Recap / Kids Incorporated S 4 E 2 Modern Music

In the Season 1 episode “Robot Bop”; Kids Incorporated had to face off against a robot that threatened to take Riley’s job as the P*lace soda jerk. Three years later, three of the band members - Kid, Renee and Stacy - find themselves having to deal with the problem again, this time in the form of a music synthesizer.

Things start off normally enough with a performance of “Music for the Modern World”; and upon congregating at the counter Connie spots Riley’s latest invention: a synthesized automated music device, or S.A.M.; which not only plays music but generates video to go with it (which Stacy notes is similar to Max Headroom, though mistakenly referring to the character as Max Headrest), which becomes fully operational after Riley finishes tightening a transformer, starting by playing the intro to “Jump Start My Heart”; with the kids…except for Kid, impressed.

Audition time officially arrives for S.A.M. (which attempts to try a bit of comedy as well), when Kid quizzes the machine on music and - still skeptical - wants to see if S.A.M. can play. The answer (“I Am the Beat”) is yes, with S.A.M. seeming to develop an ego worse than Kid’s at his most extreme. However, the others - sans Kid - are celebrating…until the following rehearsal. While Riley is taking inventory, S.A.M. appears to be snoozing only to (upon being awakened) attempt to steal Ryan’s guitar solo; and everyone else’s (even briefly imitating Kid’s voice) as part of a hostile takeover of the band, leading to “Shakedown” as a confused Riley watches. Soon after the song, S.A.M. overloads; with Riley being told of what happened. He eventually retooled S.A.M. as R.A.Y., which was given a much simpler task: helping clean up the P*lace…upon which R.A.Y. breaks down, leading to closing song “Mind Over Matter”.

Songs performed in this episode:

• “Music for the Modern World” (Kids Incorporated original; lead vocals by Stacy and Kid)^note previously used in another Kid-centered episode, Season 2’s “The Masked Mauler” - where Stacy and Kid were joined by Gloria - and later in the Season 5 finale “Constellation Connie”. Notably, Kid’s voice sounds higher here than in other songs from Season 4
• “Jump Start My Heart” (Natalie Cole cover; lead vocals by Kid)
• “I Am the Beat” (Kids Incorporated original; lead vocals by S.A.M.)^note an uncredited Michael Cruz, the third and final time Cruz would provide singing vocals for a character otherwise played by Riley’s actor, Moosie Drier
• “Shakedown” (Bob Seger cover; lead vocals by Ryan, Kid, Stacy, Renee and S.A.M.)
• “Mind Over Matter” (Elizabeth Daily^note better known as a voice actress credited as E.G. Daily; particularly as the voice of Tommy Pickles on ‘’Rugrats’’ and Buttercup from ‘’The Powerpuff Girls cover; lead vocals by Renee and Connie)

Tropes associated with this episode:

• Bungling Inventor: Once again, Riley finds one of his inventions go awry and threaten everyone’s job.
• Call-Back: Kid, Renee and Stacy have some experience with a rogue machine threatening to take everyone’s jobs.
• Fun with Acronyms: S.A.M. stands for Synthesized Automated Music
• "I Am Great!" Song: “I Am the Beat” fits here.
• Malaproper: Stacy, in noting S.A.M.’s similarity to Max Headroom, accidentally refers to the device as Max Headrest.
• Mock Headroom: S.A.M., the synthesized automatic music device invented by Riley in this episode, is clearly patterned after Max Headroom.
• Shout-Out: In addition to the Max Headroom references; Stacy’s “Max Headrest” mistake could also serve as an allusion to the comic strip ‘’Doonesbury’’. Around the time of the episode’s premiere, the comic’s creator Garry Treadau introduced a secondary character named Ron Headrest that was a synthesizer spoof of both Max Headroom and then-President Ronald Reagan.
• Small Name, Big Ego: S.A.M. fits this in “I Am the Beat”.