Let’s Get Into “Kid Nation” Again

C’monnn let’s get into it.

In Awl Slack this morning we discussed which reality stars we’d like to murder us, and while there were a lot of good answers (Irene from “Real World: Seattle,”* anyone from “Gallery Girls,” anyone from “the amazing race, road rules and the pre-J.Lo seasons of american idol”) I believe the correct answer is: anyone from “Kid Nation.” What an honor it would be, I think, to be murdered by Jared, or Taylor, or Alex, or Sophia, or the rest.

“How did she die?” “Oh, Kelly? She was murdered by one of the ‘Kid Nation’ cast members, if you remember that show.” “Oh my god…of course I remember it. That’s incredible.” “I know.”

Anyway, I think it would be nice if everybody got into “Kid Nation” again. It was so great. I’m not sure how one would watch it now. The full episodes are on YouTube, but I’d prefer a better option. It’s not on Amazon. I guess you’d have to download it illegally but I don’t really know how to do that. Email me kelly at the hairpin dot com if you know how I can watch a QUALITY version of “Kid Nation.”

But here’s what you can do: email your friends and say, we’re going to get into “Kid Nation.” There’s only one season because it was not technically a legal television show to make and the kids drank bleach and burned themselves with hot grease, so it’s not a big commitment. It’s just a small treat.

So you email your friends and say, we’re going to get into “Kid Nation.” It would be the most fun if you all watched it together, I think, but you can watch it alone, too. I like doing stuff alone. But if you’re going to watch it with your friends, maybe you can host a get-together where you watch the first three episodes. Oh, and maybe it’s like twice a month you have a get-together and watch three episodes? There are 13 so it’s perfect: four three-episode get-togethers and then one big party for the final episode. This is going to be so great for you.

Maybe you’re wondering, “What is ‘Kid Nation’ about?” Well. You can look it up yourself, but, OK, here’s what Wikipedia says:

The show, featuring 40 children aged 8 to 15, was filmed on location at the Bonanza Creek Movie Ranch, a privately owned town built on the ruins of Bonanza City, New Mexico, eight miles south of Santa Fe, with production beginning on April 1, 2007.

The show stresses the difficulty in creating a viable society. While each child received $5,000 (equivalent to $6,000 in 2016) for their involvement, Gold Stars valued at $20,000 (equivalent to $23,000 in 2016) and $50,000 (equivalent to $58,000 in 2016) were awarded to select outstanding participants as decided by the elected Town Council.

Speaking before an audience of television reviewers, producer Tom Forman acknowledged that Kid Nation would inevitably share some elements with William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, which depicted planewrecked children without adult supervision. But adults were present off-camera during the Kid Nation production, including cameramen, producers, a medic, and a child psychologist, although all interacted with the children as little as possible. Participants also missed a month of school, but Forman suggested that such real-world tasks as preparing a group breakfast, doing physical chores like fetching water, and making group decisions constituted an educational experience in its own right. Foreman said that all participants were cleared by a team of psychologists, any child could choose to go home at any time, and some did.

INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please do what I said. It’s going to be so fun.

Love,

Kelly

*I hate that Awl Network style is to use quotations around TV shows. It’s Alex Balk’s rule and it doesn’t make any sense and looks bad.