THIS WEEK IN XENA  NEWS...  
TWXN 91
07/25/97
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. I have decided to take a break, cowboys and
cowgirls. TWXN for Monday will be summarily dismissed
and XMR #23 will be released on or about Tuesday, July
29th. And TWXN #92 will be released Wednesday and then
WHOOSH #11 will be released Friday, August 1st. That's
a lot of XENA. I hope you don't mind. 

2. Today's TWXN is YET ANOTHER solo article issue. This
time it is Larry Bonko's beloved interview with Lucy
Lawless which he moved heaven and earth to get. 

3. Next Wednesday (I am skipping Monday in order to
recover from SoCal XENA FEST III) we've got some more
dumb "Are Lucy Lawless and Kevin Sorbo getting married"
questions; a quick review of the cast of characters who
make Greek classical mythology 'classical'; we learn
about a Xenite from Texas; we say bye-bye to THE CAPE;
we do some serious Buffy analysis; and we visit
Orpheus, in the underworld of all places!


Here's the Bonko! Enjoy!!!


[    ] 03-10-97
   THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT (Norfolk, VA). Monday. Page E1.
1740 words. "Hero Worship. Hercules. Xena. They're
Tough. They're Sexy. And in the World of TV
Syndication, They're Muscling out the Competition." By
Larry Bonko
   COMMENTARY:
   EXCERPT:
   OH, WOW. Hercules is in trouble. He's lost his
superhuman strength. The cruel gods and bloodthirsty
warriors who have been trying for ages to destroy him
are succeeding.
   He's overmatched in hand-to-hand combat against a
small army of swordsmen. Clang! Bang! Clang! Hercules
is losing. He's fallen to his knees. I see blood. He's
hurt. If somebody doesn't help Hercules, he'll soon be
dead meat. Relax, Herc. Help is on the way.
''Yi-yi-yi-yi-yi!'' It's the battle cry of Xena,
Warrior Princess. She's come with her very large sword
and ''chakram'' - a razor-sharp Frisbee - to save her
bud Hercules. Cool. 
   On WTVZ a week or so ago, both Hercules and Xena
appeared in an episode of ''Hercules: The Legendary
Journeys,'' a crossover that doesn't happen often since
Xena spun off into a series of her own (''Xena: Warrior
Princess.'') I believe they were last seen together
freeing Prometheus from the Cave of Hephaestus. 
   ''Xena'' is doing phenomenally well in syndication
in its second season. Ratings are up 36 percent. In
syndication, it's the highest-rated drama. No show in
syndication is more popular with women 18 to 49 or with
teens. Men love ''Xena,'' too.   
   Do we ever. I'm not ashamed to admit I lust after
the Warrior Princess just as women I met at a gathering
of program syndicators in New Orleans recently had the
hots for Hercules. And Tarzan. And Sinbad. They pushed
to be close to Hercules (Kevin Sorbo). Women stood in
line to get an autograph from Tarzan (Joe Lara). They
melted before Sinbad (Zen Gesner). Me? I begged to
interview Xena (Lucy Lawless). In TV syndication, it's
the era of the superhero, who swashes and buckles in a
time long ago in a land of ancient gods, warriors,
kings, demons and monsters. And in no market is that
more obvious than Hampton Roads where WTVZ rolls out
Xena, Hercules, Tarzan and Sinbad from 3 until 8 p.m.
on Saturday with ''Baywatch'' tossed into the mix at 5.
''Hercules'' and ''Xena'' are seen on more than 200
stations in the U.S. and in 20 foreign countries.
Arriving in syndication in the fall is another
superhero: ''Conan, the Adventurer'' starring Ralf
Moeller. While ''Xena,'' with a 3.8 rating (almost 4
percent of Hampton Roads' 631,000 TV households), isn't
as hot here as was ''Star Trek: The Next Generation''
in that series' early years, it is ''extremely
popular,'' to quote Channel 33 spokesman Mark Hudgins.
The combined rating of the four Saturday superheroes on
Channel 33 is substantial: 9.0. For Xenaphiles here
whose appetite for the lovely Lucy is never satisfied,
there is joy on the weekends.
   ''Xena'' airs Saturday on WTVZ at 7 p.m. and again
on WTVZ Sunday at noon. Plus twice more on cable Sunday
with WGN showing it at 2 p.m. (unless preempted for
baseball) and 1:30 a.m. Monday. If viewers want even
more of Xena, her Internet connection is
www.mca.com/tv/xena. 
   ''I love the glitz,'' says Lawless of the fame that
has come her way almost overnight. Had she taken her
parents' suggestions to become a marine biologist, she
would have missed all this. 
   What is the appeal of ''Xena''? ''Fantasy and
friendship,'' said Lawless in New Orleans, where her
sword, chakram and leather costume were nowhere in
sight. She wore a designer pants suit in beige that
nicely set off her full-moon face, long, dark hair with
bangs and light-blue eyes. Lawless is 28, divorced, the
mother of 8-year-old Daisy. She has yet to recover
fully from falling off a horse during a silly piece of
business she was doing with Jay Leno on ''The Tonight
Show.'' That fall on hard pavement in Burbank, Calif.,
put her in the hospital for three weeks and all but
shut down production of ''Xena'' for three
months. 
   ''I still can't do some things on camera I did with
ease before the accident. I can't do some of my kicks,
and I still don't ride. But all things considered, I
had a miraculous recovery.'' Lawless uses a stunt
double today. She used a stunt double before her fall.
Although not yet 100 percent healthy, Lawless does the
sword fights and the scenes in which Xena is knocking
some poor warrior silly with a frying pan. ''I do
everything that's safe for me to do,'' she said. As
Xena, she has no noticeable accent while speaking what
she calls generic American. Off camera, she is
definitely Lawless, the New Zealander. The people she
meets in airports, at fan fests and conventions in the
U.S. are stunned when she opens her mouth. Out comes
the sound of New Zealand. It's like an Aussie accent,
but softer. ''They're also surprised I'm only 6 feet
tall. They expect someone much bigger. They say I'm
younger and prettier in person, which I like,'' said
Lawless.
   It is almost by accident that ''Xena'' has evolved
into the hottest, hippest and campiest drama outside
network television. She was introduced in ''Hercules''
as a power-mad warrior woman who set out to kill the
man she later learned to love.  Who knew she'd be a
star? If your memory is sharp, you'll recall Lawless as
Lyla, Deric the Centaur's young bride, and as Lysia,
the Amazon enforcer, on early episodes of ''Hercules,''
before she became Xena in a three-episode story arc.
Now she's strictly Xena, although the producers have
had her play three roles in some episodes, including
her dead-ringer friend, Princess Diana. It was a hoot
to see her playing her dark alter ego, the bad Xena, in
an episode in 1996. ''My name is Xena with a capital
Z.'' That's sly humor. Both ''Hercules'' and ''Xena''
have a lot of it. 
   Producers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert also use special
effects liberally, including 3-D animation. The four
syndicated shows about the superheroes are a mix of
action, computerized special effects, sexuality - if
you think Lawless has cleavage, check out Jacqueline
Collen of ''Sinbad'' - and dialogue that is a mix of
the Medieval and 1990s' one-liners. Hercules to a
warrior he's just flattened: ''That's gotta' hurt.''
After an episode of ''Xena'' in which Lawless'
character kissed a contestant in the Miss Known World
beauty pageant, one magazine suggested she's a lesbian.
The magazine dwelled on Xena's deep friendship with her
sidekick, Gabrielle, played with pluck by Renee
O'Connor.
   ''That's strictly friendship occurring between two
women who like and respect each other,'' said Lawless,
who's had it with all this lesbian buzz. She doesn't
mind talking about her private life, which is just now
settling down after the divorce. ''When I was off the
job recuperating at home, I sorted out some things with
my daughter that needed sorting out. I'm a much better
mother now. ''My daughter feels threatened by my role
as Xena. She feels that people want me to be Xena and
not the woman who is her mother. Daisy feels that other
people want a piece of me because I am Xena, and that
frightens her. At school, she is constantly asked, 'Is
your mommy Xena? Is your mommy Xena?' She feels that
she must share me with others, and that in some ways
she has lost her mother,'' said Lawless. Just as she
was arriving in New Orleans from New Zealand, where
''Xena'' is filmed near Auckland, her show began to
soar in the ratings. That's great, said Lawless, but
the best is yet to come. ''The show has yet to  
peak,'' she said. ''Xena has yet to conquer the U.S.
Midwest. How is it doing where you live?'' Fabulous, I
said. (When I asked Infoline callers if they liked the
syndicated shows with the four superheroes, and if so,
why, the neatest reply came from a 16-year-old Suffolk
girl. ''I don't watch 'Hercules' because Kevin Sorbo is
cute or a hunk or anything like that,'' she said. ''I
watch because he's a great role model.'') 
   A capsule summary of the syndicated superheroes:
''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys,'' WTVZ, Saturday at
6 p.m. and 1 a.m. Sunday - This series took off almost
immediately after its January 1995 premiere. Kevin
Sorbo stars as the the son of Zeus and mortal mother
Alemene. Hercules is strong, smart and has a sense of
humor. He's good at kick-boxing and swordplay and
facing down fire-breathing dragons. His sidekick is
Iolaus (Michael Hurst). Lately, ''Hercules'' has been
heavy on the dramatics as he lost his superhuman
strength and his wife, Deianeria, who was murdered.
''Xena: Warrior Princess,'' WTVZ, Saturday at 7 p.m.,
Sunday at noon - Just nine months after she first
appeared on ''Hercules'' in several Amazonian roles,
Xena had a series of her own starring Lucy Lawless in
the title role with Renee O'Connor as her spirited
sidekick. Lots of nice give-and-take between these two.
Xena, who was a dark character on ''Hercules,'' is now
the hero in a world of barbaric tribes, slave traders
and other evildoers. She's great at the martial arts,
can handle all the weapons of the time, and bounces
around like a circus acrobat. The producers have her
battling other women warriors, all manner of gods and
monsters (usually with one eye) and lately even had her
do a little time travel.
   ...Now stand by for the animated version of
Hercules, Tarzan, Xena and Sinbad. ''Yi-yi-yi-yi-yi!''
   GRAPHIC: Kevin Sorbo stars in "Hercules: The
Legendary Journeys" on WTVZ.


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". 


