Jem (TV series)

Jem, also known as Jem and the Holograms, is an American animated television series that ran from 1985 to 1988 in U.S. first-run syndication. The show is about music company owner Jerrica Benton, her singer alter-ego Jem, her band the Holograms, and their adventures.^[3]

The series was a joint collaboration by Hasbro, Marvel Productions and Sunbow Productions, the same team responsible for G.I. Joe and Transformers.^[4] The creator of the series, Christy Marx, had also been a staff writer for the aforementioned programs.^[5] The animation was provided by the Japanese animation studio Toei Doga (now Toei Animation).^[6] As of October 2011, Jem was being transmitted on The Hub in the United States and on Teletoon Retro in Canada.^[7][8]

Production

Hasbro hired advertising agency Griffin-Bacal Advertising, the founders of Sunbow Productions, to create the 65-episode animation series. Griffin-Bacal (Sunbow), as well as Marvel Productions, had previously created the successful G.I. Joe series for Hasbro. G.I. Joe writer Christy Marx was hired to create the series based on the line of dolls and the original concept, which consisted of the two girl bands, Synergy, the boyfriend Rio, and the Rockin' Roadster. Marx created the full character biographies and relationships, including the love triangle aspect between Rio and Jerrica Benton/Jem, 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.^[9][10] Marx wrote 23 of the 65 episodes. Other writers for the series included Cary Bates, Greg Weisman, Paul Dini, Buzz Dixon, Ellen Guon, Steve Mitchell, Michael Reaves, David Wise, Marv Wolfman, Mary Skrenes, Beth Bornstein, Roger Slifer, Richard Merwin, Sandy Fries, Cheri Wilkerson, Misty Stewart-Taggart, George Arthur Bloom, Jina Bacarr, Barbara Petty, Chris Pelzer, Michael Charles Hill, Eric Early, Clare Noto, Carla Conway, and Evelyn A. R. Gabai.

The Executive Producers were Joe Bacal, Jay Bacal, Tom Griffin, and Margaret Loesch. The story editor was Roger Slifer and Christy Marx third season, and the voice director was industry veteran Wally Burr. The show's directors and supervising animators included many veterans of the DePatie-Freleng cartoon studio including Gerry Chiniquy, John Gibbs, Norm McCabe, Warren Batchelder and Tom Ray.^[11]

Casting

Samantha Newark was chosen to provide the speaking voice of Jem, but despite having toured as a child singer in Africa, she was rejected for Jem's singing voice.^[12] Instead, Britta Phillips, who had never before worked professionally as a singer, was cast as the singing voice of Jem after obtaining an audition through her father who worked on jingles in New York. The initial take from the audition was used as the first opening theme song, "Truly Outrageous."^[13] The remaining Holograms speaking voices were provided by Cathianne Blore (Kimber Benton/Aja Leith), Cindy McGee (Shana Elmsford), and Linda Dangcil (Carmen 'Raya' Alonso).

The Misfits's speaking voices were provided by Patricia Alice Albrecht (Phyllis 'Pizzazz' Gabor), Samantha Paris (Roxanne 'Roxy' Pellegrini), Susan Blu (Mary 'Stormer' Phillips), and Louise Dorsey (Sheila 'Jetta' Burns), the daughter of Engelbert Humperdinck. Ellen Bernfield provided the singing voice of Pizzazz.

The Stingers's speaking voices were provided by Townsend Coleman (Rory 'Riot' Llewelyn), Ellen Gerstell (Phoebe 'Rapture' Ashe), and Kath Soucie (Ingrid 'Minx' Kurger). Gordon Grody, a vocal coach who later worked with Stefanie "Lady GaGa" Germanotta, provided the singing voice for Riot.^[14]

Other notable cast members included Charlie Adler, who had already had a lengthy voice-over career, as the central villain Eric Raymond,^[15] the late Vicki Sue Robinson, famous for the 1970s discothèque-oriented hit "Turn the Beat Around", who provided the singing voices of both Rapture and Minx, and Ari Gold, pop singer and songwriter, who provided the singing voice for Ba Nee.^[11][16]

Plot

The series revolves around Jem the mysterious lead singer and front-woman of the rock group "Jem and the Holograms". She is also Jerrica Benton, owner/manager of Starlight Music. Jerrica adopts this persona with the help of a holographic computer, known as Synergy, which was built by Jerrica's father to be "the ultimate audio-visual entertainment synthesizer" and is bequeathed to her after his passing. Jerrica is able to command Synergy to project "the Jem hologram" over herself by means of the remote micro-projectors in her earrings, thus disguising her features and clothing enabling her to assume the Jem persona. While disguised as Jem, Jerrica is able to move freely without restrictions and on several occasions other people have been in direct physical contact with her without disrupting the holographic projection. Jem, through the use of her earrings, is also able to project holograms around her and uses this ability throughout the series to avoid danger and provide special effects for the performances of her group.

Jem's group consists of 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, having lived with Benton family since they were young. Shana briefly leaves the group to pursue a career in fashion, at which point a new character, Carmen "Raya" Alonso, is introduced as her replacement. The Holograms are aware of Jem's secret identity and the existence of Synergy when the series begins while Raya is made aware unintentionally shortly before joining the group.

The Holograms have two rival bands, "The Misfits" and "The Stingers." The Misfits are composed of petulant rich girl Pizzazz (real name Phyllis Gabor) and her cohorts: no-nonsense Roxanne "Roxy" Pelligrini and kind-hearted, sensitive keytar player Stormer (Mary Phillips). They are joined later by the manipulative British saxophone player Jetta (Sheila Burns). The Stingers appear at the start of the third season when they hit town and shake things up for both groups becoming co-owners of "Stingers Sound" with Eric Raymond. The Stingers are composed of egotistical lead singer Riot (Rory Llewelyn), guitarist/con artist Rapture (Phoebe Ashe), and keyboardist Minx (Ingrid Kruger).

Episodes of the series frequently revolve around Jerrica's efforts to keep her two identities separate, protect Synergy from those who might exploit the holographic technology, and support the twelve foster children known as the "Starlight Girls" who live with her and the Holograms. The Misfits frequently attempt to upstage Jem and the Holograms's endeavors, often nearly resulting in physical harm or death to members of the group. This rivalry is encouraged and manipulated by their manager and central villain in the series, Eric Raymond, former half-owner of Starlight Music who runs Misfits Music (later Stingers Sound). During the series Eric Raymond plots constantly to become owner of Starlight Music and get revenge on Jem and the Holograms for losing control of the company. Jerrica also deals with a complex and emotionally draining faux love triangle involving her alter identity, Jem, and Rio Pacheco, longtime boyfriend of Jerrica. Rio romantically pursues both women not knowing they are one and the same. Later in the series, Jem is also romantically sought after by Riot, the lead singer of the The Stingers, who becomes infatuated with her, adding further complications to her relationships.

In the final episode of the series, the Misfits and Jem declare a truce when Ba Nee, one of the most troubled foster girls in Starlight House, was claimed by her long-lost father found by Jem and the Holograms with the help of Riot's father whose relationship with Riot is mended with the help of Jem.^[18]

Music

The inclusion of music videos in Jem was a result of the success and popularity of MTV at the time which began airing four years prior. The placement of the songs throughout each episode was done to complement the story and the use of music videos in the show was considered "radical" for the time.^[17][19] The show contains a total of 187 music videos with 151 unique songs. ^[20]

The show's format called for three fully produced songs for the featured music videos in each episode. Lyrics for the show's featured songs were written by Barry Harman. The theme song JEM - Truly, Truly, Truly Outrageous was the opening and closing theme for the show until late 1987, when Bryant's second theme, JEM GIRLS became the show's opening theme for the majority of episodes and JEM - Truly, Truly, Truly Outrageous was kept as the show's permanent closing theme.^[21] Music videos either featured an "in-your-face" style that was directed at the viewer or the more traditional style. The music videos paralled the style of rock videos found on MTV at the time featuring fast editing, a quick pace, and special effects.^[19][22]

Ellen Bernfeld, performing as Pizzazz, Britta Phillips, performing as Jem, and Gordon Grody, performing as Riot, the lead singer of the Stingers, along with Diva Gray, Florence Warner and Angela Capelli were the voices of the pop, funk and punk electronica productions, supported by Britta Phillips's father, pianist Peter Phillips, and by guitarist Steve Bill, bassist Tom Barney and set drummer and electronic drum programmer Tom Oldakowski. Anne Bryant, who chose the singers and musicians, created a pure young pop sound for Jem and the Holograms supported by acoustic instruments. The sound for The Misfits was crafted as strictly electronic other than the addition of guitars and an occasional sax solo. This was done to create an identifiable punk electronica style in stark contrast to their rival singing groups. In season three, Bryant introduced the slower, smooth, sexy/funky groove for the third group that entered the show, the Stingers.^[13]

No official Jem "Soundtrack" was ever released; however, many of the songs from the first season were released on cassette with dolls or play-sets.^[24]

Reception

Jem was #1 Nielsen rated syndicated cartoon show in November 1986 and in 1987 it was the 3rd most watched children's program in syndication with 2.5 million viewers weekly.^[1][25] Jem has aired in multiple countries including Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, United States, and France.^[26] The show was nominated for the Young Artist Award twice, once in 1986 for "EXCEPTIONAL YOUNG ACTRESSES IN ANIMATION: SERIES, SPECIALS, or FILM FEATURES" for Samantha Newark's performance, then in 1988 for "BEST ANIMATION SERIES".^[27][28] The long-standing popularity of Mattel's Barbie franchise led to a competition between Hasbro's toy line and Barbie and the Rockers, a similar line by Mattel, which resulted in reduced sales for both products. Hasbro discontinued the Jem toy line at the end of 1987 after it failed to meet sales expectations, but despite this, the show continued production and aired until 1988.^[2] Jem was released partially on DVD in multiple countries, with a complete set available for the first time in 2011. In 2011 Jem began airing on The Hub in the U.S., causing a significant increase in ratings for the channel. It also aired on Teletoon Retro in Canada.^{[8][29][30][31][32][20]}

Characters

Episodes

Releases

Current status of franchise

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." --Christy Marx.^[9]

Forbes.com reported that Hasbro had recently re-acquired distribution rights to the Sunbow library of Hasbro Classics, which includes Jem. This in turn led to speculation that Jem might be re-released on DVD in the future.^[37]

Given the recent success of G.I. Joe and Transformers, Hasbro was rumored to be considering a live-action movie with Universal Studios, with which Hasbro had signed a six-movie contract in 2010, or a new incarnation of the animated series.^[38]

In 2011, Shout! Factory announced that it was releasing the entire series on DVD.^[39]

After 20 years, since last airing in the United States around 1990/1991 (in re-runs), Jem (and the Holograms) returned to Syndication. In the spring of 2011, Jem started airing on The Hub with a sneak preview of the first six episodes on May 28, 2011. On May 31, The Hub began to air the show regularly four times a day. The Hub stated that upon its return to television, Jem (and the Holograms) became one of the Hub's highest rated/watched programs.^[29][40]

On July 25, 2011, Teletoon Retro, a Canadian channel dedicated to cartoons, announced that Jem would be part of its fall 2011 lineup. ^[8]

On September 8, 2011, Hasbro issued a press release announcing its attendance at the 2011 New York Comic Con convention slated to run from October 13 to October 16. It would be showing, at its booth, new and upcoming products from its toy lines, including Jem and the Holograms.^[41]

References

External links

• TotallyJem! - Detailed information about the production, marketing, and history of the franchise
• Jem vs Pranceatron - Further information about the toy line
• Rock Jem - Episode synopsis and further information about the show
• Jem at the Internet Movie Database
• Jem at TV.com