Jem/Headscratchers

• Why was Jetta so nasty to Stormer? It was because of Stormer that she got in the band in the first place, that ungrateful bitch.
  • Jetta is nasty to Roxy too and I'd like to know why.
    • This is a question? Jetta's a bitch. She's nasty to just about every character in the show, except usually Pizazz, probably because she wants to stay on her good side cause she's rich.
• So was there ever really a good reason why she had to have a secret identity? I can understand that things got complicated with her boyfriend, but beyond that, there really didn't seem like a reason that she had to keep it up besides Status Quo Is God.
  • Probably because she was initially required to screw over Eric Raymond to save Starlight Records, and after that she had to keep it up.
  • But that was just to establish herself and get her company off the ground - it's not like he could have sued her for taking a stage name. Of course I can imagine other legal trouble she might have, for starters, having to fake passports and such for Jem. But then it seems like just admitting a stage name would have been easier and the secret of the show could have still been the technology of Synergy.
    • Maybe she was afraid revealing the truth might hurt the band (and thus the income for the company and girls). Remember, becoming a famous rockstar was unexpected, as she initally just wanted to one up Eric and get her company back. Then, the deals became more and more lucractive until winning that battle of the bands gave her a mansion, and a film deal, this sealing the deal of becoming a big star, at which point she was too far along to reveal everything without causing possible problems.
  • Throughout the series, it's been shown Eric has friends in both low and high places. He mostly like knows some evil lawyers--so if Jerrica spills the beans, Eric could use his lawyers to get entire control of Starlight Music.
  • My take on this is that Jerrica just plain liked having an alternate personality. As Jerrica, she's the responsible one, the manager, the surrogate mom to the Starlight girls; as Jem, she's still a nice person but she gets to hold all that responsibility at arm's length. (In the song "Imagine Me" she expresses a desire for a life without all the responsibilities she has as Jerrica.) Not to mention that maintaining the two personas allows her to be a huge star but still have a private life.
    • There is also the fact that it would look like she was promoting herself or that she would look desperate if Jerrica was a singer for her own company.
  • Some episodes implied Jerrica could only sing when she was Jem, considering she would transform into her for practicing. At least once, however, Jerrica was shown singing, so it is a bit debatable.
    • She practices as Jem in case someone walks in and sees Jerrica singing with the holograms and starts to wonder. The one time she sang as Jerrica in the imposter episode Rio nearly walked in and caught her and she had to make up a quick excuse about having the playback on. So it's not as if she can't sing as Jerrica she just opts not to usually because hearing Jem's singing voice coming from Jerrica will kind of blow the secret.
  • The show clearly shows us why. In fact, it's Synergy herself that explains it. If anyone found out who Jem really was, it could lead to the secret of Synergy's holographic technology, and if that fell into the wrong hands, it could be used for evil purposes..
    • There's another reason, too. Jerrica knows Rio all too well. As she stated in one episode, "[Rio] is very proud". She was afraid that Rio might assume the worst, thinking that Jerrica was deliberately trying to deceive/fool him. Indeed in the episode "Glitter and Gold", Jerrica's fears were more or less confirmed when he yelled at Kimber. It also serves to establish just how Jerrica fears he might react if he ever found out (Rio: "I hate deception, and I despise liars!"). So, that's another reason. Should she have told him right away? Maybe, but things happened, and she never really got the chance.
      • The problem with the whole "Double Identity" situation is that there's absolutely no reason why Jem couldn't have told Rio right from the beginning -- she told all of her closest friends (the whole "he despises liars" thing came about many episodes later, to justify the continued ruse). And since Kimber's a member of the group, it doesn't quite matter that a Co-Owner of Starlight Music is also in the band. The Synergy answer somewhat fits, but that's almost never been referred to.
      • Jerrica's failure to bring Rio in on it from the beginning is especially nonsensical given that she recruits him to be Jem and the Holograms' road manager, a position in which he could have been invaluable help in maintaining her dual identity if only she'd told him about it. Instead, she gives herself and her band the extra headache of having to keep up the deception for someone directly involved in the planning and execution of the band's performances.
• Was Jem outrageous? Honestly; I've never seen the show and I'm curious.
  • Truly truly.
• Jem and the Holograms, HOW did no one think, "hmm, maybe they use a hologram for their appearances," Not to mention the incredible fridge logic involved for Synergy's system to even WORK.
  • For the same reason I never listened to Hootie & The Blowfish and thought "Hmm, maybe those guys are actually blowfish!"?
• How incredibly dense was Rio? He grew up with Jerrica and yet can't tell that she and Jem are the same person, despite looking almost the same and having the exact same voice. And the couple of times Kimber screws up and says that Jem is her sister.
  • That would require him to have a reason to suspect that his girlfriend was pretending to be two different people. It doesn't help that Jerrica presents the image of Jem being a different person to the public and has the ability to literally be in the same place as Jem at the same time. On the other hand, there was an episode where Jerrica created yet another persona just to test whether Rio loved her for her personality (which was a really Broken Aesop when she was happy that he fell in love with a third woman).
  • I seem to recall reading an interview with Christy Marx where she said she had planned to write an episode where it turned out that Rio had known all along. I don't know how well that would mesh with the continuity of the series, but it's an intriguing possibility.
• Why doesn't Jerrica press charges against the Misfits, at the very least for reckless endangerment of lives?
  • High-priced lawyers? Then again, Pizzazz's father cuts off the moneywell for her pretty fast and Eric Raymond eventually sold the company off and gave them the boot, so... ummm... the Holograms are just really understanding?
    • But by then the Stingers are the focus of rivalry so they are no longer a obvious threat.
      • In one episode, The Misfits and Raymond warn the Holograms about a bomb that's been placed on the stage. So after that episode it could be a minor case of I Owe You My Life.
• It completely bugs me that they never released all the episodes on DVD.
  • Word. Maybe someday the rights hell the show got pulled into will finally let this one go. I mean hell, we did get Daria.
    • Just the two suck-ass movies.
    • Update! The whole series of Daria is on DVD now. Ads were all over TV Tropes. And The Peasants Rejoiced.
    • Thankfully, the entire series will be released on DVD in October 2011.
• I forget the episode name but when Kimber was going about dating two different guys, rather innocently, Rio got extremely angry about her being deceptive. Meanwhile, the whole time He's dating Jerrica & also kissing Jem and telling NEITHER. Granted, it's irrelevant because it's the same woman, but he doesn't know that!
  • It's a wonderful little thing called a Double Standard.
  • Rio's known for having a temper and his reaction to Kimber's dating actually got him in hot water with Jerrica anyway, so it's not like the show isn't on some level acknowledging the hypocrisy.
• There's 12 Starlight girls, but only one person who is actually on staff at Starlight Mansion, which is Mrs. Bailey. With Jem/Jerrica constantly on tour, doing benefit concerts, being on TV, running Starlight Music, etc. how is Mrs. Bailey keeping an eye on all 12 of those girls?
• Speaking of Starlight Music, did Jerrica ever sign any other artists to the label?
  • The Fifth Avenue Boys are a group that's signed to Starlight in the episode Glitter and Gold.
• How did Glenn Danzig never sue Hasbro/Sunbow? Did he just...not know? Surely some fan/reporter in the 80s must have pointed this show out to him at some point. Furthermore, while the real Misfits were still fairly obscure in 1985, surely SOMEONE in marketing could have done a little research and found out that the name was taken. Or perhaps some sort of agreement was reached we never heard about?
  • Most likely, the name was never copyrighted or trademarked, which means he wouldn't have been able to do much. After all, "The Misfits" was also the name of Marilyn Monroe's final film.
  • Names and titles generally aren't copyrighted, only content. Example: There's nothing illegal about me creating a work of fiction about an 8th century Chinese ruler and calling it "King Kong", but if I were to present the story of the original "King Kong" as my own without permission, that would be highly illegal.
• The whole "She uses a Hologram to appear as Jem" thing kinda falls apart sometimes, when you consider that Jerrica has short hair, and Jem has long hair -- basically, anyone who touches her head or neck area (ie. Rio or Riot), should be able to tell there's not enough hair. Not to mention all the times that her holograms have convinced people that there's a rainstorm and a flash flood (you'd think someone would ask "hey, why are we not wet?"), or something like that.
• In one episode The Misfits attempt to publish an album of photos they've taken of each other, but all of the publishers reject it on the grounds that its to amateurish. In the first place, wouldn't the fact The Misfits are the ones who took the pictures be a big enough selling point to get people to buy it even if the photos weren't professional quality? Secondly, couldn't The Misfits have gone to a vanity publisher?
• In "The Day the Music Died", Pizzaz gains control of Starlight Music (and thus the Holograms), by extension this means she could have had Kimber and Stormer revive the duo they briefly had (which was shown to be more popular then both The Holograms and The Misfits). Yet somehow she managed to drive the company further into debt. Alright, so not everyone can have the natural business skill that Jerrica has. But, Mr. Gabor was the one who bought Starlight Music in the first place. Why didn't he insist Pizzaz hire someone to manage the company's finances?