''Jem and The Holograms'', also known as simply ''Jem'', is an American animated musical television series that ran from 1985 to 1988. The series is about record company owner Jerrica Benton, her singer

alter-ego An alter ego (Latin for "other I") means an alternate self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other self, one with a different personality. Add ...

Jem, and the adventures of her band Jem and The Holograms. The series was a joint collaboration by

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment holding company founded on December 6, 1923 by Henry, Hillel and Herma ...

Sunbow Productions Sunbow Entertainment (formerly known as Sunbow Productions until 1995) was an American animation studio and distributor, founded on June 23, 1980, and owned until May 4, 1998, by Griffin-Bacal Advertising in New York City and in the United State ...

and

Marvel Productions Marvel Productions Ltd., later known as New World Animation, was an American production company owned by the Fox Entertainment Group subsidiary of News Corporation which was founded in 1981 as the television and film studio subsidiary of the Mar ...

, the same team responsible for ''

G.I. Joe ''G.I. Joe'' is an American media franchise and a line of action figures owned and produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier ( U.S. Army), A ...

'' and ''

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the heroic Autobots and the villainous Decepticons, two Extraterrestrials in fiction, alien robot fac ...

''. The creator of the series,

Christy Marx Christy Marx is an American scriptwriter, author, and game designer, especially narrative designer. She is best known for her work on various television series including ''Jem (TV series), Jem'', ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 TV series), Te ...

, had also been a staff writer for the aforementioned programs. The animation for most of the episodes was provided by

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese animation studio

Toei Animation is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including '' Sally the Witch'', '' GeGeGe no Kitarō'', '' Mazinger Z'', '' Galaxy Express 999'', '' Cutie Honey'', '' Dr. Slu ...

. Eleven episodes and the opening sequence were instead provided by the South Korean studio

AKOM AKOM Production, Ltd. (Animation Korea Movie; ) is a South Korean animation studio in Songpa-gu, Seoul that has provided much work since its conception in 1985 by Nelson Shin. It is most notable for the overseas animation of more than 200 episo ...

Premise

Characters

The series revolves around Jerrica Benton, the owner and manager of Starlight Music, and her alter-ego Jem, lead singer of the rock group Jem and The Holograms. Jerrica adopts the

persona A persona (plural personae or personas) is a strategic mask of identity in public, the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. It is also considered "an intermediary ...

of Jem with the help of a

holographic Holography is a technique that allows a wavefront to be recorded and later reconstructed. It is best known as a method of generating three-dimensional images, and has a wide range of other uses, including data storage, microscopy, and interfe ...

computer, known as Synergy, which was built by Jerrica's father and is bequeathed to her after his death. Jem and The Holograms consists of Kimber Benton, Jerrica's younger sister,

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instru ...

, and main

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

for the band; Aja Leith, Asian-American

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

; Shana Elmsford, African-American, who plays the synth

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

s. Carmen "Raya" Alonso becomes the band's synth drummer after Shana briefly leaves the group to pursue a career in fashion. Upon her return to Jem and The Holograms, Shana becomes the band's

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

. Jem and The Holograms have two rival bands: The Misfits and The Stingers: * The Misfits (no relation to the real-world band

Misfits MiSFiTS was the acronym for the ''Minnesota Society for Interest in Science Fiction and Fantasy''. This organization has now changed its name to GPS, an acronym for Geek Partnership Society. It was founded in 1999 and was the parent non-profit org ...

) consist of petulant rich girl Pizzazz and her group: no-nonsense guitarist Roxy and kind-hearted, sensitive

keytar A keytar (a portmanteau of ''keyboard'' and ''guitar'') is a keyboard instrument similar to a synthesizer or MIDI controller that is supported by a strap around the neck and shoulders, similar to the way a guitar is held. Overview Though the ...

player Stormer. In the second season, they are joined by the manipulative

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

Jetta. * The Stingers debut in the third season when they cause disruptions for both groups by becoming co-owners of Stinger Sound with Eric Raymond. Originally from Germany, The Stingers are composed of egotistical lead singer Riot, guitarist/con artist Rapture, and keyboardist Minx.

Plot

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 Jem and The Holograms. The Misfits frequently attempt to upstage Jem and the Holograms' endeavors, often nearly resulting in physical harm to members of the group. This rivalry is encouraged and manipulated by their manager and central villain in the series, Eric Raymond, the former half-owner of Starlight Music who runs Misfits Music (later Stinger Sound) while working under Pizzazz's father, Harvey Gabor. During the series, Eric Raymond constantly plots to become owner of Starlight Music and get revenge on Jem and The Holograms for having cost him control of the company. Jerrica also deals with a complex and emotionally draining faux-

love triangle A love triangle is a scenario or circumstance, usually depicted as a rivalry, in which two people are pursuing or involved in a romantic relationship with one person, or in which one person in a romantic relationship with someone is simultaneo ...

involving her alter identity, Jem, and Rio Pacheco, Jerrica's longtime boyfriend. 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, who becomes infatuated with her – adding further complications to her relationships.

Music videos and songs

The series' format included three songs for the featured music videos in each episode. The theme song "Truly Outrageous" was the opening and closing theme for the show until late 1987, when "Jem Girls" became the series' opening theme for the majority of episodes and "Truly Outrageous" was kept as the show's permanent closing theme.Bascal, Joe. (2011). Commentary. ''Jem and The Holograms: The Truly Outrageous Complete Series'' (DVD).

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory, LLC, doing business as Shout! Studios (formerly doing business as Shout! Factory, its current legal name), is an American home video and music distributor founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases, issued i ...

. Music videos featured an "in-your-face" style that was directed at the viewer or the more traditional style. The music videos paralleled the style of rock videos found on

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

at the time featuring fast editing, a quick pace, and special effects.Griffen, Tom. (2011). Commentary. ''Jem and The Holograms: The Truly Outrageous Complete Series'' (DVD).

Episodes

Production

Conception and staffing

and an outside investor started developing ''Jem'' in response to an interest that children were showing in music videos. Hasbro hired advertising agency Griffin-Bacal Advertising, the founders of

, to create the 65-episode animation series. Griffin-Bacal (Sunbow), as well as

, had previously created the successful ''

'' series for

. ''G.I. Joe'' writer

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, with several of them named after pioneers in the history of holography.

Casting

Samantha Newark provided the speaking voices of Jem and Jerrica. Despite having toured as a child singer in Africa, she did not do the singing for Jem. The voiceover cast never auditioned for the music side of the series and vice versa. The music for Jem was all cast and recorded in New York and Atlanta and the voiceover actors were cast and recorded in Burbank, California. They matched the speaking voices of the cast to the singing voices.

Britta Phillips Britta Phillips (born June 11, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, and actress. Phillips' music career spans more than 30 years. She came to prominence in the mid-1980s as the singing voice of the title character ...

, 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

jingle A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meanings that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually ...

s in New York. The initial take from the audition was used as the first opening theme song "Truly Outrageous". 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' speaking voices were provided by

Patricia Alice Albrecht Patricia Alice Albrecht (January 30, 1953 – December 25, 2019) was an American actress, writer and poet. She was best known for her role of Phyllis "Pizzazz" Gabor, the antagonistic lead singer of the fictional band The Misfits in the animated ...

(Phyllis "Pizzazz" Gabor), Samantha Paris/Bobbie Block (Roxanne "Roxy" Pellegrini),

Susan Blu Susan Blu, better known as Sue Blu, is an American voice-actress, voice-director, and casting-director in American and Canadian cinema and television. She most notably voiced Arcee in '' The Transformers: The Movie'' and Seasons 3 and 4 of '' Th ...

(Mary "Stormer" Phillips), and Louise Dorsey (Sheila "Jetta" Burns), the daughter of Engelbert Humperdinck. Ellen Bernfeld provided the singing voice of Pizzazz. The Stingers' speaking voices were provided by

Townsend Coleman Townsend Putnam Coleman III (born May 28, 1954) is an American voice actor who has performed in many animated series and TV commercials beginning in the early 1980s. Among his most notable roles are Michaelangelo from ''Teenage Mutant Ninja ...

(Rory "Riot" Llewelyn), Ellen Gerstell (Phoebe "Rapture" Ashe), and

Kath Soucie Kath Soucie (, ). is an American voice actress, known for voicing Phil, Lil and their mother Betty DeVille in '' Rugrats'', Lola Bunny in the ''Looney Tunes'' franchise, Fifi La Fume and Li'l Sneezer in ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', Maddie Fent ...

(Ingrid "Minx" Kruger). Gordon Grody, a vocal coach who later worked with

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her image reinventions and versatility across the entertainment industry, she is an influ ...

, provided the singing voice for Riot. Other notable cast members included

Charlie Adler Charles Michael Adler (born October 2, 1956) is an American voice actor and voice director. He is known for his roles as Buster Bunny on ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', the Bigheads on ''Rocko's Modern Life'', Ickis on ''Aaahh!!! Real Monsters'', Doc ...

as Eric Raymond. He also provided the voices of both of Eric's major henchmen Zipper and Techrat. Vicki Sue Robinson, famous for the 1970s discothèque-oriented hit " Turn the Beat Around", provided the singing voices of both Rapture and Minx. Ari Gold, pop singer and songwriter, gave the singing voice of Ba Nee.

Music

The inclusion of music videos in ''Jem'' was a result of the success and popularity of

(Music Television) at the time, which began airing four years prior. The show contains a total of 187 music videos with 151 unique songs. Over 200 original songs were written for the series. Several songs are featured on cassette tapes of Hasbro's Jem toy line. Sunbow Productions employed several musicians and songwriters. Ford Kinder and Anne Bryant composed the music, and Barry Hamon wrote the lyrics of the songs.

performed as Jem, Ellen Bernfeld performed as Pizzazz, and Gordon Grody, performed as Riot. Anne Bryant, who chose the singers and musicians, created a

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

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 when the character of Jetta was introduced into The Misfits. This was done to create an identifiable

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

style in stark contrast to their rival singing groups. In season three, Bryant introduced the slower funky groove for the third group that entered the show, The Stingers.

Release

Marketing

According to ''

Newsday ''Newsday'' is a daily newspaper in the United States primarily serving Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI" ...

'' in 1986, the budget for the first year of advertising the franchise totaled approximately $10 million''—'' a large sum for a multifaced line at the time. Along with the series, Hasbro promoted ''Jem'' with a complete line of toys and accessories, hoping to create the "next fashion doll superstar in a market". Steven Eisenberg, a toy industry analyst at

Bear Stearns The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. was an American investment bank, securities trading, and brokerage firm that failed in 2008 during the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession. After its closure it was subsequently sold to JPMorgan Chas ...

, stated that the lineup would be "very successful" and "represent a potentially significant challenge to

Barbie Barbie is a fashion doll created by American businesswoman Ruth Handler, manufactured by American toy and entertainment company Mattel and introduced on March 9, 1959. The toy was based on the German Bild Lilli doll, Bild Lilli doll which Hand ...

." Alfred C. Carosi, Jr., former vice president of marketing services for Hasbro, also said, "Jem is getting as much push in terms of marketing muscle as any major line", explaining that the marketing services promoted several "Jem Coming Soon" advertisements. In a response to an analysis chart of toy sales, Paul Valentine, a toy analyst at Standard & Poor's Corporation, predicted the Jem toy line to be a flop. Hasbro's first Jem doll line was unveiled on February 10, 1986, at Hasbro's Madison Avenue showroom in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

North American International Toy Fair The North American International Toy Fair (formerly the American International Toy Fair and also known as Toy Fair New York) is an annual toy industry trade show held in mid-February in New York City's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and at to ...

. The showroom was filled with Jem dolls and decorated with neon colors, "''

Miami Vice ''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo Tubbs, Ricardo "Rico" Tub ...

''-styled" fashions, and video screens with animation clips and commercials. In mid-1986,

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

partnered with Hasbro to sponsor a contest in which people were asked to call a

toll-free telephone number A toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number is free of charge, unless air-charges apply for mobile telephone service. A toll-free ...

and sing the theme song of the series. The grand prize was worth $7,000 and featured a trip to the

MTV Video Music Awards The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honor the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category ...

in New York City. Other prizes included a 19-inch color television, a VCR and the ''Jem'' home video library, a dress identical to the one made for the Jem doll, and $1,000 cash. Carosi explained that the promotion "added proof of ''Jem'''s popularity", garnering more than 375,000 phone calls and breaking the telephone system once during the eight weeks of the contest. The contest winner was Keri King of

Seymour, Indiana Seymour is a city in Jackson Township, Jackson County, Indiana, Jackson and Redding Township, Jackson County, Indiana, Redding Townships, Jackson County, Indiana, United States, located 62 miles south of Indianapolis, and 55 miles north of Louisvi ...

, who was chosen out of 325,000 children aged 12 and under.

Broadcast

''Jem'' started airing 1985, in syndication. It consisted of one seven-minute short that aired every week as part of the '' Super Sunday'' lineup. On May 4, 1986, ''Jem'' started to air as a television series. Starting in September 1987, the series aired five times weekly. It has aired in multiple countries including

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. The series aired reruns on The Hub Network/Discovery Family from May 31, 2011, to November 15, 2015. On July 25, 2011,

Teletoon Retro Teletoon Retro was a Canadian specialty channel that was owned by Corus Entertainment that was based on the Teletoon programming block. The service was dedicated to broadcasting classic animated television programs such as ''The Raccoons'' as w ...

, a Canadian channel dedicated to cartoons, announced that ''Jem'' would be part of its fall 2011 lineup. On April 5, 2012,

announced that ''Jem'', along with several other Hasbro franchises, will be available on

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

Broadcast UK history

*''

TV-am TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992. The station was the UK's first national operator of a commercial breakfast television franchise ...

'' (1987–1988) *'' Sky Channel'' (Then: ''

Sky One Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non- terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

'') (1987–1990) *'' UK Gold'' (1992–1994) *''

The Children's Channel The Children's Channel, also known as TCC, was a British-based pan-European children's television channel in Europe, Asia and Africa, which was owned by Flextech in London, England, UK. It began broadcasting on the original Eutelsat satellite ...

'' (April 23, 1994 – November 26, 1994)

Reception

''Jem'' was the #1 Nielsen rated syndicated cartoon series in November 1986. In 1987, it was the third most watched children's program in syndication with 2.5 million viewers weekly. The show was nominated for the

Young Artist Award The Young Artist Award (originally known as the Youth in Film Award) is an accolade presented by the Young Artist Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded in 1978 to honor excellence of youth performers, and to provide scholarships for young ...

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".

Home media

Franchise

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.

Dolls

Hasbro's first Jem toy line consisted of eight dolls, each packaged with a cassette tape, a few accessories and a poster, priced at $15 per doll. The cassettes contained the theme song "Truly Outrageous" and two other songs performed by Jem and The Holograms or The Misifts. The toy line also included the Jem Star Stage and Jem's Rockin' Roadster. As of June 1986, Jem's sales surpassed those of their competitor Barbie and the Rockers. By September 1987, more than three million dolls had been sold since the toy line was introduced. In September 8, 2011, Hasbro issued a press release announcing its attendance at the

New York Comic Con The New York Comic Con is an annual New York City fan convention dedicated to comics, Western comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, cosplay, toys, Film, movies, and television. It was first held in 2006. With an attendance of 200,00 ...

from October 13–16, 2011, where it would be showing new and upcoming products at its booth, including those from ''Jem and The Holograms''. In June 27, 2012, Integrity Toys, Inc. announced their plans to release a new series of collectible fashion dolls based on the TV series. The special edition Hollywood Jem doll became available at the Hasbro Toy Shop booth during Comic-Con International in San Diego at an approximate retail price of $135. The Jem doll sold out on day two of the convention. In October 5, 2012, the four (then-upcoming) dolls in Integrity Toys' new limited edition collectible line were presented with pictures: Classic Jem, Jerrica Benton, Synergy and Rio Pacheco, with a suggested retail price of $119, to begin shipping in late November 2012. Pre-orders were accepted through Integrity Toys' network of authorized dealers. As of October 2016, Integrity Toys has produced more than 40 different dolls based on the TV show. In September 2024, The Loyal Subjects inked a deal with Hasbro to relaunch a host of legacy brands, including Jem and the Holograms. A 12-inch doll based on Jem / Jerrica was officially released in February 2025.

Comics

In 2011, Hasbro released a one-off comic book titled ''Unit:E'' as an exclusive at the New York Comic-Con; this was created by "HasLab" as a potential multi-brand crossover platform. The plot depicted Synergy, now an alien artificial intelligence, assisting the descendant of Acroyear and a Biotron from ''

Micronauts Micronauts is a North American science fiction toyline manufactured and marketed by Mego from 1976 to 1980. The ''Micronauts'' toyline was based on and licensed from the '' Microman'' toyline created by Japanese-based toy company Takara in 1974 ...

'' in searching for heroes to help him combat Baron Karza. She shows them characters from ''G.I. Joe'', ''Transformers'', ''Battleship Galaxies'', ''

Stretch Armstrong Stretch Armstrong is a large, gel-filled action figure that was first sold in 1976 by Kenner. It looks like a short muscular man with blond hair wearing black trunks, but can be stretched from its normal size of about to . The doll is mad ...

'', ''

Action Man Action Man is an action figure launched in Britain in 1966 by Palitoy as a licensed copy of Hasbro's American "movable fighting man", G.I. Joe. Action Man was originally produced and sold in the United Kingdom and Australia by Palitoy Ltd of ...

'', '' M.A.S.K.'' and ''

Candy Land ''Candy Land'' is a simple racing board game created by Eleanor Abbott and published by Milton Bradley in 1949. The game requires no reading and minimal counting skills, making it suitable for young children. No strategy is involved as players ...

'' among others. Jerrica herself is shown as not having taken up the Jem identity yet, but will eventually compose the "Music of the Spheres" (presumably with Synergy's aid). The comic was never followed up. The ''Jem'' comic book was released by IDW in March 2015: written by

Kelly Thompson Kelly Thompson is an American writer of novels and comic books. She is best known for the '' Jem and the Holograms'' comic with co-creator and artist Sophie Campbell, a modern re-imagining of the 1980s cartoon of the same name; the Eisner-nomin ...

, art by Sophie Campbell and colors by M. Victoria Robado. The comic book offers a modern re-imagining of the series with new character designs and different situations, such as Jem and The Holograms and The Misfits being unsigned bands at the start with Eric Raymond being hired as The Misfits' manager during the second story arc. In addition, Kimber and Stormer begin a romantic relationship. As of Issue #16, which is Campbell's final issue as regular artist, The Stingers have been introduced to the series with Raya featured as a fourth member of the band. The title's current status within the new Hasbro Comic Book Universe (consisting of several new or relaunched titles, using the IDW ''Transformers'' comics as the backbone for a cohesive universe) has been somewhat erratic; IDW writers have generally indicated that, while characters from ''Jem'' will not show up in crossovers (including the ''Revolution'' mini-series that launched the universe), they do exist and will receive occasional references. The series ended on June 14, 2017, with issue #26, but a six-issue miniseries--''Jem and The Holograms: Infinite #1 and Jem and The Holograms: Misfits Infinite #1'' was released later in the month. A one-shot ''Jem and The Holograms: IDW 20/20'' was published in January 2019 as part of ''IDW 20/20'' which celebrated the 20th anniversary of IDW Publishing. The comic takes place 20 years after the final issue of the ongoing comic.

Film

After the success of ''

'' and ''

'' films,

began considering a live-action film adaptation or a new incarnation of the animated series with

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

, with which Hasbro had signed a six-film contract in 2010. On March 20, 2014, a live-action motion picture adaptation of ''Jem and The Holograms'' was announced, to be directed by Jon M. Chu. Filming on the production began in April 2014. On April 24, it was announced that

Aubrey Peeples Aubrey Shea Peeples (born November 27, 1993) is an American actor and singer. They are best known for portraying Layla Grant in the ABC drama series ''Nashville.'' They also led Carrie Brownstein's pilot ''Search & Destroy'' for Hulu based on he ...

had been cast as Jem, with Stefanie Scott as Kimber,

Hayley Kiyoko Hayley Kiyoko Alcroft (born April 3, 1991) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, and author. As a child model and actress, she appeared in a variety of films, including '' Lemonade Mouth'' (2011), '' Jem and the Holograms'' (2015), '' Insidi ...

as Aja and

Aurora Perrineau Aurora Perrineau is an American actress and model. She is best known for starring as Shana Elmsford in ''Jem and the Holograms'' (2015), the live-action film adaptation of the 1980s animated television series '' Jem'', Giselle Hammond in Blumh ...

as Shana. On April 30, 2014, actor

Ryan Guzman Ryan Anthony Guzman (born September 21, 1987) is an American actor. He is known for his lead roles as Sean Asa in '' Step Up Revolution'' and '' Step Up: All In'', part of the ''Step Up'' film series, as Noah Sandborn in the psychological thri ...

was cast as Rio. On May 20,

Juliette Lewis Juliette Lake Lewis (born June 21, 1973) is an American actress, singer and musician. She is known for her portrayals of offbeat characters, often in films with dark plots, themes and settings. Lewis gained prominence in American cinema during t ...

and

Molly Ringwald Molly Kathleen Ringwald (born February 18, 1968) is an American actress, writer, and translator. She began her career as a child actress on the sitcoms ''Diff'rent Strokes'' and '' The Facts of Life'' (both 1979–1980) before being nominated for ...

joined the film. The film was theatrically released on October 23, 2015; it received generally negative reviews from critics and fans, with criticism targeted at the angsty teen drama, strayed too far from the source material as well as original series fan content being manipulated into reaction to the in-film characters. It was a

box office bomb A box-office bomb is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the combined production budget, marketing, and distribution costs exceed the revenue after release has te ...

, grossing less than half its $5 million budget, and was removed from theaters by Universal after two weeks. ''

SF Weekly ''SF Weekly'' is an online music publication and formerly alternative weekly newspaper founded in the 1970s in San Francisco, California. It was distributed every Thursday, and was published by the San Francisco Print Media Company. The paper ha ...

'' criticized the fan backlash as entitlement.

Music

Hasbro Studios Allspark, formerly known as Hasbro Studios, LLC, was an American production and distribution company owned by toy and multimedia company Hasbro and based in Burbank, California that was in operation from 2009 to 2019. Originally just a televis ...

with

Legacy Recordings Legacy Recordings is an American record label that is a division of Sony Music. Formed in 1990 after Sony's acquisition of CBS Records, Legacy originally handled the archives of Sony Music-owned labels Columbia Records and Epic Records. In 2 ...

released its first non-soundtrack album, ''Truly Outrageous: A Tribute to Starlight Records'' on August 7, 2015. The record was part of the promotion of the ''Jem'' film. The album consisted of original songs that only had the titles and sometimes a few lyrics in common with the ''Jem'' TV series songs. This release was digital only. A new album of re-recorded songs from ''Jem'' with original Jem singing voice, Britta Phillips, will be released in a July 2025 coinciding with the show's 40th anniversary.

References

External links

*
Jem and The Holograms
at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

Archived
from the original on October 8, 2016. {{Hasbro Jem and the Holograms 1985 American animated television series debuts 1988 American television series endings 1980s American animated television series 1980s American children's television series 1980s American music television series 1980s American romance television series 1980s American science fiction television series 1980s toys First-run syndicated animated television series Television series by Marvel Productions American children's animated musical television series American children's animated science fiction television series American children's animated supernatural television series Animated musical groups Fictional musical groups American English-language television shows Television series by Allspark Animated television series set in Los Angeles Super Sunday (TV series) Fashion dolls Holography in television Animated television series about robots Television series about fictional musicians Television shows based on Hasbro toys Television series by Sunbow Entertainment Television series created by Christy Marx Animated romance television series Television series by Claster Television Toei Animation television Animated television series about sisters