THIS WEEK IN THE XENA NEWS....
TWXN #04
06/02/96


Brought to you by Xena: Media Review (XMR)

XMR is a periodic annotated review of mainstream media reports
found in electronic form regarding the 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@bak2.lightspeed.net. Excerpts from the
following cites will appear in future issues of XMR.


VARIETY. 05-27-96. Pg. 43. "Foreign buyers sneak a peek at fall
offerings" by Elizabeth Guider
   COMMENTARY: In an article about the "L.A. Screening", where
foreign tv buyers get their first chance to see what the US is
peddling, MCA's president of worldwide distribution, James
McNamara states that he anticipates Hercules and Xena to be big
sale items.


THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT (Norfolk, VA). 05-27-96. Pg. E1. "TV's Tops
and Flops from a Towering Adaption of "Gulliver's Travels" to
Fox's; Abrupt "Profit" Loss, Here's Television Critic Larry
Bonko's Look at the Best; and Worst of the 1995-96 Prime-time
Season." By Larry Bonko.
   COMMENTARY: In his summation of the best and worst of the
season, Larry Bonko cites Xena as "Worst impression of Wonder
Woman".


ATLANTA JOURNAL AND CONSTITUTION. 05-28-96. Features. 748 words.
"Channel Surfer; AMC Offers Peculiar Perspective on Brando" By
Bob Longino
   COMMENTARY: Reprint of XMR277a (THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
(Memphis). Appeal. Pg. 3C. 485 words. "'Nick News' teaches body
acceptance" By Joanne Weintraub)


LA WEEKLY. 05-31-96. Vol.18 No.27. Pg. 41. "Atlas, Shrugged;
Xena, Hercules, Barbie and Ken" By Arion Berger.
   COMMENTARY:  A negative review of XWP presented in a
commentary on our disintegrating popular culture.  The reviewer
offers HTLJ though with an apology, asking us to forgive it's
"faults".  The reviewer also makes enough many factual errors
that a knowledgeable reader would be inclined to think that the
reviewer only saw a single show, if not portions.
   The published criticism of XWP tends to be of three camps:
that it is excessively violent;  that it is based upon "stupid
history"; or that it is a form of Baywatch, i.e, a sexually
exploitative show.
   The violence spin was heard primarily in connection with the
introduction of the V-Chip and the voluntary ratings that
television producers will be expected to offer. XWP was the
posterchild of many articles which asked, 'Would it block out
Xena?' 'How would a show like Xena be rated?'. Thus far this
school of thought has not discussed the Hong Kong/Kung Fu film
antecedents of XWP and HTLJ (actually moreso with XWP than HTLJ),
nor have they adequately discussed the relative lack of graphic
violence in the shows in regard to their violence agruments.   
The stupid history camp bemoaned that XWP and HTLC were not
chronologically or traditionally correct. This party was
eloquently expressed in the notorius NPR "all Things Considered"
discussion on 04/23/96 (tentative XMR248).  Their arguments
include concern that younger children will not get the show and
always show alarm that they do not see on the screen what they
read in their dog-eared copies of Edith Hamilton or Robert Graves
mythology books.
   The Baywatch crowd deem both shows degrading to humankind and
beneath the dignity of any good upstanding citizen. Basically all
they see is a woman barely in leather riding around beating up
men.  That she only travels with a young woman is merely icing on
the cake.
   The author of tentative XMR280 has achieved what was no doubt
inevitable.  He has fused all the camps into a new hybrid. XWP
and HTLJ are an ugly but completely understandable result of this
culture. Because these shows jump out of our society's head, they
cannot be expected but to use stupid history, be violent, and to
be a Baywatch clone.  He takes the previous negative criticisms
and creates almost a Unified Field Theory of why XWP is not
nutrious.  His arguments, though, would have been better served
had he actually paid attention to the show and had taken on the
preceding artistic traditions of which XWP and HTLJ sprang from.  


THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. 05-31-96. "Trek' at warp speed; 'Xena'
pins 'Hercules'" By Jonathan Davies
   COMMENTARY:  Ratings for "Callisto". XWP earned a 5.1 and was
rated 2nd action hour.  HTLJ was 3rd, and ST:DS9 was 1st.


Pro0602
