Jem (TV series)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the animated series and toy. For other uses, see Jem (disambiguation).
 This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (March 2007)
Jem
Format Animation / Fantasy / Drama
Created by Hasbro
Voices of Britta Phillips, Kath Soucie, Marlene Aragon, Susan Blu, Samantha Newark, Neil Ross, Charles Adler
Country of origin Flag of the United States United States
Flag of Japan Japan(animation)
No. of episodes 65 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time 24 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel First-run syndication
Original run October 6, 1985 – May 2, 1988
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Jem is an American animated television series that ran from 1985 to 1988 in U.S. first-run syndication. The show is about a singer, Jem, her band the Holograms, and their adventures. Catch phrases from the show included "Showtime, Synergy!" and "Outrageous!" (the latter usually associated with supporting character Kimber).

The series was a joint collaboration between Hasbro, Marvel Comics, and Sunbow Productions, the same team responsible for GI Joe and Transformers, and was intended to target female viewers. The creator of the series was Christy Marx who also had been a staff writer for the aforementioned programs. The animation was provided by a Japanese animation studio called Toei Doga (now Toei Animation).

Despite the fact that the show was originally designed by Hasbro for the purpose of marketing a line of dolls, it was acclaimed for its interweaving storylines and complex backstory and for giving all of the characters (even the villains) multi-dimensional personalities, which were almost unheard of in an animated television series at the time. The show also features one-minute music videos, tying it in with the concept of MTV and its burgeoning popularity. The animated series still retains a very loyal fan-following.

The show was originally designed to appeal to both girls and boys, with a mix of action/adventure,drama, music, and fashion. It was first slotted as a 6 minute cartoon that aired during Super Sunday (or "Super Saturday" depending on the market) along with the boy-oriented properties Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines, Robotix, and Inhumanoids. In spite of being the only girl-oriented show in the lineup, Jem proved to be the most popular of the four. Originally the main character was called "Misty" then "M," but that idea was dropped due to the inability to trademark a letter. As the show progressed, it became more and more targeted towards young girls. There were also two different theme songs. The first ("Me and my friends are Jem girls…") was originally the song used for the toy commercials (a practice used for other Sunbow/Marvel productions based on Hasbro properties). Later episodes featured a different theme ("Jem is excitement… Jem is adventure…").

Contents

[edit] Production

Hasbro turned to advertising agency, Griffin-Bacal, to create the 65-episode animation series. Griffin-Bacal had previously created the successful G.I. Joe series for Hasbro. G.I. Joe writer Christy Marx was hired to create the series based upon the line of dolls and the original concept for them, which consisted of the two girl bands, Synergy, the boyfriend Rio and the Rockin' Roadster. Marx created the full character bios and relationships (including the love triangle aspect between Jem/Jerrica and Rio), Starlight Music and Starlight House, the Starlight Girls, the villain Eric Raymond and various secondary characters. Later, Marx was asked to develop new characters as they were introduced (Raya, Jetta, etc.) In total, Marx wrote 22 of the 65 shows. Other writers for the series included: Jina Bacarr, Cary Bates & Greg Weisman, George Bloom, Beth Bornstein, Carla Conway, Paul Dini, Buzz Dixon, Sandy Fries, Evelyn Gabai, Ellen Guon, Michael Hill, Rick Merwin, Steve Mitchell & Barbara Petty, Chris Pelzer, Michael Reaves, Mary Skrenes, Misty Stewart, David Wise, Cherie Wilkerson, Marv Wolfman.

The producers were Joe Bacal, Jay Bacal, Tom Griffin, and Carole Weitzman. The story editor was Roger Slifer and the voice director was industry veteran, Wally Burr.

[edit] Plot

The central "secret" of the series is that Jem is in fact the alter ego of Jerrica Benton, owner/manager of Starlight Music, who adopts this persona with the help of Synergy, a holographic computer designed to be the ultimate visual, entertainment synthesizer built by her father, who left it to her upon his death.

The other Holograms are Kimber Benton, Jerrica's younger sister, keyboardist and main songwriter for the band; Aja Leith, guitarist; and Shana Elmsford, who plays the synth drums. Aja and Shana are also childhood friends and adopted foster sisters of Jerrica and Kimber. Shana briefly left the group in a two-part episode called "The Talent Search", where a new character, Carmen "Raya" Alonso, is introduced as her replacement. When Shana returns, Raya Alonso remains the Holograms' drummer while Shana takes up the guitar. Only the Holograms are aware of Jem's secret identity, although Jerrica revealed it to the United States President in a season 3 episode, "The Presidential Affair", an old Tibetan woman in the episode "Journey to Shangri-La", and the princess Adrianna of Morvania (who is mistaken for Kimber) in the episode "The Princess and the Singer". Episodes of the series frequently revolve around Jerrica's efforts to keep her two identities separate. Jerrica's other main concern is Starlight House, a home for foster girls run by the Holograms. The Holograms' main purpose is to fund the Starlight Foundation and support the Starlight Girls. Jerrica's childhood home, where the foster girls were housed was accidentally burned down by Zipper, one of Eric Raymond's not-too-bright henchmen. Jem and the Holograms later got possession of the Starlight Mansion when they won the Battle of the Bands as well as a movie contract which were offered by movie producer Howard Sands.

The Holograms' rival band are the Misfits: petulant rich girl Pizzazz (Phyllis Gabor) and her cohorts: no-nonsense Roxy (Roxanne Pelligrini) and kind-hearted, sensitive keytar player Stormer (Mary Phillips), who are later joined by the manipulative British saxophone player, Jetta (Sheila Burns). (This group should not be confused with the real-life band The Misfits, led by Glenn Danzig.) Most episodes of the series involve a plot by the Misfits to upstage Jem and the Holograms' latest glamorous escapade. This rivalry is encouraged and manipulated by their manager, the ruthless Eric Raymond. In the middle of the third season a new group, the Stingers, appears and shakes things up for both groups. In the final episode of the series, all three groups seemed to have declared a truce between them.

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of Jem characters

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Jem episodes

[edit] Singles

Love Is Here - (included in the Video Madness playset of the same name)

  1. "Jem Theme"
  2. "Love Is Here"
  3. "Can't Get My Love Together"

Show Me The Way - (included in the Video Madness playset of the same name)

  1. "Jem Theme"
  2. "Show Me The Way" (TV edit)
  3. "People Who Care"

It's Workin' Out - (included in the Video Madness playset of the same name)

  1. "Jem Theme"
  2. "It's Workin' Out/It's Doing Me In" Jem and the Holograms/ The Misfits
  3. "We Can Change It"

Welcome To The Jungle - (included in the Video Madness playset of the same name)

  1. "Jem Theme"
  2. "Welcome To The Jungle" - The Misfits
  3. "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme" - The Misfits

Glitter N Gold - (This is the 2nd year mail-in offer. This was good for any doll other than the Glitter'n Gold Collection)

  1. "Glitter N Gold" (extended TV version)
  2. "Back N Shape" (extended version)
  3. "Jem Theme" (extended version)

[edit] Soundtracks

Truly Outrageous - (There is no official soundtrack, these are the songs from TO! also known as the first fifteen 7 min. segments of Super Sunday.)

  • "Jem Theme"
  • "Takin' It All" — The Misfits
  • "Outta My Way" — The Misfits
  • "Winning is Everything" — The Misfits
  • "Only the Beginning" — Jem and the Holograms
  • "Gettin' Down To Business" — Jem and the Holograms
  • "Music Is Magic" — Jem and the Holograms
  • "I Got My Eye On You" — Jem and the Holograms
  • "Click/Clash" — Jem and the Holograms/ The Misfits
  • "Like a Dream" — Jem and the Holograms
  • "Makin' Mischief" — The Misfits
  • "She's Got the Power" — Jem and the Holograms
  • "Twilight In Paris" — Jem and the Holograms
  • "Truly Outrageous" — Jem and the Holograms
  • "Too Close For Comfort"- Jem and the Holograms
  • "Deception" — Jem and the Holograms

Free Cassette Offer - This is the Cassette Tape that was an original mail-in offer, it was also distributed to stores and given out at purchase. The songs are taken from "Starbright-Part 1."

  1. "Jem Theme" (extended version)
  2. "Who Is He Kissing?" — Jem and the Holograms
  3. "Jealousy" — Jem and the Holograms
  4. "Universal Appeal" — The Misfits
  5. "Jem Theme"

It should be noted that these are not actual Soundtracks but promotional cassettes obtained by purchasing Jem merchandise. No official Jem "Soundtrack" was ever released, although all but one of the songs released on cassette in any form were featured in the first season (up to and including Glitter and Gold). Love's Not Easy (included with the 2nd Edition Kimber doll) is the only one not to be featured in the first season, although it has been speculated that the producers intended to use it, but simply never did.

[edit] Revival and current status of franchise

Almost 20 years after the Jem toy line was introduced to the U.S. market and 17 years after its demise, Hasbro has shown some legal activity in maintaining their trademarks and intellectual property, leading some fans to believe they may be reviving the line via the trademark renewal "for the purpose of selling dolls and doll clothes". However, this may just be standard practice, as if they had not renewed the trademarks they would have lost any future rights to their creation. As of April 2008, the Jem series have not been released in any further DVDs.

Christy Marx has long expressed a desire to make a modern day revival of the animated series, but stated in a 2004 interview that there are a great deal of complications concerning the rights to the Jem properties.

"I would like to see that happen. I don't want to go into a lot of detail, but the whole rights situation for Jem is very, very complicated. Believe me, if there were a simple straightforward way to do it, it would be done. But there are some very big complications that are in the way at the moment."[1]

Forbes.com has reported that Hasbro has recently re-acquired distribution rights to the Sunbow library of Hasbro Classics, which includes Jem. This has led to speculation that Jem may be re-released on DVD in the future.[2]

[edit] Broadcast

Two volumes (comprising of one set containing the first and second seasons and a second set containing the first half of season three) were released on DVD by Rhino. However, before they could release the third and final volume (Season Three, Part Two) the company lost the rights to the series. The rights are now believed to be reverted back to Sony (who absorbed the original producers Sunbow Productions) who was believed to hold the decisions on any future release.[citation needed] However, as mentioned previously, Hasbro has reacquired the rights to Jem and the rest of the Sunbow catalog of Hasbro-related productions.

In September 2004, Cartoon Network Australia bought the TV rights to Jem and aired the show for ten months on their classics network Boomerang. Jem is now back on Boomerang starting from March airing Weekends at 7:30 p.m. before The Smurfs. Australia is also slowly releasing the first and second season of Jem on DVD.

[edit] DVD releases

Jem was first released on DVD in the US in 2004 remastered and in 5.1 Audio. Since then Australia and France have also released Jem on DVD/Boxsets. The UK had the "Jem: Truly Outrageous" movie released on DVD. (The movie was the first 5 episodes pasted together).

[edit] In popular culture

  • The indie synthpop band, Freezepop's 2004 album, "Fancy Ultra-Fresh," includes a bonus multimedia track which is a remake of the Jem theme song. This theme song is a fad on YTMND.
  • An MSNBC commentator's ranking of the top five cartoon bands listed the series' Misfits as number four, decrying Jem's music as "namby-pamby songs" and lauding the edgier and more caustic tunes by the Misfits as "true rock 'n' roll". [1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.loony-archivist.com/jem/primer/marx.htm
  2. ^ http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2008/05/14/afx5007719.html

[edit] External links