Is Hasbro's 'Jem' Ready for Her Big Comeback?

Hasbro, high off their big earnings from Transformers and G.I. Joe, are looking into their massive toy box for another hit franchise. According to Pajiba, the company, along with Peter Barsocchini (screenwriter of all three High School Musicals), plan on a revival of the 1980's all-girl glam-rock adventure show Jem.

The article is vague on the details of what Jem's licensing resuscitation will entail, whether it means Hasbro is working on a new cartoon or a live-action movie. My guess is that the toys will come first -- that's still Hasbro's bread-and-butter -- and the projects, whatever they may be, will follow. Jem creator Christy Marx would like to update the property for a new generation of young girls (and open-minded boys), but, personally, I like the idea of keeping Jem firmly set in the late 1980's. New projects based on Jem weren't feasible until 2008, when Hasbro was able to cut through legal red tape and acquire all of their original Sunbow animated library from a corporate entity called "TV Loonland".

Jem was the story of Jerrica Benton, daughter of a record exec who created a high-tech holographic artificial intelligence called Synergy that could transform Jerrica and her friends into their alter-egos, pop band Jem and the Holograms. Jerrica (as Jem) fought for control of her father's record label after his death, often facing off against the unscrupulous Misfits, a group that the label (under new management) was pushing as their number one act.

You can get a taste of the first truly outrageous episode, "The Beginning", after the jump.