_____ ______ ._ `\`/>`\ /`/` /`__________,.'>___ _____ )~\ /<`\ `\ /`/` /``\ \./------> /|\./\ |\./| / | \ /< `\`\ `\ /`/` /` | | |----\ / | |\ \ | | |././^\ \ |\__{o}\--`\`\ `\/`/` /`-----| | |-----`------\`\`\--| | |----^ \ \----. [\\\\\\\{*}==`> <`=======| | ==============`\`\`\| | |=====\ \ \==--> |/~~{o}/-- /`/ /\ \ `\------| | |---------------`\`\\ | |------\ \ \--' \< /`/` /` `\`\ `\ | | |_____,.'>| | | `\`\| | /' \ \ \ \< /` /` `\`\ `\ ,/ /^\------> / |/^\| \ | |/ \/^\\. /`/\>/` `\`\ `\`~~~~~~~~~~~\ / ~~~~~ )^\,\, '~~~~~ `~~~~~` '~~~~~` ` ~~~~~~ ========================== XENA: THE MEDIA REVIEW #18 Part 1 of 3 ========================== An All Talk No Action Publication http://www.teleport.com/~gater/IAXS/IAXS.html c/o RIF BBS, P.O. Box 81181, Bakersfield, CA 93308 RIF BBS (805) 588-9349 [24hrs, 14.4bps, free] 373 subscribers and growing! This document has 3148 lines (in three parts) PART 1 OF 3 Xena Media Review (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. Copyright, legal, and editorial notices are found at the end of this newsletter. Issue No. 18 Release date: October 20, 1996 Covering 04/22/96 - 04/29/96 Annotations 248 to 259 ------------ Introduction ------------ HOLIDAY GREETING! I am a member of the Baha'i Faith and today is a very special day for Baha'is. It is the date of the commemoration of the birthday of The Bab. The Bab was one of the prophet-founders of the Baha'i Faith. It's a day when Baha'is gather with friends and family and take a moment to be thankful for the friendships they have made and for their family. I think of my fellow XWP fans as a part of my extended family. How lucky that I could release one of my sporadic issues of XMR on such a symbolic date! I love coincidences. And what better time could there be to thank my subscribers for their support and kind words for all these months? Without you, the reader, this newsletter would not be half as fun or half as fulfilling. I go back and forth constantly debating with myself whether I might be taking this Xena stuff a tad too far; but it is you, the subscriber to XMR, that reminds me that I am not the only one that enjoys the heck out of XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS. To produce XMR is a labor, but it's a labor of love. Then to be able to share this love with others who enjoy the result as much as I do, is probably as close as I will get to nirvana in this life-time. I suspect I may be the only Baha'i that is active in XWP fandom (hey! if there are any of you out there, write me NOW!), however, holidays are universal and I wanted to wish everyone a wonderful Birthday of The Bab! 300TH SUBSCRIBER!!! Amazing as it seems, XMR processed its 300th subscriber on 09/21/96. All hail Xanth at Voyageronline.net! We should reach 400 by the next XMR (does life get any better than this? I think not!) For those who keep track of such things, the 200th subscriber was Lois Price (who subscribed 06/25/96 but unsubscribed 09/25/96 - sniff); the 100th was Sjepsen at Verinet.com who subscribed 05/09/96, AND STILL IS A SUBSCRIBER...let's hear it for Ms. Jepsen! If she had been male, I would have offered to have her child); and the VERY FIRST subscriber to XMR was Jill Dybka who subscribed 03/23/96 and unsubscribed 05/06/96 -- hmmm, am I detecting a pattern?). XMR AND BEYOND It has been about two months since XMR #17 (kind of embarrassing). Since then two issues of WHOOSH (the Journal of the International Association of Xena Studies) have been produced, three episodes of the second season of XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS have been released, and XMR is stuck in a very peculiar, yet intentional, time warp. In the spring and summer of 1996, I was blessed with more free time than I really needed. In those months XMR, IAXS, and WHOOSH were conceived of and born. Invariably, these projects have taken on a life of their own and haunt me now that free time has become a luxury. I cannot offer XMR other than when my schedule permits. I am ever more fortunate in having such a loyal readership. Without you guys and gals to share the fruits of my obsession with, I would appear much more eccentric than I do now. I am extremely appreciative of that! With so much time devoted to following the media reaction and coverage of XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS, I am in the somewhat unique position of being able to follow general trends and interesting fads which come and go. Although the press is just one small sub-set of the sociological impact of XWP on our culture, it nonetheless offers insights into the entire process of culturization. We are what we read and watch. The writers and producers of what we read and watch are part of this culture as well. It is a self-perpetuating system. The show XWP has become what the fifth estate calls a "cult hit". It has attracted scores of highly devoted fans which almost singlehandedly created a frenzy of activity and devotion which was both passionate unto itself and, sadly, incomprehensible to some. This passion has caused informal XenaFest gatherings across the United States; has maintained high usage areas such as several mailing lists, a usenet newsgroup (alt.tv.xena), the MCA NetForum, and local "real-time" discussion groups; has produced a grassroots national fan club; has inspired the publication of several on- line and off-line fan created periodicals; and has generated tons of fan designed and maintained web pages. And those just listed were primarily contributions from the on-line community. There are even more Xena fans who are not on-line. What you are reading now is an common example of the level of devotion and the commitment of hours of time which are dedicated voluntarily to the study, the enthusiasm, and the celebration of the show XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS. What gives? It is just a show after all! But what a show. Yes, I am biased; however, one cannot deny the fact that there is enough in this television show to maintain and feed such intense allegiance and interest. The media is just now starting to show this through the rise of professional journalists who happen to be fans and/or astute observers of popular culture. JAY LENO AND BEYOND News of the injury Lucy Lawless sustained while filming a skit on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno has swamped the media (the injury happened 10/08/96). If no one had noticed XWP before, they now know that the star had been injured. Will this affect the (what is looking like an inevitable) shift of XWP from cult favorite to mainstream hit? Only time will tell. (For those who are confused, a cult favorite is Babylon 5 or Highlander; a mainstream hit is X-Files or Star Trek). I trust that others will write detailed accounts of the post-Leno taping party. I attended, but suffice it to say that the most amazing part of the party for me was that I wound up sitting across the table from Quest, Xana and Darkmuse again (just as I had at XenaFest II back in July). I don't think it was in the least bit purposeful. Darkmuse was with Quest and Xana, and Xana did not remember me from the last time (so much for my magnetic personality). Darkmuse did recognize me. She recognized me beforehand after I had been standing in line for three and a half hours! I rewarded her acknowledgement by allowing her to cut ahead of me in line. It paid off for her since we sat pretty close to the stage (not on the floor seats, but in the front bleachers). Now that I am recalling the day and I am "name- dropping" I also remember being rude to Don Frozina when I bragged to him that the WHOOSH episode guide had posted the disclaimer to ORPHAN OF WAR before his page did. It's a wonder anyone talks to me at these things! (Actually, it's probably because they don't remember me. Wow! What a paradox. I should be writing Star Trek episodes.) At the party afterwards I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Robert Tapert and R. J. Stewart (I doubt they would remember me though since all 50+ attendees were pressing a lot of flesh and I have this magnetic personality which apparently repels memories ...). They were very gracious with their time. They had very kind words for XMR, TWXN (This Week in Xena News), IAXS, and WHOOSH. SOMETHING THAT SHOULD BE LONGER BUT ISN'T aka IN DEFENSE OF XWP, SECOND SEASON With three episodes into the second season, some fans of the show have started on an "it's not as good as last season" mantra and have started accusing the creators of betraying fandom. Heh heh. My opinion of that is that those who feel this way are free to watch the first season as much and as often as they wish. I, on the other hand, want to see how the producers of XWP will continue to experiment and develop the show. We know that XENA has been renewed through her third season. There is even talk of further renewal into a fourth and fifth season! The willingness of the producers and writers to try new methods and their unrestrained tendency to force their characters to suffer through varied, unconventional, and sometimes just downright bizarre situations -- just in order to see what would happen! -- is for me, one of the more rewarding joys of watching the show. I say, "So what!" if Xena has a child; Gabrielle gets married; Xena discovers EVEN MORE relatives; the gals have more close encounters with YHWH; or even if Gabrielle attempts further relationships of the week with almost pre-pubescent boys. I trust that the writers and producers will maintain that level of respect and professionalism that they so carefully nurtured the first season. I have had the luck of discussing the show tete-a-tete with some of the Xena staff and I could tell that their devotion and love of the show was just as intense and real and obsessive as anything I have seen in myself or fandom. Call me a pollyanna, but I am not fearful of the season up ahead. In fact, I am anticipating that it will easily far exceed anything done in the first season, and I feel that a lot was accomplished the first season. NEW XWP NEWSLETTER ANNOUNCED! I have the honor of announcing a new XWP fan publication which will be appearing soon in an e-mail box near you! It will be an eclectic e-mail publication with emphasis on humor and all things Xena. The working title of the newsletter is CENTAURS DON'T EAT HAY. If you'd like to get a free charter subscription, just e- mail errorlog@cris.com with the subject "sub CDEH". YET ANOTHER PROJECT: XWP FANS AROUND THE WORLD As XWP is now being shown around the world, I thought it would be interesting if XMR subscribers from countries other than the United States and Canada would send me an e-mail talking about XWP fandom in their country. Please send me any all thoughts on this to ktaborn@lightspeed.net. INTO THE WAYBACK MACHINE What was going on the last week or so of April 1996 in the Xenaverse? Plenty! Let's get into the wayback machine! There were development deals made with German TV RTL and the Minnesota based BestBrains; the RTL deal was to produce two HTLJ/XWP like shows for Germany; the 24 episodes of the first season were shamelessly hawked at MIPCOM; it was released that XWP scored a 4.6 rating and a 7 share in the February 1996 sweeps; ALTARED STATES aired in some markets in the USA; NPR worried over the influence of "stupid history"; the TORONTO STAR found XWP to be "mindless junk"; ratings for the first release of BEWARE THE GREEKS were published; and someone dared share their thoughts on tough women in popular entertainment. All and all, it was a rather pleasant week. Enjoy. ---Kym -------- TIMELINE -------- 4/08/96 12R Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts 4/15/96 13R Athens City Academy of the Performing Bards 4/22/96 19 Altared States ------------------------------------ LIST OF ANNOTATIONS FOUND IN XMR #18 ------------------------------------ Amended Annotations ------------------- [050.1] 10-01-95 SCI-FI UNIVERSE. Vol. 2. No. 10. P.23 [050.15]10-01-95 SCI-FI UNIVERSE. Vol. 2. No. 10. P.25. [050.4] 10-01-95 CINESCAPE. Vol. 2 No. 1. Page 74. [050.2] 10-01-95 SCI-FI UNIVERSE. Vol. 2. No. 10. P.27. [073.5] 11-06-95 20/20. New Zealand TV show. [149.5] 01/26/96 KTLA. Morning Show. [160] 02-09-96 ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT. TV Show. [169] 02-15-96 AMERICAN JOURNAL. TV Show. Syndicated. [215.7] 03-29-96 XENA MEDIA REVIEW. No. 1. [221] 04-04-96 PHILADELPHIA FORUM. Vol. 1. No. 9. P.7. [222.5] 04-05-96 XENA MEDIA REVIEW. No. 2. [227] 04-09-96 CBS. The David Letterman Show. 11:35pm. [233.5] 04-12-96 XENA MEDIA REVIEW. No. 3. [247.5] 04-20-96 XENA MEDIA REVIEW. No. 4. Annotations ----------- [248] 04-22-96 to 04-25-96 [248a] 04-22-96 THE PATRIOT LEDGER. Page 15. [248b] 04-25-96 AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN. Page 52. [249] 04-22-96 to 05-01-96 [249a] 04-22-96 THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. [249b] 04-22-96 DAILY VARIETY. Page 8. [249c] 04-29-96 VARIETY. Page 35. [249d] 04-29-96 BROADCASTING & CABLE. V.126.N.19.P.29. [249e] 05-01-96 TV BUSINESS INTERN'L. May 1996. P.12. [250] 04-22-96 FORBES. Page 118. [251] 04-22-96 EUROPEAN MEDIA BSN & FINANCE. N.9, V.6. [252] 04-22-96 ELECTRONIC MEDIA. Page 1. [253] 04-22-96 ALTARED STATES. Ep. no. 19. 1st release. [254] 04-23-96 NPR. Radio Show: All Things Considered [255] 04-24-96 THE TORONTO STAR. Page D2. [256] 04-25-96 to 04-29-96 [256a] 04-25-96 DAILY VARIETY. Page 13. [256b] 04-25-96 DAILY VARIETY. Page 7. [256c] 04-29-96 VARIETY. Page 39. [257] 04-26-96 XENA MEDIA REVIEW. No. 5. [257] 04-28-96 THE TORONTO STAR. Page C1. [258] 04-29-96 MEDIAWEEK. Vol. 6. No. 18. Page 42 ------------------- AMENDED ANNOTATIONS ------------------- [050.1] 10-01-95 SCI-FI UNIVERSE. Vol. 2. No. 10. Page 23. "Herc's So Good. Executive producers Robert Tapert and Sam Raimi pull off another guilty pleasure with Hercules: The Legendary Journeys". By Dan Vebber. COMMENTARY: Passing mention in a full-color four page interview/spread on HTLJ and Kevin Sorbo. Transcription by Sylvia Varela EXCERPT: Executive producers Robert Tapert and Sam Raimi pull off another guilty pleasure with Hercules: The Legendary Journeys Kevin Sorbo is grateful for his pants. More specifically, he's grateful that the ridiculous woven leather trousers he dons to play the son of Zeus were designed not with regard for historical or mythological accuracy, but for comfort and style, conforming to the campy feel so often prevalent on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. "My greatest concern was that they'd make me wear a toga," Sorbo says. "When I first saw the costume, I was pleasantly surprised to see it was more of a Robin Hood meets The Last of the Mohican's thing." On Sorbo's latest acting gig, togas are few and far between, the most surprisingly popular reshaping of the Hercules mythos in years. In fact, the show's success is undoubtedly due at least in part to its smarmy refusal to appear in any way to be an accurate Greco-Roman period piece. The columned temples, flowing robes and poetry drenched dialogue of past mythology spawned programs and movies are conspicuously absent from this Hercules, replaced with ranch-style huts, tailored West Hollywood-ready fashion ensembles and snappy buddy-picture banter. Fans of the show seem to revel in the fact that even its title is a misnomer-these aren't the "Legendary Journeys"; they're journeys based loosely-if at all-on the legends, and converted into something with far more entertainment value and media savvy by executive producers Robert Tapert and Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, M.A.N.T.I.S., Darkman). So much media savvy that the show became the highest rated new program in syndication last season, and will this fall be joined by Xena: Warrior Princess, an hour-long spin-off based on one of Hercules' most popular peripheral females. The weekly series evolved out of a series of five Hercules movies which aired as part of MCA TV's Action Pack programming last season. When Tapert and Raimi were approached with the project, they immediately accepted and set out to produce a series of Hercules films that would follow the offhanded format the team had become known for with The Evil Dead and their other previous film and television projects. Initially there was no indication that the movies would prove popular enough to spawn a series. "We basically just thought it would be a lot of fun to make these five Hercules movies, and that would be it," Tapert says. "There was never any talk of a series in the beginning." Watching a slew of cheesy old Hercules films from the '50s and '60s served as a sort of reverse inspiration for Tapert and Raimi, helping them establish how they didn't want to spin their take on the heroic half-man/half-god. From the beginning what Tapert describes as the "no togas, no Parthenon rule" was instrumental in defining Hercules and the world he would live in, and set a precedent of casting aside the traditional means of portraying ancient mythology. The rule carried over to the casting of Kevin Sorbo in the movies' (and later, the series') title role. Though certainly capable of beating the tar out of his show's average viewer, Sorbo's musculature is a far cry from the physiques of the grotesquely huge, sculpted actors of years past. "We were looking for a Hercules who wasn't the world's biggest guy, but who was more like Joe Montana. Someone you could sit down at a bar and have a beer with," Tapert says. Though Hercules is Sorbo's biggest and most dramatic role to date, the Minnesota native has been in and out of the public eye for years, appearing in commercials for everything from Diet Coke to Lexus automobiles. It was Sorbo's 6'3'' height more than his strength that often pigeonholed him into meat-headed spokesperson jobs and away from the dramatic roles he wanted. But whatever Sorbo's balance between height, muscle and acting ability, it was exactly what Tapert and Raimi were looking for. Starting with his first auditions, Sorbo decided to play up the human side of Hercules, emphasizing that he thought the character should bump his head, bleed and generally make mistakes like any other mortal. Tapert and Raimi liked what they saw. "When I first went in I felt comfortable with how I wanted to play the character, and I didn't ask them what they wanted until the fifth or sixth audition," Sorbo says. "Whatever I decided in terms of how I wanted to do the character was already either in their minds, or it changed their minds." Raimi's personal involvement in Hercules has varied since the project's inception, and as result Tapert was left to oversee production of the bulk of the movies and the show's first season. "Once we had the tone, the character and what we were doing down, after we were pretty far along planning the movies, [Raimi] got involved in The Quick and the Dead," Tapert says. "But when he was done with that, he jumped right back in, and he's been heavily involved with this upcoming season." Despite his absence from the first season, the influence of Raimi's directorial style is readily apparent in each of the series' episodes. Ambitious movie-style angles and crane shots abound, and camera movement-especially during fight sequences-is extremely kinetic for a television show. Tapert has overseen and advised the series' crop of directors, many of who have been working with him and Raimi for years. According to Tapert, "We don't tell the directors to direct in any particular way, it just boils down to what we like. We like those things flying through the air, and the directors we get are usually after the same effects as we are." When faced with the prospect of a weekly series that would pick up where the Action Pack movies left off, Tapert realized he was stuck with a main character who was devoid of motivation. "We had completed what we saw as being an arc in the five movies, where Herc got married, had a family, had a midlife crisis and came home at the end," says Tapert. "When we started the series, we started the series, we realized that we had a hero who was married and had a family, and that made it hard for him to go off and be heroic." To remedy this situation, Tapert did the obvious, if horribly cruel, thing: He killed off Hercules' family. In the series premiere, Hera, Hercules' evil stepmother and queen of the gods, sends down a fireball to torch her stepson's wife and children. Thus established a premise capable of being expanded upon for however long the series survives: A nice guy who has lost his wife and children forsakes angry revenge, instead choosing to honor his family's memory by travelling the world helping others. One major factor which sets Tapert's Hercules apart from most previous interpretations is the lack of a direct rapport between the mortals and the gods of Mount Olympus. Zeus appeared as a recurring character played by Anthony Quinn in the five two-hour movies, but because the first episode of the show established that Zeus didn't protect Hercules's family from Hera's jealous wrath, we can understand why Hercules wants nothing to do with his Olympus-dwelling dad. While Tapert doesn't deny the inevitability of a father-son reunion at some point in the future, keeping the gods out of the show was initially a conscious decision on his and Raimi's part. "It never worked for me in Clash of the Titans and in the old Harryhausen films, to look down in the water and see the gods in their white togas," Tapert says. "So we've decided to downplay them and rely instead on some of the lesser gods. Basically we look at it as Hercules used to go to the giant family picnics with these gods, so he kind of knows them, but he thinks they're all a bunch of a--holes." The show may not feature many gods, but it certainly isn't hurting for freakish mythological monsters. Cyclopes, Hydras and (perhaps most impressively) half-human, half-horse centaurs appear on a regular basis, created through a combination of makeup, mechanics and computer animation. The increasing financial and technological feasibility of computer effects has birthed creatures that are far more lifelike than their stop-motion-animated predecessors, and these provide the cornerstone of the show's fantastic visual style. Unfortunately for Tapert, such effects are very time-consuming, and fitting them into the harried schedule of a weekly series has proven to be the most difficult aspect of producing the show. For now, the producers make a conscious effort to have one spectacular monster every two or three episodes. According to Tapert, the upcoming season will feature episodes with emphasis on making the monsters more three-dimensional. "The monsters we've used so far have been kind of single-minded, nasty things, with only a plan of eating or killing," he says. "To have monsters with a more interesting plan or motivation will be more satisfying for the audience." Cyclopes, satyrs, centaurs...if all this mythology is getting a bit weighty and you're struggling to remember all those boring classroom lessons of years past, don't worry-the show's producers don't remember them either. Tapert forced himself to reread classic reference works by Robert Graves and Edith Hamilton, but in the end the research had little bearing on the direction of the program. The show has no hired mythological consultant, and Tapert has never worried about staying true to historical truths or mythological legends. "We've thrown all that stuff out the window," he says. "We just tell the story the best way we can. We'll sometimes use real mythological stories, but usually as events to build another new story on. We're concerned with whether an idea is visually appealing, fun and heroic, if it has the action that we like, and if we can do it on a TV schedule." Most notably absent among these legends is the one thing Hercules is most often associated with by droning high school teachers: his 12 labors. These labors have never appeared on the show as such, but have been repackaged and combined into different stories. "We didn't really want to tell the story of his labor shoveling sh*t, for example," Tapert explains. But though Tapert has never pursued any great expertise in mythology, he has always respected it as an interesting way of framing morality tales. Each episode of Hercules, therefore, has a very definite life lesson (extolling virtues like friendship, honesty and selflessness) hidden within an easily digestible story. Explaining the morality inherent in the series, Tapert admits to being inspired by the original Star Trek. "That show had simple morals, heroic main characters and good guys winning, all the while maintaining a balance between humor and drama," he says. "That's what we hope to do with our show." Sorbo agrees, but stresses that the show tries to frame the morality in ways that won't send virtue-overdosed viewers fumbling for the remote. "The way the show was written, I think there's a lot of diversity involved in it. There is some heavy drama and morality, but what makes it interesting for people is that the action and fight scenes have so much humor in them that it's easy to see that this isn't supposed to be weighty. I don't think it's intended to be taken as seriously as classical written mythology was. The scenery, the way we dress, the way the dialogue basically pops from century to century, I think that's what makes it fun." Sorbo also finds humor in the fact that his show is as close to a mythology lesson as many of his viewers will ever get. "There are a slew of people who have never even seen or heard of Hercules," he laughs. "This is their first exposure to the character, so to them, I am him." Sorbo admits that he was at times bothered by his character's image in some of the original movies, in which he was often spouting dialogue that made him look just slightly more intelligent than a sack of doorknobs. "I kept my mouth shut in that first movie because I was the new kid on the block," he says. "We were feeling ourselves out, trying to find the characters, trying to find where we wanted to go. There was dialogue I didn't want to say, and I didn't speak up. Beginning with the second movie, I decided to start putting my opinions into it. Not to say that I had anything to do with the writing, but I did have something to do with making the dialogue more comfortable for me." Hercules is shot almost entirely around Auckland, New Zealand, partially for budgetary reasons, but mainly because principal filming originally started in November-a relatively cold and rainy month in Los Angeles. The producers were considering Australia as a possible alternative when a friend who had been working on Shelly Duvall's Fairy Tale Theater in New Zealand came forth with high praise for the smaller island nation. "W checked it out and we agreed," says Tapert. "They had just wrapped The Piano, so we were able to hire a bunch or people who were just coming off that." With its lush rain forests, towering cliffs and vast expanses of green, New Zealand is hardly a dead ringer for ancient Greece. But the lack of olive trees doesn't bother Tapert in the slightest. "New Zealand has the distinction of looking like a primeval, pristine world," he says. "I think it works beautifully as a mythological backdrop." By the time the show appears in final form, most of its actors appear happy and relaxed. This may be more a testament to their acting prowess than a reflection of any lightheartedness on the set. Tapert insists Hercules is one of the harder shoots he's been involved in. Though he describes the mood on the set as happy and enthusiastic, the 12-hour days and unusual shooting schedule make for tight, rushed shoots. Goofing around is limited to more than coming up with a joke that works, as most actors spend their free time practicing an extensive array of stuntwork and choreography. And practice doesn't always make perfect. "Kevin got 17 stitches from a sword whack in one of the episodes," Tapert recalls. "We didn't even use the shot. We figured it would be in bad taste." Sorbo agrees with Tapert that it's difficult to meet Hollywood deadlines when filming schedules are dictated by New Zealand's unique weather patterns. "It rains a lot down here, and they try to shoot around the rainy seasons," he explains. "So we can't shoot along the same schedule as most other television shows, where they shoot for eight or nine months and the actors get a three-or -four-month hiatus. I'm not going to get that luxury." It's a luxury Sorbo wouldn't mind having, especially now. He was recently offered a film by Universal, and, on a more personal note, he admits to getting homesick. "It hit me last week that I've been here for 20 months now, and I just don't feel a part of Los Angeles anymore," he sighs. "I don't really see the effect of the show. I can see reviews, and I can hear the producers saying the numbers are great, but down here I'm just going to work and occasionally getting noticed for my Jim Beam commercials." Still, Sorbo comes across as anything but bitter or bored with the role. And thanks to an ever-increasing number of diverse acting offers, he has little fear of being forever typecast as Hercules. "I don't think I'm going to become a victim of the show," he stresses. "I feel very confident in myself and my talent. Yes, I've got a long way to go as an actor, but like with anybody, I'll get better with on-the-job experience like I'm getting now. I may even get to direct one of the upcoming episodes. Maybe I'm not qualified to direct in general, but I'm certainly qualified to direct this show." Whether the show has marketability outside the television arena will be tested this holiday season when a gaggle of Hercules action figures and related merchandise hits the toy shelves. Strangely, this wooing of the younger viewer is one of the things Tapert fears could lead to sticky situations in the program's future. "Right now we only have one target audience: people who like entertaining stories," Tapert says. "But with the toys and all, I can see that on the horizon they'll want us to keep the show 100% family. We might have to battle once in a while to spin those different types of stories that keep the audience on their toes." Tapert's vision for the show may seem haphazard and nebulous, but none can deny that it's worked thus far. Hercules: The Legendary Journeys is perhaps most remarkable in its total lack of cynicism. People like the show for no-brainer reasons: it's simple, moralistic, and it's just plain fun to see a good guy beating up bad monsters. "Sure it's a guilty pleasure," says Tapert. "Our entire career has been guilty pleasures." [050.15] 10-01-95 SCI-FI UNIVERSE. Vol. 2. No. 10. Page 25. "Centaurs and Satyrs and hydras, Oh My! Special effects supervisor Kevin O'Neil creates the freakish denizens of Hercules' world". By Dan Vebber. COMMENTARY: No mention of XWP, but XWP did use centaurs in "Hooves and Harlots." Interesting sidebar article about special effects involved in making the non-humans in both HTLJ and XWP. Transcription by Sylvia Varela TRANSCRIPTION: One of the most important aspects of creating the mythological world of Hercules involved finding a way to create new monsters on a television budget and schedule. To meet this daunting task, executive producer Robert Tapert hired Kevin O'Neil-who had worked with Tapert previously on Darkman, and more recently designed effects for Bram Stoker's Dracula, Cliffhanger and The Last Action Hero-as the show's special- effects supervisor. O'Neil had gotten used to working with many artists over the Internet, and decided that setting up a "virtual visual effects studio" would be the best way to eliminate overhead and rise to the challenges posed by a weekly show. From an office in New Zealand O'Neil uses the Internet to carry out the day-to-day effects tasks on Hercules by networking with artists and programmers working out of their houses in places as far away as New Mexico and California. "I'll be on the set in the middle of nowhere on the other side of the planet, sitting out in a field looking at some matte paintings as they're being developed," explains O'Neil. "From a mobile phone I can send back information and update images over the Internet. They've got all these television ads [i.e., the AT&T ads featuring people doing office work from remote environments] with people who talk the talk, but I don't think anybody else is dealing with it as effectively and as remotely as we are. We're able to hold up a finished episode as proof it can actually work." In addition, O'Neil also supervises the show's numerous mechanical effects (most of which are created by companies in New Zealand), but the bulk of his work involves designing computerized footage and directing actors to react to imaginary monsters (which are later composited into the scenes in postproduction). Physical sculptures of the creatures are constructed, then photographed and scanned into a computer. Once in this entirely digital form, technicians transform the beasties into manipulatable 3-D objects, which can then be animated to do whatever the director sees fit. For creatures that are partially human, such as the half-human, half-horse centaurs, O'Neil developed an entirely new 2-D compositing system that allows him to believably meld the two living beings. First, O'Neil directs the filming of live horses, who move based on a sequence he's designed. Human actors are then photographed against a blue screen over footage of the horse. The computer then cleans up the result, seamlessly creating the illusion of an entirely new life-form. All these advances in computer effects technology and networking allow O'Neil and his crew to create bizarre new monsters at an approximate rate of one every six to eight weeks. More traditional, slow-to-produce stop-motion photography would have been a significantly more expensive way to do the effects, not because of the per-shot cost, but rather because deadlines couldn't be made as easily. Many of the digitized-from-scratch creatures are brought to life using methods already perfected in films like The Mask and, of course, Jurassic Park. But it's the centaurs that represent the pinnacle of Hercules' special visual effects. According to O'Neil, "When Rob Tapert first approached me about the job, he said 'If you can do the centaurs, you can do anything.' For the mixing of two living creatures, he wouldn't have been happy with just a digitized creature." [050.4] 10-01-95 CINESCAPE. Vol. 2 No. 1. Page 74. "Television. Tuned In" By Andy Mangels. COMMENTARY: Appearing in a column, under the sub- title "Syndicated & Cable", XWP received a paragraph shared with HTLJ. The blurb gave a one sentence synopsis of "Sins of the Past". Transcribed by Julia Medina TRANSCRIPTION: The Legendary Adventures Of Hercules and its spin-off Xena: Warrior Princess (syndicated) will both premiere the week of Sept. 4 as a two-hour block. Kevin Sorbo returns as Hercules, while Lucy Lawless spins Xena into her own show. In the premieres, Hercules battles a deadly serpent and the larcenous Autoclyus (genre star Bruce Campbell) in "The King of Thieves," while Xena journeys homeward to make amends for her past wrongdoings, only to be challenged by the vengeful warlord Draco in "Sins of the Past." [050.2] 10-01-95 SCI-FI UNIVERSE. Vol. 2. No. 10. Page 27. "Xena. Xena: Warrior Princess follows Hercules into the treacherous ground of first-run syndication this fall". By Dan Vebber. COMMENTARY: One page introduction to the series with three photos of Lucy Lawless (one does not look like it is from XWP). Robert Tapert is quoted as saying, "Xena is a long story, all about ratings and budget. What it boils down to is Vanishing Son, which is a very good show in its own right, was probably not the proper show to follow directly on the heels of Hercules. The studio made a decision that they wanted to move forward with something more compatible. We had done one of the episodes with Xena, so we said, 'Hey, maybe we can do something with this.'" Mr. Tapert's comment that the decision to go with Xena for a series was made after "Warrior Princess" had been filmed (not aired) jibes completely with the timeline XMR has reconstructed. The first media reference to XWP as a series was made in the Daily Variety on 03/05/95 (XMR008). This was after HTLJ "Warrior Princess" had been filmed, but before the episode's release on March 13, 1995. The article, curiously enough, was not a promotional mention, but as an aside in an article about MCA hiring a new President. Apparently, the role of Xena had been developed as part of a story arc to be played over a single episode which would introduce her and then be concluded two months later in a dramatic two-parter which would conclude with the Warrior Princess' fiery death. It was to be a "big event" for the season's last half. The role of Xena was offered to at least five other actresses who all showed great interest and intended to play the role except other events barred them last minute from starting. Finally, an actress was hired, and they began pre-production on the first of the trilogy "Warrior Princess". Three days before filming was to start, the actress was taken ill and could not appear for the filming (XMR117). The producers remembered Lucy Lawless, who had played an Amazon in the Hercules movies "Hercules and the Amazon Women" and played a part as a "centaur's moll" (tentative XMR271) in HTLJ's first season "As Darkness Falls." The producers were convinced that Ms. Lawless could rise to the occasion of taking on a role so quickly. They called her only to find out that she was camping in the wilderness over the New Year's weekend (tentative XMR126.6]. So, they hunted her down in the wilderness. (XMR117). She was found and immediately accepted the role. Ms. Lawless took to the part so well, that a decision was made to keep Xena alive at the end of the following two-parter. While filming the two-parter in January of 1995, Robert Tapert began discussions with Ms. Lawless about the possibility of a series for Xena with Ms. Lawless (XMR084a and XMR128). Transcription by Sylvia Varela TRANSCRIPTION: Beginning September 4, fans of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys will have another mythology-based series with a colon in its name to look forward to. Xena: Warrior Princess will follow the exploits of Hercules' most popular villainess-turned-heroine, played by New Zealand actress Lucy Lawless. Though Xena was introduced as a side character on Hercules, executive producers Robert Tapert and Sam Raimi don't plan on having any future crossover between the two shows. Xena will have her own agenda, consisting primarily of wandering the Earth in hopes of proving she's forsaken her past evil ways. The likeable vicious heroine will be joined on her quest by Gabrielle, a young runaway, and Pan, a character described as "an acrobatic gymnast of the forest." Fear not, friends-just because Xena is forsaking her evil ways doesn't mean she'll be nice and sweet. Tapert promises the show will have as much action and excitement as its predecessor, Hercules, if not more. In particular, Tapert says Xena's martial arts abilities will allow him and Raimi to play around with the kind of wild action they've come to love in Hong Kong movies. Xena only appeared on three episodes of Hercules, but the resulting ratings were high enough for the MCA bigwigs to decide to take a chance on the warrior princess. "Xena is a long story, all about ratings and budget," Tapert explains. "What it boils down to is Vanishing Son [a Universal martial arts series], which is a very good show in its own right, was probably not the proper show to follow directly on the heels of Hercules. The studio made a decision that they wanted to move forward with something more compatible. We had just done one of the episodes with Xena, so we said, 'Hey, maybe we can do something with this.'" Xena's series promises to exhibit a similar sense of humor and action to what is seen on Hercules, but her warlike past could lead to her being a tougher nut to crack than her male counterpart. "For Hercules, the world is very straightforward," Tapert says. "He knows that he's doing good in a situation. He goes in, he kicks butt, he kills the monster. Xena's in a slightly different position, because she's been a killer her whole life and now she's trying to get away from it. But she finds out that she constantly has to kill in order to protect all that she now finds decent." Sure, it sounds ridiculously overbaked. But, as any fan of Hercules will tell you, that's probably a darned good sign. CONTINUED IN PART 2 of 3...