THIS WEEK IN XENA NEWS....
TWXN 61
01/23/97

Brought to you by Xena: Media Review (XMR):
http://xenafan.com/xmr

TWXN is the advance sheet for XMR. 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.

From the editor:
   1. The convention waylaid me, but I am back with a
vengeance AND a very fearful amount of backlog. I am
going to send out the TWXNs as fast as I can do them,
but I will be also be working on XMR #21, WHOOSH #5,
and this thing called a "day job". So please bear with
me.
   2. Because of the backlog, I will not offer my usual
pedantic commentary. I will let most of the articles
speak for themselves, for a change.
--Kymster


[    ] 12-23-96
   NOTE: ORPHAN OF WAR (#25), 2nd release, 11/25/96.
Ranked 3rd action hour with a 5.1 rating. [1st release:
Ranked as the 3rd action hour with a 5.3 rating.]
   Comparison with other action hours: (1) ST:DS9
ranked 10th with 6.0; (2) HTLJ ranked 11th with 5.5;
(3) XWP ranked 12th with 5.1; (4) BAYWATCH ranked 17th
with 3.5; (5) OUTER LIMITS ranked 20th with 3.9.


[    ] 01-02-97
   OMAHA WORLD HERALD. Thursday. Page 43. 972 words.
"It Was a Model Year for Trend-Setting"
   EXCERPT:
   Stylish memories, fashionable  trendsetters, runway
spotlights and glittery  clothes made headlines in
1996.
   Here's a  roundup of interesting tidbits that found
their way into this reporter's notebook....
   ...Hunk in Leather Worth Watching Actor Kevin Sorbo,
star of the  syndicated TV series "Hercules: The
Legendary  Journeys," does more for leather than any ad
in  Vogue, Bazaar, Elle or Allure.
   The  long-haired, muscle-bound Sorbo, in his brown 
leather pants and tan suede tunic top - with  shredded
seams - takes the brrrrrr out of a  cold winter night.
   Hairdressers, however,  may disagree on the straggly
haircut and may  even suggest that the character could
use a  good trim.
No matter. He still looks good.
   For balance, we need to mention Lucy  Lawless, who
plays the lead role in "Xena:  Warrior Princess." The
woman does a mean style  show on her series, complete
with what authors  Valerie Frankel and Ellen Tien
describe  in "Prime-Time Style: The Ultimate TV Guide
to  Fashion Hits and Misses" as a look that  features
"dominatrix fashion, lots of leather  and a bad
attitude." The actress's  costume could pass for
something at a haute  couture runway show in Europe.
Her sculptured,  strapless outfit with its strips of
leather  dangling from the waist appears to be a 
combination of the best and worst of Versace  and Jean
Paul Gaultier, enhanced with a little  bit of Wonder
Woman....
   ...GRAPHIC: WHAT A HUNK: Kevin Sorbo gives leather a
boost in his TV series "Hercules: The Legendary
Journeys."


[     ] 01-04-97
   THE RECORD. Saturday. Page Y01. 890 words. "Sherwood
Forest 90210; a Rockin Robin Hood Joins Tv's Pantheon
of Hip Mythic Heroes" by Jim Beckerman
   COMMENTARY: I know I am not supposed to be
commenting...but! This article was purportedly about
ROBIN HOOD, but it really is about how successful XWP
and HTLJ are! And it is all too clear that the
producers of ROBIN HOOD want the viewers AND THE
reporter to think of XWP and HTLJ when mentioning ROBIN
HOOD. But do not be fooled, gentle reader! 
   EXCERPT:
   Robbing from the rich to give to the poor? Gimme a
break. 
   A new Robin Hood is swinging into action on TNT
starting at 10 p.m. Jan. 13.
   Expect the usual fighting, leaping, jousting,
dueling, and carousing.
   What you won't get are the usual marrys, tarrys,
m'lady's, and m'lords.  
   "We say things like, Well, well, well, if it isn't
Guy of Gisbourne, or Gimme a break, "
says Matthew Porretta, who plays a rockin Robin for the
Nineties in "The New Adventures of Robin Hood."
   The new show, a Warner Bros. International
Television Production licensed by TNT, also airs at 8
p.m. Saturdays.
   If that jaunty, tongue-in-cheek tone seems familiar,
you may be thinking of"Hercules, The Legendary
Journeys"and"Xena, Warrior Princess,"two hit shows from
Universal that have rewritten the rule book on
syndicated television.
   Not to mention the speech patterns of mythic heroes,
who now sound as if they were ordering a Budweiser at a
truck stop. 
   "One of the things we said is, Let's go easy on the
m'ladys, " says Lisa Mateas, senior vice president of
programming for TNT. 
   That's also been the rule of thumb for"Hercules"and
"Xena,"which has its Greek heroes saying things
like"yep"and"nope"and"You'd better travel on your own,
pal." The Joe Sixpack dialogue, combined with fights,
stunts, and special effects, is a key to selling these
shows overseas, where lots of money can be made with
shows that have simple, universal appeal. 
   The domestically produced"Hercules" and"Xena"are
seen in more than 35 international markets, while"The
New Adventures of Robin Hood,"produced by a European
consortium, has been sold to 60 overseas markets.
   Those foreign sales have a great deal to do with the
high production values of the shows, both
"Hercules"and"Xena"cost well over $ 1 million per
episode, making them comparable to network shows that
must snag much higher ratings to stay on the air.
   "A lot of these action shows get by on a one or a
two rating," said Jim Benson, spokesman for Universal
Television Enterprises, which distributes
"Hercules"and"Xena."(By comparison, a recent rerun of
"Seinfeld,"the top-rated network show of the holiday
season, got a 14.4 rating. A rating point represents 1
percent of the nation's 97 million TV households.).
Moreover, the shows are all filmed in places like New
Zealand ("Hercules" and"Xena") and Lithuania ("Robin
Hood"), where talent and material come cheap.
   In the company of Anna Galvin (Marion), Richard
Ashton (Little John), Martyn Ellis (Friar Tuck), and
veteran horror star Christopher Lee (Olwyn the
Magician), Porretta is playing the old British legend
with a wink and a nod.
   As well he might."Hercules, The Legendary Journeys,"
which gives a similarly flip treatment to the mythical
Greek strongman, is currently seen on 218 stations
nationwide, placing it neck-and-neck with"Star Trek:
Deep Space Nine" as the most popular show in
syndication. "Xena, Warrior
Princess,"a"Hercules"spinoff, ranks a close second. 
   Both shows yielded souvenir books, soundtrack
albums, action figures, Web sites, and fan clubs.
Meanwhile, other production companies are dusting
off"Tarzan"and"Sinbad"to get a piece of the exploding
TV action market.
    Just how did costume adventure, the stuff of
late-night Steve Reeves movies and dour Kevin Costner
epics, suddenly become the hippest of the hip TV fare?
   Blame"Hercules" executive producers Robert Tapert
and Sam Raimi, who brought the same quirky humor to
such cult films as"The Evil Dead" (1983) and "Army of
Darkness"(1992).
   "What made Hercules a hit was the combination of
fantasy, tongue-in-cheek humor, good writing, and good
acting,"Benson says. 
   "Also, we put a lot of money on the screen."
"Hercules" made its debut in 1994 as a one-shot
feature, part of a
series of rotating two-hour action movies, and by 1995
had graduated into a series. By 1996, it was an
international phenomenon. 
   "You don't have a lot of action hours on television
anymore," TNT's Mateas says."You don't have a lot of
cop shows, that kind of thing, but there's always been
a healthy viewership for those, if they're well done."
   Keeping pace with "Hercules,""Xena,"and other
competitors may be a bigger challenge for"Robin
Hood"than any of the show's numerous villains, which
include monsters, space aliens, and Vikings along with
traditional bad guys like the Sheriff of Nottingham.
   "You can rob from the rich and give to the poor only
so much before people get bored,"says Porretta, a
Connecticut native who is dallying in Sherwood Forest
for the second time in his career, he appeared as Will
Scarlett O'Hara in the Mel Brooks spoof"Robin Hood: Men
in Tights."
Playing the legendary outlaw of Sherwood Forest was a
lifelong dream for Porretta, who remembers seeing the
old Errol Flynn "Adventures of Robin Hood"(1938) on
television as a boy, and going outside afterward to
duel with his brother Greg, who assumed Basil
Rathbone's role as the evil Guy of Gisbourne.
    Now, the brothers have come full circle, with Greg
guest-starring on"The New Adventures of Robin Hood"as,
what else?, Guy of Gisbourne.
   "It was like we were 10 years old and playing in the
woods again,"  Matthew Porretta says.
   GRAPHIC: Matthew Porretta plays the title role
in"The New Adventures of Robin Hood," 2 - which joins
the genre of"Xena"
3 - and"Hercules."
