
1985-1987:
Talking ‘Bout My Generation
In the 80’s, MTV had taken over the world with flash music videos
and fashion. Deciding to cash in on the MTV craze, Hasbro created a
line of rock star dolls with flashy clothes and up to date music. Jem
was introduced all over the world in a weekly half hour cartoon series
complete with stories and MTV like music videos.
The basic story was about a woman named Jerrica Benton who upon her
father’s death inherits his music company, Starlight Music, and
a secret sophisticated computer named Synergy that could generate realistic
holograms. To prevent a hostile takeover of Starlight Music by a man
named Eric Raymond and a rock band called The Misfits, Jerrica used
Synergy to transform herself into Jem, a glamorous rock star. She was
aided by her band the Holograms that consisted of her friends Kimber,
Aja, and Shana who knew who Jem really was. Jerrica had a boyfriend
named Rio who didn’t know that she and Jem were one in the same
person and subsequently fell in love with both women. This was the story
for the first five episodes that were also made into a video release
called “Truly Outrageous”. Subsequent episodes contained
the adventures of Jem and the Holograms and The Misfits and each episode
contained two to three songs performed in MTV music video format.

The show aired from 1985 to 1987 in a total of three seasons for a total
of 65 episodes. New characters were introduced in later episodes and
some were made into dolls, and many of the fashions that appeared on
the show also became fashions for the dolls. The cartoon appealed to
the little girls who wanted to be Jem and be loved by her very own Rio
(with the exception of me because I was crazy about Riot from the third
season). But Jem didn’t just appeal to the young girls of the
MTV generation. Young guys were also intrigued by these beautiful young
women rock singers!

Despite the fact that Jem became a very popular television show, the
dolls just were not selling and in late 1987 Hasbro pulled the plug
on the existing dolls, dolls they had planned, and the cartoon.
New
hope for Jem fans! Click here to go to the next page