Vanity Fair: Ryan Gosling and Britney Spears walked so Zendaya and Bella Thorne could run—on Disney variety shows like Kids Incorporated and Mickey Mouse Club.

Ryan Gosling is part of that very first vintage of kids who broke into the industry on the then nascent Disney Channel, on one of two shows. There was The All New Mickey Mouse Club (a.k.a. MMC), a reboot of a popular 1950s variety show created by Walt Disney and originally broadcast on ABC. And then Kids Incorporated, a more narratively driven preteen precursor to Kidz Bop and Glee (which gave a shout-out to Kids Incorporated on an early episode). Both programs, which eventually ran back-to-back in an after-school time slot, may have seemed historically inconsequential in their day. But looking back, it’s clear that they were instrumental in building what is now a professionalized pipeline for talented children to come of age as industry players.