Jem and the Holograms

Hello and welcome to the 14th episode of tune

cast brought to you by the geek cast radio network

I am your host TFG and Mike and today I am joined

by Kevin professor boss K dog also Diana Lou

from the 80s cartoon podcast is our special guest

host. Hello It's going how are you guys and gals

doing today? I'm all right. Not super busy, and

my arms hurt from painting all day. But other

than that, I'm good. Yes, Kevin is now a new

homeowner. Ooh. I've been priming the bathroom

all day and my arm. I think I just found a muscle

that I've never used before. Not your video game

muscles? No, no. Apparently there's a pain in

muscle that I didn't know existed I was actually

going to put this show on hiatus just because

I I'm the type of person that I want to have

the DVDs to be able to do research by watching

each show and I don't have any DVDs of Jim which

is our topic today Jim and the Holograms But

I said ah screw it whatever we had just interviewed

We were going to interview and we did interview

Larry Kenny who was the voice of Lionel last

night And I was going to do this episode last

night, but Kevin and asked me if we could just

move it up Actually the show may be going bi

-weekly now. I just don't know just because I

know Kevin you're extremely busy And I know me

with my whole Spending money. I don't have issue

You know getting DVDs sometimes just isn't that

opportunistic for me So I we may not have an

episode next week. We may have one in two weeks

Just not really sure last night was a blast.

Oh my god Yeah, last night was awesome. Larry

Kenny is a stand -up guy. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I was

a little bit jealous when you guys told me who

you interviewed. Yeah, and he was very cool about

it. And we talked to him for at least a half

hour. Oh, yeah, at least. Actually, that should

have already been up. By the time this episode

goes up, it will be online. But as of this recording

right now, it's not online. It's actually sitting

waiting for Steve to download it. Steve is my

other. friend and he's the co -founder with me

with for kick -ass radio uh... house i'll have

to make sure i don't know as well all uh... also

keep us radio now has the uh... toolbar that

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that way if people don't want to download for

our podcasts they can just come through the internet.

So I think we're going to get into today's show

topic which is Gem and the Holograms. Up next

we will get the history lesson. I miss it, I

miss you It is now time for the history lesson.

Take it away, Professor. Hello, nerds. This is

Professor Boss Gaydog and it is indeed time for

another history lesson. For episode 14, we're

taking a look back at the widely popular Cartoon

Gem and the Holograms. Gem 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

singing alter ego Gem, her band the Holograms

and their adventures with their rival band The

Misfits. Gem was arguably the first cartoon series

directly affected by the style and substance

of the MTV cable network. The series' principal

attraction was with preteen girls who entertained

notions of showbiz career. years, and Jem certainly

catered to this demographic group with its flashy

costumes, garish lighting effects, and mock MTV

rock videos. But the series was very careful

to warn the more impressionable fans of the pitfalls

and dangers of professional entertaining. The

best Jem episodes took a cold -eye, entrenched

look at dishonest business managers, manipulative

record executives, bought lawyers, false friends,

and empty promises. This harsh approach to the

realities of the business gave Jem a mature edge

that previously fluffy rock band series like

Josie and the Pussycats lacked entirely. Gem

began as a component of Marvel's Super Sunday

in September 1985. Within a few months, a song

from the series, Truly Outrageous, had scored

a major hit with the junior high crowd. By May

of 1986, Gem was permitted to branch out into

its own weekly half hour independent of Super

Sunday. And in the fall of that year, it was

syndicated on a daily basis. The series lasted

for the first two run seasons, retaining its

freshness and showbiz savvy despite the dip in

animation quality and reliance upon fantasy tune

cliches forced upon the producers by the intensified

production schedule. Some of the gem episodes

were recycled as part of Marvel syndicated Maxie's

World in 1989, while the original series endured

in cable syndication where it flourished until

1993 as part of the USA Network Weekend lineup.

The show lasted for a total of 65 episodes. All

right, let's move on to the rest of the episode.

This has been The Professor and Class is Dismissed.

Yes, we're going to go directly into general

memories. As I've said before, it's easier for

me to combine these because I pretty much doubt

that we're going to have a A lot of general memories

for this show and a one minute clip really isn't

that much. I guess I'll go first. I remember

watching this show. I've been watching it on

YouTube several episodes between now and about

two weeks ago. I like the stories. I really don't

like the music video interludes. Oh, boo. Come

on, it caters to everybody. It should even cater

to you. No, I'm... Oh, he's pretty picky with

his cartoon. I am not. Shut up. What the hell's

wrong with you? The music videos are the best

part. Uh, whatever. To each their own. You know,

as I said before off -air, this wasn't something

that I often... Sat down to really watch it was

something like if it was on it was on Honestly,

I think I remember seeing it back to back be

either in front of or behind mask Yeah, it was

on sometimes partner with that I believe yeah

That's really why I remember seeing it and you

know the story is you know the the episodes were

pretty good I only remember watching like the

first or second season I gotta say, I was a very

musical child, I still am a very musical person,

and I just love the way that they incorporated

the music videos into it. Even though I didn't

watch it a ton when I was young, I was too busy

watching, like you said, Mass, G .I. Joe, Turtles,

and other things like that, but I do appreciate

the fact that this was a very unique series because

for... For the female audience you usually only

had more like preschoolish type cartoons geared

towards female audience I mean your you know

your rainbow bright and strawberry short kick

and stuff and and gem offered something that

Really hadn't been available for a long time

which was a cartoon for the teenage? Female audience,

so I appreciate that that's yeah, I I have to

say I loved Jim I watched a couple shows now

and I watched it growing up a little bit and

it does cater to girls, I have to say, watching

it even now. I'm like, you know, I want to be

a gym girl even now. I'm 25 but you know, gym

was pretty outrageous. Yeah. And the songs are

just, I thought the songs were really catchy.

I mean, I had a couple of friends, one of which

who was kind of obsessed with Jim, and she had

just downloaded the entire series onto her iPod.

And we had hooked it up and we were watching

it on TV. And I mean, every time the songs came

on, even though I don't remember watching the

shows that much, the songs kind of still stuck

in my head a little bit. Yeah, the songs that

were in the shows, Because every single show

has to have a couple songs in it the ones in

the shows they they were okay But the actual

like beginning and the outro song I thought were

we're catchy. Oh, yeah And that's one of the

reasons why I wanted to have you on is because

when we first started doing tune cast Kevin had

mentioned. Oh, we should bring some of them or

you know You know shows aimed towards girls,

so we don't seem like you know just guys talking

about guy cartoons. I'm like alright fine Like,

you know, we're talking about pretty much an

all -girls cartoon. Why not have a girl on? Because

if not, we're going to look like sexist pigs.

Yeah. I loved, you know, even watching over this

past week. I really don't want to really admit

how much gem I've watched, but it ranges in the

hours. Yes, I almost bought the DVDs on Amazon,

but I knew they weren't going to be here in time

for the recording, so I put them in my safe cart,

but yeah, I don't know. And that's something

we'll get to later, the DVDs. Overall, I think

it's a great show. I don't know, I think the

reason why the music videos really don't resonate

with me now is because some of them are from

the evil group, which is the Misfits, and I really

didn't care for them. Do we have any other general

memories? Nope, not for me. Good show. I remember

my sister watching a lot more than I did, though.

I was an only child, so I had to watch whatever

was on. So we're going to move on. Diana, did

you have anything else? Oh, no, I'm good. I thought

it was great. All right, we're going to move

on. It is now time for the characters and voice

actors. How are we gonna do this Kevin? I think

we can just hit on some of the main ones and

just talk about the characters first and then

we'll just do a little brief synopsis of some

of the major voice actors that helped out. I

guess starting with the I guess quote -unquote

heroes you have the holograms Jim is the lead

vocal Jim is the leader of the holograms The

most popular singer of her day, she is the alter

ego of Jerrica Benton, owner of Starlight Music.

Jerrica also runs Starlight House, a home for

foster girls. Using the power of Synergy, an

incredibly powerful holographic computer with

extremely advanced audiovisual synthesizer technology,

Jerrica can become Jim by touching her special

star -shaped earrings. The gem star earrings

will sing Showtime Synergy. Jim changes back

to Jerrica by saying Show's over Synergy. primary

storyline of her and of the series involves her

hiding her identity from others especially Rio

I don't know how to say his last name and I don't

really care no I just I don't know I'm not even

gonna try I butcher enough names on our shows

it was who loves both Jim and Erica although

being Jim let's her indulgent In Fun Side, she

is still a serious Jerika at heart. The holograms

often tease her about being reluctant to take

vacations. And once, after nearly driving Rio

away, she blurted out to him, I never seemed

to do anything right. The character was voiced

by Samantha Newark, and her singing voice was

recorded by Britta Phillips. All right, some

of the other holograms that we had. We had Kimber

Benton, who is Jerika's younger sister. She's

the primary songwriter. We had, let me see if

I say this right, Aja. Is that how you say it?

Yeah. Okay. The Asian American foster girl who

grew up with the other holograms at Starlight

House. And then you had Shayna, the African American

foster girl who grew up with Kimber and Jerick

and Aja. And Raya, who is the talented Hispanic

American drummer of the holograms. So you definitely

had a very cultural diverse group of holograms.

We do need to mention that Raya is not one of

the original members. She won a contest, a nationwide

talent search. beating close competitor, Craig

Phillips, who is Stormer's brother, who Stormer

is one of the misfits, in a dream duel. So she

is not one of the original holograms. It's Kimber,

Aja, and Shayna were the originals. Gotcha. I

don't know, just real quick about the holograms.

If I had to pick a favorite one of them, I know

this seems kind of the... way out of it, but

I definitely like Jem better than the rest of

the holograms. I know she's the main star, so

that's an easy choice, but I didn't really care

for most of the other. Even her little sister,

I didn't like as much as I liked her. I like

Kimber sometimes, but it just depended on when

I saw it. Yeah, Kimber kind of had a snappy attitude,

and my opinion is I do like Jem the best because

she gets to change into different outfits all

the time, go back to Jerika, go back to Jem.

got to touch your earring, and it'll just all

come together all at once. So I do like Jem the

best. I actually think I should take that back.

I was kind of considering Jem and Jerika the

same person. I did like Jerika better than when

she was Jem, though. Even though I like the music,

I liked her as Jerika a little better. Yeah.

Yeah. I actually just like Jem just because it

is flashy. And when you're a young girl, that's

what you hear about. Exactly. I'll let Kevin

handle the villains. Obviously the villain was

the archrival band The Misfits led by first Phyllis

Pizazz Gabor, who was the lead vocal and guitarist.

She's a spoiled rich girl who basically is leading

the group. Then we had Roxy, who's a bassist

and a backup vocal. She's a tough as nails bassist,

basically a high school drop out. We had Stormer,

which was a guitarist and backup vocal. She's

the primary songwriter of the Misfits and basically

the creative force behind the group. And then

we had Jetta, who was the newest misfit when

Stormer suddenly heard music blaring in a CD

dance club. Jetta, a conceited pathological liar,

is originally from England. And then we had Eric,

who was the main villain of the series, a greedy

and manipulative music exec. Yes, I do have to

say. If you took RC out of her robot body, she

would be Stormer, since it is Susan Blue that

does voice her. I could not stand the Misfits.

Could not stand them. Yeah, that it's kind of

hard to like the bad guys I mean some of the

cartoons we've we've looked at in previous episodes

You know the bad guys have had a real good crew

that we almost liked better than the good guys

But for this one it's hard to like the Misfits

better than better than the holograms Yeah, and

the stingers honestly I don't even know why I

even have them on here because I don't even remember

them I don't even remember seeing episodes with

them. I only remember Jim and the holograms in

the In the Misfits, I don't even remember these

people I didn't mind Storm or Jetta, but I just

didn't like I didn't like pizzazz for sure and

I didn't like Roxy at all Yeah, out of these

girls, I probably like Stormer the best, just

because I thought she looked the coolest. And

she was the nicest one out of all of them. But

these girls, I don't know, they were some pretty

troubled teens. I don't know how much you guys

actually ended up watching, but these girls,

I mean, they were just mean bitches. They would

slap people. There was one time where they stole

a bulldozer just in one of the beginning episodes.

They just would do anything just to stay on top.

It's kind of like the prototypical, the popular

girls when you're in junior high in school, how

mean they are to each other. I mean, as a junior

high teacher, I see that a lot and they so represent

some of those, just the bitches in the school.

Yeah. That just tear other people apart just

for no reason. Yeah, I agree. And even though

I'm not a Lindsay Lohan fan, and even though

I've never seen this movie, you could basically

compare the movie Mean Girls to The Misfits.

Oh, kind of. Yeah, that's a good reference there,

actually. The Stingers, as I said, I don't even

remember this group. Honestly, I don't. That's

because it wasn't introduced until season 3,

probably. Yeah, and I think I was done with the

show by then. I don't believe I was around that

long. No, I don't think I was either. So it'd

be fine with me if we just completely skipped

over them. Yeah, I don't remember them at all.

I just remember the misfits. At least we mentioned

that they exist. They exist, but we don't care

that they exist. The additional characters you

had Synergy who is an extraordinarily sophisticated

holographic computer designed to be the ultimate

audio visual entertainment synthesizer Synergy

was created by Emmet Benton and is in many ways

considered to be his life's work Of course, this

is a computer that gives Jim her powers or anything

else in the because as we all know YouTube has

to break up episodes What they put on there in

the third part of battle of the bands I thought

it was very interesting and I know this is actually

on the actual show part But I thought it was

very interesting that Jim had put Had thrown

one of her earrings in the ground outside of

a warehouse that they would they were being taken

into and When they went to escape she had synergy

do all this You know showing lights and have

police show up and everything else and I thought

that was cool how they actually did that You

also had Rio, who was basically Jerica's longtime

childhood friend and boyfriend. He's kind of

a secret angry type guy. It never seemed like

they matched up too well to me, but he is her

boyfriend, so he's obviously a main character.

I don't know if this is correct or not in me

saying this, but I think he was the only guy

in 80s cartoon lore that has purple hair. That

just made him so much more cute Yeah, no um Yeah,

Rio I mean he he was just that guy who was there

just just so you know you have a love interest

and I mean all the main characters had different

colored hairs besides You know some of the Misfits

where they had just you know like brown hair

or blonde hair and white hair, but Just him having

you know purple hair. I mean kind of just because

Gem is just so 80s, I think they had to do something.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So I don't know if you guys

know. I'm going to just ask a general question.

Did you know if Gem ever told Rio or if Jerika

ever told Rio that she was Gem? I don't remember.

I don't recall that ever happening. But if it

did, it probably happened at the third season,

which I wasn't watching. See, I want to know.

I'm just so into Gem right now. Yeah, I don't

know that might be a question that we'll have

to look up later on and or watch some of them

I would assume if they did that ever it would

have to be in the last couple episodes. Yeah,

I Mean unless it was something like Unless it

was something like, you know bringing him into

the fold of sharing the secret But in his character

profile it says that he does not like secrets.

It doesn't give reasons why it the show never

went into why he doesn't believe i remember reading

that somewhere the rest of these supporting characters

i really don't remember any of them uh... outside

of uh... outside of howard sands who was the

guy who had the mansion in the in the very beginning

who created the battle of bands concert between

uh... holograms misfits Yeah, I don't remember

many of the side characters besides the actual

misfits and the holograms on this one There was

zipper that the henchmen who would do all of

them that Raymond's dirty work. Yeah I don't

know if you guys noticed but in the first season

He had like blonde hair and then the second one

he had brown hair and looked nothing like he

did in the first one But you know, they had to

make him more appealing towards, you know little

girls like me so right And then I think the last

thing we can mention as far as characters go

is the Starlight Girls, which is the name given

to the foster girls Jarek and the holograms care

for. There was 12 of them. Not going to name

them all, but they all appeared in different

episodes throughout the series. Yeah, I think

the only one that actually mattered, and I don't

remember her name, but she was just the one who

actually teamed up with the Misfits for a little

bit and just caused a whole ruckus with Jim because

she felt like she was an outcast with Starlight

Girls and actually went to the misfits and they

kind of manipulated her to help themselves. Do

you want to move into some of the people doing

the voices? Go ahead. I was just going to say

there's a few people that just bounce off the

page at me even though they weren't necessarily

doing main voices. with the exception of Susan

Blue, who had a couple main roles, and Charlie

Adler, who was all over the place on this show.

But just some of the other ones to mention, you

had Townsend Coleman, Cass Susi, Noel North,

Neil Ross, Wally Burr, Dan Gilvazan. So you had

quite a few people helping out doing littler

roles here. But I think the biggest voice for

me as far as doing a lot of work on this one

was Charlie Adler. Oh, yeah. It's actually funny

that I see Wally Burr's name on the cast list

because Wally Burr was the casting director for

Transformers. Right, and the casting director

for a lot of shows back in the 80s as well as

appearing and doing some voices in most of those

shows as well. Right, right. And of course we

can't go without mentioning Samantha Newark who

was the voice of Jim and then as I said before

Britta Phillips was the singing voice. I actually

like the speaking voice better than the singing

voice, but that's just me. Yeah. And then for

Pizzazz, you had two people. You had Patricia,

Alice Albrecht, and then you had Ellen Burnfield,

one of them doing the voice and one of them doing

the singing. So there was three or four characters

that had multiple voices for them on the show,

either doing voices or the singing work. I basically

watched up to the Battle of the Bands episode,

which is probably just the first three episodes

or so, first five episodes maybe. um... and i

really did like the voice cast even though a

lot of them i didn't recognize i mean i barely

recognize susan blue i i mean i actually had

to listen to to to a line from her from that

character to listen i think that that's gotta

be a kick -ass job though to be the one that

not the one that's actually voicing some of these

characters but to be the one that has to just

come in and get to sing the songs and then leave

for me i would rather be that person than an

actual voice actor if i could go in and just

sing songs for a cartoon that would rock Yeah,

no I agree because if you you know you there's

not any acting in that you just have to sing.

Right, just sing a song. You're already hired

for your voice. Right and that's the stuff that

a lot of the people are gonna remember is the

song so I think that would be just an awesome

job. And thank God I didn't watch up to an episode

wherever Townsend Coleman was in because you

know if I had seen an episode with him in it

the only thing I would think of is either the

Tick or Sentinel Prime which I don't want to

think about Sentinel Prime. Transformer guru,

I know I know you are to shut I know I'm gonna

go to your house and steal that matrix set from

you. Damn it No, you're not. Yes, I am the matrix

of leadership and the GI Joe complete series

are very safely Put away right now You know just

going down the rest of this list I don't really

recognize anybody No, it has a lot of people

that weren't doing a whole lot of, it doesn't

seem like they were doing, and this is just coming

from some of my side work over at Behind the

Voice Actors. I don't recognize a lot of these

names, and I've put up a lot of credits on that

site, and a lot of these people either weren't

doing stuff before or just didn't do much after.

A lot of them, I think this was just kind of

a one -time, one main gig, and then maybe they

had some minor roles here and there. Speaking

of your your work over there. How's that Frank

Welker page coming? Actually today the Frank

Welker page Just to give everyone a heads up

what I'm talking about behind the voice actors

is a place we can go check out voice actors and

you can click on them and it shows pictures and

and get into the audio clips of all the different

voices they've done and I don't have all the

audio clips yet, but I have picture credits for

Frank Welker that are now numbering over 200

Over 200 credits for Frank Welker on the page

that I'm working on. So everyone else is on the

other administrators on the site are doing all

kinds of other stuff and I've just been like

stuck on Frank Welker World for like the last

month. So you get a chance go check it out. So

I believe that's pretty much all we have on the

voice cast isn't it? That's all I got. Alright

so we're gonna be moving on. It is now time for

the behind the scenes segment. I guess we can

start out with the fact that Hasbro hired advertising

agency Griffin Bacall, the founders of Sunbow

Productions, to create a 65 episode animation

series. Griffin Bacall slash Sunbow as well as

Marvel Productions had previously created the

successful G .I. Joe series for Hasbro G .I.

Joe writer Kristy Marks was hired to create the

series based on the line of dolls. concept, which

consisted of two girl bands, Synergy the Boyfriend

Rio and the Rockin' Roadster. Marks created a

full character biographies and relationships

including the love triangle aspect between Rio,

Jericho Benton, and Jim. Starlight Music and

Starlight House. You know, as I'm looking through

these paragraphs for this information, a lot

of names that I remember or that obviously have

done other stuff, Paul Dini, who was on He -Man

as a writer, Buzz Dixon, Michael Reeves, David

Wise, and Marv Wolfman who had also done Transformers

stuff, and probably GI Joe stuff as well. David

Wise would eventually go on to do Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtles stuff. Go ahead. I was just saying,

so they had a pretty good group of writers for

the series. It's probably one reason why the

the stories were a little bit better than some

of the other cartoons that were airing in those

couple years. And then of course the executive

producers were Joe Bacall, Jay Bacall, Tom Griffin,

and Margaret Lesh. The Bacall father and son,

Joe is the father, Jay is the son, and then Griffin,

as we all know, is associated with Transformers.

You always want to leave out G .I. Joe, but come

on. Well, whatever. And then we had the voice

director veteran that we mentioned before, Wally

Burr. It just had a lot of experienced people

that were working with the show, which is probably

one reason why it has had the success and the

cult following that it does have. This is one

of those shows, unlike some of the other ones

that we've mentioned on different episodes, this

is just as popular and it has just as big of

a cult following as some of the G .I. Joe, He

-Man, Thundercats, stuff like that. with the

people that grew up on it, especially the female

audience. Yeah, no, and I agree. It was basically

80s fashion, everything you wanted in the 80s,

just all in a cartoon format for girls. Yeah.

So it was a good idea. Yeah, and the episodes

I watched, they were entertaining to where I

did end up watching hours of Gem. So yeah, I

thought it was good writing. Yes, very much so.

So we're all in agreement, good writers. Very,

very good writers. I honestly don't think there's

been any writers that we've remembered from show

to show since Tooncast has been in existence

that we have basically flat out Not liked. Same

for whoever wrote all the Dexter episodes. Oh,

shut up. God, that cartoon sucks. Shut up. Okay.

Um, so getting back to this, originally the main

character was called Misty and then Em, but that

idea was dropped because a letter could not be

trademarked. The show was originally designed

to appeal to both girls and boys with a mix of

action adventure, drama, music, and fashion.

It was first slotted as a six -minute cartoon

that aired during Super Sunday or Super Saturday,

depending on the market, along with the male

-oriented properties Bigfoot and the muscle machines

and robotics. the inhumanoids The only female

oriented show in the lineup Jim proved to be

the most popular of the four is Jim in a total

65 episodes produced much more than the other

shows Talk about a couple of losing shows. I'm

sorry robotics and Bigfoot and the muscle machines

were just complete crap Inhumanoids was alright,

but you know and then I'll catch it in humanoids

at weird times on boomerang But it's like what

the hell is this and click straight over to TV?

Yeah Are you going to say something, Diana? Oh,

yeah. Well, I can see how the show was originally

designed for both boys and girls because it actually

does have a lot of action in it. Oh, yeah. Yeah,

just because Jem is being kidnapped all the time.

They're putting bombs in places and they're just

trying to mess Jem up whenever they can. So I

can see why it was kind of designed for both

boys and girls. But with all the flashy lights

and all the clothes and the hair and everything,

I see how it's just an all -girl show. You know,

I just thought of something, too. I was mentioning

before that there wasn't a lot of shows oriented

for this age group for the females. I think that

I just thought of one. And the only other one

I can think of besides Gem, which was not nearly

as popular or as well done as Gem, was She -Ra.

Excuse me? What? What do you mean, it wasn't

nearly as well done? It wasn't nearly as well

done as Jem was. I mean, those were the two cartoons

I can think of that were aimed at the older audience

of the female audience. But I think Jem was done

a little bit better and Shira was. It's targeted

marketing just because girls aren't going to

be into action too much. But girls are going

to love makeup and hairspray. Right. So that's

why it was a little more successful, I guess

is what I'm saying this year. Because even though

they both kind of tried to appeal to both boys

and girls, Jem did a better job because it focused

more on the girl aspects of what they would like,

whereas Shira tried to be for girls, but it was

focusing on things that more guys would like.

Yeah, I completely agree. I would rather be a

famous singer instead of kicking ass somewhere

and having to work. We've pretty much already

gone over the writers. Kristi Marx, who created

the series, wrote 23 episodes. And then, as we

said before, David Wise, Buzz Dixon, people like

that that have done G .I. Joe, Transformers stuff.

So I think, unless we have anything else, we're

just gonna go straight into the actual show.

And wow, I actually remembered what the title

of that segment is this time. You've been doing

good. You've had a couple in a row. Yeah, I've

had about three episodes in a row. Half the time

I ended up forgetting what the title of that

segment is. The central secret of the series

is that Jem is, in fact, the alter ego of Jericho

Benton, owner and manager of Starlight Music,

who adopts this persona with the help of Synergy.

A holographic computer designed to be the ultimate

visual entertainment synthesizer built by her

father, Emmett Benton, who left it to her on

his death. The other holograms are Kimber, Benton,

Derek, his younger sister, keyboardist, and main

songwriter for the band, which we've pretty much

already gone through all this. Yeah, I think

mainly with the show, just for those people that

aren't familiar with it or maybe don't have as

good a memory of it. I mean, the show is always

an adventure throughout the whole half hour,

and it was usually sprinkled in with, if I'm

not mistaken, at least two. Two or three music

videos. So you had at least two or three original

music videos sprinkled in the show. Was there

any other parts or things that they did on a

consistent basis that any of you guys can think

of besides the music videos? Hannah said that

Jim gets kidnapped almost every other episode.

No. Yeah. Besides them being outrageous Kevin

had mentioned outrageous to me a couple episodes

ago Might have been episode 12 or 13. I don't

know. He had said outrageous and actually Jim

wasn't the first thing that popped into my mind

It was Aquaman from Batman the brave and the

bold because he says that as well and I just

completely missed the reference Yeah, it's trying

to give you a reference it didn't work You know,

in the course of my whole life, this week has

been the only week I've ever used the term outrageous.

And I have probably said that about everything.

I make dinner and I'm like, that is just fucking

outrageous. We can go into a few of the trivia

things, I think, and then see if we have any

other thoughts about the actual show. According

to interviews with show creator Kristy Marks,

while all of the hologram's first names were

already chosen by Hasbro, obviously the creator

of the toy line, she gave them all last names

that corresponded to scientists who were at the

time working on holographic technology. So a

little tie in there. Similarly, she named Bill

and Eric Raymond after her own brother. So you

get to name a few of the characters yourself.

Biteful. She sounds biteful. And then another

one here. The character reporter Hector Ramirez

would appear in various TV shows made by Sunbeau.

Besides appearing in Gem, Hector Ramirez appeared

in episodes of G .I. Joe in Humanoids and Transformers.

I don't remember seeing him in Transformers.

I remember seeing him, but I didn't realize that

he was the same one in all those shows. I didn't

even know. In one scene where people are watching

several television screens you can see a news

report of an attack by the Inhumanoids were monsters

from a show of the same name also produced by

Sunbow After M was ditched as the name of Jim

several other names were tested before the final

names were Decided upon Jim was Misty Jericho

was Morgan kimber was uh... i'll show his jade

stormer was roxy and roxy was brew that's just

a few minutes that's right in the rock running

roadster toy contained a real working fm radio

i remember seeing commercials for that i don't

know if that's that that's the only reason why

we're seeing the commercials for that is the

is the fact that it had a a real working radio

cuz back then It's not like today where you have

iPods and iPhones and mp3 players and digital

music and you know, you basically you know Do

a ps9 and plug your video game system into your

head, you know, it's There wasn't that stuff

in the 80s at all, right? It has one error that

happened in season three when Jemma and the holograms

get a ransom note. The first line quite obviously

reads, in search of good times. But when they

read it, they all say, in search of good tunes.

So just a little error there. But what do you

guys have any other comments about the actual

show, things that you remembered from the style

of the show or things that you? liked or disliked

about it besides Mike's dislike of the music

videos. We'll let Diana go first. We'll throw

her into the bus. All right, well, what I did

like about it were, you know, I did love the

toys because you get, you know, outrageous wigs.

You also get makeup. You also get, yeah, like

the Rock and Roadster actually did have an FM

radio and back then that was the shit. Yeah.

So, yeah, I thought it was pretty cool if you

wanted to be popular, you know. The toys and

just everything about it was the way to go if

you were a young adolescent girl teen like myself

Yes, I Honestly don't think it would take the

place of Barbies But I always associated with

Jim with Barbies is the same thing because I

had a bunch of girls that cousins that were girls

So, you know, you know that they would always

have those toys and I was gonna mix up anyway

I just remember always watching the show and

even though the stories were good and the writing

was pretty good, unlike Mike, I was always waiting

patiently for just the next music video to happen.

It was kind of like, what was the episode, what

was the show that we did earlier on? I don't

know if I'm thinking about Animaniacs or whatever,

but where you just were always waiting for that

next song or something like that to happen. And

that's what I remember as far as watching this

show that I was always anxious for the next music

video. No, I must clarify though. I'm talking

about now watching it. I can't stay in the music

videos See I can I even know even watching it

like a couple months ago. I was still anxious

to watch the next music No, yeah, I'm not gonna

lie. I'm gonna keep watching Jim after this.

Yeah Boy, we've created a monster Well their

music videos I thought were kind of pretty rad

just because you know, they're flying through

space on a star or you know, they're at a concert

just doing all these costume changes. So I don't

know. I was born in the 80s and I love the 80s.

And this is basically just everything 80s. Oh,

yes. Very much so. So we're going to go right

into the music segment. This is what the show

is all about. I mean, music was the thing for

the show. Without the music, the show is not

successful. Just naming a couple people that

helped out, even if I haven't heard of them,

I think it's worth mentioning. The music arranger

was Ann Bryant. The conductor was Robert Walsh.

And then the singers that we heard most often

was Ellen Burnfield. who provided the singing

voice for Patricia Alice Albrecht's character,

Gordon Grote, who provided the singing voice

for Townsend Coleman's character, Frida Phillips

for Samantha Newark, and Vicki Sue Robinson for

Cass Susie. I should have the actual names of

the characters there, but it doesn't. But those

were the four people that we most likely heard

most of the time actually singing the song. So

hats off to those four. And thank God we didn't

have to listen to Townsend Coleman sing. Yeah,

really? Oh, I just had a bad visual. Sentinel

Prime singing. Big fucking chin. No official's

gem soundtrack was ever released, although all

but one of the songs were released on cassette

in any form or featured in the first season.

Yeah, there's lots of cassettes, and most of

them were given away as special offers with either

mail -ins for the toys, or they were packaged

with the toys or something like that. But that's

got to be a crime that there's no soundtrack

for this show. If any show needed a CD soundtrack

that should be released, it's this one. Yes,

very much so. I completely agree on that. Yeah,

I actually had the Jim tape. Because I loved

it. the music besides you know now that I'm older

and I actually you know know what they're saying

and actually you know can can break down the

lyrics they it was it was good but just the theme

songs were so good I think that's probably why

songs were okay besides the theme songs they

were they're awesome I'm completely shocked that

there's not a soundtrack though but since you

mentioned the theme song yeah this Is one of

the greatest 80s theme songs there is as far

as a lot of times I would like to reference my

little CD I made this ranks in in the top 15

of Cartoon theme songs between 1980 and 1995.

This is like number 15. So excellent theme song.

It's higher than Silverhawks. Oh, it's way higher

than Silverhawks and Thundercats. It's higher

than G .I. Joe, Thundercats, Silverhawks, Human

Transformers, all those. I want to be a gem girl

so bad. Yeah, but excellent theme song. Great

writing. Even if you didn't watch the series,

I guarantee you walk up to someone that was around

in the 80s or whatever and you say, Jim, they're

going to know part of the theme song. Almost

everybody, at least if they don't know the whole

thing, they at least know the truly outrageous

part. When a song can achieve that and people

can still remember parts of it, even if they

haven't watched the actual cartoon in 20 years,

that's saying something. Yeah, and again, this

is another show that has that has that 20 25,

you know 20 to 25 year franchise now Yeah, I

mean I believe the 25th anniversary is October

of next year. I think I Might be right when I

was usually when I look at stuff on on IMDB It'll

say like like shows. It'll say the actual original

first air date And I'll usually remember that

stuff especially if it's like something like

transformers or GI Joe or you know Something

that has a 20 25 year history, right? I believe

it's October of next year that is the 25th anniversary

of Jim Yeah, that should be right because we're

talking about 1985 October 6 1985. Yep. That's

what it is I guess we can move straight into

the legacy segment Basically, this is where just

to let Diana know this is where we talk about

all the stuff that's happened with it toys or

Radians rankings. Yes, which are Unfortunately

absent what the hell is wrong with you you stupid

IGN bastards Yeah, the IGN list is every week

we talk we reference this I don't know if you're

familiar with IGN put out a top 100 animated

shows of all time and It's got to be the worst

ranking of the top 100 shows I've ever seen anybody

do, because it's completely skewed to adult cartoons,

it's completely skewed to cartoons that were

for males, and it's completely skewed to more

recent cartoons. Gem does not appear anywhere

in their top 100. And they ask at 98. Yeah, but

I mean it's just ridiculous. I mean they have

galaxy high which was a show from the 80s I don't

know if you guys are familiar with it They have

it in like the 50s or the 60s and that was nothing

compared to some of these other shows that didn't

make the list I mean to not have gem in your

top 100 is your whole list goes out the window

But since IGN didn't want to recognize them,

there was a couple of people that did recognize

them. A couple of young artist awards in 1987,

Samantha Newark got nominated for a young artist

award and in 1989 they got nominated for a best

animation series from the young artist awards.

Then as far as the reference, it's been referenced

in stuff like Saturday Night Live, Family Guy,

South Park. Sheer genius in the dark fanboys

It's featured in the I love the 80s strike back

and it's spoofed in robot chicken Two episodes

of robot chicken. I got to see that other episode

though I gotta see the second one where it says

we see that gems apparently let herself go since

the 80s I see what that looks like You can probably

find it in My how about the sheer genius one

where there was an elimination challenge involving

recreating gems hairstyle Yeah, that would be

a fun one to see too. Yeah, that was the other

thing this that this show did Was it it played

big on the you know, the big hair thing of the

80s, which you know That was the 80s style, which

is fine I'm not saying anything against it, but

it went along with the times in the cartoon and

they didn't try to change that at all Well, up

next we have the VHS and DVD releases. In the

1980s, various episodes were released on VHS

by Family Home Entertainment in the USA and released

by Tempo Video in the UK. The Glitter and Gold

video is the only GEM video to have been released

in both USA and UK. On March 30th, 2004, Rhino

Entertainment released the complete first and

second seasons on DVD in Region 1. On September

14th, 2004, they released Season 3, Part 1. which

featured the first 19 episodes of Season 3. Both

releases were digitally remastered and contained

Dolby Digital 5 .1 audio. Rhino subsequently

lost rights to the series before they could release

the remaining episodes of Season 3, the final

season of the series. In 2008, Hasbro acquired

the distribution rights for all Sunbow -slash

-Marvel Hasbro -related cartoon series, including

Gem. That means good things because Rhino sucks.

We all know that. And when Hasbro gets hold of

something like we've seen with the G .I. Joe

and Transformers, they do things right. So I

would expect very highly that there's at least

the individual seasons released, if not an entire

series released. Hopefully they will give it

to Shout Factory because Shout Factory has done

amazing things with the G .I. Joe stuff and the

Transformers stuff. But just to mention the rhino

releases just to see what you would get on them

if you if you found them on the complete first

and second season disc It's 26 episodes. You

have an interview with Samantha Newark who is

the speaking voice of gem and Interviews with

the writer creator Christy marks you have commentary

on four episodes by Christy marks You view all

the music from the show in order uninterrupted

that makes it worth it actually And some excerpts

from the gem Bible the series Bible And then

season three, part one, which is obviously the

only one that was released for season three,

you have commentary tracks on a couple episodes.

You have interview with the singing voice of

Jem Britta Phillips, interviews with the writers,

and a commentary track for one of the episodes

and just some other little features. In September

2004, Culture Network Australia bought the TV

rights to Gem and aired the show for 10 months

on their classics network, Boomerang. Australia

also had the first and second season of Gem released

on DVD. The current status of the franchise,

almost 20 years after the toy line was introduced

to the U .S. market and 17 years after its demise,

Hasbro has shown some legal activity in maintaining

their trademarks and intellectual property. Leading

some fans to believe that they may be reviving

the line via the trademark renewal for dolls

doll clothing and doll accessories board games

jigsaw puzzles Publications namely coloring books

activity books comic books paperback and hardcover

storybooks Etc etc. It's just a whole list Hasbro

has also registered for domain names that are

Jim related Jericho Benton calm which redirects

to Hasbro's home page Showtime synergy calm Jim

movie calm and Jim and the holograms movie calm

these three do not redirect Hasbro has not released

the licensing for the DVD sales as of spring

2009 the unofficial statement from Hasbro is

that they are waiting to concentrate on the other

titles at this time, Transformers, DI Joe. As

of September 2009, the GEM series has not been

released in any further DVDs. Kristi Marx has

long expressed a desire to make a modern -day

revival of the animated series, but stated that

in a 2004 interview, there are a great deal of

complications concerning the rights to the GEM

properties. This is a direct quote from her.

I would like to see that I would like to see

this happen. I don't want to go into a lot of

detail. The whole right situation for Jim 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.

I mean, I know shows have complications all the

time with musical rights, stuff like that. If

Hasbro owns it, I mean, if they own the intellectual

properties for this thing, why can't something

happen? Yeah, I would I would be if I were as

a betting person I would say when has the Hasbro

channel comes out next year that there will be

something either a new version of gem that is

part of that lineup and I wouldn't be surprised

if it was a part of it from the get -go because

they're gonna have to launch that channel with

some big with some big things and I would think

that it would just make sense if you're gonna

do you're gonna try to reel in the boy audience

you're gonna you know throw out some type of

Transformers cartoon or a GI Joe type cartoon

and it seems like it would an obvious choice

to redo some type of gem cartoon for the girls

when that Hasbro channel launches next year.

Oh yes, especially with the network formerly

known as Cartoon has now gone away from friggin'

cartoons. I hate that, just like MTV. No music

videos, just reality TV. I'm just keeping my

fingers crossed that when the Hasbro channel

comes out they're going to do things right, but

who knows. Yeah, we can all hope. So I believe

that's it for the legacy segment. Except for

that there have been rumors of a Jem movie coming

out. Yeah, there have been rumors, but they are

just rumors. But if you combine that with the

fact that they have JemMovie .com and JemInTheHologramsMovie

.com have been... Domain names registered by

Hasbro seems like it's a little more than just

rumors Yeah, but I think that it still could

be considered rumor only because as we just said

though You know there are serious rights issues

and may you know as you said maybe nothing will

happen until The Hasbro channel launches next

year, so yeah I just I just think with the with

the success that the some of these live -action

movies have been having Transformers GI Joe and

a couple other ones. We're gonna see a ton of

80s cartoons being turned into movies now. It's

just a matter of time. I personally would love

if they did a Jim cartoon. Even a modern version

would be awesome. You would think that it would

be a right market for it with all the young girls

that are into the high school musical scene and

some of these other musical type of shows that

are out there. A modern version of Jim would

seem to be right up those girls' alleys. Oh wow,

I just had a flash of who could play Jam. Uh

oh. In live action, not in live action. Ashley

Tisdale. Ashley Tisdale, that's what I was thinking

too. Nothing wrong with that. That's scary. So

I believe that's it for the show we're gonna

go into the closing here in a minute so I think

I'm gonna put some ads in I actually got the

audio for the be right back and now back to so

they'll probably be some ads in between here

in the closing so we'll be right back Thank you

all for being here today. I've called this press

conference on behalf of myself, Ron Algarwat,

and my co -creator, Matt Robotham, to inform

you that once the current run of our award -winning

webcomic, Vengeance of the Interman, is finished

at the end of this year, we are hereby retiring

from comics. No more webcomics for us. So that's

why we brought you here, and we will now take

your questions. There's no one here. There's

nobody here. There's nobody here. Nobody read

the comic. Oh. At all. Ever. Well, we're doing

a podcast now. Yeah, we are doing a podcast now.

The Sarcastic Voyage Podcast. Available via iTunes

or on the web at algar .com. Thank you for joining

us here on Tooncast. There are several ways you

can get in contact with us or leave feedback

for the show. The first is you can visit www

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podcasts there. The second is that you can stop

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which is our forum. You can get all our GCRN

slash Transformers discussion topics there. The

third is you can leave the show feedback on iTunes.

Yes, please do this I checked it before the show

before this recording We actually had three reviews

and it's up to five stars So please keep giving

the good feedback The fourth is you can visit

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And the fifth is the email address, which is

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us on Twitter. The show name there is gcrntunecast.

Mine is TFG1Mike. And what are your all's Twitter's?

Kevin, you can go first. Mine is bosskdogg. That's

B -O -S -S -K -D -A -W -G. You actually remembered

it this time. That's right. Yeah, and mine is

just dianalu. D -I -N -A -L -U -B -U. Okay, we

hope you enjoyed this episode of Tooncast and

wish that you'll join us next time when we will

be reminiscing on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

No, not the 2003 series, the original 1987 one.

For now, I am TFG1Mike with... Professor BossKDogg.

And Diana Lu. Singing the moral words of Optimus

Prime, transform and roll out, and thank you

for listening. Until next time. It's a pleasure.

Oh