Line #54 Trivia/Jem


1	* ActingForTwo:
2	** Charlie Adler voiced Eric Raymond, Zipper, and Techrat.
3	** The timid Terri and the shrill Pizzazz have the same voice actress.
4	** Susan Blu provides the voice for both Lin-Z and Stormer.
5	* ApprovalOfGod: Both Britta Philips and Samantha Newark, who shared the singing and speaking roles of the titular character of Jem, are fans of the ''[[CrossesTheLineTwice extremely]]'' vulgar parody series/GagDub WebAnimation/{{Jiz}}. Newark thinks that it's hilarious to make something as sweet as Jem so profane.
6	* ChildrenVoicingChildren: [[DownplayedTrope Sort of;]] Samantha Newark, who portrayed the speaking voice of Jem/Jerrica, was only a teenager when she took the role, with Jem/Jerrica herself being in her late teens in the first season.
7	* CreatorBacklash: The singing voice to Jem, Britta Phillips, does not seem to like being reminded of the series. However, fortunately for fans, this may be becoming a thing of the past, as she was a willing special guest at the panel for [=JemCon=] 2015, which is an annual fan convention of the show, which she also attended with her mother.
8	* DuelingWorks: Creator/{{Mattel}} was quick to react to ''Jem'' (possibly thanks to corporate espionage, by way of factories being close together in Hong Kong) with ''[[WesternAnimation/BarbieAndTheRockersOutOfThisWorld Barbie and the Rockers]]'' (or in Europe, ''[[MarketBasedTitle Barbie and the Rockstars]]''). It didn't get much tie-in media beyond a single Creator/DICEntertainment-created special (and a follow-up when Mattel attempted to retool it as ''Barbie and the Sensations'' with a 50s theme).
9	* DummiedOut: Graphix was a new Misfit doll designed for the 1987 assortment before being put on hold, as there were already two new Misfit dolls that year. The character was tentatively moved back to 1988 for a slated release alongside a reissued Clash doll and a redesigned, friendlier-looking Pizzazz doll. Subsequently, the slated 1988 Misfit assortment was put on hold altogether, pending sales results from the Spring/Summer 1988 assortments. At the time of the cartoon's cancellation, she was not an intended product and was thus not featured. She was, however, included in the series bible by Christy Marx at what appears to be a period in her design process where she was potentially being retooled for inclusion in the line without an affiliation to the Misfits. In the IDW comics, Sophie Campbell included the character. She gave her a new design and personality, making this version of the character the first to appear in any officially published material.
10	* ExecutiveMeddling:
11	** The producers told Christy Marx they wanted a new bad guy working for Eric, so they scrapped Zipper and she created Techrat.
12	** It is a common misconception among newer fans that Jetta was intended to be black. However, she was always conceptualised as a white character. The origins of this relate to the way the new characters were created: being designed and named at Hasbro before being sent to the show staff for them to add to the cast. When Christy Marx was told there was to be a new Misfit she asked about the possibility of a black Misfit, wanting to diversify the group, and was told that it had been deemed offensive to have minority antagonists. When Christy Marx was then given Jetta as the new member, she was told she had the choice of the new character being either English or Australian if she wanted to differentiate her from the existing Misfits, as these were deemed acceptable targets.
13	** Techrat was supposed to be [[AmbiguousGender androgynous]] but the concept was nixed and he was made identifiably male.
14	* FakeAmerican: Although she lost her accent, Jem's voice actress Samantha Newark is British.
15	* FanCommunityNicknames: Jem Girls for female fans and Jem Boys for male fans.
16	* GodNeverSaidThat: A long-standing rumor said Christy Marx would have liked to have had LGBT characters in the show and that Rapture would be revealed as not straight. This was disproven at [=JemCon=] 2018, where Christy said the topic never crossed her mind when she was working on the show.
17	* IronyAsSheIsCast: One of the things that gives away Clash is an imposter [[LatexPerfection spoiling her otherwise well-executed impersonation of Jem]] is Clash's lack of singing ability. In contrast, Clash's voice actress [[WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls Cathy Cavadini]] has sung in some of her projects, most notably as Tanya Mousekewitz in "[[WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail An American Tail: Feivel Goes West]]".
18	* KeepCirculatingTheTapes:
19	** The series went in and out of print during the 80s, 90s, and even 00s. A brief release in the early 00s got up to two and a half seasons on DVD before Rhino lost the rights to the Hasbro shows, leaving the entire third series out of print. However, in 2011, the series began airing on The Hub and a new complete series DVD release finally got a release date in October of that year.
20	** The original five minute "mini-episodes" that were later expanded to five full length episodes are believed to have been lost or destroyed.
21	* TheMerch: There was a lot of merchandise in the series' heyday, and official high-end figures were released in the 2010s.
22	* NonSingingVoice: Everyone, since the show was produced in LA while the music was done in NYC.
23	** Jem/Jerrica had a speaking voice provided by Samantha Newark, who is a singer, but the singing voice is provided by Britta Philips.
24	** Pizzazz was voiced by Patricia Albrecht when speaking, and Ellen Bernfeld (aka disco singer Menage) when singing. Ellen Bernfeld also did backing vocals for The Holograms and The Misfits, and was the singing voice of Roxy in her only solo song. Roxy's speaking voice actress was Bobbie Block.
25	** Riot of The Stingers spoke with the voice of Townsend Coleman and sang with the voice of Gordon Grody (who went on to become Lady Gaga's voice coach). The other two Stingers were also dubbed for singing. When speaking, Minx was Kath Soucie and Rapture was Ellen Gerstell. For singing, both of them were usually dubbed by Diva Grey, but for Rapture's two solo lines in the song "Destiny", she was dubbed by Vicki Sue Robinson, the disco singer of "Turn the Beat Around" fame. Minx's accent becomes American whenever she sings, which admittedly is TruthInTelevision with many singers but is still jarring.
26	** When Kimber and Stormer sang a duet, they were dubbed over by Florence Warner and Lani Grover respectively, though Cathianne Blore and Susan Blu perform their speaking lines.
27	* OutOfOrder: Regine is mentioned in "The Day The Music Died", which aired before she actually appeared.
28	* RecycledSoundtrack: “Love’s Not Easy” from a season 2 episode uses the same backing track as “Set Your Sails” from “Island of Adventure”.
29	** InUniverse: “There Ain’t Nobody Better” is a plagiarised version of “There’s A Melody Playing”.
30	* ScrewedByTheMerchandise: Hasbro pulled the plug on the series in 1988 because of poor sales on the dolls, despite the fact that ''Jem'' was one of the most popular cartoons airing in syndication.
31	* ScrewedByTheNetwork: Discovery Family removed the series' reruns from its channel after the LiveActionAdaptation bombed.
32	* SheAlsoDid:
33	** In "The Bands Break Up", Kimber's singing voice was done by Florence Warner, who many TV viewers may know as the voice of the "Hello (insert city and /or state here)" campaign done by various local TV stations throughout much of the 1980s[[note]]Moreover, she recorded over a hundred different versions for each station that used it. There was even a version used by a station in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and even a version for a network in Melbourne, Australia.[[/note]]
34	** One of the singing voices of the female Stingers was none other than the late Vicki Sue Robinson of "Turn the Beat Around" fame.
35	* StarMakingRole: Eric Raymond for Creator/CharlieAdler, who went on to voice many other Hasbro characters.
36	* TechnologyMarchesOn: At a trade show, a salesman tells Minx that a new synthesizer has an entire megabyte of memory.
37	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
38	** The Misfits were originally conceived as a trio of total sociopaths Eric Raymond found and molded into a band, but each member would've been totally willing to backstab the other two for their own agenda.
39	** Season 3 was an extension granted to the show by Hasbro that the other Sunbow Entertainment cartoons didn't get; this was due to pressure from retailers to help move unsold stock from the 1987 product line by continuing to promote it. The unproduced characters such as The Stingers, Regine and Astral were featured because Hasbro still intended to sell Jem in 1988 and wanted to use the limited remaining promotion the cartoon granted to at least introduce the upcoming dolls. Unfortunately, after a lack of interest from retailers in stocking the already heavily reduced 1988 assortments, Hasbro cancelled production and scrapped Jem as a brand.
40	** Christy Marx said there were plans for a ''Jem'' movie with a pair of sound-controlling psychic twins named the Mongrels, as well as an evil counterpart to Synergy named Entropy. This got scrapped after the failures of Hasbro's ''[[WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie Transformers]]'', ''[[WesternAnimation/GIJoeTheMovie G.I. Joe]]'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{My Little Pony\|TheMovie1986}}'' films. (The idea of an evil rival to Synergy would reappear years later in the IDW comics.) She also wanted to do a follow up episode about Danny, a one-off character Deirdre, Krissie and Ba Nee meet when they ran away in "The Music Awards". It would have dealt with Danny and his previously alcoholic father getting sober and happily reuniting, but Hasbro stopped it from happening.
41	** Jem was originally named "M", however Hasbro could not trademark a letter. They then decided to name her "Misty", however they opted for "Jem" in the end, because they wanted something that sounded similar to "M". Jerrica's original name was "Morgan".
42	** Minx was originally called "Jazz", Riot was "Chaos", and Rapture was "Fantasy". Pizzazz's name was originally spelled "Pizazz", Stormer was once "Rue", then "Roxy", and Roxy was "Rue" once too. Kimber's name was originally "Aja" while Aja's was "Jade". Ashley's original name was "Heather". Regine was originally named "Paris". Shana went by the names "Aria", "Chandra", and "Beverley" before she received her final name.
43	** The ''Jem'' bible says Clash and Video were born on the same day, however the show says Video is two years older than her cousin.
44	** The mastertape version of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffOhFRNVqC8 Surprise Surprise]] has a few lyrics that were cut in the final version, such as "Wait 'till you see what's in store for you".
45	** Techrat was meant to be androgynous, however Hasbro didn't like Marx's idea. He and Minx would've become a couple had the series continued.
46	** "Love's Not Easy" was a scrapped song from the episode "Island of Deception". It was supposed to appear after Stormer said love wasn't easy for her.
47	** "Jem Jam: Part 1" originally had a scene showing how Clash got inside Starlight Music.
48	** There was an idea for "The Talent Search: Part 1" for one of Raya's brothers to be in a gang and have them steal The Holograms' van, though it was scrapped because the episode was full enough already. The end of "The Talent Search: Part 2" originally had a barbecue scene featuring Raya's family.
49	** "[=KJEM=]" started out as a two-parter. One unused idea had for a subplot involving one of the engineers being an alcoholic and trying to deal with his alcoholism. After that was scrapped, a different subplot involved the character Switch desperately needing an organ transplant.
50	** The oneshot villain Mr. Lassiter was meant to reappear however the series was cancelled before that could happen. Another unused episode concept was Pizzazz being reunited with her MissingMom, however it was canned due to the series ending.
51	** "Blame It On Rio" is a script that never became a proper episode. It was about Jerrica and Rio arguing due to Rio wanting to know more about the stage effects Jerrica was keeping secret for him. We would meet one of Rio's roadies, named Pudge, and the only known song is "Striving".
52	** "Straight to the Heart" was originally named "Your 15 Minutes Are Up" but its title was changed at the last minute.
53	** The initial treatment for "The Day The Music Died" had Riot take Jem to a country estate, and when the Misfits took over the airwaves it was because the Jem and Stingers fans felt betrayed by their idols and turned to the Misfits instead, with many fans imitating their styles and rude behavior. Jem and Riot would only discover what was going on when a still-loyal Jem fan was being harassed by Misfit fans. This was further altered in the second draft, which had Riot reveal some of his military past to Jem, the estate becoming a mountain resort, and a plot early on where Eric Raymond got rid of the Misfits and then had to eat his words when Pizzazz took control.
54	** Had production issues regarding ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' not derailed it, ''[[Trivia/Revolution2016 Unit:E]]'' would've had Synergy (now an alien AI) assisting characters from ''ComicBook/{{Micronauts\|IDW}}'' in gathering other heroes to face Baron Karza; Jerrica herself was shown, Synergy stating she would help Jerrica become Jem and compose the "Music of the Spheres" (whatever that meant).
55	* WordOfGod:
56	** Christy Marx stated that, even if Stormer becomes friendly with the Holograms and isn't nearly as bad as the rest of the Misfits, her loyalties lie with the Misfits first and foremost.
57	** At [=JemCon=] 2018, Christy Marx said she thinks Kimber/Stormer as a pairing is a natural progression of their close friendship.
58	* WriterRevolt: Christy Marx originally envisioned the Misfits as a trio of self-absorbed sociopaths that Eric found and forged into a band, which could fall apart at any moment due to Pizzazz, Roxy, and Stormer being willing to betray each other at a moment's notice if it would advance their respective careers. Similarly, to appease MoralGuardians, their songs would be "anti-moral" as far as promoting the worst aspects of human nature. The other writers rejected this outright and we got the kinder, gentler, [[VitriolicBestBuds vitriolic]] TrueCompanions Misfits everyone loved.

Context Trivia / Jem