THIS WEEK IN XENA NEWS....
TWXN 44
11/08/96

Brought to you by Xena: Media Review (XMR):
http://www.teleport.com/~gater/IAXS/IAXS.html

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.


Editor's note:
   XMR is, as always, behind schedule. But I did work
on it this week and anticipate a big attack this
weekend. It looks like it's going to be another big
one. I may chop it up further. As is, XMR #19 is
tentatively covering the dates from May 1st to 15th,
1996.
   WHOOSH is actually on schedule and it looks like
another fine issue will be available on-line on
November 17th. I have my act so together, I may release
the e-mail edition around the same time as the web
edition.

What was in the news:

   
[x056] 11-05-96
   THE COLUMBIAN. Tuesday. Page B3. 2002 words.
"Obituaries"
   COMMENTARY: Not a "XWP" mention, but in an obituary,
the town Xena, Kentucky is mentioned.


[    ] 11-05-96
   THE BUFFALO NEWS. Tuesday. Page 5C. 1118 words.
"Bills Blackout Is Political Football; Larry Quinn Does
A; Perot Imitation" by Alan Pergament
   COMMENTARY: Mr. Pergament wonders whether the local
Channel 49 will get any better ratings after running
HTLJs and XWPs through the November sweeps. Mr.
Pergament wrote about the channel, "It does have some
strong syndicated programming like 'Hercules' and
'Xena,' but those shows never did much of anything when
Channel 29 carried them. I suspect if the channel gets
a 2 or 3 share in November, that will be considered a
success."


[   c] 11-05-96
   THE ATLANTA JOURNAL AND CONSTITUTION. Tuesday. Page
07B. 763 words. "Channel Surfer. Deadline pressure
times two for Dansons" By Bob Longino
   COMMENTARY: More concern over the potential
stand-off between Xena, Warrior Princess and
Barbarella, Cartoon Babe. "Xena better look out," warns
Mr. Longino. "If [Barbarella] comes out as a weekly
adventure, it... [will] be doing battle with hits such
as 'Xena: Warrior Princess' and 'Hercules: The
Legendary Journeys'." 

[   ] 11-06-96
   SACRAMENTO BEE. Page E9. 600 words. ""Ransom' Makes
for Celebrity Jitters" By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel
Smith
   COMMENTARY: As if GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN
weren't enough! A plot spoiler pops up in the
Sacramento Bee of all places. The BEE reported that
starting on December 6, 1996, XWP would be taping an
episode where Xena goes under cover and enters the Miss
Amphipolis beauty contest where she discovers one of
the contestants is...gasp...a man named Miss Artyphys.
   First, the article starts with "And a unique (aren't
they all?) episode of 'Xena: Warrior Princess' is
scheduled to start filming Dec. 6." This aside of
"aren't they all" is another sly acknowledgment of the
reputation XWP is getting for being a unique and clever
show.
   Second, the article stated "It'll have Lucy Lawless'
character, Xena -- everybody's favorite mythological
syndicated TV heroine -- going undercover in the Miss
Amphipolis beauty contest." Again, the quote
"everybody's favorite mythological syndicated
character" attests to the writers (albeit begrudging
and somewhat sarcastic) acknowledgement that this show
is getting more popular. Also, sarcasm is an excepted
way of showing respect for the show since the show
never relents in it use of it's own quirky brand of
sarcasm. If you get the joke, it's hard not to be
sarcastic.
   Third, if the show is starting to film December 6th,
and Ms. Lawless is to appear in it (it didn't say
Gabrielle was going undercover!), then that means that
Ms. Lawless and the powers that be have determined that
Ms. Lawless is fit enough to start production. This is
happy news, indeed.
   Fourth, it could possibly be a "Xena-lite" episode,
but then...maybe not. 
   Fifth, it's nice to know that XWP isn't going "too
serious" on us all, after all.


[   ] 11-07-96
   THE WASHINGTON TIMES. Thursday. Page A18. 779 words.
"Networks deflated, polls berated and viewers sedated;
Electoral
projections misfire as anchors race to be first to make
call" by Jennifer Harper
   COMMENTARY: Interesting observation made that the
network's habit of running only election coverage on
Tuesday, November 5th, helped the independent stations
showing XWP and HTLJ on Tuesdays. The writer
anticipated that XWP & HTLJ's ratings would be affected
by people watching XWP instead of election results, at
least those Washington DC.


[   ]
   NOTE: GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN (#28), 1st release,
10/21/96. In the Nielsen, ranked as the 3rd action hour
with a 5.4 rating. The standings for action-hours were
as follows:
   1. HTLJ with 5.8
   2. ST:DS9 with 5.7
   3. XWP with 5.4


[   ] 11-08-96
   DAILY VARIETY. Friday. Page 29. 558 words. "Comic
king bows TV, pic unit" By Adam Dawtrey
   COMMENTARY: In an article about how the publisher of
the comic book 2000 AD (Egmont Fleetway) announced that
is was launching its own film and TV company to develop
projects based on their own characters (partly in
reaction to the dismal flop of "Judge Dredd"). The
article observed that "Sci-fi and fantasy adventure is
currently one of the hottest genres both for big-budget
movies and for the international TV market, with the
success not just of pics like 'Independence Day' but
also TV series such as 'The X-Files,' the various 'Star
Treks,' and MCA's firstrun syndie hits 'Hercules' and
'Xena.'"

