     _____               ______                               ._
     `\`/>`\            /`/` /`__________,.'>___      _____   )~\
       /<`\ `\        /`/` /``\ \./------> /|\./\     |\./|  / | \
      /< `\`\ `\    /`/` /`   | | |----\ /  | |\ \    | | |././^\ \
 |\__{o}\--`\`\ `\/`/` /`-----| | |-----`------\`\`\--| | |----^ \ \----.
[\\\\\\\{*}==`>      <`=======| | ==============`\`\`\| | |=====\ \ \==-->
 |/~~{o}/-- /`/  /\ \ `\------| | |---------------`\`\\ | |------\ \ \--'
      \<  /`/` /`  `\`\ `\    | | |_____,.'>| | |   `\`\| | /'    \ \ \
       \< /` /`      `\`\ `\  ,/ /^\------> / |/^\|   \ | |/       \/^\\.
      /`/\>/`           `\`\ `\`~~~~~~~~~~~\ / ~~~~~   )^\,\,      '~~~~~
     `~~~~~`             '~~~~~`            `          ~~~~~~

==========================
XENA: THE MEDIA REVIEW #18 Part 1 of 3
==========================
An All Talk No Action Publication
http://www.teleport.com/~gater/IAXS/IAXS.html
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This document has 3148 lines (in three parts)

PART 1 OF 3

Xena Media Review (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. Copyright,
legal, and editorial notices are found at the end of
this newsletter.

Issue No. 18
Release date: October 20, 1996
Covering 04/22/96 - 04/29/96
Annotations 248 to 259


------------
Introduction
------------

HOLIDAY GREETING!
 
   I am a member of the Baha'i Faith and today is a
very special day for Baha'is. It is the date of the
commemoration of the birthday of The Bab. The Bab was
one of the prophet-founders of the Baha'i Faith. It's a
day when Baha'is gather with friends and family and
take a moment to be thankful for the friendships they
have made and for their family.
   I think of my fellow XWP fans as a part of my
extended family. How lucky that I could release one of
my sporadic issues of XMR on such a symbolic date! I
love coincidences. And what better time could there be
to thank my subscribers for their support and kind
words for all these months? Without you, the reader,
this newsletter would not be half as fun or half as
fulfilling. I go back and forth constantly debating
with myself whether I might be taking this Xena stuff a
tad too far; but it is you, the subscriber to XMR, that
reminds me that I am not the only one that enjoys the
heck out of XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS. To produce XMR is a
labor, but it's a labor of love. Then to be able to
share this love with others who enjoy the result as
much as I do, is probably as close as I will get to
nirvana in this life-time. 
   I suspect I may be the only Baha'i that is active in
XWP fandom (hey! if there are any of you out there,
write me NOW!), however, holidays are universal and I
wanted to wish everyone a wonderful Birthday of The
Bab!


300TH SUBSCRIBER!!!

   Amazing as it seems, XMR processed its 300th
subscriber on 09/21/96. All hail Xanth at
Voyageronline.net! We should reach 400 by the next XMR
(does life get any better than this? I think not!)
   For those who keep track of such things, the 200th
subscriber was Lois Price (who subscribed 06/25/96 but
unsubscribed 09/25/96 - sniff); the 100th was Sjepsen
at Verinet.com who subscribed 05/09/96, AND STILL IS A
SUBSCRIBER...let's hear it for Ms. Jepsen! If she had
been male, I would have offered to have her child); and
the VERY FIRST subscriber to XMR was Jill Dybka who
subscribed 03/23/96 and unsubscribed 05/06/96 -- hmmm,
am I detecting a pattern?). 


XMR AND BEYOND

   It has been about two months since XMR #17 (kind of
embarrassing). Since then two issues of WHOOSH (the
Journal of the International Association of Xena
Studies) have been produced, three episodes of the
second season of XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS have been
released, and XMR is stuck in a very peculiar, yet
intentional, time warp. 
   In the spring and summer of 1996, I was blessed with
more free time than I really needed. In those months
XMR, IAXS, and WHOOSH were conceived of and born.
Invariably, these projects have taken on a life of
their own and haunt me now that free time has become a
luxury. I cannot offer XMR other than when my schedule
permits. I am ever more fortunate in having such a
loyal readership. Without you guys and gals to share
the fruits of my obsession with, I would appear much
more eccentric than I do now. I am extremely
appreciative of that!
   With so much time devoted to following the media
reaction and coverage of XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS, I am
in the somewhat unique position of being able to follow
general trends and interesting fads which come and go.
Although the press is just one small sub-set of the
sociological impact of XWP on our culture, it
nonetheless offers insights into the entire process of
culturization. We are what we read and watch. The
writers and producers of what we read and watch are
part of this culture as well. It is a self-perpetuating
system.
   The show XWP has become what the fifth estate calls
a "cult hit". It has attracted scores of highly devoted
fans which almost singlehandedly created a frenzy of
activity and devotion which was both passionate unto
itself and, sadly, incomprehensible to some. This
passion has caused informal XenaFest gatherings across
the United States; has maintained high usage areas such
as several mailing lists, a usenet newsgroup
(alt.tv.xena), the MCA NetForum, and local "real-time"
discussion groups; has produced a grassroots national
fan club; has inspired the publication of several on-
line and off-line fan created periodicals; and has
generated tons of fan designed and maintained web
pages. And those just listed were primarily
contributions from the on-line community. There are
even more Xena fans who are not on-line. What you are
reading now is an common example of the level of
devotion and the commitment of hours of time which are
dedicated voluntarily to the study, the enthusiasm, and
the celebration of the show XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS.
   What gives? It is just a show after all!
   But what a show. Yes, I am biased; however, one
cannot deny the fact that there is enough in this
television show to maintain and feed such intense
allegiance and interest. The media is just now starting
to show this through the rise of professional
journalists who happen to be fans and/or astute
observers of popular culture. 


JAY LENO AND BEYOND

   News of the injury Lucy Lawless sustained while
filming a skit on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno has
swamped the media (the injury happened 10/08/96). If no
one had noticed XWP before, they now know that the star
had been injured. Will this affect the (what is looking
like an inevitable) shift of XWP from cult favorite to
mainstream hit? Only time will tell. (For those who are
confused, a cult favorite is Babylon 5 or Highlander; a
mainstream hit is X-Files or Star Trek).
   I trust that others will write detailed accounts of
the post-Leno taping party. I attended, but suffice it
to say that the most amazing part of the party for me
was that I wound up sitting across the table from
Quest, Xana and Darkmuse again (just as I had at
XenaFest II back in July). I don't think it was in the
least bit purposeful. Darkmuse was with Quest and Xana,
and Xana did not remember me from the last time (so
much for my magnetic personality). Darkmuse did
recognize me. She recognized me beforehand after I had
been standing in line for three and a half hours! I
rewarded her acknowledgement by allowing her to cut
ahead of me in line. It paid off for her since we sat
pretty close to the stage (not on the floor seats, but
in the front bleachers). 
   Now that I am recalling the day and I am "name-
dropping" I also remember being rude to Don Frozina
when I bragged to him that the WHOOSH episode guide had
posted the disclaimer to ORPHAN OF WAR before his page
did. It's a wonder anyone talks to me at these things!
(Actually, it's probably because they don't remember
me. Wow! What a paradox. I should be writing Star Trek
episodes.)
   At the party afterwards I had the pleasure of making
the acquaintance of Robert Tapert and R. J. Stewart (I
doubt they would remember me though since all 50+
attendees were pressing a lot of flesh and I have this
magnetic personality which apparently repels memories
...). They were very gracious with their time. They had
very kind words for XMR, TWXN (This Week in Xena News),
IAXS, and WHOOSH.


SOMETHING THAT SHOULD BE LONGER BUT ISN'T aka
IN DEFENSE OF XWP, SECOND SEASON

   With three episodes into the second season, some
fans of the show have started on an "it's not as good
as last season" mantra and have started accusing the
creators of betraying fandom. Heh heh. My opinion of
that is that those who feel this way are free to watch
the first season as much and as often as they wish. I,
on the other hand, want to see how the producers of XWP
will continue to experiment and develop the show. 
   We know that XENA has been renewed through her third
season. There is even talk of further renewal into a
fourth and fifth season!  The willingness of the
producers and writers to try new methods and their
unrestrained tendency to force their characters to
suffer through varied, unconventional, and sometimes
just downright bizarre situations -- just in order to
see what would happen! -- is for me, one of the more
rewarding joys of watching the show. 
   I say, "So what!" if Xena has a child; Gabrielle
gets married; Xena discovers EVEN MORE relatives; the
gals have more close encounters with YHWH; or even if
Gabrielle attempts further relationships of the week
with almost pre-pubescent boys. I trust that the
writers and producers will maintain that level of
respect and professionalism that they so carefully
nurtured the first season. I have had the luck of
discussing the show tete-a-tete with some of the Xena
staff and I could tell that their devotion and love of
the show was just as intense and real and obsessive as
anything I have seen in myself or fandom. Call me a
pollyanna, but I am not fearful of the season up ahead.
In fact, I am anticipating that it will easily far
exceed anything done in the first season, and I feel
that a lot was accomplished the first season. 


NEW XWP NEWSLETTER ANNOUNCED!

   I have the honor of announcing a new XWP fan
publication which will be appearing soon in an e-mail
box near you! It will be an eclectic e-mail publication
with emphasis on humor and all things Xena. The working
title of the newsletter is CENTAURS DON'T EAT HAY. If
you'd like to get a free charter subscription, just e-
mail errorlog@cris.com with the subject "sub CDEH". 


YET ANOTHER PROJECT: XWP FANS AROUND THE WORLD

   As XWP is now being shown around the world, I
thought it would be interesting if XMR subscribers from
countries other than the United States and Canada would
send me an e-mail talking about XWP fandom in their
country. Please send me any all thoughts on this to
ktaborn@lightspeed.net.


INTO THE WAYBACK MACHINE

   What was going on the last week or so of April 1996
in the Xenaverse? Plenty! Let's get into the wayback
machine! There were development deals made with German
TV RTL and the Minnesota based BestBrains; the RTL deal
was to produce two HTLJ/XWP like shows for Germany; the
24 episodes of the first season were shamelessly hawked
at MIPCOM; it was released that XWP scored a 4.6 rating
and a 7 share in the February 1996 sweeps; ALTARED
STATES aired in some markets in the USA; NPR worried
over the influence of "stupid history"; the TORONTO
STAR found XWP to be "mindless junk"; ratings for the
first release of BEWARE THE GREEKS were published; and
someone dared share their thoughts on tough women in
popular entertainment.
   All and all, it was a rather pleasant week. Enjoy.
---Kym


--------
TIMELINE
--------
 4/08/96  12R  Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts 
 4/15/96  13R  Athens City Academy of the Performing
Bards 
 4/22/96  19   Altared States


------------------------------------
LIST OF ANNOTATIONS FOUND IN XMR #18
------------------------------------

Amended Annotations
-------------------
[050.1] 10-01-95 SCI-FI UNIVERSE. Vol. 2. No. 10. P.23
[050.15]10-01-95 SCI-FI UNIVERSE. Vol. 2. No. 10. P.25.
[050.4] 10-01-95 CINESCAPE. Vol. 2 No. 1. Page 74.
[050.2] 10-01-95 SCI-FI UNIVERSE. Vol. 2. No. 10. P.27. 
[073.5] 11-06-95 20/20. New Zealand TV show. 
[149.5] 01/26/96 KTLA. Morning Show. 
[160] 02-09-96 ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT. TV Show.
[169] 02-15-96 AMERICAN JOURNAL. TV Show. Syndicated.
[215.7] 03-29-96 XENA MEDIA REVIEW. No. 1. 
[221] 04-04-96 PHILADELPHIA FORUM. Vol. 1. No. 9. P.7.
[222.5] 04-05-96 XENA MEDIA REVIEW. No. 2. 
[227] 04-09-96 CBS. The David Letterman Show. 11:35pm.
[233.5] 04-12-96 XENA MEDIA REVIEW. No. 3. 
[247.5] 04-20-96 XENA MEDIA REVIEW. No. 4.


Annotations
-----------
[248]  04-22-96 to 04-25-96
[248a] 04-22-96 THE PATRIOT LEDGER. Page 15.
[248b] 04-25-96 AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN. Page 52. 
[249] 04-22-96 to 05-01-96
[249a] 04-22-96 THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. 
[249b] 04-22-96 DAILY VARIETY. Page 8. 
[249c] 04-29-96 VARIETY. Page 35. 
[249d] 04-29-96 BROADCASTING & CABLE. V.126.N.19.P.29. 
[249e] 05-01-96 TV BUSINESS INTERN'L. May 1996. P.12. 
[250] 04-22-96 FORBES. Page 118. 
[251] 04-22-96 EUROPEAN MEDIA BSN & FINANCE. N.9, V.6. 
[252] 04-22-96 ELECTRONIC MEDIA. Page 1. 
[253] 04-22-96 ALTARED STATES. Ep. no. 19. 1st release. 
[254] 04-23-96 NPR. Radio Show: All Things Considered 
[255] 04-24-96 THE TORONTO STAR. Page D2. 
[256] 04-25-96 to 04-29-96
[256a] 04-25-96 DAILY VARIETY. Page 13. 
[256b] 04-25-96 DAILY VARIETY. Page 7. 
[256c] 04-29-96 VARIETY. Page 39. 
[257] 04-26-96 XENA MEDIA REVIEW. No. 5. 
[257] 04-28-96 THE TORONTO STAR. Page C1. 
[258] 04-29-96 MEDIAWEEK. Vol. 6. No. 18. Page 42


-------------------
AMENDED ANNOTATIONS
-------------------

[050.1] 10-01-95
   SCI-FI UNIVERSE. Vol. 2. No. 10. Page 23. "Herc's So
Good. Executive producers Robert Tapert and Sam Raimi
pull off another guilty pleasure with Hercules: The
Legendary Journeys". By Dan Vebber.
   COMMENTARY: Passing mention in a full-color four
page interview/spread on HTLJ and Kevin Sorbo.
   Transcription by Sylvia Varela
   EXCERPT:
   Executive producers Robert Tapert and Sam Raimi pull
off another guilty pleasure with Hercules: The
Legendary Journeys Kevin Sorbo is grateful for his
pants.  More specifically, he's grateful that the
ridiculous woven leather trousers he dons to play the
son of Zeus were designed not with regard for
historical or mythological accuracy, but for comfort
and style, conforming to the campy feel so often
prevalent on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.  "My
greatest concern was that they'd make me wear a toga,"
Sorbo says.  "When I first saw the costume, I was
pleasantly surprised to see it was more of a Robin Hood
meets The Last of the Mohican's thing."
   On Sorbo's latest acting gig, togas are few and far
between, the most surprisingly popular reshaping of the
Hercules mythos in years.  In fact, the show's success
is undoubtedly due at least in part to its smarmy
refusal to appear in any way to be an accurate
Greco-Roman period piece.  The columned temples,
flowing robes and poetry drenched dialogue of past
mythology spawned programs and movies are conspicuously
absent from this Hercules, replaced with ranch-style
huts, tailored West Hollywood-ready fashion ensembles
and snappy buddy-picture banter.  
   Fans of the show seem to revel in the fact that even
its title is a misnomer-these aren't the "Legendary
Journeys"; they're journeys based loosely-if at all-on
the legends, and converted into something with far more
entertainment value and media savvy by executive
producers Robert Tapert and Sam Raimi (Evil Dead,
M.A.N.T.I.S., Darkman).  So much media savvy that the
show became the highest rated new program in
syndication last season, and will this fall be joined
by Xena: Warrior Princess, an hour-long spin-off based
on one of Hercules' most popular peripheral females.
   The weekly series evolved out of a series of five
Hercules movies which aired as part of MCA TV's Action
Pack programming last season.  When Tapert and Raimi
were approached with the project, they immediately
accepted and set out to produce a series of Hercules
films that would follow the offhanded format the team
had become known for with The Evil Dead and their other
previous film and television projects.  Initially there
was no indication that the movies would prove popular
enough to spawn a series.  "We basically just thought
it would be a lot of fun to make these five Hercules
movies, and that would be it," Tapert says.  "There was
never any talk of a series in the beginning."
Watching a slew of cheesy old Hercules films from the
'50s and '60s served as a sort of reverse inspiration
for Tapert and Raimi, helping them establish how they
didn't want to spin their take on the heroic
half-man/half-god.  From the beginning what Tapert
describes as the "no togas, no Parthenon rule" was
instrumental in defining Hercules and the world he
would live in, and set a precedent of casting aside the
traditional means of portraying ancient mythology.
   The rule carried over to the casting of Kevin Sorbo
in the movies' (and later, the series') title role. 
Though certainly capable of beating the tar out of his
show's average viewer, Sorbo's musculature is a far cry
from the physiques of the grotesquely huge, sculpted
actors of years past.  "We were looking for a Hercules
who wasn't the world's biggest guy, but who was more
like Joe Montana.  Someone you could sit down at a bar
and have a beer with," Tapert says.  
   Though Hercules is Sorbo's biggest and most dramatic
role to date, the Minnesota native has been in and out
of the public eye for years, appearing in commercials
for everything from Diet Coke to Lexus automobiles.  It
was Sorbo's 6'3'' height more than his strength that
often pigeonholed him into meat-headed spokesperson
jobs and away from the dramatic roles he wanted.  But
whatever Sorbo's balance between height, muscle and
acting ability, it was exactly what Tapert and Raimi
were looking for.
   Starting with his first auditions, Sorbo decided to
play up the human side of Hercules, emphasizing that he
thought the character should bump his head, bleed and
generally make mistakes like any other mortal.  Tapert
and Raimi liked what they saw.
"When I first went in I felt comfortable with how I
wanted to play the character, and I didn't ask them
what they wanted until the fifth or sixth audition,"
Sorbo says.  "Whatever I decided in terms of how I
wanted to do the character was already either in their
minds, or it changed their minds."   
   Raimi's personal involvement in Hercules has varied
since the project's inception, and as result Tapert was
left to oversee production of the bulk of the movies
and the show's first season.  "Once we had the tone,
the character and what we were doing down, after we
were pretty far along planning the movies, [Raimi] got
involved in The Quick and the Dead," Tapert says.  "But
when he was done with that, he jumped right back in,
and he's been heavily involved with this upcoming
season."
   Despite his absence from the first season, the
influence of Raimi's directorial style is readily
apparent in each of the series' episodes.  Ambitious
movie-style angles and crane shots abound, and camera
movement-especially during fight sequences-is extremely
kinetic for a television show.  Tapert has overseen and
advised the series' crop of directors, many of who have
been working with him and Raimi for years.
   According to Tapert, "We don't tell the directors to
direct in any particular way, it just boils down to
what we like.  We like those things flying through the
air, and the directors we get are usually after the
same effects as we are."  When faced with the prospect
of a weekly series that would pick up where the Action
Pack movies left off, Tapert realized he was stuck with
a main character who was devoid of motivation.  "We had
completed what we saw as being an arc in the five
movies, where Herc got married, had a family, had a
midlife crisis and came home at the end," says Tapert. 
"When we started the series, we started the series, we
realized that we had a hero who was married and had a
family, and that made it hard for him to go off and be
heroic."  To remedy this situation, Tapert did the
obvious, if horribly cruel, thing: He killed off
Hercules' family.
   In the series premiere, Hera, Hercules' evil
stepmother and queen of the gods, sends down a fireball
to torch her stepson's wife and children.  Thus
established a premise capable of being expanded upon
for however long the series survives: A nice guy who
has lost his wife and children forsakes angry revenge,
instead choosing to honor his family's memory by
travelling the world helping others.
   One major factor which sets Tapert's Hercules apart
from most previous interpretations is the lack of a
direct rapport between the mortals and the gods of
Mount Olympus.  Zeus appeared as a recurring character
played by Anthony Quinn in the five two-hour movies,
but because the first episode of the show established
that Zeus didn't protect Hercules's family from Hera's
jealous wrath, we can understand why Hercules wants
nothing to do with his Olympus-dwelling dad.  While
Tapert doesn't deny the inevitability of a father-son
reunion at some point in the future, keeping the gods
out of the show was initially a conscious decision on
his and Raimi's part.  "It never worked for me in Clash
of the Titans and in the old Harryhausen films, to look
down in the water and see the gods in their white
togas," Tapert says.  "So we've decided to downplay
them and rely instead on some of the lesser gods. 
Basically we look at it as Hercules used to go to the
giant family picnics with these gods, so he kind of
knows them, but he thinks they're all a bunch of
a--holes."
   The show may not feature many gods, but it certainly
isn't hurting for freakish mythological monsters. 
Cyclopes, Hydras and (perhaps most impressively)
half-human, half-horse centaurs appear on a regular
basis, created through a combination of makeup,
mechanics and computer animation.  The increasing
financial and technological feasibility of computer
effects has birthed creatures that are far more
lifelike than their stop-motion-animated predecessors,
and these provide the cornerstone of the show's
fantastic visual style.  Unfortunately for Tapert, such
effects are very time-consuming, and fitting them into
the harried schedule of a weekly series has proven to
be the most difficult aspect of producing the show. 
For now, the producers make a conscious effort to have
one spectacular monster every two or three episodes.   
   According to Tapert, the upcoming season will
feature episodes with emphasis on making the monsters
more three-dimensional.  "The monsters we've used so
far have been kind of single-minded, nasty things, with
only a plan of eating or killing," he says.  "To have
monsters with a more interesting plan or motivation
will be more satisfying for the audience."
   Cyclopes, satyrs, centaurs...if all this mythology
is getting a bit weighty and you're struggling to
remember all those boring classroom lessons of years
past, don't worry-the show's producers don't remember
them either.  Tapert forced himself to reread classic
reference works by Robert Graves and Edith Hamilton,
but in the end the research had little bearing on the
direction of the program.  The show has no hired
mythological consultant, and Tapert has never worried
about staying true to historical truths or mythological
legends.  "We've thrown all that stuff out the window,"
he says.  "We just tell the story the best way we can. 
We'll sometimes use real mythological stories, but
usually as events to build another new story on.  We're
concerned with whether an idea is visually appealing,
fun and heroic, if it has the action that we like, and
if we can do it on a TV schedule."
Most notably absent among these legends is the one
thing Hercules is most often associated with by droning
high school teachers: his 12 labors.  These labors have
never appeared on the show as such, but have been
repackaged and combined into different stories.  "We
didn't really want to tell the story of his labor
shoveling sh*t, for example," Tapert explains.  
   But though Tapert has never pursued any great
expertise in mythology, he has always respected it as
an interesting way of framing morality tales.  Each
episode of Hercules, therefore, has a very definite
life lesson (extolling virtues like friendship, honesty
and selflessness) hidden within an easily digestible
story.  Explaining the morality inherent in the series,
Tapert admits to being inspired by the original Star
Trek.  "That show had simple morals, heroic main
characters and good guys winning, all the while
maintaining a balance between humor and drama," he
says.  "That's what we hope to do with our show."
   Sorbo agrees, but stresses that the show tries to
frame the morality in ways that won't send
virtue-overdosed viewers fumbling for the remote.  "The
way the show was written, I think there's a lot of
diversity involved in it.  There is some heavy drama
and morality, but what makes it interesting for people
is that the action and fight scenes have so much humor
in them that it's easy to see that this isn't supposed
to be weighty.  I don't think it's intended to be taken
as seriously as classical written mythology was.  The
scenery, the way we dress, the way the dialogue
basically pops from century to century, I think that's
what makes it fun."
   Sorbo also finds humor in the fact that his show is
as close to a mythology lesson as many of his viewers
will ever get.  "There are a slew of people who have
never even seen or heard of Hercules," he laughs. 
"This is their first exposure to the character, so to
them, I am him."
   Sorbo admits that he was at times bothered by his
character's image in some of the original movies, in
which he was often spouting dialogue that made him look
just slightly more intelligent than a sack of
doorknobs.  "I kept my mouth shut in that first movie
because I was the new kid on the block," he says.  "We
were feeling ourselves out, trying to find the
characters, trying to find where we wanted to go. 
There was dialogue I didn't want to say, and I didn't
speak up.  Beginning with the second movie, I decided
to start putting my opinions into it.  Not to say that
I had anything to do with the writing, but I did have
something to do with making the dialogue more
comfortable for me."
   Hercules is shot almost entirely around Auckland,
New Zealand, partially for budgetary reasons, but
mainly because principal filming originally started in
November-a relatively cold and rainy month in Los
Angeles.  The producers were considering Australia as a
possible alternative when a friend who had been working
on Shelly Duvall's Fairy Tale Theater in New Zealand
came forth with high praise for the smaller island
nation.  "W checked it out and we agreed," says Tapert. 
"They had just wrapped The Piano, so we were able to
hire a bunch or people who were just coming off that."
   With its lush rain forests, towering cliffs and vast
expanses of green, New Zealand is hardly a dead ringer
for ancient Greece.  But the lack of olive trees
doesn't bother Tapert in the slightest.  "New Zealand
has the distinction of looking like a primeval,
pristine world," he says.  "I think it works
beautifully as a mythological backdrop."
   By the time the show appears in final form, most of
its actors appear happy and relaxed.  This may be more
a testament to their acting prowess than a reflection
of any lightheartedness on the set.  Tapert insists
Hercules is one of the harder shoots he's been involved
in.  Though he describes the mood on the set as happy
and enthusiastic, the 12-hour days and unusual shooting
schedule make for tight, rushed shoots.
   Goofing around is limited to more than coming up
with a joke that works, as most actors spend their free
time practicing an extensive array of stuntwork and
choreography.  And practice doesn't always make
perfect.  "Kevin got 17 stitches from a sword whack in
one of the episodes," Tapert recalls.  "We didn't even
use the shot.  We figured it would be in bad taste."
   Sorbo agrees with Tapert that it's difficult to meet
Hollywood deadlines when filming schedules are dictated
by New Zealand's unique weather patterns.  "It rains a
lot down here, and they try to shoot around the rainy
seasons," he explains.  "So we can't shoot along the
same schedule as most other television shows, where
they shoot for eight or nine months and the actors get
a three-or -four-month hiatus.  I'm not going to get
that luxury." It's a luxury Sorbo wouldn't mind having,
especially now.  He was recently offered a film by
Universal, and, on a more personal note, he admits to
getting homesick.  "It hit me last week that I've been
here for 20 months now, and I just don't feel a part of
Los Angeles anymore," he sighs.  "I don't really see
the effect of the show.  I can see reviews, and I can
hear the producers saying the numbers are great, but
down here I'm just going to work and occasionally
getting noticed for my Jim Beam commercials."
   Still, Sorbo comes across as anything but bitter or
bored with the role.  And thanks to an ever-increasing
number of diverse acting offers, he has little fear of
being forever typecast as Hercules.  "I don't think I'm
going to become a victim of the show," he stresses.  "I
feel very confident in myself and my talent.  Yes, I've
got a long way to go as an actor, but like with
anybody, I'll get better with on-the-job experience
like I'm getting now.  I may even get to direct one of
the upcoming episodes.  Maybe I'm not qualified to
direct in general, but I'm certainly qualified to
direct this show."
   Whether the show has marketability outside the
television arena will be tested this holiday season
when a gaggle of Hercules action figures and related
merchandise hits the toy shelves.  Strangely, this
wooing of the younger viewer is one of the things
Tapert fears could lead to sticky situations in the
program's future.
   "Right now we only have one target audience: people
who like entertaining stories," Tapert says.  "But with
the toys and all, I can see that on the horizon they'll
want us to keep the show 100% family.  We might have to
battle once in a while to spin those different types of
stories that keep the audience on their toes."
   Tapert's vision for the show may seem haphazard and
nebulous, but none can deny that it's worked thus far. 
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys is perhaps most
remarkable in its total lack of cynicism.  People like
the show for no-brainer reasons: it's simple,
moralistic, and it's just plain fun to see a good guy
beating up bad monsters.  
   "Sure it's a guilty pleasure," says Tapert.  "Our
entire career has been guilty pleasures." 


[050.15] 10-01-95
   SCI-FI UNIVERSE. Vol. 2. No. 10. Page 25. "Centaurs
and Satyrs and hydras, Oh My! Special effects
supervisor Kevin O'Neil creates the freakish denizens
of Hercules' world". By Dan Vebber.
   COMMENTARY: No mention of XWP, but XWP did use
centaurs in "Hooves and Harlots." Interesting sidebar
article about special effects involved in making the
non-humans in both HTLJ and XWP.
   Transcription by Sylvia Varela
   TRANSCRIPTION:
   One of the most important aspects of creating the
mythological world of Hercules involved finding a way
to create new monsters on a television budget and
schedule.  To meet this daunting task, executive
producer Robert Tapert hired Kevin O'Neil-who had
worked with Tapert previously on Darkman, and more
recently designed effects for Bram Stoker's Dracula,
Cliffhanger and The Last Action Hero-as the show's
special- effects supervisor. 
   O'Neil had gotten used to working with many artists
over the Internet, and decided that setting up a
"virtual visual effects studio" would be the best way
to eliminate overhead and rise to the challenges posed
by a weekly show.  From an office in New Zealand O'Neil
uses the Internet to carry out the day-to-day effects
tasks on Hercules by networking with artists and
programmers working out of their houses in places as
far away as New Mexico and California.
   "I'll be on the set in the middle of nowhere on the
other side of the planet, sitting out in a field
looking at some matte paintings as they're being
developed," explains O'Neil.  "From a mobile phone I
can send back information and update images over the
Internet.  They've got all these television ads [i.e.,
the AT&T ads featuring people doing office work from
remote environments] with people who talk the talk, but
I don't think anybody else is dealing with it as
effectively and as remotely as we are.  We're able to
hold up a finished episode as proof it can actually
work."
   In addition, O'Neil also supervises the show's
numerous mechanical effects (most of which are created
by companies in New Zealand), but the bulk of his work
involves designing computerized footage and directing
actors to react to imaginary monsters (which are later
composited into the scenes in postproduction).
   Physical sculptures of the creatures are
constructed, then photographed and scanned into a
computer.  Once in this entirely digital form,
technicians transform the beasties into  manipulatable
3-D objects, which can then be animated to do whatever
the director sees fit. 
   For creatures that are partially human, such as the
half-human, half-horse centaurs, O'Neil developed an
entirely new 2-D compositing system that allows him to
believably meld the two living beings.  First, O'Neil
directs the filming of live horses, who move based on a
sequence he's designed.  Human actors are then
photographed against a blue screen over footage of the
horse.  The computer then cleans up the result,
seamlessly creating the illusion of an entirely new
life-form.
   All these advances in computer effects technology
and networking allow O'Neil and his crew to create
bizarre new monsters at an approximate rate of one
every six to eight weeks.  More traditional,
slow-to-produce stop-motion photography would have been
a significantly more expensive way to do the effects,
not because of the per-shot cost, but rather because
deadlines couldn't be made as easily.  
   Many of the digitized-from-scratch creatures are
brought to life using methods already perfected in
films like The Mask and, of course, Jurassic Park.  But
it's the centaurs that represent the pinnacle of
Hercules' special visual effects.
   According to O'Neil, "When Rob Tapert first
approached me about the job, he said 'If you can do the
centaurs, you can do anything.'  For the mixing of two
living creatures, he wouldn't have been happy with just
a digitized creature."


[050.4] 10-01-95
   CINESCAPE. Vol. 2 No. 1. Page 74. "Television. Tuned
In" By Andy Mangels.
   COMMENTARY: Appearing in a column, under the sub-
title "Syndicated & Cable", XWP received a paragraph
shared with HTLJ. The blurb gave a one sentence
synopsis of "Sins of the Past".
   Transcribed by Julia Medina
   TRANSCRIPTION:
   The Legendary Adventures Of Hercules and its
spin-off Xena: Warrior Princess (syndicated) will both
premiere the week of Sept. 4 as a two-hour block. 
Kevin Sorbo returns as Hercules, while Lucy Lawless
spins Xena into her own show.  In the premieres,
Hercules battles a deadly serpent and the larcenous
Autoclyus (genre star Bruce Campbell) in "The King of
Thieves," while Xena journeys homeward to make amends
for her past wrongdoings, only to be challenged by the
vengeful warlord Draco in "Sins of the Past."


[050.2] 10-01-95
   SCI-FI UNIVERSE. Vol. 2. No. 10. Page 27. "Xena.
Xena: Warrior Princess follows Hercules into the
treacherous ground of first-run syndication this fall".
By Dan Vebber.
   COMMENTARY: One page introduction to the series with
three photos of Lucy Lawless (one does not look like it
is from XWP).
   Robert Tapert is quoted as saying, "Xena is a long
story, all about ratings and budget. What it boils down
to is Vanishing Son, which is a very good show in its
own right, was probably not the proper show to follow
directly on the heels of Hercules. The studio made a
decision that they wanted to move forward with
something more compatible. We had done one of the
episodes with Xena, so we said, 'Hey, maybe we can do
something with this.'"
   Mr. Tapert's comment that the decision to go with
Xena for a series was made after "Warrior Princess" had
been filmed (not aired) jibes completely with the
timeline XMR has reconstructed.  The first media
reference to XWP as a series was made in the Daily
Variety on 03/05/95 (XMR008).  This was after HTLJ
"Warrior Princess" had been filmed, but before the
episode's release on March 13, 1995.  The article,
curiously enough, was not a promotional mention, but as
an aside in an article about MCA hiring a new
President.
   Apparently, the role of Xena had been developed as
part of a story arc to be played over a single episode
which would introduce her and then be concluded two
months later in a dramatic two-parter which would
conclude with the Warrior Princess' fiery death.  It
was to be a "big event" for the season's last half.
   The role of Xena was offered to at least five other
actresses who all showed great interest and intended to
play the role except other events barred them last
minute from starting.  Finally, an actress was hired,
and they began pre-production on the first of the
trilogy "Warrior Princess".  Three days before filming
was to start, the actress was taken ill and could not
appear for the filming (XMR117).
   The producers remembered Lucy Lawless, who had
played an Amazon in the Hercules movies "Hercules and
the Amazon Women" and played a part as a "centaur's
moll" (tentative XMR271) in HTLJ's first season "As
Darkness Falls."  The producers were convinced that Ms.
Lawless could rise to the occasion of taking on a role
so quickly. They called her only to find out that she
was camping in the wilderness over the New Year's
weekend (tentative XMR126.6]. So, they hunted her down
in the wilderness. (XMR117). She was found and
immediately accepted the role. 
   Ms. Lawless took to the part so well, that a
decision was made to keep Xena alive at the end of the
following two-parter. While filming the two-parter in
January of 1995, Robert Tapert began discussions with
Ms. Lawless about the possibility of a series for Xena
with Ms. Lawless (XMR084a and XMR128).
   Transcription by Sylvia Varela
   TRANSCRIPTION:
   Beginning September 4, fans of Hercules: The
Legendary Journeys will have another mythology-based
series with a colon in its name to look forward to. 
Xena: Warrior Princess will follow the exploits of
Hercules' most popular villainess-turned-heroine,
played by New Zealand actress Lucy Lawless.
   Though Xena was introduced as a side character on
Hercules, executive producers Robert Tapert and Sam
Raimi don't plan on having any future crossover between
the two shows.  Xena will have her own agenda,
consisting primarily of wandering the Earth in hopes of
proving she's forsaken her past evil ways.  The
likeable vicious heroine will be joined on her quest by
Gabrielle, a young runaway, and Pan, a character
described as "an acrobatic gymnast of the forest."
   Fear not, friends-just because Xena is forsaking her
evil ways doesn't mean she'll be nice and sweet. 
Tapert promises the show will have as much action and
excitement as its predecessor, Hercules, if not more. 
In particular, Tapert says Xena's martial arts
abilities will allow him and Raimi to play around with
the kind of wild action they've come to love in Hong
Kong movies. 
   Xena only appeared on three episodes of Hercules,
but the resulting ratings were high enough for the MCA
bigwigs to decide to take a chance on the warrior
princess.  "Xena is a long story, all about ratings and
budget," Tapert explains.  "What it boils down to is
Vanishing Son [a Universal martial arts series], which
is a very good show in its own right, was probably not
the proper show to follow directly on the heels of
Hercules.  The studio made a decision that they wanted
to move forward with something more compatible.  We had
just done one of the episodes with Xena, so we said,
'Hey, maybe we can do something with this.'"
   Xena's series promises to exhibit a similar sense of
humor and action to what is seen on Hercules, but her
warlike past could lead to her being a tougher nut to
crack than her male counterpart.  "For Hercules, the
world is very straightforward," Tapert says.  "He knows
that he's doing good in a situation.  He goes in, he
kicks butt, he kills the monster.  Xena's in a slightly
different position, because she's been a killer her
whole life and now she's trying to get away from it. 
But she finds out that she constantly has to kill in
order to protect all that she now finds decent."  
   Sure, it sounds ridiculously overbaked.  But, as any
fan of Hercules will tell you, that's probably a 
darned good sign.



CONTINUED IN PART 2 of 3...