How A Bad Movie Podcast Turned An 80s Cartoon Into An Amazon Streaming Hit

By Jonathan Klotz
| Published 27 seconds ago

You’ve heard of The Netflix Effect, how a show available to stream on Netflix will suddenly surge in popularity and bring in new viewers, most famously this happened with Breaking Bad. You, the discerning movie watcher that you are, may also be aware of the Blank Check Bounce, when al of a sudden, the long-running podcast about director’s filmographies will suddenly be available on streaming. And yet, it was The Flop House, a bad movie podcast airing since 2007, that pulled off the impossible and has pushed Jem into the Amazon Streaming Top 10. 

One Flop House Episode And Jem Is Trending

The Flop House co-host Dan McCoy, a former writer for The Daily Show,  has an unironic love for Jem that he forced upon his co-hosts Elliot Kalan, writer for DC’s Harley Quinn comic and showrunner for Netflix’s upcoming Ghostbusters cartoon, and Stuart Wellington, a New York bar owner, Warhammer nerd, and the world’s biggest Castle Freak fan, along with the listeners of the July 18th episode. For over 90 minutes, Dan explained in detail what Jem is, broke down two of the most absurd episodes, and explained why she’s truly, truly outrageous. 

Jem aired on Saturday Mornings from 1985 through 1988, and then in reruns for years after, as a counter to Transformers and G.I.Joe, both aimed at boys, Jem was aimed at girls. Behind the scenes, it was the same company and production teams at Hasbro, Sunbow Productions, and Marvel Comics, working on all of them. 

Jem herself is Jerrica Benton, CEO of Starlight Music, who was also secretly the rock superstar Jem. Using an advanced AI computer called Synergy, Jessica transforms into Jem, predating Hannah Montana by 20 years. With her band The Holograms, they have episodic adventures each week that usually put them up against The Misfits, the evil counterparts to Jem and the Holograms. You better believe that every episode includes 2-3 incredibly catchy song sequences that are peak 80s. 

An Insane Cartoon Nostalgia Trip

Dan McCoy was quick to point out during his rundown that this is the show he’ll toss on late at night when he needs to relax and get to sleep. Jem is, as with most Saturday Morning Cartoons, incredibly formulaic, even if the individual episodes are insane. He made Stuart and Elliot attempt to guess what happens at the end of “Journey Through Time,” a time-travel episode where Jem and the Holograms rock through the Renaissance, the Blitz, and Woodstock. It was topped by “The Presidential Dilemma” which has the band working with the President to solve the mystery of the D.C. Marauder. 

It’s a testament to how many Floppers are out there that a week later, Jem is still in the Amazon Prime Top 10 Shows.Missing from any Top 10 is Jem and the Holograms, the historic flop that left theaters two weeks after it debuted in 2015. The only thing keeping it from the all-time lists is that it was so cheap to make, only $5 million, which is significantly less than a true adaptation of Jem should cost. 

The Flop House is available to stream on all major podcast platforms, and is part of the Maximum Fun Network.Every other Saturday they talk about a bad movie, and in between, they do exactly what Dan McCoy did with Jem and talk about whatever they do for a “mini” episode. The quotes had to be used as the Jem deep dive went on for longer than the runtime of Jem and the Holograms, but it’s a fantastic episode that is best paired with a binge of the 80s classic on Amazon Prime Video.

Jem is available on Amazon Prime Video.