Why so many more Xena fans than Herc?

[tjguitar]

It seems on these boards and throughout the web that Xena has a lot more fans than Hercules....I wonder why?

I watched Herc and Xena all the time when I was in elementary and middle school, mostly thru season 3 of Xena and 4 of Herc. I loved them both, as well as the Adventures of Sinbad, which I recently got the DVD for and it has not aged quite as well, some cheesy special effects, thankfully with Herc and Xena that is not the case.


I loved Herc and Xena and for the first couple of years Xena was pretty much an extension of the Herc show, mostly the same recurring characters, same gods. I think Hades was even in more Xena's than herc's For the first couple seasons it was a fun action fantasy with some comedy thrown in but then it just changed.

Season 5 of Herc I kind of stopped watching all the time, but still watched casually, I was pissed that they killed Iolaus off AGAIN, and didn't really like the Morrigan character, though it was nice to see Nebula/Gina Torres get some more screen time. I was kind of bummed that Herc got the short stick on its final season, but we got Jack of All Trades out of it and I loved seeing Bruce in a starring role. The less said about Cleopatra 2525, the better, in my opinion. (Can't believe it lasted longer than Jack!)

I found myself pretty much hating Xena after the first couple episodes of Season 3 (The Deliverer in particular) It got alot darker, and sometimes even scary, Ha. But I still watched it. I didn't really like when they brought Dahak and Hope over to Herc (despite the Armageddon Now two parter being fantastic, imo), but I still watched it cause there was some great episodes

What I loved most about the show, both of them, was all the Greek mythology, even if there were lots of creative liberties taken. (And they could have brought Tiresias back!!!)

But With Herc, I didn't mind the venturing out into other mythologies, like Norse and Irish mythology, I thought it was kind of cool seeing Herc meet Thor, etc.

On the other hand, I wasn't a big fan of a lot of the venturing out into other mythologies that Xena did. I guess from my perspective, with Herc, they didn't really try to imply that the Norse deities were superior to the Greeks, but with Xena, it got pretty preachy with Xena, who said she had no use for gods early in the series, praying to the "God of light" and the series in genral implying that this deity was incredibly superior to all the Greek gods, even Zeus. I also found myself just plain not enjoying the India and China episodes in the middle seasons cause I did not find them interesting. Ancient Asia just doesn't interest me I guess, felt the same way about a particular fan favorite HIGHLANDER episode.

Whats weird though, is I actually rather liked season 6, even without Autolycus (or Salmoneous), it's probably my favorite season aside from the first two or three, I didn't like all of the episodes (probably not for any season of either series), but the Ring Trilogy of episodes was really cool, and I liked the Eve character.

I also was sad that they never did one of those 'modern day' episodes on the Xena series w/ Bruce as Tapert, Michael as Coyle, Raimi as Kurtzman, Leick as Friedman, etc. It would have been more fun than all those clip shows.

Finally, I wish the Young Herc series would be released on DVD, even though I prefer Ian Bohen as Young Herc (love those 4 young herc eps in season 4 of herc and the pilot movie), that series had some good episodes with great performances from Kevin smith, Joel Tobeck, Chris Conrad and Dean O'Gorman.


I think the single thing I love most about Xena is that it transformed Ares from that face on the moon/pool of blood from the first couple seasons of Herc into the face of Kevin Smith, who I wish would have been in the first two seasons of Herc! and of course Callisto. Her episodes in season 2 (including Surprise! on Herc w/ Kevin Smith as Iphicles) were some of my favorite episodes on either series.


One really juvenile thing I'm mad at Xena for is that it got 6 CD's (with fan selections on the last) and Herc only got 4 cd's (and no fan requests ). I love Joseph LoDuca's music and have pretty much all his cd's (On a side note, If you haven't picked up La La Land's recent double CD of LoDuca's two Librarian TNT movie scores...PICK IT UP!),

but I thought Herc could have gotten another CD for the first few seasons of the series. (They should have released one in late 1996 when Xena vol.1 came out!) Cramming four seasons onto one disc left out a lot of good music.

Herc:
Vol 1 (TV movies) 9/1995
Vol 2 (Seasons 1-4) 11/1997
Vol 3 (Season 5) 6/1999
Vol 4 (Season 6) 9/2000

Xena:
Vol 1 (Season 1) 11/1996
Vol 2 (Season 2) 11/1997
Vol 3: Bitter Suite 3/1998
Vol 4: (Seasons 3 and 4) 6/1999
Vol 5: Lyre Lyre Hearts on Fire 6/2000
Vol 6: (Season 4,5 6 and various) 6/2001




Curious what others think,
TJ

[Joxcenia]

I loved and watched both shows. I have all six seasons of both shows on DVD. I also have Jack & Cleo on DVD. I will get Young Herc on DVD just as soon as it comes out. When/if it comes out.

[Amazon_Princess]

I like both shows as well. I actually started watching Young Hercules first, which led me to watch Hercules, which in turn made me start watching Xena. Although I like Xena more than Hercules, I agree that Xena turned darker in its later seasons, so sometimes I prefer watching the more light-hearted Hercules. But I enjoy both shows, and like that they had a lot of the same supporting characters/actors.

[lambsmarch]

Howdy, new here. I have two guesses:

1) Shows with beefy guys doing things with weapons and/or their bare hands have been around since the days of the old westerns like Bonanza and the Rifleman etc etc so Hercules wasn't breaking new ground in that one department. Nothing like a Xena had ever been on television before.

2) It was nice to watch Xena and see Xena have the same mother, Gabrielle have the same sister, etc etc...there was a comforting dependability about the show (weren't there two Solans I can't quite remember.) Hercules had three mothers, five fathers, there were two different Ares, two different Hades, a couple different Athenas and Artemis's and three different whatshernames.....she tuned into a dove and bore Ares' child. I STILL find that annoying when I rewatch the shows.

There were lots of other reasons as well I'm sure.

[Mini Mia]

Welcome To Whoosh!

lambsmarch!!!

I do think that Xena drew more attention because she was unique at the time. I think had there been more shows about strong leading women, both Herc and Xena might have been closer in ratings and viewership. Then again, as much as I liked Alias & Dark Angel, Xena would still be my number one pick to watch if they had been on at the same time.