Advertising executive and art
director Bill
Sanders had developed an idea for a new line of dolls. The concept was that
a male rock band would have secret identities as superheroes. Brining the idea
to Hasbro, Hasbro liked the concept but
felt it could be better suited to an opening they saw in the toy market at the
time left by rival Mattel’s Barbie. As a result, the boy band became
a girl band that embodied a contemporary rock style. Sanders was paired up with
Bill and Barbara Hyland and they began to work out the characters and fashions
for the doll line.
With their other properties Transformers, My
Little Pony and G.I.
Joe having a successful television presence, Hasbro decided to promote the
doll line by giving it its own show. Once again, they partnered with Marvel Productions
and Sunbow Productions
through their ad agency Griffin-Bacal
Advertising, responsible for the other programs, to bring it to life.
Executive producer Jay Bacal
recommended Christy Marx, who had
worked on G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero, to write the series bible that would
contain all the information writers would need to compose scripts for the show.
This would be the first time Marx had developed an entire show on her own, but
Bacal felt she was up to the challenge due to her grasp of drama and action.
 |
| Jerrica, Shana, Kimber and Aja, not quite glamorous yet. |
Marx worked mostly blind, not
getting to even see the dolls on which the series was based until late into her
process. She concocted backgrounds and relationships for all of the established
characters which included the good and bad bands, and the computer, Synergy,
that allowed the lead singer of the good band to change her appearance. She
also introduced the series’ villains, secondary characters, the record label
Starlight Music and the orphanage Starlight House as a
reason behind why the band does what it does, as well as offering more story
potential. Most of the characters underwent numerous name changes, including
the main character. Originally she was going to be called “M” for “Music,”
“Metamorphosis” and “Magic” until Hasbro learned they couldn’t trademark a
letter of the alphabet, and wanting to keep the same sound that could easily
fit into the theme song they had in mind she became Jem. Marx came up with the
last names for the characters, basing them on scientists involved in holographic
technology at the time: Benton for Dr. Stephen A. Benton,
Gabor for Dennis Gabor,
and Emmett & Leith for Emmett
Leith.
 |
| Synergy's main form. |
The resulting series was Jem. Jem was the alter-ego of Jerrica
Benton (Samantha Newark & Britta Phillips), who was created through
holographic projectors in her star-shaped earrings by the advanced artificial
intelligence named Synergy (Marlene Aragon). Synergy was created by her father,
Emmett (Jack Angel), and revealed
herself to Jerrica after Emmett’s death as per her programming. He also left
her band equipment, a car called the Rockin’ Roadster, and control of Starlight
House; the foster home begun by her parents as a way to take care of children
without families, which her mother, Jacqui (Angela Cappelli), was one
in her younger years.
 |
| Eric Raymond with what he loves most: money. |
 |
| The Misfits: Roxy, Pizzazz and Stormer. |
In order to wrest Starlight Music
away from Eric, Jerrica created her alter ego, who appeared when she touched
her earrings and said “Showtime, Synergy” (and disappeared with “Show’s over,
Synergy”), and the band, The Holograms. Her sister, Kimber (Cathianne Biore
& Florence Warner), served as the keyboardist and main songwriter for the
group. The band also consisted of the earliest residents of Starlight House and
the adopted daughters of the Bentons: Aja Leith (Biore) and Shana Elmsford
(Cindy McGee). Aja was the lead guitarist and provided background vocals, as
well as had skills with mechanical devices and electronics. Shana was the
band’s original drummer and a budding fashion designer, providing most of the
outfits for The Holograms. Many episodes focused on The Holograms attempting to
hold their own against The Misfits, whose antics often led to potential injury
(and sometimes even death) for The Holograms, while also fending off Eric’s
schemes to steal back Starlight Music.
 |
| Pizzazz trying to steal Rio away from Jem. |
Working with The Holograms was
Jerrica’s long-time childhood friend and boyfriend Rio Pacheco (Michael
Sheehan), who served as The Holograms’ road manager and engineer. Because he
had a pathological hatred of lying and secrets Jerrica never revealed her alter
ego to him out of fear of losing him over feelings of betrayal. Instead, Rio
developed a relationship with Jem, resulting in a persistent love triangle
between the three (though really two) characters. The Holograms met and
befriended Giselle “Danse” Dvorak (Desiree
Goyette), a gifted dancer from Yugoslavia who helped them choreograph some
of their shows and videos. Like The Holograms, she was orphaned at a young age.
Helping to make The Holograms’ videos was Vivian “Video” Montgomery (Noelle North), a talented young
filmmaker who always carried a video camera with her.
 |
| Techrat. |
Over on The Misfits’ side, they had
the services of Zipper and Techrat (both Adler). Zipper was Eric’s primary
henchman who carried out acts of thievery and sabotage against The Holograms.
Techrat was a recluse and technological genius that developed devices and
elaborate traps against The Holograms. Constance “Clash” Montgomery (Cathy Cavadin) was Video’s cousin and
The Misfits’ biggest fan and groupie. She worked her way into becoming their
henchwoman and often used her ability of disguise to spy on or foul things up on
behalf of The Misfits. Her nickname came from the miniature symbols she wore
around her wrists and clashed together whenever she wanted attention. Pizzazz’s
father, millionaire Harvey Gabor (Wally
Burr, who was also the series’ voice director), was The Misfits’ primary
financier, setting up Misfits Music for them and buying whatever Pizzazz wanted
him to in order to mess up things for The Holograms. Although not happy with
how Pizzazz carried on, he couldn’t help but spoil her since her mother left
them and his always being busy with work.
 |
| The Holograms with the Starlight Girls: Lela, Deirdre, Marianne, Ashley, Krissie, Anne, Terri, Joellen, Nancy, Becky and Delaree (Ba Nee not pictured). |
While supporting Starlight House was
the driving force behind many of the decisions The Holograms made, the twelve Starlight
Girls themselves were never much of a focus on the show. However, a couple did
rise up to be featured characters for a few episodes and even received their
own dolls in the toy line. Ashley Larson (Biore) was the newest member of the
house and had more in common with The Misfits in terms of her behavior. She
even went so far as to run away and join with The Misfits until realizing how
disgusting they really were. Although she remained rebellious and feisty, she
became a loyal member of the household. Ba Nee O’Carolan (Block & Ari Gold) was a young Vietnamese-American girl whose
mother died before they reached America and whose father had been missing all
her life. All she could recall was that her father had red hair, and her search
for him was the driving force behind many of her appearances. While The
Holograms were busy with their careers, the Starlight Girls were watched by
Mrs. Bailey (Hazel Shermet).
 |
| Danse in motion. |
Other characters included Lindsey “Lin-Z”
Pierce (Blu), the popular host of Lin-Z
TV, a music video/news/talk show on which both bands frequently appeared;
Howard Sands (Neil Ross), a
prominent Hollywood producer who often got involved in various Holograms
projects; Anthony Julian (T.K.
Carter), a talented director who became and remained Shana’s boyfriend; Joanie
(Aragon), Starlight Music’s business manager and a longtime friend of the
Bentons; Sean Harrison (Dan
Gilvezan), a British teen idol who became one of Kimber’s boyfriends and
had a bit of a past with The Misfits; and Jeff Wright (Michael Horton), a hot-headed
stuntman who was Kimber’s other boyfriend after Kimber initially rejected his
advances.
 |
| Synergy's body. |
Initially, Synergy was housed inside
a hidden room at Starlight
Drive-In until her location was almost discovered by Eric. The Holograms
disassembled her main computer and brought her to Starlight Mansion; the
replacement home they won in a contest with The Misfits after Zipper burned
down Starlight House. Once again, her room was hidden by an elaborate hologram
that only the band knew about. Sometimes, Synergy would project herself as a
full-bodied woman, usually wearing a purple-toned leotard with purple skin and
hair. It would be learned later in the series that Emmett used Jacqui’s likeness
and master tape recordings to program Synergy as a tribute to his late wife.
 |
| Jem character model art. |
Jem
premiered on October 6, 1985. While the toys were directed towards girls,
Hasbro wanted the show to have a more universal appeal which is why a lot of
action was blended in amongst the soap opera elements. The first five episodes
of the series were broken up into three seven-minute segments each and aired as
part of the “Super
Saturday/Super Sunday” programming block between segments of Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines, Robotix and Inhumanoids. The thinking was that with the promise of two boy-oriented
properties bookending the girl-oriented show boys wouldn’t be likely to tune
out and would actually stay and watch it. Out of those segments, only Jem and Inhumanoids expanded out into their own standalone programs. When
the episodes were re-aired, the segments were combined into a single story with
additional bridging elements added. The first season aired on Saturday mornings
in syndication.
 |
| Jem riding a flying horse in a video. |
One of the most unique aspects of
the series was the music. Because the show was conceived during the rising
prominence of MTV, it was decided that every
episode would feature up to three musical numbers of varying lengths by any
mixture of The Holograms and The Misfits. Each was done in the form of a faux
music video, complete with the song and band names superimposed on the screen
at the start and end of each song. In writing the scripts, the writers had to
figure out where the best place for a song would be in each act. Sometimes they
would suggest song titles, other times they would give brief descriptions of
visuals for the video for the storyboard artists to work off of. Early on, when
the videos seemed to blend too well into the surrounding adventure, Will Meugniot was placed in
charge of the video storyboarding crew and helped to redefine their looks so
that they would stand out a bit more. Like other music videos at the time, they
featured quick editing, an in-your-face style, and special effects. Meugniot
infused the videos with the sensibilities of anime, of which he was a fan.
 |
| Jema nd Aja rocking out. |
Barry Harman wrote every song
for the show and tried to come up with lyrics that would emphasize and
compliment the action going on in the story. Each group featured would get
their own distinctive sound with different instruments being used and in the
tonality of the lyrics. On top of those sounds, the show would sometimes switch
up between genres; going from rock to jazz to classical. The singing voices on
the show, recorded on the East Coast, were provided by different people than
the speaking voices, recorded on the West Coast, in order to maximize
production time. However, painstaking measures were taken by Anne Bryant to ensure that the
two voices sounded close enough to blend and make them believable as belonging
to the same person.
 |
| The Holograms on stage. |
The house band was comprised of
guitarist Steve Bill,
bassist Tom Barney, set
drummer and electronic drum programmer Tom Oldakowski, and pianist Peter
Phillips. When they were looking for the singing voice for Jem, Phillips
suggested his daughter, Britta. Britta, who had a cold at the time of her
audition which gave her a deeper tenor, performed the series’ theme song
“Jem-Truly, Truly, Truly Outrageous” by Bryant and Ford Kinder. Her audition went
so well that not only was she cast, but her audition tape was what was used as
the series’ official opening theme recording. Diva Gray, Florence Warner and
Cappelli provided the background and additional vocals for the songs. The rest
of the series’ score was composed by Robert J. Walsh.
The character designs went through
several revisions. Lee Gunther,
executive in charge of production, turned to Marvel art director William DuBay and asked for
designs influenced by Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Those were rejected and Rudy Nebres came in with a
second set of designs, which ended up too complex for animation. DuBay then
turned to Paula
Lafond, leading female character designer at the time, to do her own
workups. Hers were the designs eventually used in combination with DuBay’s
heads. Debra L. Pugh handled
the primary costume design, coming up with the majority of the outfits on the series,
with others based on the doll fashions by Carleigh Hoff. The
animation for most of the episodes was provided by Japanese studio Toei Doga
(now Toei Animation). They had
initially rendered the characters with anime-style faces until a key artist was
sent overseas to supervise and establish the look they actually wanted. The
opening sequence was done with rotoscoping by animating over live professional
dancers, which is why the animation looks more fluid and different from the
actual episodes. The series also featured commercial bumpers leading into and
out of the commercial breaks.
 |
| Raya and Craig competing to be drummer of The Holograms. |
After the first season, a few
changes were made. The first two episodes debuted new characters, some
permanent and others in recurring roles. Shana, wanting to pursue a fashion
career, left the band and The Holograms held auditions for her replacement. That
brought them Carmen “Raya” Alonso (Linda Dangcil); a Mexican-American girl who
was the daughter of florists. She inadvertently stumbled upon Jem’s identity,
but refused to reveal it to The Misfits, even when their newest member paid to
have her parents’ nursery destroyed as intimidation. When Shana returned to the
group, Raya stayed on as drummer and Shana took up the guitar. During their
search, The Holograms also met Stormer’s brother Craig (Horton), who also
refused to give in to The Misfits’ demands to reveal Jem’s identity. And,
speaking of The Misfits’ new member, after hearing about The Holograms’ talent
search, The Misfits recruited Sheila “Jetta” Burns (Louise Dorsey) after
Stormer hears her playing her saxophone in a seedy club. Dorsey’s casting was
the only one directly handled by Marx as she wanted a legitimately British
actress to play the part, avoiding any stereotypical American impressions of
one.
Hasbro, looking to cut some costs,
asked that some of the earlier songs be reused in the series, even though
all-new video sequences were still created to go along with them. Writers had
to work to make the existing catalog fit into the stories they were writing. A
new, more jingle-esque theme debuted with the episode “Father’s Day.” Also
written by Bryant, “Jem Girls” became the permanent theme for the remainder of
the series while the original theme and opening sequenced remained the closing
theme played during the credits. Accompanying it was a new intro that combined
pieces of the original with episode clips. Because the episodes weren’t aired
in production order, the two themes would alternate until the episode “Journey
to Shangri-La.” Whenever an episode would run short on time, another song would
play before the end credits; either from the same episode or a previous song
and video.
 |
| The Stingers: Rapture, Riot and Minx. |
For the third season, a new band was
introduced called The Stingers. They were courted by both The Holograms and The
Misfits to join their respective labels; however, Eric finally won them over by
giving them half of Misfit Music and renaming it Stingers Sound. Regardless,
The Stingers were more of a neutral band with no loyalties to either The
Holograms or Misfits. The band was comprised of lead singer Rory “Riot”
Llewelyn (Townsend Coleman & Gordon Grody), an arrogant yet charming man
who escaped his strict upbringing to pursue his musical career; Ingrid “Minx”
Kruger (Kath Soucie & Vicki Sue Robinson), an arrogant and self-absorbed
German girl who played synthesizers and provided backup vocals; and Phoebe
“Rapture” Ashe (Ellen Gerstell & Robinson), a skilled con artist and
dabbler in the occult who played guitar and provided backup vocals. Riot
believed Jem was the perfect woman for him and pursued her often, adding
another element to the triangle between her and Rio. Although Jem did find
herself attracted to Riot, it was Pizzazz who had it bad for him. Minx often
set her sights on Rio, enjoying the thrill of trying to steal him from Jem and
Jerrica.
 |
| Hasbro 1986 catalog cover. |
The Jem dolls were released by
Hasbro in 1986, getting a cover feature on Hasbro’s catalogue as their crown
jewel franchise. Their vibrant colors, realistic body shapes, creative fashions
and playsets proved a hit with consumers, flying off the shelves. Many of the
dolls also came with cassettes that featured the Jem theme and two other songs from the series, as well as a collectible
poster. Various tie-in merchandise
was also produced, from watches to games to lunch boxes. Unfortunately, Mattel
had gotten wind of Hasbro’s product and quickly gave Barbie her own rock band
in the line Barbie and
the Rockers. Mattel also partnered with DiC Entertainment to
release two specials
based on the toys in 1987.
Hasbro fought back by releasing even more dolls and playsets in the next wave and
producing gimmicks such as the Glitter ‘n Gold line, but by then the market had
become saturated by them, Barbie and other imitators. Parents
were also turned off by the fact that the Jem dolls were larger than other
dolls on the market, meaning that they would have to buy all-new outfits instead
of being able to use the ones they already had. Sales dwindled, and the line
was effectively dead; the final dolls coming out in 1988. Without a line to
promote, Hasbro saw no reason to continue funneling money into the animated
series despite its excellent ratings. Hasbro opted to let the series conclude
after its 65-episode syndication run.
 |
| Title screen for "Now" featuring all the groups. |
Knowing with enough time about the series’ cancellation, Marx was able to
write a final episode; a rarity for an animated series. “A Father Should Be”
featured all the bands setting aside their differences to help Ba Nee finally
find her father. By its end, the series had amassed 65 episodes, 151 original
songs, and 187 music videos. A movie was planned, but the idea was scrapped
after Transformers: The Movie and My Little Pony: The Movie
failed to perform well at the box office. Marx wrote 23 of the series’
episodes, with contributions by such notable writers as Greg Weisman, Paul Dini, Buzz Dixon, Michael Reaves, David Wise, Marv Wolfman, and Roger Slifer (who also served as
story editor with Marx). Other writers included Mary Skrenes, Beth Bornstein, Rick Merwin, Ellen Guon, Cheri Wilkerson, George Arthur Bloom, Jina Bacarr, Misty Stewart-Taggart, Steve Mitchell, Barbara Petty, Chris Pelzer, Eric Early, Michael Charles Hill, Clair Noto, Carla Conway, and Evelyn A.R. Gabai. Amongst the
storyboarding crew was Vicky
Jenson, who would go on to launch the popular Shrek movie
franchise, Boyd Kirkland, who
had a prominent career producing and directing series for Marvel and DC
Comics, and Rick
Hoberg, who continues to produce art for action-oriented programming.
 |
| DVD packaging for the complete series. |
25 episodes had been released to VHS between 1986 and 1999 by Family Home
Entertainment, Avid
Entertainment and Kid Rhino in the
United States, Trefa Video and Collage Entertainment AB in Sweden, Golden
Entertainment in Australia, Stardust
in Italy, Initial, Mirage Junior and Recre VIDEO in France, and Kideo Video,
ADB and Blancic
Video in Venezuela. In 2003, 2006 and 2007, Film Factory AB, Company of Kids and Metrodome
released the first five episodes as Jem The Movie in Sweden, Holland and the United Kingdom. In 2004, Rhino
Entertainment released 45 episodes as Jem
– The Complete 1st & 2nd Seasons and Jem –Season 3, Part 1. MRA
Entertainment released four volumes containing 16 episodes in Australia in
2005, while Kero released 44 episodes in France. In 2010, Declic Images released
three sets containing the entire series except for “Father’s Day” redubbed in
French, excluding the music videos. In 2011, Shout!
Factory released Jem and the Holograms: the Truly Outrageous
Complete Series and later as
individual sets between 2011 and 2012. “Britrock” was included as part of the
third season instead of season 2 in both releases. Aside from the toy cassettes,
the music from Jem never received a
complete album release.
Hasbro, still wanting their own doll line in the United States (they had Sindy overseas) reused a lot of the Jem sculpts
and accessories to create a new line called “Maxie”. Maxie was a popular
high school girl in California who hung out with her friends Carly, Ashley and
Kristen. To promote the new doll line, Hasbro partnered with DiC to produce an
animated series called Maxie’s World. Debuting
in 1987, the series only ran a single season of 32 episodes before it was cancelled. The dolls were released in 1988 and, priced
slightly lower than Barbie, sold well with the help of a marketing campaign
that featured Brooke Theiss
starring in commercials
as a real-life Maxie. Unfortunately, Mattel countered by creating Barbie’s cousin Jazzie
which torpedoed the Maxie line. Hasbro discontinued production in 1990.
 |
| The JemCon logo. |
After years of Marx stating she’d like to bring back and modernize the Jem concept if not for legal issues,
Hasbro finally announced a new feature
film was in development following the success of the G.I. Joe and
Transformers movie franchises in 2014. Directed by John M. Chu, the film starred Aubrey Peeples as Jem, Stefanie Scott as Kimber, Hayley Kiyoko as Aja, Aurora Perrineau as Shana and Julliette Lewis as a reimagined female
version of Eric Raymond named Erica. Rio, played by Ryan Guzman, was reimagined as
Erica’s son while Mrs. Bailey (Molly
Ringwald) was made the girls’ aunt and guardian. Newark had a cameo as a
hairstylist, Phillips as a stage manager, and Marx played music reporter
Lindsey Pierce.
 |
| Aja, Shana, Jem and Kimber. |
The film differed from the cartoon in that it had the Holograms rise to
fame via YouTube and attracted the
attention of Erica. Erica planned to have Jerrica break into a solo career and
gave her the Jem identity, but the girls reunited during a scavenger hunt to
find Emmet Benton’s (Barnaby
Carpenter) invention, 51N3RGY. The film was released on October 23, 2015 by
Universal Studios, two weeks
after the show’s 30th anniversary, and was largely panned by critics
and fans. In North America it debuted at 15th place, grossing only
$1.4 million—nearly $4 million lower than expected. After two weeks of
continually disappointing box office receipts worldwide, Universal pulled
the film from theaters in an unprecedented move. The final gross was $2.3
million worldwide against a $5 million budget. The proposed, and now unlikely
sequel, would have featured The Misfits who made their debut at the end of the
film.
 |
| Jem and the Holograms #1. |
In time for the anniversary, however, IDW Publishing began to produce a Jem and the Holograms comic
which reimagined and modernized the concept. The series was co-created by
writer Kelly Thompson and Sophie Campbell and began in March
of 2015. While Synergy’s discovery and use was kept largely intact, Jerrica was
given the reason of stage fright to become Jem and help her sisters win a
contest hosted by The Misfits (which included Jetta from the outset). Rio was
also reimagined as a music reporter who had just met The Holograms after their
first performance, and the Starlight Girls were at a center where The Holograms
volunteered rather than lived. The series ran for 26 issues, several specials
and annuals, and a couple of mini-series including one centering on The
Misfits.
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