Introduction to Jem and the Holograms Review Podcast

Hi, this is Christy Marx, creator of Gem and

the Holograms, and you're listening to a truly

outrageous podcast with Mike Amy and Nicole.

It's showtime, Synergy! Are you ready to get

truly outrageous with the GeekCaster Radio Network?

Here is the premiere episode of our Gem in the

Holograms review podcast entitled Showtime Synergy.

I am one of your hosts, Em, and joining me in

this truly outrageous adventure on my holograms,

the Lady Rek and Hailstorm. Hello, ladies. Hello.

Let's get fabulous. Truly outrageous. Yeah, that

was a good intro. Yes. So it has been 30 years

since Jim and the Holograms the cartoon series

was on the air from Sunbow Productions and Hasbro

Now we're gonna give you 25 episodes of this

podcast reviewing every episode of the Jim series

Hopefully some interviews and a whole lot of

fun now when I did my introduction and I called

myself M M was the original character name of

the doll when they first brought it to Christy

Marks for an idea for an animated series. So

it was originally going to be M and the Holograms.

Oh, I'm glad they changed it. Glad they changed

it, because that's bad. I mean, she suggested,

why not Jem and the Holograms? I believe that's

how it happened. I've got two interviews that

I will link in this episode that I've done with

Kristy Marks over the years here in the Geekcast

Radio Network, and one of them, she explains

the origins. If you have the complete series

DVD set from Shout Factory, I believe there is

a... retrospective feature with Kristy Marks

who was the original head staff writer. I believe

she was also co -creator or creator of, as far

as the cartoon does, she's basically the boss

on this cartoon, is basically what it boils down

to. The buck stopped with her. Uh, so basically

what this is going to be is like all the other

review shows here in the GCRN where I'm trying

to expand the review show, uh, stuff. And everybody

has asked me over the years, are you ever going

to do a My Little Pony review podcast? And that's,

that's one thing where I draw the line is like

one fandom. I do not want to touch because we

have standards here, right? It's not even that

the My Little Pony fan. you know, God bless them,

you know. Yeah, you better watch your words very

carefully. No. I know. I know. And I'm not saying

anything bad about it. I'm just saying that it's

not for me. I think I got through the first 16

episodes of season one of Friendship is Magic

and I just couldn't watch anymore. Not saying

that it was a bad show or anything else. It's

just I just. I couldn't get into it. That's it.

That's it. All right. I don't want to hear anymore.

You're dead to me, dude. You're dead to me. Right.

He didn't get to my favorite episode. Season

one or season two? Season one. And that's Party

of One. You go watch that. You will be a fad.

Pinkie Pie. You'll never see a pony break like

Pinkie Pie. She talks to rocks and has turnips

as friends. She really does. Breakdown psychologically

and it's hilarious Now over the years people

have told me oh Jim and the Holograms, that's

a girls cartoon Girls cartoons most of them don't

have evil music producers trying to blow you

up with giant explosions and dynamite and Thank

God, no. No. This is why Michael Bay went the

way he did. He watched Jem back in the day. Exactly.

He'd be old enough for it. I mean, come on, man.

He would be. Oh, my God. No. See what happens

when you bring us on here. Let's get exposed.

You know, it's nice. And that's another thing

I want to point out. We have had at the GCR,

we've had several female co -hosts and hosts

on several different shows off and on. You fine

ladies have been on the pullback with me for

a number of episodes off and on. But this is

really the first podcast, well it might be the

second because I know Steve Megatron is doing

Rebooting Mainframe with Tara the Rising Star

Blair. The reason why I'm bringing Amy and Nicole

on here is because I want both opinions, male

and female, as far as this show goes, because

this show fits in with the rest of the action

cartoons of the 80s. It's not, yes, it does have

music and fashion, but music is not just for

females. True. Fashion, that's a little questionable.

But it's back in the 80s. Every girl probably

much wanted to dress like him in some way or

another, whether it be the big hair. Yeah, it

is. Going back and watching it, because I have

just in the last couple of months here just been

going back and watching it going, oh, my gosh,

it's so 80s. Look at those pants. Oh, my gosh.

Hair. The hair, too. The hair. Oh, my gosh. So

so that's why they're here and it's just gonna

be a fun ride looking back on this cartoon And

I have to say I've done several review shows

on several of the 80s properties. I did Transformers

G1 I did mask I've done He -Man and Masters of

the Universe She -Ra Princess of Power. Well,

I will be doing She -Ra Princess of Power eventually

and This one like i said it it doesn't separate

itself from the quote -unquote boys cartoons

because any anyone can watch this or can watch

transformers or gi joy like the whole notion

of oh well these are the boys toys or these are

the characters for boys to well that's just ridiculous

or in this case well these are the characters

that the girls can look up to that's fine since

considerably considerably in the 80s it was a

male dominated thing with cartoons with action

cartoons anyway and this one is different it

really is it's not it's not your standard all

-female cartoon show it really isn't and I think

it was interesting that they Went to use holograms

and synthesizers and I mean this show really

is the 80s This show is everything about the

80s music industry and fashion fashion industry.

It really is I mean, I don't I haven't watched

all the episodes at this point, but I I haven't

watched them all recently. I don't think that

I think the one thing they might be missing is

parachute pants. It's the only thing I might

be missing in this show. Yeah. I don't recall

seeing parachute pants. I'll have to go back

and look. I'll just keep my eye on it again.

What about the young girls? The young girls that

they took care of? Maybe. The Starlight girls?

Maybe. Maybe one of them was wearing one. I know

they pegged their pants a lot of them. Yeah.

So, like all of the GCRN podcasts, we have good,

you know, highlights and lowlights. And for this

show, I am calling them hologram moments and

misfit moments. Oh, you're not going to go there.

The misfits are times much better than the holograms.

Don't you dare do that. I see how things are

going to end up going here. Nicole's going to

be the misfit and I'm being an hologram, right?

Well, Roxy was my favorite character. I love

Roxy. OK, you can love Roxy. OK, take our mask

podcast, please. Take our mask podcast. Mask

Mayhem. In that, the good moments and the bad

moments were called. high beams and low beams

for headlights, okay? So I'm not saying the misfits

are wrong or it's wrong to like them. I'm just

saying that it makes sense to me for the good

moments, the things you like. I know you're just

giving me crap. This is our job. This is why

you have co -hosts. They keep things interesting.

I always liked the bad guys better. It's just

how I am. Yeah, we know. Oh God, technically

Rio is an emo cyclonus. Rio, oh, I've got a whole

rant on Rio, man. That guy, no, you do not compare

him to Cyclotus because that guy is a douchebag.

He is messing around with two women and he knows

it. The thing is, he doesn't know they're both

the same girl. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

That's what ticks me off is that he tries to

get away with it. What drives me nuts is Jerrica

knows that he's cheating on her and she doesn't

do anything because he's cheating on her with

herself. That's where the podcast gets philosophical

ladies and gentlemen first of all first of all

he doesn't he There's a bunch of times and we'll

get into this next time with episode one with

the first five part opening here But you know

in the first few episodes he actively resists

Jim He says no, you know, I've got a girl, you

know, what would Jericho say and blah blah blah

blah and Really you should be as a female Nicole.

You should be more upset with her about lying

to him for 65 episodes Drama this is what was

the pre drama stage of all kids all girls that

were watching this at that age like This if you

didn't get into soap operas afterwards, then

gem didn't do her job, right? Yeah All right.

So like I was saying hologram moments for the

good stuff that we like about the show misfit

moments for the stuff that we don't like I'm

going to try to sprinkle in a little bit of trivia

each episode if I can I will say that I'm going

to at least put one song from the series that

was featured in one of the episodes in each episode

of the podcast I don't know how that's going

to work because of the simple fact that When

I went back and watched the first The first five

-parter well, it's technically not a five -parter,

but this is back in the 80s when everything had

to have this five part Opening miniseries, you

know GI Joe had the mass device Transformers

only had three parts with more than meets the

eye But this has the beginning disaster Kimbers

rebellion frame -up and battle of the bands.

I watched these five episodes about I don't know

three four five months ago and They have in these

five episodes a total of 14 songs I'm not too

overkill, but it'd be like, you know, if you

put that many songs into one episode, it'll be

all song the whole time. Right. Probably what

I'm going to do is when we get to the recording

of the actual episode reviews, I'm going to send

you guys the list of songs that are featured

in the episodes that we'll review and you guys

can pick out your top two. We'll fight over it.

I'll pick the misfit songs. And I'll pick the

gem songs, so there you go. Choose your faction.

Oh god, here we go. Come on man, we're the 80s

girls here. Okay, everybody out of the pool,

nobody gets to choose a faction, you all get

to go out into the wilderness now. Anyway. I

think how the best way to do it is to have two

songs per podcast, one somewhere at the beginning

and one somewhere at the end. There were two

different themes, opening theme songs for this

show. There was the standard one that we all

know and there is the one entitled. Yeah, well,

they switched back and forth. Yeah, I noticed

that. There was some places where it was consistent

and there was parts where it was like, oh, maybe

we have a different one. Oh, wow, this is a new

opening. Keeping us on our toes. Yeah, there's

the original theme song that we all know. And

then there's a song called Gem Girls that they

used on the intro. Alternating between those

two so the odd episodes you're gonna get the

original theme song and the even episodes are

gonna get the gem girls theme song So that way

it kind of alternates It'll be just like the

show So so there is that Did you guys actually

watch the show when you were kids oh, yeah, I

did I did yeah Mine is kind of a. OK, so I thought

about this because I knew you were going to record

this and I was like, OK, back in the day, I had

for whatever reason, it did the only reason the

only way I could watch the show. I think it was

like on the weekends and it was like on it like

five, five o 'clock in the morning, that type

of thing. And I don't know if I don't know why

it was on that early. But I was one of those

kids that I had to secretly get up and go down

and go to my TV and turn it on and keep it really,

really low so that my parents couldn't hear that

I was up because they did not like me being up

watching TV that early in the morning. And so

I was like hiding the fact that I was watching

Jem. And I used to set my alarm. Yeah, I would

set my alarm and I would get up. I don't remember

how it was that I discovered the show. I think

it was I would just randomly woke up one morning

really early and went down and tried to watch

cartoons or whatever. I would wait the whole

week and then I would set my alarm on that Sunday

night and I'd get up as fast as I can because

my mom was a really light sleeper. I would go

out into the living room and I'd turn the TV

on. I'd have to be really, really quiet about

it because sometimes even just popping it on

my mom would list would hear that so I had to

pop on the it was like one of those really old

TVs where it didn't have the toggle switch it

was the pop out one but you had to pop it out

and then you had to make you're hoping crossing

your fingers that the person that had last watched

the watch TV the night before hadn't turned it

up really loud so you had I got to the point

where I started turning it down really really

fast um and I would even keep a blanket and I

it wasn't a small TV was big TV and I would put

the blanket on the TV kind of to to kind of hide

the light because my mom would see the light

and it would wake her up and I'd be like dang

it and I would have to go back to bed and I would

miss the show and I'd be like no so I mean it

was a big ordeal for me to go watch the show

I was I was secretly watching the show for weeks

before my parents finally figured out what I

was doing and I said no I want to watch the show

I don't even remember if I even got to the end

of it. I just remember thinking, or I just remember

that they had a couple episodes back to back

because it was early in the morning and it was

on an off peak time. So they would like run them

a couple, you know, they'd cut, run a couple

of episodes. And so that's sometimes how I would

be able to get to get to see him as I get the,

I would get a chance to watch the episodes from

the week before if they were replaying them or.

you know whatnot so yeah it was all the memories

watching the show going oh my gosh i remember

that oh my heck putting a blanket over the tv

she really is a closeted i was crazy i was a

little kid and i wanted to watch my show and

so yeah If everybody that knows you now, if everybody

that knows you now could have seen little Amy

running around Sunday morning watching gym. The

sun wasn't even up yet. I mean, I would be like,

you know, it would be dark outside. I watched

the sun get up in the morning. No. And then afterwards,

after I'd watched all the shows, then I would

go back to bed. That sounds good. I used to do

that when I was really young watching Bozo. That

tells you how old I am people. Wow. Bows of the

clown. There you go. Yep. So what about you Nicole?

Do you remember watching this? Oh, of course

I remember watching it. Me and the girls, because

I remember watching it more like after school.

Me and my girlfriends used to get together and

watch it. It came on around the same time as

Transformers and G .I. Joe. They had a block

of cartoons. I must have seen it on the replays

or something. The rebroadcast on some weird channel

somewhere. Yeah. I think for me, and I don't

know why this is, this might have been an off

-peak time, but I remember for some strange reason

watching this and then masks came on right after

it. I honestly couldn't tell you. I do remember

this being on at the 6 or 6 .30 in the morning

spot. up in Boston, Massachusetts. So, um, I

honestly don't remember. I do remember Transformers

and G .I. Joe and all that stuff after school.

I do not remember gym after school. Yeah, neither

do I. I remember that in the morning. It would

really stink too if they like changed the time.

I would like freak out because it'd be like,

oh no, it's not on anymore. I'd get up an hour

earlier to see if I could find it and then an

hour afterwards to see if I could find it. Eventually,

I think it was it was just it wasn't on that

week. And so it messed me all up. Messed up my

sleeping habits because that because when you

were a little kid, you didn't know where like

that, you know, to look up the stuff in the TV

guide. And it actually took me a while to finally

figure out how to use the TV. And so I finally

did. I was like, oh, geez, that that saves a

lot of guesswork. But after the show, I think

let's see the two. Cartoons that I remember that

we're on afterwards were like I think something

called brave star There's an interview on the

DVD set with with Michael Sheehan who plays Rio

and I remember Remember this interview and he

says At the time I felt like I felt like the

old man playing this young character Because

all these other girls around me were all so young

at the time of actually doing the production

on the show So that was a little strange in that

interview You know, it's It had 65 episodes,

but honestly, I don't remember that's one reasons

why I like doing these review podcasts because

It makes me go back and look at stuff that I

remember as a kid every so often. And I don't

I know I didn't see all 65 episodes. Yeah, I'm

pretty sure I didn't either. But there's something

familiar about quite a few of them. So I know

I did because I watched this in full just a couple

of years ago. Well, I know. Yeah, we've rewatched

it since we were kids. But I mean. As a kid,

I don't remember seeing all 65 episodes. I remember

seeing maybe season one, season two. I don't

remember a lot of season three. And right now,

outside of the first five, I honestly couldn't,

without obviously going through them like we're

going to, without doing that, I couldn't tell

you what happens from one episode to the next.

Well, season three, though, it was kind of like

a half a season. That's when they introduced

the stingers, right? Yeah, that's when they introduced

the stingers. I'm just excited to listen to it

without having to hide it. I was like, I won't,

I could actually hear what they're saying. Cause

like I said, sometimes I would keep it so low

so my mom wouldn't wake up that sometimes I wasn't

even quite sure what they just said. Like, okay,

I think I can't read their mouths. They're not,

you know, they're not human. It talks, but it's

not articulating the right way. So, you know,

this is gonna be an interesting journey. It really,

really is. And with this being Gem's 30th anniversary,

I honestly couldn't have planned this better.

Because it's just, it's gonna be so fun. You

know, you've got... As far as the cast goes,

you've got Samantha Newark as the voice of Jerrica

slash Jim and Britta Phillips was the singing

voice for Jim. I definitely gotta get interviews

with them. Oh, that'd be brilliant. Did they

have different people doing their singing voices

than they did their speaking voices? Yeah, yeah.

Like I said, Britta Phillips was the singing

voice of Jim. Let me see, who was the other one?

Yeah, there were so many different singing voices

for the characters. I can't believe R .C. is

playing a blue villain in this. Oh, Storm. Storm

is not a villain. She's kind of like a misplaced

gal. Yes, she is very misplaced. She has a good

heart. She goes back and forth, actually. Uh,

and then, uh, yeah, she has a good heart, but

Pizzazz usually stomps all over it half the time.

Pizzazz is the woman, man. She knows what she

wants. Actually, Pizzazz kind of scares me. She's...

She's psychotic. She is psychotic. I actually

have a somewhat... I have somewhere in my archives.

My friend did a mashup of Pizzazz and Megatron.

Oh my god. As a character, it's awesome. Oh my

god. That would be hilarious. Just think Pazazz

with a fusion cannon. Exactly. There would be

so much more destruction than Megatron could

ever think of. Pazazz is a hell of a lot more

reckless than Megatron. Oh yeah. If Megatron

and Pazazz were to me, he would be like, okay,

you're crazy. Yeah. Do you make me look like

I'm mild? You make me look good. Okay, I gotta

go try to find that. It's a great picture. It's

really good. You know, going back and looking

at the cast on this, it really does and doesn't

surprise me, but Charlie Adler is Eric Raymond,

the evil music producer. for this one. And all

I can think of is Buster Bunny when he was evil.

Oh my god. You know, like I said, this is going

to be a really, really fun time with you gals.

And it's going to be interesting to see what

we come up with as we analyze the show. Mayhem.

I guarantee you Nicole's probably gonna have

at least ten glitter explosions every episode.

Glitter makes everything better. Especially when

it's on someone else. Glitter makes everything

that much more awesome. This is why Transformers

needs more glitter. Just give knockout some time

Unicron with glitter Be like a disco ball Now

I can see swerves next weapon the glitter gun

All right. So as I said, as I said at the beginning

of this, it's going to be 25 podcast episodes

reviewing all 65 episodes of the show. Um, we

are going to try our best to do get interviews.

Um, I don't know if that's going to work out

or not. Um, yes, people, we are that crazy. We're

going to do 25 shows of gem in the holograms.

Why not? The Mask podcast I did was 30 episodes

for 65, for 75 episodes. The He -Man show, the

first He -Man show, Tales of Eternia, for the

80s filmation one, that was 45 episodes for 130

cartoons of He -Man. So I tried to stretch this

out longer and it just wouldn't, no, I mean like

I tried to get this to 30 episodes, it just wouldn't

work. It just wouldn't work. Maybe with interviews

you can. Well, interviews are separate, but it's

just one of those things where 25 is a nice round

number. I'm alright with 25. Well, it's not a

round number, but yeah. So this is going to be

a blast. So tune in to us. I'm not sure what

day this is going to be airing on. This might

be airing on Tuesday or Thursdays. I'm not sure

right now. We will be in iTunes eventually. I

think we're going to take a quick break. You're

going to hear the Gem Girls theme song and we'll

come back with closing remarks after this. Shyam

will be right back after these messages. Yes,

that's right. We have traveled to Eternia to

enter Castle Grayskull. Join Optimus Solo and

TFJ Mike as they find themselves telling tales

of Eternia. We cover all things He -Man in this

45 episode long podcast. You can find us on iTunes

and www .geekassradio .com. By the power of Grayskull,

we all have the power. Let's move around the

table. What are each of you looking forward to

at this show, Nicole? Telling everyone how awesome

the Misfits are. No, I think I'm most looking

forward just to going back and reliving my childhood

a little bit and seeing how other people looked

on it. Yeah, it's just gonna be fun. That's what

I'm looking forward to just talking about it

with someone because I haven't talked about this

show for a long time to anyone Yes, it's the

whole idea that you know, hey there are other

people out there that used to watch this show

too Just like me and oh, wow, they like it as

well. Well, that's good Validation I like my

validation. But yeah, it should be pretty fun

to see us, you know Have fun talking about it

and making it crazy because you know, Nicole

and I will make it absolutely crazy. Oh, yeah.

Yes Oh, yeah, I wouldn't have asked you guys

to be on this if I didn't know what I was getting

into Both of you have giant warning labels So,

you know, it's like okay, I can handle that Right.

One says world. The other one says cyclonus.

Oh, goodness. Yeah. Thank you for joining us

here on Showtime Synergy. There's always getting

contact with us to leave feedback for the show.

Visit the website geekcastradio .com where you

can comment on all the episode posts and other

episode posts that we do for all the other stuff.

Email us feedback at geekcastradio .com and the

subject line put Showtime Synergy and the episode

numbers. So for this it'd be episode zero obviously.

Uh, leave the show's feedback in iTunes. Please

do this. Follow us on Twitter. You can follow

the network at GeekCastRadio. I am at TF2 and

Mike. Nicole, what is your Twitter? Uh, BeatlesDiva.

That's BeatlesLikeTheBand .TheBug. That's gonna

be how my tombstone, I think, when I do this.

Every time you say it like that, all I can think

of is, I'm not just Bumblebee anymore, I'm a

gold bug! Amy, what is your Twitter? You can

find me at Lady of Wreck. That is wreck as in

wreckers. Lady of Wreck. Because she's messy.

I am. I wreck everything, man. That's one thing

I'm going to have to - That's my warning labels.

I wreck everything. That's one thing I'm gonna

have to keep track of because it does say on

Wikipedia and IMDB that Neil Ross is a voice

in this cartoon I'm gonna have to keep track

of which characters he does and see how similar

they are to Springer in satin in vocal sound

Yeah, yeah All right become a fan of us on Facebook

go to Facebook .com slash get cast radio network

call the Westman line Tell us the story you're

doing this for and your name 502 -526 -5821 We

hope you enjoyed this first episode of Showtime

Synergy and wish you'll join us next time when

we will be reviewing the first five episodes

of Gem and the Holograms, those being the beginning,

Disaster, Kimber's Rebellion, good old 80s teen

angst, Frame Up, and Battle of the Bands. For

now, I am Em with... Oh, this is Nicole Halestorm.

Aloha. And this is Amy, Lady of Rec. Tune in

next time to help us get truly outrageous with

Showtime Synergy.