Jem (TV Series) - Production

Production

Hasbro hired advertising agency Griffin-Bacal Advertising, the founders of Sunbow Productions, to create the 65-episode animation series. Griffin-Bacal (Sunbow), as well as Marvel Productions, had previously created the successful G.I. Joe series for Hasbro. G.I. Joe writer Christy Marx was hired to create the series based on the line of dolls and the original concept, which consisted of the two girl bands, Synergy, the boyfriend Rio, and the Rockin' Roadster. Marx created the full character biographies and relationships, including the love triangle aspect between Rio and Jerrica Benton/Jem, Starlight Music and Starlight House, the Starlight Girls, the villain Eric Raymond and various secondary characters. Later, Marx was asked to develop new characters as they were introduced.

Marx wrote 23 of the 65 episodes. Other writers for the series included Cary Bates, Greg Weisman, Paul Dini, Buzz Dixon, Ellen Guon, Steve Mitchell, Michael Reaves, David Wise, Marv Wolfman, Mary Skrenes, Beth Bornstein, Roger Slifer, Richard Merwin, Sandy Fries, Cheri Wilkerson, Misty Stewart-Taggart, George Arthur Bloom, Jina Bacarr, Barbara Petty, Chris Pelzer, Michael Charles Hill, Eric Early, Clare Noto, Carla Conway, and Evelyn A. R. Gabai.

The Executive Producers were Joe Bacal, Jay Bacal, Tom Griffin, and Margaret Loesch. The story editor was Roger Slifer and Christy Marx third season, and the voice director was industry veteran Wally Burr. The show's directors and supervising animators included many veterans of the DePatie-Freleng cartoon studio including Gerry Chiniquy, John Gibbs, Norm McCabe, Warren Batchelder and Tom Ray.