this show well.

This was saturday morning's answer to MTV. Get a rock n roll band make them into cartoons, stop the villan that sent them there, and you have what has to be a cartoon show that helps symbolizes what the 80's were all about! music videos cartoon style! I wish they air reruns of this show, it was way cool when I remembered it, and now that the 80's are coming back, they should, if not, must bring it back on T.V. Maybe so another new generation of kids will enjoy this the same way we did almost 2 decades ago!

No need to summarize the plot...that's already been done here.

Ok, granted, I don't really remember this show that well since, like most quality programs, it died out quickly and I don't think it was ever recycled through reruns. Nonetheless, I remember that it appealed to both my bizarre sense of humor and my love for music. Tons of off-the-wall humor and random scattered unidentifiable hilarious characters made this cartoon stand out among all the cutesy Saturday morning sludge of its time, and each episode was permeated with both original and popular 80s pop hits. I suppose this is a program you could either love, hate, or just not understand well enough to form an opinion. Regardless, it's doubtful you'll ever have an opportunity to see this show again even though it's one of the few cartoons of the '80s that could actually fit in with the countless cartoons out today that were obviously created while the cartoonists and writers were listening to "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" or something along those lines.