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"ASK CHRISTY" ARCHIVES - VOLUME 2
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.2
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.3
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.4
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.5
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.7
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.9
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.12
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.14
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.17
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.18
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.19
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.20
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.21
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.24
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.29
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.34
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.36
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.37
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.39
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.40
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.41
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.43
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.45
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.47
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.49
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.50
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.52
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.53
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.54
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.56
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.57
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.59
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 2.61
From TO! 2.2 (January 8, 1997)
Q: ""Father's Day" established that Pizzazz's mother left her
father when she was barely a child. Was there ever any plans to
show her?"
A: "There were no definite plans to show Pizzazz's mother, but
I provided enough background material in the bible that it would
have been possible to build stories around her. She was a free
spirit, an Isadora Duncan-type. Most likely Pizzazz did get
her talent from her, as well as much of her temperament (wild
and unrestrained and selfish)."
From TO! 2.3 (January 12, 1997)
Q: "Does anybody know if the Misfits on the show got their name
from the real band, the Misfits, or vice versa?"
A: "I'm pretty sure Hasbro's Misfits predates the real band.
Besides which, a toy company is extremely careful about legal
usage. They would have thoroughly checked out the name
"Misfits" before trademarking it for their product, and I
don't think they wouldn't have used it if a real band
already existed.
(NOTE: The list administrator corrected Christy that the
real-life Misfits formed in March 1977 and disbanded in
1983; Jem wasn't on the air until 1985)
From TO! 2.4 (January 18, 1997)
Q: "Another thing was that after the earrings were stolen and the
Jem hologram faded, Jerrica was fully dressed! Jem had been
soaking in the mineral bath in a bathing suit! Why was
Jerrica not wearing a bathing suit? Why were her clothes
completely dry? I don't get it!"
A: "Unfortunately, I was so busy doing development and
writing a large percentage of the shows during the first
two season, I was unable to story edit. The s.e. who
handled those other scripts paid little to no attention to
my guidelines for using holograms. I can assure you that
scientific gaffes of that sort drive me crazy and I would
have been much more careful to avoid them had I been
controlling those scripts."
From TO! 2.5 (January 22, 1997)
Q: "What happened to those neat Jem facts or "trivia tidbits"?"
A: "I probably ran out of trivia. At this point, I don't
remember what I've told and what I haven't. Let's see, did I
mention who the "Elzer Marcus" in the KJEM episode really is?"
Q: "What exactly is a Moggy Horde? And why are you its Queen?"
A: ""Moggy" is a Scottish slang term for a cat, derived
(supposedly) from "mongrel". I have 11 cats, which I
think constitutes a Horde. In reality, I am the Slave
of the Moggy Horde, but to preserve my sense of dignity,
I pretend otherwise."
From TO! 2.7 (January 28, 1997)
Q: "Do you know how certain episodes were put together? I mean,
was each episode the individual writers' idea or were writer's
"assigned" to script certain episodes? Or was it something
inbetween? I'm also curious about the animation teams - the
animation was usually pretty consistent in quality, but
there are a few episodes that looked like they were produced
on a really low budget. There's also a jump in quality
between the show's animation and the music videos"
A: "When I began working on Jem, I wasn't actually the
story editor. I did all the series development, but I
was heavily involved with writing scripts and it's very
difficult to write a lot and be a story editor at the
same time. I wrote 22 out of 65 episodes. Consequently,
they hired someone to story editor the scripts I wasn't
writing. I came up with my own story ideas for my
scripts, which had to be approved by the producers. I'm
not entirely sure how the s.e. operated. He may have
handed out premise ideas or he may have taken pitches.
I think he took pitches from the writers. It's not
uncommon in animation these days for the producers and
s.e. to sit down and come up with the story ideas and
then hand them out to writers, but I don't recall us
doing that back then. In the third season, I wrote less
scripts and shared the s.e. job with the previous s.e.
I took pitches from writers, but I also had a few ideas
I handed out to writers, such as Danse's backstory
episode, and the story about Jacqui Benton. I was able
to use the writers I wanted to use most of the time. I
don't know as much about how the animation was done as
I wasn't involved with that end of it. Budget is
certainly the major factor in how the animation will
look. The common practice is for animation to be done
overseas. Generally speaking, the Japanese animation
studios turn out better work, but that also depends on
money and time allowed. If a show is behind schedule
or is short of budget, the art director may not be able
to send animation back for "retakes" to fix bad work
or mistakes. Sunbow was using both Korean and Japanese
animation studios. I wasn't very happy with a lot
of the Korean work, to be honest. It wouldn't surprise
me if they sent the music video sequences out for
better animation since they were the showpieces of each
episode."
Q: "In one of the digest you say that you've been "Tuckerized"
yourself. I'm just wondering who were you
"Tuckerized" into & on what shows that "Tuckerized"
version of you appeared."
A: "So far, I've only been Tuckerized in print. I was
a space marine captain in one of the WING COMMANDER
novels by Ellen Guon (recognize her name?). My good
friend, Bridget McKenna, turned me into a journalist,
Rocky Marx, in her murder mystery novel, DEAD AHEAD."
From TO! 2.9 (February 9, 1997)
Q: "In the "Music award" Video says that Dances name is
Gisselle Montgomery yet in "Heartland home land" It says she's
Gisselle Dvorak."
A: "Someone made a mistake. Dvorak is the correct name."
Q: "Why would a man as brilliant as Emmett Benton GIVE HALF HIS
COMPANY to a man like Eric Raymond? We always thought that
perhaps there was more to the employee employer thing than
meets the eye. Is or could Eric be his son?"
A: "Absolutely not. Eric is not related to Emmett in any
way. However, consider the situation at the time. Emmett
still grieved over losing his wife, was trying to run a
company and work on his inventions and take care of his
family and foster girls. That's a lot to cope with. Then
the final blow came along--he discovered he was dying. He
was desperate to have all his affairs in order and his
final gift (Synergy) completed before his time came.
Meanwhile, an energetic, bright young man, Eric Raymond,
came along and took a lot of the burden off Emmett's
shoulders. Eric is cunning and can be as charming as he
needs to be, more than enough to fool someone as
distracted and weary as Emmett. With Eric doing a good
job of running the company, it would make perfect sense
for Emmett to reward him in that way with the assumption
that Eric would be a helpful mentor to Jerrica. Eric
only began to show his true colors after Emmett was gone."
Q: "I can recall that in 1988 we got new 3rd season episodes
during January and February, then NOTHING for a couple
months, then the final episode in April all by itself.
Did word come down that "this is done, write a closing
episode"? Were there other episodes scripted that
were never produced? Were there episodes RECORDED
(dialogue) that were never animated? Were there songs
recorded for 3rd season episodes that never made it
into episodes because of the quick axing of the series?"
A: "When we got into the third season, the word came down
that the series would end and I had plenty of time to
plan out and write the final episode. It's wasn't quick
or rushed. Nothing was written or recorded that wasn't
used, to the best of my knowledge. 65 is a standard
number of episodes for a full syndication order, and we
did 65 episodes to fulfill a standard run."
Q: "I was always under the impression that all the songs for each
season were recorded at one giant recording session
and then placed into episodes as the season
progressed---true or no?"
A: "I don't know how the recording sessions worked.
They were done in New York and I was in L.A. But
considering that the writers had to come up with the
concepts and descriptions for the songs as they wrote
the scripts, and that the scripts had to be in
continuous production, I don't see how it would have
been possible to do them in one session."
Q: "Also, if Britta Phillips is the singing voice of JEM, then
who was Kathy Andrini???"
A: "One more time, one person did the speaking voice
and another person did the singing. This isn't an
unusual practice."
Q: "Riot revealed that he didn't meet Minx until he
joined Nirvana in Germany when he was in the army.
But. didn't he reveal to Jem that he had met her while
going to school in Germany during the "Stingers Hit
Town" ep? Christy which one is right????"
A: "Riot's *father* was in the Army and Riot went to
high school in Germany while his father was stationed
there. That's where Riot met Minx. He didn't join
Nirvana; it was his first group and Minx belonged to
it."
From TO! 2.12 (February 18, 1997)
Q: "I was wondering if you had a favourite Jem episode? I mean,
out of the episodes that you didn't write? Did you ever see an
episode and think to yourself, "Oh no, Jem would NEVER
say that!""
A: "Oddly enough, I've hardly seen any of the other Jem
episodes. Sunbow sent me copies of my own, but none of
the others. Yes, there were some occasions where I did
happen to see scripts or material that contained things
I strongly disagreed with. In one instance, I was allowed
to rewrite the offending script. I prefer not to get
into much more detail as I don't like saying negative
things about other writers."
Q: "Why didn't you want Jem and the Holograms to find out about
Techrat? I have also been wondering who actually owns the
rights for the Graphix character. Is she exclusively yours?
Or is she also the property of Sunbow and Hasbro"
A: "It worked better for the tension of the series to keep
Techrat a secret, in the same way Synergy was a secret. It
added complications to the stories and it meant they
couldn't anticipate or work against Techrat. Graphix was a
doll design, so I'd say she belongs to Hasbro."
From TO! 2.14 (March 1, 1997)
Q: "Last digest, Jason and Lesley both agreed that the episodes
and videos of the original Super Saturday Jem shorts (and the
Truly Outrageous movie) were extended for the 30 minute
format. Did Sunbow already have all the extra footage
animated and written, or did they actually have Christy go
back and write in the new scenes?"
A: "I didn't write any additional material for those
original episodes. When I began writing JEM, I created
15 segments that were about 7 minutes each that could be
strung together, but they were designed to be shown
individually. I'm sure the producers have the idea of
being able to put them together in a 30-minute format in
the backs of their minds, but I don't recall thinking in
those terms when I first wrote the segments. Since each
segment was about 7 minutes long, they shouldn't have
needed to add new material. They would have had enough
to begin with. However, it's been many years since I
worked on the show and I'd be hard-pressed to remember
that much detail."
Q: "Did anybody notice that the Stingers' outfits were black
and yellow, they're named Stingers? Were they based on bees?
*grin* Christy, was that what you based them on?"
A: "The name "Stingers" and the black and yellow color
theme came from Hasbro. They could've been based on
wasps, too, I suppose. The answer lies with some unknown
toy designer."
From TO! 2.17 (March 29, 1997)
Q: "My sister has a production cel from Out Of the Past with
young Jerrica standing by a window crying. This cel is not in
the final aired version. She wonders if this is from a scene
that was edited out. Does Christy have an orginial script from
Out of the Past or the orginal storyboards? And have other
scenes been edited out of episodes for either time constraints
or because of content?"
A: "It's quite possible that bits were edited for length or
other reasons. Since I didn't work on the production end,
I can't really answer the question. Any number of things
could have happened. I may have a copy of the original script
around somewhere, but finding it would be a major job. Or
it may be on one of my old CPM disks that I can no longer
access."
From TO! 2.18 (April 2, 1997)
Q: "Did Hasbro actually have plans to release the Maxie doll
series while Jem was still in production? Or, was Maxie just a
desperate (yet successful) attempt to replace Jem and keep their
standing in the doll market?"
A: "I'm afraid Hasbro didn't share their marketing plans with
me."
Q: "Wouldn't it be great seeing an episode where we see Emmett
Benton building Synergy and stuff? That would be So cool."
A: "That episode exists, "OUT OF THE PAST"."
Q: "When Jetta ans Raya entered the series... Was it like... They
were just THERE all of a sudden? Or was there an episode where
they were introduced or something?"
A: "That was handled in the two-parter called "THE TALENT
SEARCH" in which both Raya and Jetta are introduced, along with
Craig Phillips."
Q: "As far as I can tell many of the dolls were concepts that
came straight from the toy factory and it was up to you to
integrate them into the show. Did you (or Sunbow) get any
special credit from Hasbro when they made dolls based on your
creations (like Synergy)?"
A: "Here's how it worked. I received Polaroids of the dolls
with their stages names "Jem", "Pizzazz", etc. I was told
that Jem was also someone named Jerrica, had a boyfriend
named Rio, a sister named Kimber, a holographic computer
named Synergy, holographic earrings, and a Roadster. Other
than the basic concept of two warring rock groups, that was
all I had to work with. I came up with their full names,
characters, relationships, invented Starlight Music, the
Starlight Foundation and the Starlight Girls and all other
details of the series. So they already had the concept of
Synergy, however, I was the sole creator of the Starlight
Girls, some of whom *were* made into dolls. For which I
received no credit, no thanks, and not a penny."
From TO! 2.19 (April 7, 1997)
Q: "Did the OUTRAGEOUS in "Totally Outrageous!" evolve from
Jerrica getting sick of hearing Kimber say OUTRAGEOUS? She says
it all the time!"
A: "Actually, the use of the word "outrageous" and the phrase
"Truly outrageous" were at the request of Hasbro. Someone
there came up with these words as catchphrases, probably
thinking they'd help sell the dolls, and asked that I have
the writers use them consistently. Hasbro was big on having
catchphrases for their toy lines. With G.I. Joe it was
"Yo, Joe!" (or something like that)."
From TO! 2.20 (April 12, 1997)
Q: "I don't know if you are aware of this, but even though in the
first season of Jem, Shana was the drummer, the Shana dolls were
always packaged with a toy guitar. Was it your decision for the
cartoon Shana to be a drummer instead of a guitar player? Or
was this something that Hasbro gave you."
A: "It's been so long, I'm hazy on how the instruments were
assigned to Aja and Shana. Hasbro clearly determined they
wanted Kimber to be on keyboards. I may have just gone by
whatever early reference Hasbro provided. The only other
time I remember determining who played what was when we
introduced Raya. I can't remember whose idea it was to
make her a drummer, but I recall having to come up with
the justification that Shana didn't mind giving up drums
and going back to guitar. All I can say is, it must have
made sense at the time. :)"
Q: "How many issues of the sisterhood of steel comic were there?"
A: "The original comic book series of THE SISTERHOOD OF STEEL
was an 8-issue mini-series published by Epic Comics, a line of
Marvel Comics for the purpose of publishing creator-owned
books. It was illustrated by Mike Vosberg, who also did a
lot of the video storyboards for Jem. Because I own the
series, I was able to take it to another publisher after I
had a falling out with Epic over censorship. I co-published
a graphic novel with Eclipse Comics (who are now defunct).
It was illustrated and painted by my late husband, Peter
Ledger. THE SISTERHOOD OF STEEL is about a society of
warrior-women as seen through the eyes of Boronwe, a young
woman of 16 who graduates from Cadet to Warrior and goes
out into the world to take part in her first battles. She
also becomes involved in political intrigue within the
Sisterhood. The series is adult, hard-edged fantasy. I
have a small amount of the 8-issue Epic series and a large
back stock of the graphic novels which are available for
sale."
From TO! 2.21 (April 16, 1997)
Q: "One "blooper" in Jem might be related to all of this. In
Stinger's Hit Town, Rapture's line "my gypsy ancestors" is voiced
by voice of Jerrica, Samantha Newark. If this phrase was
rewritten, one could speculate that perhaps Rapture's (and
maybe Minx') ethnic background was changed. (Maybe leading to
the recasting of Minx).
A: "I wasn't involved with the voice sessions, so I can't
answer much about that end of things. The only casting in
which I had input was for the voice of Jetta (have I told
that story yet?). As far as Rapture's "ethnic" background,
that bit about "gypsy ancesters" is just more of her typical
hyperbole, not a statement of fact. When I created Minx,
I indicated in the bible that she was from Germany and
that's the accent they went for. So neither one of them
had an ethnic background changed."
From TO! 2.24 (April 28, 1997)
Q: "Christy, when the 3rd season began to air, were you ever
instructed to no longer write stories that included the Misfits?"
A: "Absolutely not. There were no indications to me at any time
that The Misfits were on the way out. It's standard procedure
for a toy company to continue expanding the toy line. Every
year they'd bring out new G.I. Joe's, new Transformers,
whatever, without necessarily dropping the earlier
characters."
Q: "Anyway, I have to know, how come you ask if you have told a
story and don't tell the story? I would like to know about the
casting of Jetta. I heard about how you weren't allowed to
make her African American, but is there more?"
A: "It's just that I've lost track of which stories I've told
and which I haven't and I didn't want to bore people by
repeating myself. At the risk of doing so, however, here's
the story. As Story Editor/writer, I didn't get input into
the voice casting. But one day I was meeting with the
producers to discuss creating a new Misfit. I did ask to
make her a black character and it's true that they wouldn't
allow that. Instead, they said she could be British or
Australian because nobody cared if they were "villains". I
found that so funny, I laughed out loud. Then I complained
about the awful tendency to cast Americans trying to do
fake Brit or Aussie accents that were really dreadful (and
I was married to an Aussie, so I know better than most).
The chagrined producer offered to let me select the voice
out of the finalists they settled upon. I thought no more
about it as I didn't think the offer was serious. I was
wrong. One day, a tape arrived in the mail with the voices
of five finalists doing the auditions for Jetta. I wasn't
surprised to hear one after another American doing a
terrible Cockney accent. Then, suddenly, this lovely
British voice hit my ears. Yes! I told them I voted
for her, and that's who they cast -- Linda Dorsey. Who,
BTW, happens to be the daugther of Englebert Humperdinck."
From TO! 2.29 (June 5, 1997)
Q: "Who is the other holder of the interest in Starlight Music?"
A: "Originally, it was left to the Benton family (Jerrica,
Kimber, and the Foundation), and Eric Raymond."
Q: "What did Kimber get from Mr. Benton after his death? I
know Jerrica got the earrings, but why did Kimber not get
anything?"
A: "There were a lot of gifts left behind. You may assume
that Synergy, car, clothes, etc. were left to all the girls,
not just Jerrica. But the earrings were a specific gift for
her because she's the oldest and in charge of the estate.
And because (let's get real) Kimber isn't mature enough to
use them properly."
Q: "What happened to the land that Starlight House was on?"
A: "I never dealt with that issue. In "The Stingers Hit
Town", Rio goes back to the lot and we see the burnt remains
of the old house, meaning Jerrica's never gotten around to
selling the property or deciding what to do with it."
Q: "Who is older Kimber or Jerrica?"
A: "You can't tell?! See answer to earlier question."
Q: "And for Christy, whas it hard to write in all of the
songs and the suspense endings when Jem was first out?"
A: "I didn't write the songs themselves. I indicated
where they were to go in the script, suggested a title or
theme, described what the song should be about and gave
whatever visuals I thought should go along with the song.
The songwriters, lyricist and musical group who did the
songs were in New York. I never met them. As for the
suspense endings, it always takes some work to pace and
plot this type of episodic story so that you have a
cliffhanger in the right place. But that's the fun of it."
From TO! 2.34 (July 6, 1997)
Q: "I' want to know more about how you were assigned to put in
the videos,did you do something like this: "Okay,after Pizzazz
says that line, there should be a song about such and such?"
A: "It was up to me and the other writers to decide where the
song would go and what it would thematically be about. We
had some requirements such as: there had to one song per act;
it had to include one to two Jem songs, with one Misfit song,
or maybe one Stingers song; and for the second and third
season, we had to reuse a certain number of songs per episode."
Q: "And also,did you have to right what happens during the music
videos? Like in Change of Heart did you have to say, "during
this video,Pizzazz chases Riot,crab grabs her toe,Jem turns
into a surfbaord with her earrings?"
A: I would give a general idea of the visuals I wanted, and I
might have gone into a little bit of extra detail now and then,
but I didn't map out every single action. That was up to the
storyboard artist."
Q: "Also,did the writers work with the artists occasionally?"
A: "I had no direct contact with the artists. If I wanted
something specific, I had to write it into the script or
send along photos or other reference material for the
artists."
From TO! 2.36 (July 13, 1997)
Q: "I have one question, in Father's Day, was Christy's Stables
named after you?"
A: "Yes, that was a joke put in by the artists. I never even
knew about it until years and years later when someone
pointed it out to me."
From TO! 2.37 (July 16, 1997)
Q: "I was just wondering Christy, of all the Jem characters
you've given life too, which one do you consider to be most like
yourself? And, hypothetically, which character would you most
like to know personally in Real Life?"
A: "I'd have to say none of them. There's no particular character
I would actually consider to be a projection of myself. There
will be some underlying elements of myself in the overall tone
of the series, since a writer will always have some point of
view. But I don't identify with any one of them. They're all
the "children" of my mind, but they're not *me*. Maybe I'd like
to meet Rio, just 'cause I think he's sexy. "
Q: "Is Townsend Coleman REALLY the voice of Riot?"
A: "I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that one. But The
Tick is a lot of fun to watch."
Q: "About the coulda-woulda-shoulda-been JEM movie, which '80s
stars would you have gotten to be in the movie? I mean Cloris
Leachman, Rhea Perlman, Tony Randall, and Madeline Khan were
in My Little Pony: the Movie. And Orson Welles, Leonard Nimoy,
and Judd Nelson were in Transformers: the Movie. And Burgess
Meredith (the Penguin from the Batman tv show), Don Johnson,
and Sgt. Slaughter were in GI Joe: the Movie. I know this
was really in the preliminary planning stages at the time but
did you have someone in mind?"
A: "Unfortunately, the development never got beyond the
earliest stages, so I never even thought about it."
Q: "And what new era would it have brought into Jem the show?"
A: "Impossible to say, as it simply didn't go far enough for any
sort of speculation."
From TO! 2.39 (August 3, 1997)
Q: "With the ep "A Father Should Be" did you know this
was going to be the last ep before you wrote it or did they
tell you after you wrote it."
A: "I've given a detailed answer to this in an earlier digest.
Yes, I knew it was the last show and I wrote it very
specifically with that in mind. Ba Nee's farewell line is
really me saying good-bye to the viewers."
Q: "You used some real world organizations in the show like
the Indy 500, and the Academy Awards, etc, did you have to
have permission to use them? or follow special rules? Was
there any organization that didn't want to be involved in
the show?"
A: "No, I don't recall ever doing anything special when it
came to using organizations within the show. I never
thought twice about it, to be honest. And then, there were
organizations that very much wanted to be involved with the
show, even when we didn't use them within the story, like
the group that let us post their runaway hotline number at
the end of the "Music Awards" episodes."
From TO! 2.40 (August 10, 1997)
Q: "One question about getting Jem back on the air, what
about Fox Kids. Isn't Jem's executive producer Margeret Loesh
head of Fox Kids now?"
A: "Positions have changed over at Fox and I heard rumors that
Margaret is more or less out, or at least has been superceded
in authority by the head of Saban."
Q: "In the credits of My Little Pony and as I recall, GI Joe
there are Educational Specialists. But there are no
Educational Specialists on Transformers or Jem. What exactly
did these Educational Specialists do?"
A: "I have no idea, but it's not uncommon for a children's
program to attach someone of this sort as a sop to networks
or parent's groups or just to make the series come across
better. There was one infamous "specialist" who was
condemning a certain show, making all kinds of noise about
how bad it was -- the series hired her as a consultant and
voila! Suddenly, the series was ok."
Q: "What was Clash's job? I mean we never saw her do any
work on the show."
A: "Oh, she was just a groupie, basically."
Q: "Why did the episodes for the Transformers look so crappy
after the Transformers Movie?"
A: "I didn't work on the original Transformers. But I am
working on a script for the new series, Beast Wars."
Q: "Why did Marvel/Sunbow get out of the animation business?
They used to make good shows."
A: "I couldn't tell you why Sunbow dropped out. Maybe
because the animation series they did were tied to the
advertising accounts of Griffin-Bacal. If the toy
companies got tired of funding animation, that would
account for it. However, Sunbow does have an L.A. studio.
They no longer want to do shows to sell toys. They're
looking to be a small, boutique animation house."
From TO! 2.41 (August 21, 1997)
Q: "Why did anyone on the cartoon even CARE what
Jem's real name was? There are lots of real life artists
who use stage names...Sting, Morrissey, Flea, Bono, The
Edge, Boy George, LL Cool J... heck just about EVERY rap
artist in the world! And no one really cares what their
real names are. Sure, most of their names are known to
fans and the press, etc. but I don't really recall anyone
hiring a detective to find out what their real names were,
like Eric Raymond did. So just why was everyone on Jem
so all fired concerned with Jem's real name?"
A: "Easy. Though the people you mentioned use stage names,
anyone can find out what their real names are. They have
histories and there's information about their lives. Jem
came out of nowhere, was a total mystery person with no
history, no background, no records by which she could be
traced. A mystery is always a challenge. Most of all,
where Eric was concerned, he'd want something he could
use against her."
Q: "I found out about the Jem movie and I have some questions.
Please anser them even if it is the second time! What was it
going to be called?"
A: "Various titles were bandied about, but nothing was
decided."
Q: "What was it going to be about?"
A: "Numerous ideas were pitched, one was further developed,
but nothing was definite."
Q: "What new things would it have introduced to the show?"
A: "The idea I was pushing added a couple of new
troublemaking characters."
From TO! 2.43 (September 5, 1997)
Q: "What do you say to your critics who say that all '80s
cartoons are enough but commercials for toys and the only real
cartoons are the old Warner Brothers shorts from the '40s?"
A: "All I can say is that when I develop and write a show, I
am creating the best characters and stories I can. That's what
*I'm* doing. I can't deny that I have to write it around the
toys, and I can't deny I have certain requirements to fulfill
(like having to use the Roadster or some other toy element).
But it's not my job to write commercials. I say let the shows
be judged by their own merit. The writing speaks for itself.
The old Warner's 40's cartoons were wonderful, but they were
only the beginning of animation evolution, and only in the
U.S. What about the new gag cartoon shows, like Animaniacs?
It's brilliant stuff. There's room for a whole range of
animated material, from children's to adult, from sight gags
to full dramatic stories (look at anime). Anyone trying
to force his limited definition on others should simply be
ignored for the narrow-minded fool he is."
Q: "Could a writing campaign have saved Jem like Save Our
Sailors saved Sailor Moon? I know there are some different
factors involved like SM just had to be dubbed while Jem
had to be made completely from scratch."
A: "It would have to be a massive letter campaign, and
even then, I think we're up against some pretty major
problems, since the property is co-owned by Hasbro and
Sunbow. That always complicates things. It would be
extremely difficult to reassemble the original talent. All
the letters in the world probably wouldn't be enough to
get through to a company like Hasbro. But what the hey,
I can be an optimist, too. It couldn't hurt to have a
write-in campaign. But you'd need to round up a *lot*
more people than we have on this list."
Q: "I was watching the only good looking episode of
Transformers after the movie (Call of the Primitives) and
I was wondering which foreign animation house drew it?
But when I looked at the closing credits, it doesn't say
who animated the show at all. Jem's credits doesn't say,
GI Joe doesn't say (except for the movie then it was Toho
I think), and My Little Pony doesn't say. But Dungeons &
Dragons says, mostly it's TMS or Tatsunoko or Akom. But
why didn't they say? And who are they? It's more common
to say who drew the shows today. But some companies did
back then too, like Thundercats was done by Pacific
Animation Corporation. Were they mostly Japanese or
Korean? Or combos of both?"
A: "I wasn't involved with the production end of the show.
I believe Akom in Korea did a lot of the animation, and
some was done in Japan, I think. I wasn't thrilled with
Akom's work, to be honest. The Japanese studios tend to
do better work, but are more expensive and the shows can't
always afford to use them."
Q: "How come Video never had a boyfriend?"
A: "We simply never got around to it. It's not like she
was a major character."
Q: "How come there weren't stories about the other Starlight
Girls? It was always about Ashley, Banee, and Deidre.
Why not Leila or Anne or those other 3 girls whose names we
never learned?"
A: "I had stories mapped out for some of the other girls,
but we didn't get the chance to do them. Also, Hasbro
wanted to focus the stories on the girls they were turning
into dolls."
Q: "What's up with the Power Block? I heard that every
show except Beast Wars has been cancelled and that it
will now be on weekends. And that Reboot will be going
to cable."
A: "I don't have inside information on Power Block. All
I can tell you is: I've written three scripts for a new
REBOOT series of 16 shows, and Mainframe is still in the
process of selling these shows to a new outlet. They may
go to cable (in Canada on YTV, most likely) or they may go
somewhere else. Nothing's set yet. I'm currently writing
a BEAST WARS script, "The Transmutate", for their next
season. It's a popular show, obviously, and the toys are
selling like gangbusters, which is probably why it's taking
over the Block. Plus, they'll want to prepare the audience
for the new shows. It's a complicated show and the next
season even more so, thanks to the inspired story-editing
of Larry DiTillio and Bob Forward."
From TO! 2.45 (September 14, 1997)
Q: "I wanted to ask something as well... The Mardi
Gras... Isn't that like a whole gay parade in Australia
or something? Why would Jem perform there? I mean... She
has a big gay following (LOL) but i don't suspect they'd
put that in a children's cartoon, especially in the
80's :) Or do they mean something else by "Mardi Gras"?"
A: "Mardi Gras means "Fat Tuesday", also known as Shrove
Tuesday. It's a major festival celebrating the day before
Lent begins, Lent being part of the christian religion
and a time of fasting and pentitence that starts Ash
Wednesday and runs for the 40 days until Easter. So
basically, on Mardi Gras people are having their last big
bash before the tedious 40 days of Lent. That's on the
religious end of it. Of course, Mardi Gras has just come
to be a big, wonderful party where people dress up in
fantastical costumes, parade around, eat, drink and have
a riotous good time. It takes place in other countries
(Brazil's is huge), but Louisiana is particularly famous
for it. I assume the one in Australia is put on by a gay
coalition, and it's therefore simply a gay version of a
Mardi Gras. The Mardi Gras itself has nothing to do one
way or another with being gay."
Q: "How do toy companies/networks/animation studios come
up with the right number of episodes for a season of a
program?"
A: "It's a matter of how much money the production company
has. It used to be common to begin with an order of 13,
then order another 13 = 26, and then if it does well,
enough for 65. On CONAN, they ordered 13 up front, then
we did another 52 to get 65. On BUCKY O'HARE they ordered
13, but cancelled it after that. It depends on the deal,
the money and how well the show does or how well they
expect it to do. Toy companies used to be more enthusiastic
about funding larger runs of shows; they're not doing that
as much any more."
Q: "Since the Emmys are this week, I was wondering how do
the awards shows work? What is the critieria? How come
all of the most popular cartoons never get nominated for
Outstanding Animated Program for the Daytime Emmys? The
only drama I ever see nominated is Batman:TAS. Why not
Jem? Robotech? Galaxy Rangers? GI Joe? Gargoyles? Real
Ghostbusters? etc? Have you ever worked on an Emmy
nominated show?"
A: "I've never paid any attention to how that works, nor
have I worked on a show that's been nominated. A lot
of it has to do with perception -- someone's perception
of what's cool or what's trendy or what supposedly has
status."
Q: "About GI Joe, you (Christy) wrote a 2 parter about
some of the Joes' families, how much did you make up
yourself and how much was already there in the Joe Bible?
And which came first the character bios for the toys or
the cartoon? Who influenced who?"
A: "As I recall, there was almost nothing about family
backgrounds in the bible and I got to make up all of that,
which I really enjoyed doing. The toys came first and
bios were written for them in order to write the
cartoons."
Q: "I'm interested in what Christy might be working on
now or in the near future."
A: "I thought I mentioned it, but in case I didn't: I
wrote three scripts for a new season of REBOOT. The
shows are titled, "Icons", "The Return of the Crimson
Binome", and "The Edge of Beyond". For the time being,
only the lucky Canadians get to see these shows. And
just yesterday, I turned in a script for the new season
of BEAST WARS (BEASTIES in Canada), called "The
Transmutate"."
From TO! 2.47 (September 23, 1997)
Q: "I never knew that Jem started out as a 7-minute
segment, and I was wondering what those segments were.
Were they just parts of the full length 22 minute episodes
or were they different material?"
A: "They were reworked slightly and turned into the first
few 22 minute episodes of the 65. It's the whole "Battle
of the Bands" storyline that opens the series."
Q: "I've just gotten the chance to rewatch GI Joe: the Movie
after 10 years, and it still looks great. I've seen
Transformers: the Movie and it looks great too (I've heard
that it costed $40,000,000), but My Little Pony: the Movie
doesn't look as good. Do you think Hasbro would've come
correct and spent the kind of money they did for GI Joe
and Transformers, for a Jem movie?"
A: "I was doing the development for a Jem movie when the
Transformers and other movies were released. Because
those other animated movies did so poorly, they cancelled
the idea of the Jem movie."
From TO! 2.49 (October 1, 1997)
Q: "How old was the ever-adorable Clash supposed to be?
And just where would she have drawn the line with her
devotion to the Misfits? It seems like she'd kill for them
if Pizzazz asked nicely enough."
A: "We tended to avoid getting specific about the ages of
characters. Think of her as a twentysomething. Clash was
into causing trouble more on a harrassment and vandalism
level. She would not kill."
Q: "Which makes me wonder why Hasbro had to cancel the Jem
line? There's no shame in being the #2 doll in the USA/world.
They could've continued as the Pepsi, to Mattel's Coca Cola;
the Burger King to their McDonald's; the Domino's to their
Pizza Hut; the Church's to their Kentucky Fried; the Krispy
Kreme to their Dunkin' Doughnuts; the Living Single to their
Friends, etc. But I don't think it's in Hasbro's mentality
to be second best. Remember how they ran Go-bots into the
ground with The Transformers. If they didn't think they
could over take Barbie, they never would've have even tried.
Help me Christy, am I right?"
A: "I really can't answer for someone else. I can't read
their minds, I don't even know who "they" were that made
the decision to give up on the doll. I've said before, I
thought they gave up way too soon."
Q: "How many rooms were there in Starlight Mansion? There
had to be bedrooms enough for all the Starlight girls,
Jerrica, and the Holograms, Mrs. Bailey, and then all the
guests of the Jem Jam. It must've been the size of
Aaron Spelling's house ;-)."
A: "Good grief! I never thought about it. The artists
drew the mansion as quite huge, so they at least gave it
some thought."
Q: "Didn't Rio ever notice that it was odd that he was the
Holograms' manager/engineer/co-star/whatever but he could
never get a hold of Jem unless he went through Jerrica?
Would've that been one of the things to eventually tip him
off? That he doesn't even know where she lives, even
though they won the mansion and she could live there?"
A: "Those are the kind of questions you have to carefully
tiptoe around in order to make this show work."
Q: "Did Hasbro ever come to you with a request about what
kind of show to do? Like to a show about something
patriotic or about some charity, etc."
A: "I can't remember now whether Hasbro ever made specific
requests. Not that I know of. If they did, they would
have gone to the Producer and I may not have realized where
the suggestion came from."
From TO! 2.50 (October 5, 1997)
Q: "In "That Old Houdini Magic" Minx touches Tech Rat
and he doesn't freak out. He even holds her hand. Was
there something going on there or did Tech Rat just mello
out?"
A: "I did have something in mind for developing a
relationship between Minx and Techrat."
Q: "In "This Is Farewell..." the Misfits show up for
Banee's going away party. Except for the time Banee,
Diedre, and Krissie ran away, they never met the Misfits.
Why would they go to the party or was it just because
of the last episode?"
A: "It's because it was the last episode and it wouldn't
have felt right to end off without The Misfits."
Q: "Why did/does Jem, the cartoon show, NEED a doll line
in order for it to survive? Why couldn't they have kept
making the cartoons but discontinued the doll line?"
A: "It's because of what it costs to produce animation.
Producing the show alone without the additional financial
support of a toy company is often not feasible. The
ratings on all childrens' programming is currently very
poor, even for Fox. NBC and CBS have abandoned animation
because it wasn't drawing sufficient ratings to pay for
itself."
From TO! 2.52 (October 12, 1997)
Q: "Did Roger Slifer have some part in creating/developing
the characters or some other aspect of the show (besides
what you did and beyond what other writers for the show
did)? I don't know why I think he did, but I noticed his
name pop up quite a bit in the credits although I'm really
unclear on what exactly he did."
A: "Roger had nothing to do with the development of the
show or the creation of the characters. Because I had
my hands full doing the development and writing a huge
chunk of the scripts, they brought Roger in to handle the
story-editing on the scripts I didn't do (until third
season, when I split the story-editing with him). Roger,
like me, was one of the Sunbow regulars who worked on a
lot of their shows. He also wrote some of the Jem scripts,
and he may even have had a producer credit. I don't
remember off-hand. Roger wrote some scripts for me when
I was doing CONAN THE ADVENTURER, and I tend to run into
him now and then in L.A."
From TO! 2.53 (October 15, 1997)
Q: "But I have been to many a web page that has disclaimers
that say they don't own the characters but they do say
their stories are copyrighted. Now how can that be?"
A: "If fan fiction is currently carrying disclaimers about
owning copyright to the story but not the characters,
that's because this is a vitally important distinction
to make and court battles have been fought over it.
Basically, if an author, such as myself, does not actively
take steps to protect a character I've created, I could
lose the rights to that character. That's why fan fiction
is a potential threat, in strict legal terms, to the owners
of the copyright. Most authors and companies aren't going
to bother going after fan fic, as long as no one is trying
to claim ownership or make money from doing it. Copyright
is automatically granted to the creator of a written or
visual work. It exists as of the moment of creation,
period. However, you must be able to *prove* this fact
of creation if you ever have to go to court to protect it.
That's why you would want to register something with the
Federal Copyright office (I think it's $20.00 now). A
script or other written material can be registered with
the Writers Guild for a similar fee. The trick of mailing
it to yourself in a seal envelope is no longer advised and
has dubious value."
Q: "Would companies like Sunbow and Hasbro liscense these
dead properties to a comic company who tried to stay true
to the series?"
A: "It's impossible for me to predict this. I think it
would depend entirely on what you offer them as a business
deal. They'd want proof that you're a viable publishing
entity and they'd want money. If you can put those things
on the table, I can't see why they wouldn't go for a
licensing agreement...but then I'm a rational person and
toy companies are far from rational."
Q: "Jem is only a disguise, right? Which means her hair
and clothes should be lacking of substance to touch. Why,
then, in some episodes do we see Rio touching her hair
(like in 'The Day the Music Died' when he comes to the
island) and his hands do not go through the hologram?"
A: "I specified in the bible that hands and other solid
objects would pass through the holograms and that this
should be taken into account, but the other writers and
animators tended to ignore this for practical purposes."
From TO! 2.54 (October 19, 1997)
Q: "How did The Misfits meet? We got to find out for
everyone else but we never did for them."
A: "Y'know, I never really worked that out. It would
have made a great backstory, but for whatever reason,
I didn't get around to thinking about it."
Q: "What was the original plot of Jem's movie Starbright?
There are so many scenes in it we see being shot; a
casino, a cave, sword fights, musical numbers, motorcycle
chases but we don't know how it all fits
together."
A: "That was another thing I never bothered to work out.
Given the weird variation in sets and scenes, maybe we
can say it was a movie about making movies."
Q: "How come those last Jem episodes came out so late?
All the other Marvel/Sunbow shows (as I recall) hadn't
had a new episodes in a long time. For a while I thought
only Jem had been renewed and all the other shows had
been cancelled."
A: "I have no idea. For me, it was nonstop work. I
wasn't conscious of any break."
Q: "About Riot's special "power" is charisma something
you can measure?"
A: "There wouldn't be any real, scientific way to measure
it, but I had planned to do a story in which Astral makes
an attempt to confirm whether Riot's ability was genuine."
From TO! 2.56 (November 3, 1997)
Q: "One of the really sad moments, which I don't think
I have seen anyone mention, was at the end of the episode
The Music Awards, when Pizzazz dropped the award and it
smashed on the ground. I thought it was just a really
different ending for a cartoon. It's like Pizzazz got what
she wanted, then realised getting the award wasn't all it
was cracked up to be, especially when she saw how everyone
was enjoying themselves at the concert. Is that right
Christy?"
A: "Exactly right."
From TO! 2.57 (November 10, 1997)
Q: "Christy, let's say you got a phone call from Hasbro
and they told you, "Everybody's gotten together to bring Jem
back, we've got unlimited resources and the perfect time slot,
we can do an hour-long show if we want, we're starting off
with a two- or three-hour movie, and we want you to work your
magic again. Let your imagination run wild, no restrictions.
Whatever you establish will be the way the other writers will
handle the characters and gadgets, and we'll do stories as
serious as you like." What would your dream Jem cartoon be
like?"
A: "I'm sorry, but that is a MASSIVE question. You're
essentially asking me to create an entire series, something
that would take me a couple of weeks of thought and work,
something I'm usually very highly paid to to do. It's far
too much to answer."
From TO! 2.59 (December 1, 1997)
Q: "I was wondering if Christy Marx had any of the dolls?
If so wich ones?"
A: "I have the first Jem/Jerrica doll to hit the market. My
mother gave it to me when my series when on the air."
From TO! 2.61 (December 15, 1997)
Q: "Why didn't Jem ever have a X-Mas special?"
A: "Beats me. Guess we simply never got around to it."
Q: "How do you know how long to write a script for a half hour
show?"
A: "A half-hour show is 22 minutes long. The rough rule of
thumb is 1.5 pages to 1 minute of screen time. This is
because in an animation script, every shot that appears on
the screen needs to be called out on the page as a guide for
the storyboard artist on how to break out the shots. In a
live-action script, the rule of thumb is 1 page per 1 minute
because you *don't* call out the individual shots (you leave
that up to the director)."
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