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Jem Season 1 Episode 1

The Beginning

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Episode Summary

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AIRED: 10/6/85

The death of Emmett Benton initiates a power struggle between Jerrica Benton and Eric Raymond over Starlight Music. Jerrica wants to uphold her father's quality standards and continue to support the Starlight Foundation for Foster Girls. Jerrica receives a package that will change everyone's fortunes and introduce the world to the newest pop sensation: Jem!moreless

FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (2)

The pilot sees Jerrica Benton stumbling upon her father's invention, Synergy, who will help her out to be a famous alter ego, Jem.

7.1

By marvelfan89, Mar 10, 2007

Jem is a true example of a fairy tale come to life. While the show itself is hard to swallow and unrealistic it nonetheless has an 80's appeal that's very appealing.

The pilot sees Jerrica Benton fight it out against the owner of Starlight Music which was formerly owned by her Dad Emmett.

Jerrica sees the company sponsoring "The Misfits" , attractive girls with bad attitudes. This is the classic stereotype of the "good girls" vs. "the bad girls" storyline we often see in movies nowadays. The other thing about the show itself is this whole hologram business with Synergy the hologram computer. That's one of the embellishments that was obviously put in there to attract the audience. Otherwise, we would get this boring storyline with this average girl trying to break it into the business and probably failing without much help.

While Jem is a decent show, it's hard to swallow for these elements just because in the real world this nonsense doesn't happen. On the other hand, the show was ahead for it's a toon that shows us what can happen in the music world and the power struggle with one band vs the other.

"The Misfits" even go as far as stealing the instruments of "Jem and THe Hologram" from showing how great they are.

You also gotta love the tunes they wrote for their episodes. In this episode the songs "Outta my way" and "Only the beginning" show creativity and originaly.

The pilot reveals a lot and shows us the future rivalry with "The Misfits" and "The Holograms".moreless
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Jerrica Benton's father died, and his greedy business partner wants to scam Jerrica out of her half of the music company Mr. Benton owns. Fortunately, Jerrica discovers a special gift her father has left her--a special computer caled Synergy that transformoreless

10

By mlw42485, May 14, 2006

This show was on on Saturday mornings when I was a little girl growing up in the 80s. I watched it all the time and even constantly rented the Jem episodes-on-VHS that were at my local video store.

The show, which is a cartoon about a young woman who must fight her father\'s evil business partner for her half of Starlight music, her father\'s music company, after her father\'s death, is flat-out awesome. Seeing the clothes and make-up the characters wear and hearing the songs that Jem and the Holograms and The Misfits sang is hilarious.

I\'ve bought all the Jem DVDs available, and every time I watch one, I am immediately brought back to the tubular days of the 80s.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Bobbie Block	Roxy/Roxanne Pelligrini
Britta Phillips	Jem/Jerrica Benton [singing voice]
Cathianne Blore	Kimber Benton / Aja Leith
Charlie Adler	Eric Raymond
Cindy McGee	Shana Elmsford
Ellen Bernfeld	Pizzazz [singing voice]

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Samantha Newark	Deidre	Recurring Role
Charlie Adler	Zipper	Recurring Role
Hazel Shermet	Mrs. Bailey	Recurring Role

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (5)
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- One of the Starlight girls, Ashley, was originally named Heather.
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- Jem's name was originally called Misty and then M. The letter M couldn't be copyrighted, so it was changed to Jem. Jerrica's name was Morgan, Kimber was Aja, Aja was Jade, Stormer was Roxy, and Roxy was Rue.
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- Eric Raymond's name was based on the first and middle name of Christy Marx's brother, Eric Raymond Marx.
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- In the original theme song, Stormer is playing Roxy's guitar and Roxy is playing Stormer's keyboard.
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- Kimber is shown playing guitar in the window sill and Aja is showing tapping around with a drum stick.
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QUOTES (17)
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- Jerrica: There's no room in Starlight House for girls who steal and lie.
  Ashley: So, what are you gonna do about it.
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- Roxy: It's not our fault that Aja chick can't drive.
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- Kimber: Now what are we gonna do?
  Shana: Well, we can't just stay here!
  Aja: Come on. We can climb out. (Aja stands and the car rocks forward)
  Shana: (Shouting) Sit down!
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- Roxy: Hey, they want their junk back.
  Pizzazz: Let them have it.
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- Eric: I won't tolerate this kind of interference, Jerrica.
  Jerrica: And I won't tolerate rigged contests.
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- Jem: Show time, Synergy.
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- Jerrica: Holograms, clothes, musical instruments, this car. I can't believe father kept it all a secret. Wait I have it. I know how to stop Eric Raymond.
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- Jerrica: Who or what are you?
  Synergy: I am Synergy. A holographic computer designed to be the ultimate, audio, visual, entertainment synthesizer.
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- Aja: Hey, I'm crazy but I'm not that crazy.
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- Synergy: Welcome Jerrica Benton. Come. Continue to drive forward.
  Kimber: What? Through the wall?
  Synergy: Do not be afraid. Things are not always, (Synergy goes through the wall) what they seem!
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- Synergy: (Appearing in front of Kimber, Aja, Shana and Jerrica) Jerrica Benton, I have come for you.
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- Jerrica: How dare you use my father's company to promote this, this trash!
  Pizzazz: (Getting up and confronting Jerrica) Who are you calling trash, you little wimp?
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- Pizzazz: (As she, Stormer and Roxy come in on motorcycle guitars) Hey, Eric, like our new toys.
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- Eric: I'm running the company now and I'm planning to turn Starlight Music into the most powerful recording company in the country. But to do that, I need fresh blood like the Misfits: Pizzazz, Roxy and Stormer.
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- Eric Raymond: What are you doing here?
  Jerrica: I need money for Starlight House.
  Eric (Chuckling) Well this is a business, Jerrica, not a charity.
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- Becky: Jerrica, Jerrica. We've got problems.
  Jerrica: (Sitting in a puddle of water in the kitchen) Oh, tell me about them.
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- Jerrica: I remember how it all began with the unexpected death of my father.
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NOTES (4)
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- The songs in this episode are:
  "Outta My Way" - The Misfits
  "Only the Beginning" - Jem and the Holograms
  "Winning is Everything" - The Misfits
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- When the series' first episodes ran, the songs were shorter but once it was picked up, songs were looped and scenes reused to expand the songs.
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- The secretary Gloria, was named after a lady Christy Marx once worked for at a TV production company.
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- The names Benton, Leith, Gabor and Elmsford were all real scientists who were key developers in holograms.
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ALLUSIONS (1)
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- The last names of Jerrica and Kimber Benton, Aja Leith, Shana Elmsford and Phyllis Gabor were all taken from Scientists who were key developers in holograms.
  
  In 1947, a British/Hungarian scientist Dennis Gabor accidentally developed the theory of holography. Gabor intended to increase the power of electron microscopes by using a light beam instead of an electron beam. Hhe made two-dimensional holograms or flat images with a mercury arc lamp using exposures of many hours.
  
  In 1962, Emmett Leith and Juris Upatnieks used continuous-wave, off-axis laser beam technique to make three-dimensional holographic images and objects.
  
  In 1968, Dr. Stephen A. Benton invented white-light transmission holography. His discovery allowed holograms to be illuminated by ordinary white light instead of lasers.
  
  American Bank Note Holographics, Inc. (ABNH) is a world leader in the design, production and marketing of high security holograms for the credit cards protection, packaged products, identity cards, bank notes and other documents of value. ABNH maintains its corporate headquarters in Elmsford, New York and production facilities in Elmsford and Huntington Valley, Pennsylvania.
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