XENA MEDIA REVIEW #29 (11/03/97) Borg 3 of 5 =============== CUT HERE ==================== [507] 09-19-96 NEW MEDIA MARKETS. 425 words. "Sky 2 Comes down to Earth with The Simpsons" COMMENTARY: XWP was the top rated program for Britain's Sky 2 for the week ending September 8, 1996. XWP logged in 214,000 viewers that Sunday at 7pm. The competition was ST: Deep Space Nine, showing on Sky 1 at the same time, and ST:DS9 logged in 228,000 viewers. [KT] EXCERPT: Sky 2, British Sky Broadcasting's new peaktime entertainment channel, recorded a viewing share in Astra homes of 0.6 per cent in its first full week, the week ending September 8. Its best figures were among men aged 16-plus and individuals aged 16-34, getting 0.7 per cent in both cases. The figures represent a major fall on the channel's first night's showing, the previous Sunday, when it recorded shares of between 7.6 per cent and 10.4 per cent for five old episodes of The X Files: all five got into the Top 20 satellite programmes for the week and that one evening's programmes produced a whole-week score of 0.7 per cent. A down-to-earth figure for the first full week was to be expected, but British Sky Broadcasting might have hoped for a slightly better performance. Confidential "unconsolidated" overnight figures for the following week, ending September 15, which do not take into account time-shifting, suggest a further drop, to 0.5 per cent.... ...The channel's top programme was Xena: Warrior Princess, with 214,000 viewers. The programme was shown at 7pm Sunday, against Sky 1's Star Trek: Deep Space 9, which attracted 228,000 viewers. The new channel was also helped by Melrose Place (147,000) and New York Undercover (129,000). The overall cable and satellite share for the week was 38.6 per cent, down 1.3 percentage points on the previous week. The BSkyB channels as a whole were down 1.2 points. Sky 1 won back the 0.7 points it lost the previous week, but the three sports channels lost 1.6 points and the two premium film channels lost 0.2 points. Cartoon Network returned to form with a rating of 11.2 per cent among 4- 15 year-olds, with Nickelodeon down to 7.7 per cent. UK Gold had a low 2 per cent, but said that a low figure was to be expected with the launch of the terrestrial channels' autumn schedules. UK Living had a respectable 1.3 per cent among all adults. Discovery continued to do well among Men 16-plus, with 1.8 per cent, and Adult ABC1s, with 1.4 per cent. The cable and satellite share among all UK TV homes was 10.8 per cent, a figure that represents not only how well cable programmes performed but also the number of cable homes in the country. [508] 09-19-96 DAILY VARIETY. News Section. Page 1. 394 words. "New 'Oprah' season off to a big start.". by Jenny Hontz COMMENTARY: Ratings for the second run of "Death Mask", episode no. 23. REPRINT: King World's top talkshow "Oprah" kicked into high gear in its premiere week ending Sept. 8. The queen of talk averaged a 9 rating for the week, placing second to perpetual No. 1 "Wheel of Fortune" among all syndie shows and improving 23% from her year-ago average, according to Nielsen... ...In weekly action, Par's "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" finally regained its footing. After trailing MCA TV's action hours for the past two months, "Star Trek" rose 14% to a 4.8, tying at the top of the hour weeklies MCA's "Hercules," which lost 6%. "Xena" finished third despite a 2% increase to 4.5. [509] 09-20-96 THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. Friday. Page E-1. 423 words. "The real mystery: Why's Profiler' even on the air?" By Robert P. Laurence COMMENTARY: In an extensive review of why the network television show "The Profiler" was not too good, the reviewer mentioned XWP in a non-sensical rhetorical question: "One cop believes in her method of figuring out the motive to find the killer, while another, naturally, does not. "I don't care why he does it. I just want to stop it," snorts the skeptic. Will he learn how wrong he is? Just as sure as Nostradamus watched "Xena: Warrior Princess" every week." This type of Xena non-sequitor is no longer uncommon. More will be forth coming, no doubt, once the new season has begun and XWP garners more critical and cult attention. [KT] EXCERPT: ..."Profiler" offers a tinge of that surrealism, a bit of paranormal mumbo jumbo, but its roots are more mundane. It's really just a weaker, dumbed-down imitation of "Cracker," the British series of occasional movies about a police psychologist that have been seen the last few years over cable's A&E channel. ("Profiler" isn't even the only "Cracker" imitation on prime time this year; CBS is offering its own cop-shrink drama, "Moloney.") But where "Cracker" is a tough-minded, provocative, often bewildering series about a fat man who eats, drinks and gambles too much for his own good (played brilliantly by Robbie Coltrane), "Profiler" is about a beautiful, blond, single mom who has quit the cops but is brought back to handle an especially tough case. In other words, she's been molded according to TV-network notions of what women viewers want to see, although by their very nature these sci-fi/fantasy shows appeal mainly to young men. Ally Walker plays the title character, Samantha Waters, a psychologist with a gift for walking through a murder scene and seeing what happened in her mind's eye. One cop believes in her method of figuring out the motive to find the killer, while another, naturally, does not. "I don't care why he does it. I just want to stop it," snorts the skeptic. Will he learn how wrong he is? Just as sure as Nostradamus watched "Xena: Warrior Princess" every week.... [510] 09-20-96 BUSINESS WIRE. Friday. 889 words. "Entertainment Drive expands staff, operations and headquarters in preparation for Web launch" COMMENTARY: In anticipation of the opening of its megasite on the web, Entertainment Drive (eDrive) has hired five new editors. One of the editors is Natalie Anderson, who last served as Manager of Publicity for MCA TV overseeing publicity campaigns for "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" and "Xena: Warrior Princess." [KT] EXCERPT: ...Entertainment Drive (eDrive), the online pioneer that connects fans on CompuServe (GO EDRIVE), WOW! and the Internet to the best in entertainment worldwide, has filled five new editorial positions as the company prepares for the October launch of its "megasite" on the Web. The new hires were announced today by Entertainment Drive LLC President and CEO Michael Bolanos, who also notes that the company has more than doubled the existing loft space at the company's corporate headquarters in New York City as it expands its global distribution.... ...Natalie Anderson, Consultant - Anderson comes to eDrive from Los Angeles with an extensive background in Hollywood publicity. She last served as Manager of Publicity for MCA TV overseeing publicity campaigns for "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" and "Xena: Warrior Princess." At eDrive she will serve as a booking agent for celebrity online chats and coordinate publicity materials submitted by major television, home video and music companies.... [511] 09-21-96 THE WASHINGTON POST. Saturday. Page C01. 1549 words. "Woman of Steel; Television's Warrior Xena Is a Superheroine With Broad Appeal" by Elizabeth Kastor. COMMENTARY: Wide-ranging discussion of XWP's appeal to feminists, little girls, lesbians, and men of all ilks. Special emphasis is given to the bizarre demographics of the show. Ms. Kastor interviews several fans (a cartoonist, a Xena webpage maintainer, a toy collector, a lesbian magazine editor, a 7 year-old- girl). The article is divided into parts called such as Male Fantasy, Great Hair and Mayhem: the Best of Both Worlds, Lesbian Cult Figure, and Little Xenites. This article is in the tradition of the VILLAGE VOICE article by Stacey D'Erasmo, 12-26-95, "Xenaphilia", but not as intellectual. [KT] REPRINT: You will notice her breasts. Really there's no way not to, what with all the swirls and twists of metal buttressing her leather bustier. And the thighs -- long and muscular beneath the flaps of her leather miniskirt. And her ululating battle cry: "Iyi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi!" She is the sort of woman who can grab an arrow in mid-flight, who can hurl grown men through the air. She is Xena, Warrior Princess. Turn on your TV, tune in her show and interpret her at will. Xena has been heralded as a feminist icon. A lesbian fantasy. A little girls' role model. Descendant of a venerable line of pulp characters, Xena is a fighter who has discovered her inner pacifist and uses her powers to defend the weak, the injured, the sensitive. The syndicated series "Xena: Warrior Princess" is filmed in New Zealand with the nearly six-foot-tall actress Lucy Lawless in the title role, and is broadcast on Channel 50 twice a week. (The season opener airs Oct. 1 at 9 p.m., with a repeat Oct. 6 at 6 p.m.) A spinoff from "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys," Xena went on to become the most successful new syndicated series last year. She has inspired more than two dozen Web sites and legions of devoted fans known as Xenites. Lesbian bars sponsor Xena nights. A grinning Xena raised her sword on the cover of the August issue of Ms. magazine. Lawless has done David Letterman and Jay Leno. "I heard about 'Hercules' from a friend," says Sarah Dyer, a cartoonist from Staten Island who collects female action figures. "I really wasn't that into it, but Xena comes on immediately after, and I thought, 'This rules!' I really, really love it." Xena exists in an alternate universe that is ostensibly ancient Greece, but the costumes and colloquialisms veer across centuries and cultures. (In one episode she sings a dirge in Yiddish. Go figure.) Villages and villains have that prehistoric/post-apocalyptic look -- lots of quasi-Roman armor and matted hair. Whenever nervous villagers hear threatening sounds and ask Xena "What's that?," her answer, always, is: "Trouble." She has a signature weapon as all good heroes do -- the discus-like "chakram," with its "razor-sharp edge" -- and her version of Mr. Spock's Vulcan nerve pinch, the "Xena touch." It is a show so self-consciously campy that when Xena hides a small dagger in her bustier, her sassy blond sidekick, Gabrielle, arches an eyebrow and says, "As if your breasts weren't dangerous enough!" And the Xenites love it. The show's creators have cannily packed it with multiple messages aimed at varied audiences. In interviews with the gay press, the producers (one of whom is open about being a lesbian) playfully refuse to define the relationship between Xena and Gabrielle. But Xena takes male lovers, and her long hair and skimpy leather get-up are the stuff of standard heterosexual male fantasy. Lesbians point to all those knowing glances and suggestive conversations between Xena and Gabrielle. But talk to straight male viewers and they say they absolutely know Xena and Gabrielle are just friends. And little girls -- they just like how Xena bashes heads. Male Fantasy Okay, Allen Snook admits it. "She caught my eye because the actress is a beautiful woman." But he quickly moved beyond that, really he did. "It was not just another science fiction show like 'Star Trek,' " says the electrical engineer from Laurel, whose wife also likes the show, although not quite as passionately as he. Now, he has designed a Xena site on the World Wide Web that gets 120 to 150 visitors a day, and has already ordered the upcoming "Xena" soundtrack CD. He likes to watch old episodes and polish the synopses he runs on his Web page. Sarah Dyer is an expert on female action heroes -- she is editor of the "Action Girl" comic magazines and has a collection of action figure dolls. Xena, she says, "is a really good girl action hero. She's a big girl. She has big legs. She's not all waif-ish looking. "She really appeals to younger, post-feminist women and girls. She wears a skirt and she proves you can fight really good in a skirt. She has cool-looking hair, but she kills people." Great hair and mayhem: the best of both worlds. Post-feminist though she may be, Xena is also retro, the latest incarnation of what science fiction writer and critic Gregory Feeley calls "the chick in a brass bra." The archetype was created in 1916, when Edgar Rice Burroughs published his first story about Thuvia, Maid of Mars, in All-Story Magazine, and fearsome, well-endowed women warriors have populated magazines, pulp novels and comic books ever since. "These things were not being read by young lesbian 13-year-olds, or older gay women or young girls seeking good role models," Feeley says of Xena's literary ancestors. "They were being read by insecure guys. There certainly has been a lot of psychosexual theories about why the relatively unsophisticated, uneducated male reader -- which was the main readership of these books -- who would be deeply bothered by a strong woman in his real life, could get off on a sword-wielding damsel wearing hip thongs and a brass bra." Feeley thinks the conventions of the pulp genre allowed readers to feel safe from the swords of all those avenging Amazon figures -- they knew the plots, and the women would never surprise them. And Xena, he suspects, rests on those old conventions at the same time that she appears to be standing them on their head. Lesbian Cult Figure Kelly Marbury is certain Xena's fling with Hercules was "just a phase." "It was because of the trauma of her village being destroyed," she says. Gabrielle is Xena's true love. Marbury, who sells computers in Virginia, spent her childhood playing Batman, the Green Hornet, James Bond. Her mother still has her Batmobile in storage. But she had to wait until she was in her thirties to find a female superhero who felt truly right for her. "The Wonder Woman cartoon kind of did it for me, but 'Wonder Woman' the TV series just left me empty, because it was kind of fake and kind of girly," she says. "It was like froufrou. But Xena is so butch." Xena has "major cult status" in the lesbian community, according to Heather Findlay, editor of Girlfriend magazine. She is not the first warrior woman to achieve such popularity, she says, but she is probably the most visible. Watching Xena, says Marbury, "gives us a chance to think that there's somewhere where the world will just be okay. Maybe there's a place where we can just walk on the street and not have the constant slap on the face -- 'You can't get married, you can't exist, you can't adopt children, you can't just be who you are.' It's an hour to escape." The show's campiness -- the swoosh of Xena's sword whizzing from its scabbard, the flash of absurdly exaggerated stunts, the goofy double-entendres -- is part of the appeal. "Now that it is -- for some women -- okay to be a lesbian, there's a little more playfulness built into our identity," says Findlay. "Twenty years ago, lesbians bonded with one another on explicitly political terms. Now, in the '90s, we're in a much better position to say that as lesbians we sexually desire other women. A figure like Xena can come along with great cleavage and beautiful legs and we can enjoy lusting after her on TV." Little Xenites The three girls are doing their homework, or maybe they're not. Maybe they're just chatting and giggling while their homework lies on the table at a Silver Spring recreation center. Either way, mention Xena, and they spark into simultaneous chatter, finishing one another's sentences and bouncing in their chairs as they punctuate their words with karate chops. Oh yes, they say, they love Xena. And why is that? "The way she looks and the way she acts!" begins Karen Segovia, age 7. "Like she knows -- " interrupts her sister Massiel Aguilar, 10. " -- how to fight good!" finishes Karen. In their own little Xena world, Karen is Gabrielle and Massiel is Xena. (Isn't that always the way, the older sister stealing all the good parts?) Their neighbor Carla Rubin plays Xena's sister. They invented the sister in order to include Carla in the game -- even if she doesn't watch Xena much, she is their friend. They recruit their friends Patrick and Edgar to be the bad guys and get chopped. That is all the boys are good for in this game. Xena, they agree, has no boyfriends. "The only thing she cares about is fighting," says Massiel, although she adds a boyfriend might be useful as backup when Xena has to fight a particularly large group of bad guys. Then, somehow, the conversation has shifted and slipped, and now they are talking not about Xena and her battles, but about their own; not about fighting, but about fear. Like the way a pile of clothes can transform into a monster when the lights are out. And the time Massiel looked at Karen during the night, and in the white, flat glow of the moon saw a witch. Childhood has always been filled with shadows and visions and fears. Superheroes swoop in, fully armed, invincible. Put a 5-year-old boy in a cape and he will defeat the world. Give a 7-year-old girl an imaginary chakram, and she can defeat the dark. Xena, they know, is never afraid. GRAPHIC: Photo, ap/g. short; Photo, mca photos, Something for everyone: Lucy Lawless wields her deadly chakram as the brassy heroine of the campy cult television show "Xena: Warrior Princess." Great hair and mayhem: Lucy Lawless as Xena, left, locks swords with evildoer Dagnine, played by Mark Ferguson. Hudson Leick as Callisto, left, and Xena reenact "Ben-Hur." [512] 09-21-96 THE NEW ZEALAND LISTENER. Contributed by: Gary Thomas (gthomas@manawatu.gen.nz) COMMENTARY: The following is an excerpt from the New Zealand Listener, the weekly magazine of the government sponsored broadcasting authority. I believe that the magazine itself is an independent commercial company, but I might be wrong. The magazine ran a readers' poll, and part of the reported results, under the caption "You said it", on September 21st, were (with my explanations in brackets). EXCERPT: ...*New from Mars:* Lucy Lawless is the new sex symbol - 12% of men voted for her, as did 6% of females, giving Xena a winning 9%. Strange though: Alliance voters [the Alliance is the nearest thing to a left wing political party that New Zealand has, it is an Alliance of New Labour (the remains of the old socialist Labour Party), the Greens (environmentalist), Manu Motuhake (ethnic Maori party) and a couple of minor middle of the road parties] identify with Xena (15%) far more than, say, Labour ones (2%) [Labour used to be the left wing party, but got hijacked by the extreme new right (old wrong) in the early 1980's. This is why New Zealand has the most free market society in the world. Labour was thrown out of office, and is now desperately trying to regain its previous left-of-centre position. It seems, however, that the voters are unforgiving. Labour was one of the two major parties (National, a right wing party, being the other), but no longer]. What do you do? Put her on the list with Pam? [Pam Corkery, a very outspoken radio talkback host who gave the job up to become an Alliance candidate in the forthcoming election] Xena was closely followed by "my wife" at 7% - 17% of men thought that woman was the sexiest, [I can't follow this - it implies that minus 3% of women thought "my wife" was sexiest], Rachel Hunter scored 6%, [Rachel Hunter, New Zealand model and wife of Rod Stewart the singer] and women choosing themselves as "sexiest" woman gave that category 5% overall. [As an Alliance supporter myself, I am glad to see that Alliance men in general show better taste than other men.] [513] 09-22-96 THE SUNDAY TIMES (AUCKLAND). Features Section. Arts. Page 2. 308 words. "Singing the praises of Aladdin." by Patrick Smith. COMMENTARY:Discussion of a stage show that the very talented Michael Hurst wrote and directed. Xena is mentioned with reference to some props in Hurst's production that came from the show. [MBE] The character Hurst created in this Pantomime is rumored to be appearing in the HTLJ shows FANCY FREE and MEN IN PINK in the 1997-98 season. REPRINT: ALADDIN -- THE PANTOMIME, Watershed Theatre, until September 28 EEE, that Widow Twankey is daft -- falling down like that and showing 'er knickers. I 'aven't laffed so much since grandma died. Looking and sounding like Ken Dodd in a frock, Michael Hurst's Widow Twankey is a marvelous dame who, as well as being Aladdin's mum, is MC of this great little holiday stage show. Hurst is obviously relishing being on the boards again after the grind of the Hercules TV series and it's great to have him back in this piece of good-natured silliness, which he wrote and directed himself. All the good old panto elements are here: Music, songs, awful jokes, pratfalls, fantabulous costumes and glittery sets (with a few props from Hercules and Xena), romance, fights, and a really happy ending. There's a comic dame, a dumb sidekick, a princess, a wicked empress, policeman, robots and, of course, the Genie of the Lamp. Hurst has assembled a great cast for this bright and lively, over-the-top spectacular: Claire O'Neil as a classic Aladdin; Min Windle as the lovely Princess Sharon; Willy de Wit as Bevan, the overdressed Genie of the Lamp (whose secret ambition is to be a stand-up comedian); wicked Alison Wall as the nasty Uncle Abenazer/Dragon Empress of the Yellow Sea; Neill Duncan as the fey (and terribly wishy-washy) Wishee-Washee; and Grant Bridger as (the inexplicably Mexican) Omar the Sheriff. Oh, and not forgetting Jason Smith as Yehudi, "musical maestro and flim-flam controller". I took eight and 12-year-old boys along with me and they both enjoyed themselves mightily, although they weren't too keen to join the littlies and their parents performing that magical Arafi Song. I had to do that one. "Ah ram sam-sam, Ah ram sam-sam, Coolie-coolie-coolie-coolie-coolie . . ." Aw, come on, sing [514] 09-23-96 THE EVENING POST (WELLINGTON). Features: Entertainment. Page 5. 385 words. "Taking a break from Shortland Street." by Emily Simpson COMMENTARY: Interview with one of the stars of the New Zealand TV show Shortland Street, Kieren Hutchinson. Keiren Hutchinson played Talus, Gabrielle's just barely pubescent boy toy Talus in DEATH IN CHAINS. [KT]. These articles about the NZ guest stars are so far and few between that we have reprinted it. REPRINT: What: Shortland Street. Where: TV2. When: 7pm, Monday. SO, THIS is Wellington's main street." Kieren Hutchison has discovered Lambton Quay. Hutchison's Shortland Street character, Jonathan McKenna has been making mistakes lately at the clinic, and is leaving town to cool off and spend some time with his father. Meanwhile, the actor who plays him is getting to know Wellington, his home for the next six months, while he acts in a TV series of Swiss Family Robinson. Hutchison plays Ernst, the eldest Robinson son who's "on the brink of manhood". His father in the show is played by Richard Thomas, best known for playing John Boy on the Waltons. Speaking with a hint of the American accent his new role requires, Hutchison says he's having a great time playing the adventurous Ernst. Hutchison has wanted to be an actor since he was 10. He loved the movies as a kid, and says he's still a movie buff. He got involved in theatre at his high school in Whangarei and was planning to audition for drama school in Sydney when he landed the role of Jonathan McKenna. He was surprised. "I thought I did a shocking audition." Hutchison appreciates that Shortland Street wasn't afraid to have a gay character, and a non-stereotypical one at that. "The fact that Jonathan is gay is secondary. He's just one of the gang. I enjoyed playing him like that because it breaks down stereotypes." Of all his storylines, Hutchison says he enjoyed Jonathan's Aids scare most because it gave him some serious scenes and made him think a lot about who Jonathan was. Jonathan has a tendency to take off periodically, which has given Hutchison a chance to take other parts, such as Talus in Xena. "They keep sending Jonathan off to med school at Otago in Christchurch," he says, with a typically Auckland perspective on geography. Hutchison would like to act overseas, and has an agent in Sydney and LA, but at the moment, he says, he's living exactly how he wants to and sees no need to go anywhere. This week, however, he's off to Fiji for six weeks of filming the island scenes of Swiss Family Robinson. 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