This One is Truly Outrageous

By: R.A. Rayne

The early ‘80s were dominated by space adventures, action films, and MTV. Boys’ action cartoons dominated the afternoons and Saturday mornings. While the Care Bears, My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, and Rainbow Brite aired, they could not compete with the toy-driven G.I. Joe, He-Man, and the Transformers.

Following the success of G.I. Joe and Transformers, Hasbro came up with a truly outrageous idea. They wanted to launch a new line of fashion dolls to compete with Mattel’s heavily dominant Barbie line. Hasbro planned to create a multimedia franchise aimed at girls by combining fashion, music, and adventure, capitalizing on the popularity of MTV and music videos.

Christy Marx, a comic book writer turned cartoon writer, who previously wrote for the Red Sonja comic book and hit cartoons such as The New Fantastic Four (1978), Spider-Man (1981-1982), Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981-1982), and G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (1985), was hired to write and produce a new line of “Barbie-esque” fashion dolls capitalizing on the popularity of MTV and music videos. Hasbro and Sunbow Productions produced the television show for this new toy line in 1985.

The series was a joint collaboration among Hasbro, Sunbow Productions, and Marvel Productions, the same team responsible for G.I. Joe and Transformers. Most episodes were animated by the Japanese studio Toei Animation. The South Korean studio AKOM provided eleven episodes and the opening sequence instead.

Marx was hired to build a world around a basic toy concept featuring two rival girl bands, a car with a working radio, and a holographic computer. Drawing on her action experience from the “She-Devil with a Sword” Red Sonja comic book, Marx’s idea was unlike any other “cutie” girl cartoon with fluffy talking animals and softhearted plots. This was “girl power!’ Marx’s show centered on Jerrica Benton. After her father’s death, Jerrica inherits his struggling record company, Starlight Music, and Starlight House (a foster home). Jerrica discovers that her father built Synergy, an advanced holographic supercomputer. With a pair of star-shaped earrings that connect to Synergy, Jerrica transforms into a “truly outrageous” pink-haired rock star.

With the story developed, the concepts moving into the design phase, and the scriptwriting underway, it was time to name Jerrica Benton’s alter ego. To avoid conflicts with MTV, the main character was originally called “M” (for music and magic), then “GEM,” before finally settling on “Jem.”

On October 6, 1985, the Jem and the Holograms cartoon premiered, and four months later, in January 1986, Hasbro launched the toy.

But the Jem and the Holograms’ launch turned out to be like a plot from the show. Hasbro’s largest competitor, Mattel, got wind that the Rhode Island toy company was about to rock the fashion doll market. Terrified of losing Barbie’s dominant crown to a cooler, musical competitor, Mattel executives fast-tracked their own “MTV” inspired project to beat Hasbro to retail shelves.

Like a move by the devious Misfits to discredit Jem, Mattel’s design team completed the entire project in just four months, bypassing the typical 18 months it takes to create a new toy line. Mattel also bypassed the slow manufacturing process by repurposing pre-existing fabrics, face molds, and plastic accessory pieces already in its warehouses.

Barbie and the Rockers beat Hasbro to the stage. Mattel debuted the “Jem-wannabes” in late 1985. Because Barbie hit the market first and had an established presence in the industry, the public ironically assumed Hasbro’s Jem was the copycat, when the reverse was actually true.

Mattel pulled out all the stops to try to keep Jem and the Holograms from finding an audience. They put together a massive advertising campaign featuring real-life lookalike band members in live-action mall concerts and at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. They even released a direct-to-video animated special, Barbie and the Rockers: Out of This World, in 1987, which was Barbie’s first animated film.

Unfortunately, Mattel’s blitzkrieg worked. The Barbie and the Rockers sales generated roughly $70 million in merchandise sales for Mattel in 1987 alone. Jem and the Holograms brought in roughly $21 million during the same period. Despite being a reasonably popular animated series, Barbie and the Rockers’ success prompted Hasbro, much to the Jem Girls’ dismay.

But the show wasn’t over, and thankfully, we didn’t have to endure a VH1 “Where Are They Now” episode for Jem. In 2015, Habro dusted off their pink star earring and said those magic words again. “It’s showtime, Synergy.”

Thanks to Jon M. Chu’s interest in developing a live-action film adaptation of Jem because he grew up watching the original series with his sisters, and the success of the Transformers films, Allspark Pictures (a subsidiary of Hasbro Studios) and Blumhouse Productions decided to bring back Jem. Jon M. Chu produced and directed the film, wrote it with Ryan Landels, and cast Aubrey Peeples (as the title character), Stefanie Scott, Hayley Kiyoko, Aurora Perrineau, Ryan Guzman, Molly Ringwald, and Juliette Lewis.

Jem and the Holograms was loosely based on Christy Marx’s 1980s animated television series Jem. The film adaptation was based on the fact that he grew up watching the original series with his sisters. Chu attempted to make the film 11 years earlier, but Universal rejected it because of the cost.

Universal Pictures released Jem and the Holograms in theaters on October 23, 2015. The film was a financial failure, grossing $2.3 million worldwide on a $5 million budget. Jem and the Holograms was poorly received by critics and even more so by fans.

Fans expected something closer to the original cartoon, but instead they got a teenage Jerrica Benton and her younger sister, Kimber, living with their Aunt Bailey and two foster sisters, Aja and Shana. The four girls frequently videotape themselves playing music and wearing colorful outfits, but a shy Jerrica refuses to be filmed while singing. After Jerrica discovers that her Aunt Bailey has financial problems and their house will be auctioned. Jerrica puts on a wig and makeup and records a video of herself singing a song she wrote.

The video goes viral, getting millions of views, and leads to Jerrica signing a record deal with Starlight Productions. She moves to Los Angeles with her sisters. There, they meet music producer Erica Raymond and her son Rio. Erica is friendly to everyone but focuses especially on Jerrica, seeing her as the next big star.

After arriving in Los Angeles, the girls talk about what to do next. They have a small robot called 51N3RG.Y, or Synergy, that Jerrica’s late father, Emmett, made. One day, the robot suddenly turns on and starts a scavenger hunt. Each clue reminds Jerrica of her father. The girls need to find missing parts to fix the robot. They find the first part at the Santa Monica Pier and the next clue hidden inside Emmett’s old guitar during a live show.

Rio and Jerrica start to like each other, which upsets Erica. She tries to keep them apart by having Rio work with another singer. Meanwhile, Aunt Bailey tells Jerrica over FaceTime that their house is about to be sold at auction. Wanting to save it, Jerrica asks Erica for money in advance. Erica agrees, but only if Jerrica performs alone and leaves her sisters. Jerrica agrees, thinking it will help her family. When her sisters find out, they feel hurt and leave. After a boring solo show, Jerrica regrets her choice and visits the house in Los Angeles where she once lived with Kimber and her father. Her sisters return and forgive her. They decide to finish the scavenger hunt together, and Rio joins them. Jerrica realizes the last pieces are the earrings her father gave her, but Erica took them during their first visit to Starlight. With the earrings now in Erica’s office, Rio and the girls sneak in, almost get caught, but manage to retrieve them. Their reward is a final hologram message from Emmett. They also find Rio’s late father’s will, which gives Rio most of Starlight’s shares and makes him in charge.

With their house saved, Jem and her sisters perform live. Rio speaks with rock journalist Lindsey Pierce, who offers the band a chance to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone. When Pierce asks for the band’s name, Rio suggests “Jem and the Holograms.”

Yeah, I know, right?!? This almost makes G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra seem like a decent film.

And all of that was without the Misfits. Oh, wait, they were teased in the mid-credits scene for a possible appearance in a second Jem and the Holograms film that never came.

Okay, I realize I have spent a lot of time deep-diving into the plot of the live-action movie, but there is a reason. Deadline has reported that a live-action Jem and the Holograms series is headed to Amazon Prime. According to Deadline, “a series is in development at Amazon MGM Studios with Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan’s studio-based Kilter Films (Westworld, Fallout) producing. The project comes from Hasbro Entertainment, which took it out in late 2025.

Amazon quickly emerged as the likely buyer, with Joy and Kilter’s attachment rumored from early on. It took months for that to become official and for deals to close.

Executive producers of the live-action Jem and the Holograms series are Joy, Nolan, and Athena Wickham for Kilter Films and Gabriel Marano for Hasbro Entertainment.” (quoted from Nellie Andreeva’s Deadline article from June 8, 2026)

Reports say this new series will be an “elevated live-action technothriller” rather than a musical cartoon. The plan is to make it episodic, giving more time to develop the characters and explore the sci-fi mythology, unlike the 2015 live-action movie. A live-action series sounds great, and Kilter Films makes it promising, but the phrase that frightens me is “elevated live-action technothriller.” This suggests the new show will feel like the CW’s Riverdale or Netflix’s Sabrina the Teenage Witch remake. While these shows weren’t that bad, they also weren’t that good.

If I were to write a live-action film, I would take a different approach, but I will save that for another time.

I know I sound like I am struggling to find good things to say about our favorite Holographic Rockstar, but not everything about Jem is bad… Not that anything is bad for her. Last year at San Diego Comic-Con, the real Jem finally made her first live stage appearance, coming out to join for an encore of “Totally Outrageous” and Cold Slither’s self-titled hit song, ‘Cold Slither.”

Her performance had a bar full of fifty-year-old men singing along like a group of teenage girls. All of whom have now begun asking for the pink-haired rock goddess to be immortalized as a G.I. Joe Classified action figure.

But Jem didn’t stop there! This past summer, Jem (Britta Phillips) rocked the San Diego House of Blues. She joined Cold Slither, The Knights of Unicron, Skid Row’s Sebastian Bach, and others at Hasbro’s The Transformers: The Movie 40th Anniversary Celebration of Life Concert. The “Apology Tour” celebrated four decades of the 1986 animated film and honored Optimus Prime’s legacy.

This weekend is the 22nd annual JemCon. JemCon is three days of truly outrageous adventure, fashion, and fandom. This sold-out event brings Jem Girls and Jem Guys together to honor and get Truly Outrageous. This year’s special guests include Samantha Newark and Britta Phillips (the speaking and singing voices of Jem), Townsend Coleman (voice of Riot), Bettina Bush, Hasbro and Loyal Subjects toy designers, and original series composers.

This year featured the first-ever Rock Fashion Runway Competition for handmade fashions, a “Men of Jem” panel, a museum exhibit titled Jem: Then, Now, and Always, and a drag show at Urban Mo’s featuring Morgan McMichaels and Belle Pepper.

The panels covered topics such as animation history and music production, a cosplay pageant with “All In The Style” and “Misfits Mashup” categories, hands-on workshops, and a cozy Sunday morning cartoon watch party with cereal. JemCon also hosts an annual charity auction that benefits The San Diego LGBT Community Center.

So as you can see, Jem may not be on our screens, but “She’s Got the Power,” and she is most definitely still in our hearts. Perhaps one day someone will come along and write her a story that will give us the film we deserve. Who knows, maybe it will star the person who most embodies the essence of both Jerrica Benton and Jem. I only hope Miss Swift — err, Mrs. Kelsey — will accept the role, because when you take a hard look at it. She is already the live-action version of both of them.

Well, I guess there is only one thing left to say at this point.

“Shows over Synergy.”