THIS WEEK IN XENA NEWS.... TWXN 61 01/23/97 Brought to you by Xena: Media Review (XMR): http://xenafan.com/xmr TWXN is the advance sheet for XMR. XMR is a periodic annotated world press review of reports regarding the internationally syndicated television show XENA: Warrior Princess (1995 - ) and the castmembers, Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor. For a free e-mail subscription send "subscribe XMR" to ktaborn@lightspeed.net. Excerpts from the following cites will appear in future issues of XMR. From the editor: 1. The convention waylaid me, but I am back with a vengeance AND a very fearful amount of backlog. I am going to send out the TWXNs as fast as I can do them, but I will be also be working on XMR #21, WHOOSH #5, and this thing called a "day job". So please bear with me. 2. Because of the backlog, I will not offer my usual pedantic commentary. I will let most of the articles speak for themselves, for a change. --Kymster [ ] 12-23-96 NOTE: ORPHAN OF WAR (#25), 2nd release, 11/25/96. Ranked 3rd action hour with a 5.1 rating. [1st release: Ranked as the 3rd action hour with a 5.3 rating.] Comparison with other action hours: (1) ST:DS9 ranked 10th with 6.0; (2) HTLJ ranked 11th with 5.5; (3) XWP ranked 12th with 5.1; (4) BAYWATCH ranked 17th with 3.5; (5) OUTER LIMITS ranked 20th with 3.9. [ ] 01-02-97 OMAHA WORLD HERALD. Thursday. Page 43. 972 words. "It Was a Model Year for Trend-Setting" EXCERPT: Stylish memories, fashionable trendsetters, runway spotlights and glittery clothes made headlines in 1996. Here's a roundup of interesting tidbits that found their way into this reporter's notebook.... ...Hunk in Leather Worth Watching Actor Kevin Sorbo, star of the syndicated TV series "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys," does more for leather than any ad in Vogue, Bazaar, Elle or Allure. The long-haired, muscle-bound Sorbo, in his brown leather pants and tan suede tunic top - with shredded seams - takes the brrrrrr out of a cold winter night. Hairdressers, however, may disagree on the straggly haircut and may even suggest that the character could use a good trim. No matter. He still looks good. For balance, we need to mention Lucy Lawless, who plays the lead role in "Xena: Warrior Princess." The woman does a mean style show on her series, complete with what authors Valerie Frankel and Ellen Tien describe in "Prime-Time Style: The Ultimate TV Guide to Fashion Hits and Misses" as a look that features "dominatrix fashion, lots of leather and a bad attitude." The actress's costume could pass for something at a haute couture runway show in Europe. Her sculptured, strapless outfit with its strips of leather dangling from the waist appears to be a combination of the best and worst of Versace and Jean Paul Gaultier, enhanced with a little bit of Wonder Woman.... ...GRAPHIC: WHAT A HUNK: Kevin Sorbo gives leather a boost in his TV series "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys." [ ] 01-04-97 THE RECORD. Saturday. Page Y01. 890 words. "Sherwood Forest 90210; a Rockin Robin Hood Joins Tv's Pantheon of Hip Mythic Heroes" by Jim Beckerman COMMENTARY: I know I am not supposed to be commenting...but! This article was purportedly about ROBIN HOOD, but it really is about how successful XWP and HTLJ are! And it is all too clear that the producers of ROBIN HOOD want the viewers AND THE reporter to think of XWP and HTLJ when mentioning ROBIN HOOD. But do not be fooled, gentle reader! EXCERPT: Robbing from the rich to give to the poor? Gimme a break. A new Robin Hood is swinging into action on TNT starting at 10 p.m. Jan. 13. Expect the usual fighting, leaping, jousting, dueling, and carousing. What you won't get are the usual marrys, tarrys, m'lady's, and m'lords. "We say things like, Well, well, well, if it isn't Guy of Gisbourne, or Gimme a break, " says Matthew Porretta, who plays a rockin Robin for the Nineties in "The New Adventures of Robin Hood." The new show, a Warner Bros. International Television Production licensed by TNT, also airs at 8 p.m. Saturdays. If that jaunty, tongue-in-cheek tone seems familiar, you may be thinking of"Hercules, The Legendary Journeys"and"Xena, Warrior Princess,"two hit shows from Universal that have rewritten the rule book on syndicated television. Not to mention the speech patterns of mythic heroes, who now sound as if they were ordering a Budweiser at a truck stop. "One of the things we said is, Let's go easy on the m'ladys, " says Lisa Mateas, senior vice president of programming for TNT. That's also been the rule of thumb for"Hercules"and "Xena,"which has its Greek heroes saying things like"yep"and"nope"and"You'd better travel on your own, pal." The Joe Sixpack dialogue, combined with fights, stunts, and special effects, is a key to selling these shows overseas, where lots of money can be made with shows that have simple, universal appeal. The domestically produced"Hercules" and"Xena"are seen in more than 35 international markets, while"The New Adventures of Robin Hood,"produced by a European consortium, has been sold to 60 overseas markets. Those foreign sales have a great deal to do with the high production values of the shows, both "Hercules"and"Xena"cost well over $ 1 million per episode, making them comparable to network shows that must snag much higher ratings to stay on the air. "A lot of these action shows get by on a one or a two rating," said Jim Benson, spokesman for Universal Television Enterprises, which distributes "Hercules"and"Xena."(By comparison, a recent rerun of "Seinfeld,"the top-rated network show of the holiday season, got a 14.4 rating. A rating point represents 1 percent of the nation's 97 million TV households.). Moreover, the shows are all filmed in places like New Zealand ("Hercules" and"Xena") and Lithuania ("Robin Hood"), where talent and material come cheap. In the company of Anna Galvin (Marion), Richard Ashton (Little John), Martyn Ellis (Friar Tuck), and veteran horror star Christopher Lee (Olwyn the Magician), Porretta is playing the old British legend with a wink and a nod. As well he might."Hercules, The Legendary Journeys," which gives a similarly flip treatment to the mythical Greek strongman, is currently seen on 218 stations nationwide, placing it neck-and-neck with"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" as the most popular show in syndication. "Xena, Warrior Princess,"a"Hercules"spinoff, ranks a close second. Both shows yielded souvenir books, soundtrack albums, action figures, Web sites, and fan clubs. Meanwhile, other production companies are dusting off"Tarzan"and"Sinbad"to get a piece of the exploding TV action market. Just how did costume adventure, the stuff of late-night Steve Reeves movies and dour Kevin Costner epics, suddenly become the hippest of the hip TV fare? Blame"Hercules" executive producers Robert Tapert and Sam Raimi, who brought the same quirky humor to such cult films as"The Evil Dead" (1983) and "Army of Darkness"(1992). "What made Hercules a hit was the combination of fantasy, tongue-in-cheek humor, good writing, and good acting,"Benson says. "Also, we put a lot of money on the screen." "Hercules" made its debut in 1994 as a one-shot feature, part of a series of rotating two-hour action movies, and by 1995 had graduated into a series. By 1996, it was an international phenomenon. "You don't have a lot of action hours on television anymore," TNT's Mateas says."You don't have a lot of cop shows, that kind of thing, but there's always been a healthy viewership for those, if they're well done." Keeping pace with "Hercules,""Xena,"and other competitors may be a bigger challenge for"Robin Hood"than any of the show's numerous villains, which include monsters, space aliens, and Vikings along with traditional bad guys like the Sheriff of Nottingham. "You can rob from the rich and give to the poor only so much before people get bored,"says Porretta, a Connecticut native who is dallying in Sherwood Forest for the second time in his career, he appeared as Will Scarlett O'Hara in the Mel Brooks spoof"Robin Hood: Men in Tights." Playing the legendary outlaw of Sherwood Forest was a lifelong dream for Porretta, who remembers seeing the old Errol Flynn "Adventures of Robin Hood"(1938) on television as a boy, and going outside afterward to duel with his brother Greg, who assumed Basil Rathbone's role as the evil Guy of Gisbourne. Now, the brothers have come full circle, with Greg guest-starring on"The New Adventures of Robin Hood"as, what else?, Guy of Gisbourne. "It was like we were 10 years old and playing in the woods again," Matthew Porretta says. GRAPHIC: Matthew Porretta plays the title role in"The New Adventures of Robin Hood," 2 - which joins the genre of"Xena" 3 - and"Hercules."