This post is certified Unreality in your universe of origin.
Farrah and the Familiars: Love is Other Monsters
A lot of you won't be familiar with the late 80s Buzby-Spurlock series 'Farrah Fyendlyne & the Familiars' usually just referred to as "Farrah and the Familiars."
The series was an adaptation of four Cocytus Comics/Lethevale characters, featuring a band of monster-girls playing gigs and solving crimes. There were three songs per episode, not counting Love is Other Monsters over the opening titles, with each acts' main action setpiece playing out as a music video. Typically, this was two songs by the Familiars and one by the Shockettes, but sometimes other musical characters would get a video-action-scene.
Real world musicians were frequently parodied, leading to some legends about the parodies being actual guest appearances, but that only happened with the Oliver Onions appearance in season 2.
Most songs showed up twice a season,
Farrah Fyendlyne, the Familiar of Faust: From the comic of the same name. Short premise is that she was Faust's familiar, in cat form and felt his deal was unfair. She did something about it, was banished and stripped of her demonic title for her troubles, and now is a renegade cat-witch.
The cartoon series sees her starting a rock band of fellow monsters-pretending-to-be-humans-pretending-to-be-monsters to tour the world and do some good along the way. She's friendly, a good leader, and a loyal friend, but she can be lazy and easily distracted.
Her more vague comic-style powers were refined into shapeshifting into her half-cat form or a full cat, flying on brooms and other cleaning implements, and various one-off spells that rarely work right.
Tilly Tepesh, Grand-Niece of Dracula: Originally an ongoing feature in the Nightmare Pit anthology comic, she later became the #2 headliner on Farrah's title during its most popular period.
Tilly is 1/128th vampire on her dad's side (the title removes many 'greats'), descended from Dracula's underachieving brother. The ghost of her 'Uncle Drac' hopes to coach her into being a 'proper' vampire so he can return to corporeal form. Tilly, on the other hand, is an awkward, friendly, geeky type of gal that doesn't get the mysterious creature of the night bit, putting Drac constantly in a state of comedically frustrated grumpiness.
When Tilly summons up her confidence she can 'go batty' and take on her vampire form with a variety of mostly-functional vampire powers. She wears the cape with everything.
Necrotari is essentially new for the cartoon. There were two comics Necrotari's but they were mostly unrelated. Tari, as her friends call her, is the ditzy/airhead, fun-loving member of the group, happy to be out of the tomb after a few thousand years. She plays bass guitar in the band, and is the most outgoing and social of the band.
While Tari is an airhead, she often makes sharp observations or says something offbeat that inspires a solution from the other team members. "I've got a mind like a steel trap! That's why I keep it in a jar on my dresser. Where it's safe."
Tari's mummy form can turn into sand to travel on the wind and then back, though she gets lost easily and is vulnerable to getting wet, sucked into vacuum cleaners, etc. She also doesn't need to breathe or eat, but enjoys doing both.
She claims to be able to give people 'the mummy's curse' but its effects always seem coincidental at best.
Ghoulatea was the host/narrator character for horror/comedy anthology Ghoulatea's Groovy Goofs. She's sarcastic, competitive, self-assured (read: vain) and just a bit underhanded. She has a friendly rivalry with Farrah, and a very unfriendly one with ScreamDream.
In her monster form, Ghoulatea is super-strong and invulnerable to electricity. She plays a double necked electric guitar. She loves exercise and dancing, but especially loves anything where she can prove she's the best.
The Shockettes
Series regular villains, the Shockettes, were a rival band intent on besting the Familiars at any and every turn. 'Besting', as is the tradition for cartoons of the time, involved a lot of attempted murder.
Saccareene (vocals, guitar) is the 'Good Girl' of the group, Saccareene has an approachable, girl-next-door persona that covers her selfish diva personality. This is balanced out by her comedic cowardice keeping her regularly humbled. She is easily pressured and bullied by the other Shockettes into schemes that result in her screaming in fear or whining in discomfort.
ScreamDream (vocals, keyboards) is an artist, and she makes that everyone else's problem. She revels in being a top 10 musician while simultaneously being no one's favorite performance artist. She believes emotions like fear, confusion and discomfort are central to true artistic greatness and that great artists take risks. She's also a calculating, intimidating woman, though she rapidly turns to spoilsport behavior when thwarted.
Venussa is pure chaos, trashed hotel rooms, tabloid cover stories, international incidents, its all her bag. She lives for thrills and has only slightly more regard for her own safety than anyone else's. Essentially, she does for fun what ScreamDream does for attention, making them a very dangerous combo.
The Shockettes were 100% made for the show and showed up in every episode, though sometimes just in a cameo on episodes with a guest villain or other conflict. In retrospect, the matchup is kind of unfair, as the heroines are super-powered monsters and the bad gals are just humans.
Then again, the Shockettes loved attempted murder and seemed basically immune to the law.
