Once a year, HRTS Kid's Day invites the children of TV executives and other special guests to a preview of the fall season in children's television that includes live appearances by young celebrities and costumed characters, a stage production where kids from some of the most popular TV shows perform, numerous video vignettes of established, returning cartoons, clips from live action kid comedies, dramas and reality shows and sneak peeks of season premiers.

A luncheon feast of kid-friendly food: burgers, hot dogs, chips, cookies, ice cream follows the stage show. Many different performance groups and networks set up booths for autograph signing, games and giveaways. Stilt walkers and jugglers from the Giant Shrimp Circus roam the crowd. HRTS holds a raffle offering all sorts of great prizes and, when it's time to go home, every kid gets a fantastic gift bag of goodies.

August 2, 2006 marked the 12th year of HRTS Kid's Day. It was, to date, the best Kid's Day ever. A slew of celebrity kids from film and television were available for interviews. Socal's own kid host, Logan J, talked with many of them, in fact, knew most of them: Miley Cyrus and Jason Earles from "Hannah Montana"; Gisselle Castellanos, the Pillowhead Reporter; Ryan Newman from Zoom & Monster House; Daniel Curtis Lee from "Ned's Declassified Survival Guide"; Joseph Ashton, the voice of Otto in "Rocket Power"; Jasmine Anthony from "Commander in Chief"; Emma Degerstedt from "Unfabulous"; Dylan Cash from "General Hospital" & Mary Poppins.

And then the super fun began. Miley Cyrus and Jason Earles of Disney's "Hannah Montana" were the hosts for the show. There were 4 high-energy performances by Miley Cyrus, Hip Hop Harry and his Crew: Kiana Contreras, Sophia de Jesus, Tyler White & William May; the ever-impressive JammX Kids: Johnny Erasmus, Chancellor Miller, Bobbe' J Thompson, Annie Gonzalez, Evan (Hot Sauce) Saucedo, Lauren Brianna, Monica Parales, January Malkus & Jazz Domingo; and the latest Radio Disney singing group topping the music charts, The Truth Squad: Taylor McKinney (Kid Karizz), Miki Ishikawa, Jade Gilley & Boo Boo Stewart. WB's Pillowhead Reporter, Gisselle Castellanos, came center stage to ask Miley if she ever woke up in the morning with a wedgie (extreme hairdo distortion caused by sleeping) and Radio Disney's very popular DJ Adam Huss, amidst the screams and squeals of every little girl there, introduced the singing, dancing Truth Squad and counted down the seconds to the big curtain drop at the back of the room which revealed the Wolfgang Puck luncheon extravaganza.

The annual HRTS Kid's Day is a one-of-a-kind experience. Even though 2006 was the largest, smoothest running and most star-studded event of the three that I have seen, the atmosphere of friendliness, openness and accessibility was still very evident. A large part of Kid's Day takes place on a stage and the kid-audience sits on the floor just as they would to watch television at home. It creates a relaxed atmosphere and seems to connect the children with the performers who are not so very different from them. After all, this is an L.A. audience made up of children like the special guests from I Have A Dream Foundation, Good Shepherd Shelter and Para Los Ninos who are growing up in an entertainment industry town. It is also an audience filled with children who are directly connected to the business as the children of TV executives and many other children who are already working professionals.

Talk with almost any kid at Kid's Day and he or she will have a lot to say about the business of entertainment. It all contributes to a special group of children with a raised level of awareness and sophistication. Even 3 year olds can become discerning viewers if you connect that 2D monitor image with the actual human being it portrays and the idea that the human being is playing a role. There's everything right with children understanding entertainment.

As for the 2006 Fall Children's Television season, it looks to be very rich with action, adventure, lots of silliness, ever increasing "girl power" and the reinforcement of super powers. "Growing Up Creepie", a new cartoon series from Discovery Kids about a girl who was raised by a bug, premiers on September 9th. I don't know about the kids but every adult in the room made a mental note to watch that one. And not one but a "Legion of Superheroes", featuring a young Superman, premiers on Kids WB on September 23rd. You just can't have too many super people in this day and age. There will plenty of dancing to do with the return of "High School Musical", "Hip Hop Harry" and "The JammX Kids" and plenty of singing from "Hannah Montana", "Unfabulous", and the Cheetah Girls (you will see and hear lots from them since The Cheetah Girls 2 premiered in August.) Look for the return of good old "Scooby Doo", "The Winx Club", "Do Re Mi", "The Danger Rangers", "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody", "The Bratz", "That's So Raven", "Clifford, the Big Red Dog", and the list goes on and on and on and on.

Consider the amazing adult minds that produce this colossal mountain of children's entertainment. Don't you suppose that it must be just as much fun and very rewarding for these creators to see a huge room full of kids responding to their efforts with laughter and cheering, screams and squeals and much applause? Actually, kids don't applaud very well but, oh my, how they love to scream.

HRTS deserves every credit for producing a dynamic, successful event, yet again. Kudos to Dave Ferrara, Executive Director of HRTS (this is the 5th Kid's Day he has produced); Ruzzo Martinelli, Associate Producer of Kid's Day; Jennie Nevin; Gene Herd, HRTS Staff; Co-Chairs and Current Board of Directors of HRTS: Adam Berkowitz, Head of TV Packaging for CAA; Kelly Goode; Peter Jankowski, President of Wolfe Films and Secretary & Treasurer HRTS; Sue Naegle, Partner & Head of UTA; Rich Ross, President of Disney Channel Worldwide; Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, President Gotham Group; Robin Schwartz, President Regency Television.

LINKS:

http://www.ihad.org/

http://www.goodshepherdshelter.org/

http://www.paralosninos.org/

http://www.lightthenight.org/

http://www.hrts.org/

http://www.loganj.com

http://www.jammxkids.com/

http://www.hiphopharry.com/

http://radio.disney.go.com/music/incubator/TruthSquad_bio.html

http://www.pet-peeves.com/

http://radio.disney.go.com/music/incubator/TruthSquad_bio.html

http://kids.discovery.com/  

http://www.dicentertainment.com/

http://kidswb.warnerbros.com/web/home/home.jsp

http://www.mgae.com/

http://www.cartoonnetwork.com

http://4kids.tv/

http://pbskids.org/

http://www.sproutletsgrow.com/

http://www.sonypictures.com/tv/kids/  

http://apsc.disney.go.com/disneychannel/originalmovies/cheetahgirls/

http://tv.disney.go.com/jetix/index.html

http://disney.go.com/playhouse/today/index.html

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