Quick Guide

New to Jem? Planning to write about Jem? Here is a quick introduction.

The dolls

Jem was created by the US toy company Hasbro, the company that made My Little Pony, Transformers, G.I.Joe, among many other world famous toy brands. The original line of Jem dolls was first released in stores in 1986. At 12½ inch these colorful dolls were slightly larger than the average fashion doll. They came in glamorous rockstar fashions, most of them included their own music cassette. There were as much as 24 different officially released dolls in the doll line, aswell as 60 separate fashions, and 10 playsets most of which had built in electronic musical features like a cassette player or a keyboard.

The cartoon

The cartoon was based on the dolls by Hasbro, produced by Sunbow Productions and Marvel Productions, and the main story was developed by the head writer Christy Marx. Jem began as a mini-series of 15 segments, and became so popular it turned into it's own TV-series. The animated series ran from 1985 to 1988 and consisted of 65 episodes. The story revolved around the rockbands, their musical adventures aswell as their personal lives. The genres were romance, drama, action, mixed with glamour and fashion aswell as positive messages. Throughout the entire series, over 150 original songs were presented with MTV-like music videos, and it was probably the most fashion-aware show that ever existed, with nearly a 1000 unique fashion designs.

The basics of the cartoon story

Jerrica Benton inherits one half of a record company from her father. The other half is left to her father's assistant Eric Raymond. Eric plans to take full control of the company himself, and take the company into a completely different direction by promoting nasty bands like the Misfits.

Jerrica needs the income to run the Starlight Foundation that supports a foster home for girls, and is determined to stop Eric. Late that evening Jerrica receives a mysterious package in the mail, revealing the greatest inheritance from her father, a couple of starshaped earrings. A hologram is projected out of the microprojectors in the earrings, leading Jerrica to a holographic computer, Synergy, secretly created by her father.

Jerrica comes up with the idea to create a secret identity, the singer Jem, supported by the allgirl band The Holograms, consisting of Kimber, Aja and Shana. To be able to take up the battle against Eric Raymond, and appear in the Starlight Music Battle of the Bands contest. After Jem & The Holograms' performance, Eric challenges them and Jerrica to a battle of the bands, Jem & The Holograms versus The Misfits, where the winner takes the entire record company once and for all.

Jem's real identity remains a secret that must be kept, or the advanced technology of the holographic computer Synergy, can end up in the wrong hands. Even Rio, Jerrica's boyfriend and The Holograms roadmanager, doesn't know Jem and Jerrica is the same person, and he is starting to fall in love with Jem aswell. Only Jem's band The Holograms, Kimber, Aja, Shana, and later Raya, know that Jerrica and Jem is the same person. The other female rockband, The Misfits, consists of Pizzazz, Roxy, Stormer and later Jetta. And both groups later face competition on the music scene by The Stingers: Riot, Rapture and Minx.