THIS WEEK IN XENA  NEWS...  
TWXN 103
08/29/97
Friday

The advance sheet of XENA MEDIA REVIEW (XMR):
http://xenafan.com/xmr

Excerpts from the following cites will appear in future
issues of XMR.


From the editor:

1. IN HONOR OF JACQRAT'S BIRTHDAY TODAY, I have the
pleasure of annoucing YET another exciting organization
for XENA Fans! Yes, the '39er Club. The '39er Club is
open to fans of XWP who turned or will turn 40 between
the dates of September 1995 to May 2001. Just write me
at ktaborn@lightspeed.net with the subject '39er Club
and you too can be a part of this exciting
organization. 

2. I KID YOU NOT. Yes, it is Jacqrat's birthday today
so send those cards, letters, fan mail, and virtual
flowers to Jacqrat@aol.com

3. It has come to my attention that TWXN #102 was
rejected by someone's server because it contained
"banned or potentially offensive text". It was the
issue with the Ngila Dickson article and my
announcement of "The Men of XWP" issue of WHOOSH. This
is most peculiar. Someone suggested that is was because
Ngila Dickson is such a racey gal that the server could
not handle it. Another suggested that my use of the
word "thang", as in "men thangs", was interpreted as
being a euphemism for a precious male body part. That
is just a vicious rumor, by the way. And yet another
felt that the use of the words "leather" and "lingerie"
in one e-mail was too intense. Whatever the reason, it
is a ****ens of a conundrum.

4. After Ngila Dickson, today's TWXN pales somewhat (I
anticipate no rejections for content today!). Sorry
Jacqrat, but that's life. The solitary article for
today is about how Hollywood is milking mythology and
the classics for new blood. Our heroes, Xena and Herc,
not surprisingly, are on the crest of the wave.

4. And what does the future hold for us in TWXN land?
Lots of what I call cultural references. It is where a
reference about XWP pops up out of the blue and the
writer assumes his audience will understand exactly
what he or she means. We are on the road to becoming
mainstream and on the road to becoming a part of
popular culture and our urban legends. Also, in TWXN
#104, we will read about how Israel is taking to "butch
Xena and her girly sidekick Gabrielle", learn about Ms.
Lawless' obsession with the Detroit Red Wings hockey
team (uh-oh), and briefly hear about Mindy Clarke (aka
Velasca and the Preying Mantis science teacher on
BUFFY). Does that get you into a frenzy of
aniticipation or what?


And here's the story:


[    ] 04-13-97
   THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER. Sunday. Page F08. 2013
words. "Classic Rocks Trends: With 'The Odyssey,'
'Xena' and two takes on 'Hercules,' the ancient
classics are on Hollywood's cutting edge" By Valerie
Takahama (The Orange County Register)
   EXCERPT:
   Memo to Hollywood: Homer has heat!  Mythology is
hip!  Forget space travel and cloned dinosaurs.  Story
lines about long sea voyages, heroic men and capricious
gods are the next hot thing.
   Like the Greek gods themselves, this revival of the
classics can assume many shapes and attitudes  from
playful and irreverent to poetic and highly respectful 
and it's all for a mainstream '90s audience...
   ...This resurgence of the classics cuts across the
cultural landscape.  Surprise successes are the campy
syndicated television series "Hercules: The Legendary
Journeys" and its spinoff, "Xena: Warrior Princess,"
the top-rated, syndicated hour-long shows.  And a new
translation of "The Odyssey" by Princeton classics
Professor Robert Fagles,acclaimed for its crisp modern
language and sensitivity to women's issues, is selling
briskly.
   What's going on here?  It's as if the Sirens are
singing and
everybody's rushing out to buy the CD.
   "It's not that the classics tell stories that are
easy or lightweight.  In fact, they tell stories
typically of a lot of struggle," says Fagles, whose
book has sold 64,500 copies and is in its seventh
printing.
   "But in the classics, struggle is often ennobling. 
And struggle at times, as in 'The Odyssey,' results in
success.  That's very encouraging.  You can earn your
way in the classical world at times. "
   This renaissance of Greek mythology comes as
interest in modern classics has reached near-Olympian
heights.  In recent years, Hollywood has discovered
Shakespeare, Jane Austen, E.M. Forster, the Brontes,
Edith Wharton and a legion of other revered writers.
   "People are now not looking for new genius writers
but are looking at their bookshelves and discovering
things that are wonderful," says Robert Halmi,
executive producer of "The Odyssey. " 
   "Why?  Simply, it's better.  Nothing exciting or
extravagant about that," continues Halmi, whose
miniseries of 18th-century satirist Jonathan Swift's
"Gulliver's Travels" was an Emmy  and ratings  winner
last year.  "It's literature that is worth reading. "
   So why this sudden interest in stories that are
literally thousands of years old?
   "I don't have the foggiest idea.  We could chalk it
up to the end of the millennium," says Robert Tapert,
executive producer of "Hercules" and "Xena. "
   "It strikes us as peculiar as well," admits Alice
Dewey, producer of Disney's "Hercules. " "I think these
stories have an archetypal appeal and have had a
resonance throughout the eons, for whatever reason.
   "Why this particular resurgence right now, I don't
know, but
it certainly is intriguing. "
    WHEN IN ROME
    How's this for a theory: A funny thing happened to
the classics on the way to Hollywood.
   Through the centuries, the popularity of all things
Greek and Roman has periodically waned and been revived
anew.  As any art-history student can attest, the
Renaissance, the age of Enlightenment in the 18th
century and the Romantic era in the 19th century each
had their own classical movements, and each ageremade
the classics to suit its own time.
   The most recent resurgence hit in the 1950s.  The
film industry, the modern-day taste-purveyor, cast
body-builder Steve Reeves in "Hercules," "Hercules
Unchained" and other low-budget movies based on ancient
myths.  Stars such as Kirk Douglas and Charlton Heston
appeared in a string of big-budget spectaculars set in
ancient Rome, such as "Spartacus" and "Ben Hur. "
There's even a name for the genre: sword-and-sandal
flicks.
   Tacky and dated as they seem now, the movies made a
big impression in their day  and they reflected their
times, says William G. Thalmann, classics professor at
the University of Southern California.
   "My first exposure to the classics were the
Hollywood films of the 1950s," Thalmann says.  "As I
look back on it, a lot of it was connected with
American culture in the '50s, fairly conservative,
expansionist economically.  There was a lot of interest
in Rome."
   Given that parallel, it's tempting also to trace the
roots of the current classical revival to the social
and political conservatism of these times.  It was
conservative politicians, after all, who started to
push for a "core curriculum," a renewed focus on
educational basics, including the central texts of
Western civilization.
   Meanwhile, though, classical studies in the academic
world has been rocked by a new wave of thinkers.  In
the '70s, feminist and gay- and black-studies scholars
began to focus on the classics and ancient
civilizations.  In a somewhat staid field, they've
sparked lively debate on issues such as the African
roots of ancient Greece and the motivations of female
characters such as Helen of Troy and Penelope.
   So the current revival may reflect two moods  one
conservative and traditionalist, the other liberal and
multicultural.
   "It's a matter of who succeeds in imposing his
interpretation on these things.  These models are sort
of up for grabs, and political debates get turned into
debates over how you interpret them," Thalmann says. 
   Whatever its roots, classics scholars are happy
about the resurgence.
   "I can assure you, classicists didn't plan this, but
we certainly welcome the advertisement," says Maria
Pantelia, associate professor of classics atthe
University of California, Irvine.
   Nor are they likely to grumble if Disney skips some
of the labors of Hercules or if the miniseries' star,
Armand Assante, isn't their ideal Odysseus.  "There are
so many different versions of the myths.  Depending on
which author you read, you get a different version,"
Pantelia explains.  "So actually, we welcome different
interpretations of myths, because they show how
timeless they are. "
   UPDATING FOR THE TIMES
   That openness to contemporary slants seems to have
had a liberating effect on the creative talents who put
together the new projects....
   ...Tapert, with partner Sam Raimi, felt compelled to
take liberties with the Hercules myth for the TV show,
which premiered in January 1995.
   "We said we can't put on the myths right on the
screen; they're too horrible.  Hercules takes an ax and
chops up his family.  You can't put that on," he says.
   "Herc can't go out and kill the Nemean lion or kill
a bunch of wild pigs.  It doesn't play in modern day. 
So we had to find a way to make it have the same
mythological feel and be applicable to a modern
audience. " 
   He says they took notes on other elements to avoid
from the old Hercules movies.
   "We decided that our hero was not going to wear a
toga," he says.  "That we were going to make the
dialogue much more contemporary.  And that we weren't
going to exist in a desert world filled with ruins. "
(The show is shot in lush New Zealand.)...
   ...SIDEBAR
   ...HOW THE MODERNSHOWS CAST THE CLASSICS
   Hercules: Strongest man on Earth.  Son of Zeus and a
mortal woman. Completed the 12 labors of Hercules,
which included cleaning out the Augean stables and
bringing back the girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the
Amazons.  In "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys," he is
played by Kevin Sorbo and knows martial arts.  In
Disney's "Hercules," he is a celebrity-athlete who
learns the true meaning of "hero. "...
   ...CHART:
   WHERE THE CLASSICS ARE...
   ..."Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" airs at 4 and
8 p.m. Saturday on KTLA/5.
    "Xena: Warrior Princess" airs at 5 and 9 p.m.
Saturday on KTLA/5.
   GRAPHIC: ...'XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS'; The syndicated
show, a spinoff of the 'Hercules' series, stars Lucy
Lawless as the fiercely independent Xena.(F10);
HERCULES; The nebulousness of the original Hercules
tale leaves plenty of room for new animated or
live-action interpretations. Kevin Sorbo, above right,
and Michael Hurst star in 'Hercules; the Legendary
Journeys.'; FUN WITH THE CLASSICS; Old myths have
sneaked back into public consciousness like a Trojan
horse, served straight, as in 'The Odyssey,' above, or
with the campy touches of 'Xena; Warrior Princess,' the
syndicated TV series....


Notices:

All back issues of XMR and TWXN are available at
(http://xenafan.com/xmr). We herein give praise and
thanks to Tom Simpson for the space he has graciously
donated from his spectacular, TOM'S XENA PAGE
(http://xenafan.com). If you have never been there, you
are **not** a xenafan!

TWXN is the advance sheet for XMR, an annotated world
press review of reports regarding the internationally
syndicated television show XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS (1995
- 2000+?) and the castmembers, Lucy Lawless and Renee
O'Connor. TWXN is not available for subscription,
however it is posted Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on
the XenaVerse, Hercules-Xena, and Chakram Mailing Lists
(thank you Lucia! I am greatly indebt to you), the MCA
NetForum, the Xenite Message Center, and alt.tv.xena. I
also would like to thank sirvin@law.wfu.edu for
assitance in collecting the newstories. For a free
e-mail subscription to XMR subscribe by e-mail to
ktaborn@lightspeed.net by stating somewhere in the
subject or text "sub xmr". 

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACQUIE!!! HAVE A GOOD ONE.
