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.'"