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"ASK CHRISTY" ARCHIVES - VOLUME 3
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.2
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.3
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.4
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.6
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.7
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.8
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.10
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.11
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.12
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.14
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.15
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.17
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.21
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.26
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.27
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.28
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.30
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.34
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.39
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.41
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.45
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.46
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.50
TRULY OUTRAGEOUS! 3.53
From TO! 3.2 (January 12, 1998)
Q: "Ok..ok...am I mistaken but isnt it Illegal to sell
copyrighted material...such as "all 65 Jem episodes on tape".
I recently saw this for sale on ebay and it just sorta made
me mad that somemore had decided to auction off copies of
there Jem episodes. Actually the whole idea of auction web
sites sorta pisses me off, it made me even more angree to
see that some one ended up paying over 100$ for the tapes,
but oh well......and yeah I know that really it's even
illegal to tape episodes off TV and to copy them in the
first place, but COME ON GUYS, where are your brains????
Hey Christy, just out of curiosity what are the leagllityes
behind this?."
A: "After someone emailed me about this, I checked it,
then emailed the ebay people and informed them that it was
a violation of Federal law. They thanked me for calling it
to their attention, said it was against their policy, and
said they would be pulling it from the site."
Q: "Were there any stats given on the Jem characters
heights, eye color, etc.????? I wonder because I want to
try for some accuracy when I write fan fic. I've noticed
Riot's eyes be brown in one episode and another colour in
a different one (and he was only in six of them!) - so
were there any guidelines given?"
A: "There was nothing specific written up. There were
model sheets, but I don't think they gave specific heights.
The ink and paint people must have had color guidelines,
but I never saw them."
From TO! 3.3 (January 19, 1998)
Q: "I think a Jem convention sounds super! Christy,
would you be interested in/able to attent an event like
this?"
A: "I'd be willing to, but it would depend on several
factors. Mainly, when and where and who pays the way
and what's happening with my schedule at the time.
Obviously, a con held in L.A. would vastly improve the
chances I could make it."
Q: "Do you remember what the ratings were for Jem? Was
the show winning it's time slot? Were they popular
through all 3 seasons? What was the most popular show
at the time?"
A: "If I did know, I've long since forgotten."
Q: "How long did it take for an episode to be made- from
the script being written to it's airdate?"
A: "I worked only on the writing end and wasn't
involved with the day-to-day production end of things.
Speaking very generally, it can take anywhere from 3 to
6 months to complete a half-hour show."
Q: "Why didn't Eric show Techrat the picture of Synergy
he got from the detective? I know, I know then Techrat
would've been able to figure out what Synergy was and
Jem's secret would've been exposed and that would've
been the end of the show. That's the real world reason,
now what's the "In Show Reason"?"
A: "Umm....I just never thought of it. By the time I
brought Techrat in, I had probably forgotten about that.
You have to remembere how many of these scripts I
wrote. Details get fuzzy after a while. Besides, maybe
Techrat would have just thought Synergy was some kind
of fancy jukebox."
Q: "Selling Jem episodes it probably is against the
law but how are we going to get are Jem episodes?"
A: "By quietly TRADING shows with other fans, not
paying for them or making a profit off them."
From TO! 3.4 (January 26, 1998)
Q: "While the show was on the air, were their many fan
letters received? What was a common question asked by
fans? Also, during that time, who was the fans fave
and most hated characters. Oh, and did people ever write
in to make suggestions to storylines? Were fans ideas
ever used?
A: "It is extremely rare to receive so much as a single
fan letter on an animation series. I did have a few
letters forwarded to me, about the only series on which
I've seen letters at all. Those were mainly sweet
letters by children saying how much they loved Jem and
would she like to come over to their house and play
with them. I'm sure if there had been an address given
or some provision for viewers to write in, there we
would have been a lot more letters, but animation shows
don't provide that."
From TO! 3.6 (February 2, 1998)
Q: "Would there be any way you could get a hold of that
information? I'd really love to find out hieghts, and
colour coding of the Jem characters."
A: "The problem is that it's been ten years since the show
was on. That material is long gone."
From TO! 3.7 (February 5, 1997)
Q: "Christy, if you could tell me, did you have long-range
plans for Jem that you never put down on paper? Were
the stories evolving more in your mind and becoming more
complex?"
A: "I didn't have any special long-range plans worked,
since I knew the show was coming to an end. More
generally, though, I had a lot of ideas I would have
liked to pursue. I especially would have wanted to take
the Jem/Jerrica/Rio triangle off in a new direction of
some kind, as you can't string that out indefinitely
without it getting stale. There was plenty of room left
to play with the Jem/Riot situation, and we hardly got
to touch upon stories for the rest of the Starlight
Girls."
From TO! 3.8 (February 9, 1998)
Q: "Someone brought up the idea of the bible being
scanned and posted onto a web page, but I do believe
that would go against the "cease and desist" order.
Christy, would I be right in this assumption?"
A: "That would be a major violation, would make Sunbow
go ballistic, and would cause me serious problems. Do
NOT copy or distribute any part of the bible to anyone
anywhere, period. Thank you."
From TO! 3.10 (February 16, 1998)
Q: "How did you plan on incorporating Rama Llama? Or
was he never even brought up to you?"
A: "Who? He must have been someone else's invention."
Q: "What was your motivation behind the mini-public service
announcement about sun damage to the skin in "A Change of
Heart?"
A: "I have no memory of this either. I remember they
hired me to write a whole series of PA bits, though I
forget exactly what they covered. At the time, Sunbow
was doing PA bits for all their shows, I think. I know
they did them for Jem and G.I. Joe."
Q: "Were there ever prototype dolls made of the Mongrels
or did they never get that far? If not what did they
look like?"
A: "Nothing ever got beyond my early story treatments.
Hasbro wouldn't have even known they existed, since The
Mongrels were my own creations."
From TO! 3.11 (February 19, 1998)
Q: "Rather than going to Hasbro to get the show back
on the air, why not go to the stations?"
A: "I think I should take a moment to point out that Hasbro
cannot put the shows back on the air. They don't own the
shows. The stations would need to go to Sunbow Prods. to
rerun the shows."
Q: "If Hasbro did dicide to bring jem back, would you
take the job of head writer again? If so, would you change
it for the (yucky) 90's or leave it relativly the same?
Also, can you share with us some plans you had for the
future episodes of Jem before it was canceled?"
A: "There are two separate issues here, a toy line and
a tv series. While they are somewhat connected, the
ownership of the rights is rather complicated. If Sunbow
asked me to write the series again, you can bet I would
be delighted. I would try to preserve the basic story
elements that worked so well the first time around, but
it would be necessary to update it or it wouldn't work.
I had no plans for future episodes because I knew the
series was ending. In general, I would have liked to
explore Riot's charismatic power more fully and, of course,
keep building on the complications between
Jem/Riot/Jerrica/Rio."
From TO! 3.12 (February 24, 1998)
Q: "Who were the Mongrels, and where did they fit in?"
A: "The Mongrels were a musical team, twin brother and
sister, who I invented to be the troublemakers in a
JEM movie. Unfortunately, the Transformers and G.I. Joe
movies did so poorly, the Jem movie was cancelled while
we were still in the early stages of story development."
From TO! 3.14 (March 2, 1998)
Q: "You said The Transmutate was a tearjerker?!?!! What
does that mean? I begininng to become really afarid for
Tigertron and Air Razor (especially if they don't come
back in this week's episode, because The Transmutate is
suppose to be on next week)."
A: "I've been told that my story brought everyone to tears.
I have yet to see the finished result. It's a story of
pathos and lost potential. It doesn't deal with Tigertron
or Air Razor who, I'm sorry to tell you, are gone for
good (to the best of my knowledge)."
Q: "Have you heard anything about Reboot coming back to
the US? I'm sure everyone here would like to see the
episode you wrote."
A: "I wish it would! The Canadian animation company,
Mainframe, hasn't been able to make a satisfactory
distribution deal in the U.S."
Q: "Did all the voice actors record their lines together
or alone?"
A: "I never attended a voice session, so I don't know.
I thought it was more common for actors to read their
lines separately."
Q: "Did you ever have to be careful about which characters
you wrote into a scene because a voice actor might do more
than one character and it might be too hard?"
A: "No, never worried about that. Voice actors are
incredibly talented people and can handle doing exactly
that sort of thing or they wouldn't be working."
From TO! 3.15 (March 10, 1998)
Q: "I did a project a couple of months ago in art
school on Mainframe Inc. I finally clued in that you
were the same Christy Marx that wrote for Reboot and
Beasties. Anyway, I really loved the episodes you wrote.
Which show did you start writing for first."
A: "I was writing for both shows at the same time. Just
as I'm about to write for two more shows being done by
Mainframe. I'm doing another BEAST WARS (US name,
"Beasties" in Canada) and a new show called WAR PLANETS."
Q: "Jem and the holograms went all over the world and
experienced many different adventures. Did you have any
ideas of sending them to, for example an exotic setting
like South Africa or did you deal mostly with developping
the characters and storyline?"
A: "We sent Jem and crew all over the place, to lots
of other countries. Sometimes a story idea revolved
around a location, other times it came strictly out of
the characters. I was responsible for the overall
character development and about half the storylines."
Q: "Do you ever get the urge to write a screenplay for
the Jem show?"
A: "I did initial work for a Jem movie, but it never
got beyond the earliest development stages."
From TO! 3.17 (March 19, 1998)
Q: "Is WAR PLANETS the one about the boy and his dog
(the TDK one) or is it another series?"
A: "No, it's based on a computer game and line of toys
about a group of planets with lifeforms based around
elements (rock, bone, fire, ice). They're being
attacked by the nasty Beast Planet. It's funadmental
good vs. evil stuff."
From TO! 3.21 (April 14, 1998)
Q: "Did you have to do any kind of research to script
Jetta's unique terminology and phrasings, or were you
simply working from your own experience?"
A: "Yes, I did research to find the British slang, and
I was able to pick the actress I wanted, a genuine Brit,
to do the voice."
Q: "What's Rio's family like? We never find out anything
about them."
A: "Unfortunately, I never got around to creating anything
definite for his parents. I had a vague idea that his
home life wasn't all that happy, that his talents weren't
appreciated or nurtured at home, and that's why Emmet
became more of a real father and mentor to him. I didn't
have any sibling in mind for him, either."
Q: "Kimber = Would she ever get married to Sean?"
A: "The Sean relationship was primarily created and
maintained by a writer named Roger Slifer. It's doubtful
we'd ever actually marry off a main character in an
on-going series. My sense of Kimber is that she was far
from ready to settle down and needed more time to mature
and gain experience."
Q: "Was there anything you personally would have liked
to have seen happen with the show had it continued?"
A: "I would have liked to tackle more serious issues
and let the show have more of an edge. I would certainly
have liked to do more with the whole
Jerrica/Jem/Rio/Riot set of relationships."
From TO! 3.26 (May 18, 1998)
Q: "I heard that the original plan was for the Stingers
to get their own label under Eric, not for Riot to get
half of Eric's company. It would have been more
realistic for Eric to offer the Stingers their own label.
Why did you change it?"
A: "First off, I don't know where you got the info that
there was an "original plan", since I'm the one who
conceived and wrote whatever plan existed. So I have
to wonder what the source on that was. The reason I had
Eric offer them half the company was to up the ante. I
needed a strong plot twist, something to push the stakes
high enough that Jerrica was confronted with a critical
decision. It had to be a strong enough offer to
guarantee that Eric would win since that worked better
for the dynamics of the series. It had to be the one
thing we knew Jerrica couldn't bring herself to match,
considering how important Starlight Music is to her.
That was my entire reasoning for doing it."
From TO! 3.27 (June 1, 1998)
Q: "After the episodes 'THE TALENT SEARCH' Raya didn't
speak much, sometimes not at all. She also wasn't in a
lot of the "music videos" and we never learned anything
about her. I could have sworn that people forgot
altogether to even put her in episodes untill I watched
very closely and saw a climpe or two of her in the
background. SO here is my question- Did Hasbro not like
the Raya doll sales or something?"
A: "Hmmm...there was nothing from Hasbro. I had a
storyline in mind for Raya that we simply never got
around to doing. It was going to be about Raya
struggling to keep one of her younger brothers out of a
gang. I'm not sure why she ended up in the background.
I don't think it was intentional. It think it's just
the sort of thing that happens when you have so many
characters to deal with."
From TO! 3.28 (June 8, 1998)
Q: "In the earlier seasons of Jem and the Holograms,
did you ever plan to have Banee find her father, or was
it an idea that came to you and seemed suitable when you
were writing the final episode?"
A: "It wasn't an idea I had early on, not that I can
remember. I did set up the emotional beat for Ba Nee
of wanting to have a father, as played out in the Jem
Jam. I can't recall exactly when I came up with the
idea of Ba Nee finding her father, but I suspect your
guess is right, it was something that occurred to me
as a nice ending story for the series."
From TO! 3.30 (June 22, 1998)
Q: "Now that Sony bought Sunbow are you going to start
reselling the Jem Bible?"
A: "Alas, no. I'm not sure how this purchase really
affects Sunbow, but I'm not taking any chances."
From TO! 3.34 (July 20, 1998)
Q: "I've noticed that you have presented several
close father/daughter relationships in your episodes
on Jem. As a woman who's always been super close with
her dad for as long as I can remember, I just wondered
if you had a good relationship with your dad and if
that had anything to do with your positive portrayal
of father/daughter relationships on Jem."
A: "Yes, I'm extremely close to my father. I'm much
like him in temperament, sense of humor and intellect
and we have a great time together. Get my father, my
brother and I together, and it's hysterical. I'm
sure this has influenced the way I portrayed fathers."
Q: "Since I can't get a copy of the Jem Bible could you
e-mail me Stormer's bio?"
A: "That would still violate the essence of their
ban on disseminating this material. However, you
can glean pretty much everything you need to know
from the show. The bio didn't go into detail about
family life; it mainly described Stormer as she was
portrayed in the show."
From TO! 3.39 (August 24, 1998)
Q: "I know that several characters on Jem were
"Tuckerized", and I just realized that Stormer and
her brother share the last name Phillips, and the
singing for Jem was done by Britta Phillips. Was
Stormer given Britta's last name by any chance or
was it purely coincidental?"
A: "It was purely coincidental. I had no idea who
would be singing Jem's voice at the time I put the
bible together."
From TO! 3.41 (September 14, 1998)
Q: "Did you work on the JEM comics that were
published in Europe?"
A: "This is the first I've ever heard of it!
I had no idea there was ever a comic book done."
Q: "According to the European comics, Eric
Raymond was really an alias. Is this true?"
A: "Nothing in those comics should be considered
valid. Eric Raymond is Eric Raymond, period.
He doesn't have any other name. Eric is roughly
in his mid-30's. I never got into his background
because it wasn't important to the series."
Q: "Where does the name Aja originate from?"
A: "To confirm, "Aja" was the name Hasbro had
for the doll. At first, though, they couldn't
quite seem to decide which doll it belonged to.
Shana was almost Aja for a while there. Names
that are actual product names have to come from
the company because they have to be strenuously
researched and cleared for trademark. I came
up with all the last names, though, and the
names of any characters that weren't toy
products."
From TO! 3.45 (October 12, 1998)
Q: "Was Shana originally supposed to have
a different backstory before "Out Of The Past"?
Were there plans to show how the other Starlight
Girls came to Starlight House?"
A: "I have to make a confession. JEM was my
first time out as a series developer. It was a
big jump in my career. It was the first bible
I ever wrote. It's actually pretty thin on
backstory compared to the kind of bibles I write
now. If I had it to do over again, given my
current level of experience, I would have gone
into a lot more detail about the histories and
backgrounds of all the major characters. Much
of what happened with the characters evolved as
the show progressed. That's a natural thing for
a series. At this late date, I honestly can't
remember whether I originally intended for Shana
to be one of the first Starlight girls or whether
that idea came from the writer of that script.
I had so much input into that particular
script that I feel I almost ended up writing it
myself, but I don't want to slight Michael Hill's
contributions. So the truth is...I don't
remember. As for the other Starlight girls,
it's a similar answer. If I were doing it again
today, I'd work out the background details for
each of the girls. In my own mind, I figured a
whole range of reasons for the girls to end up at
Starlight house, covering all the territory you
mentioned. But I was up against restrictions in
the topics Hasbro and Sunbow felt comfortable
tackling. If the show were being made today, we
might be able to touch upon such issues as
child abuse. Maybe. Back then, there was no
way. Consequently, the reasons why the girls
ended up there was never really worked out."
From TO! 3.46 (October 19, 1998)
Q: "What kind of relationship would Regine
and Astral have had with The Misfits?"
A: "Neither one of them was intended to be friends
with The Misfits. Astral would have spent her time
debunking Rapture. We saw Regine in episodes at
the end of the series and established her as
friendly with Aja. The new character who never
made it to the screen who would have been a Misfits
troublemaking friend was Graphix who was into
"performance art" and graffiti."
Q: "In "Adventure in China", there's no way that
Synergy could possibly cover the whole band with
just 2 earrings at the big concert (unless they
stood in a straight line the whole time). Did
anybody notice this?"
A: "Yet another reason I wish I had been story
editor on all the episodes. It really annoyed me
when things like that were allowed to happen."
Q: "Have you heard that Reboot is going to be on
Cartoon Network in January?"
A: "Yes, finally! It's a great third season. I
wrote "Icons", "Return of the Crimson Binome," and
"The Edge of Beyond"."
Q: "How come you never wrote anything for
Dungeons & Dragons?"
A: "I was probably working on something else at
the time. I don't particularly remember being
aware of it."
From TO! 3.50 (November 16, 1998)
Q: "I heard that your BEAST WARS script,
'Dark Glass,' was scrapped by Hasbro because
it was 'too dark,' Is this true?"
A: "There was a flap over that show that caused
me major headaches. I had donated a copy of the
script for a charity auction, but some people at
Mainframe and Hasbro made it clear they did not
want any version of the script out there, so I
had to have the script returned. I'm not sure
how far along the series is, but once the entire
third season is done and gone, then it might be
ok to relate what was in the script. There were
things they didn't want me to give away. Hasbro
did consider it "too dark", but that had more to
do with various internal politics than anything
else, since they had already approved the outline.
That's probably all I should say about it right
now."
From TO! 3.53 (December 14, 1998
Q: "Why did The Misfits almost disappear from
sight on the last season of Jem? Why did characters
like Clash, Danse, Video, Anthony and Craig almost
disppear completely?"
A: "Basically, it's a combination of two things. When
the toy company introduces new dolls, they want to the
shows to focus on those new characters. Since The
Stingers were supposed to be the main new product, they
naturally wanted the stories to mainly feature them.
The emphasis on the Stingers meant less emphasis on The
Misfits. Which means, getting to the second point,
with only so many episodes left to write, we had to make
choices about who to use in order to get this focus.
Certain secondary characters end up falling by the
wayside simply because we didn't have room for them, or
they didn't fit into the types of stories we came up
with."
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