I laughed at Bruce's recollection, in the above mentioned article.
BRUCE CAMPBELL (AUTOLYCUS/DIRECTOR): We referred to Xena as the Little Show, or the Girl Show, because Hercules was filmed in 35 millimeter and they started Xena off in 16 millimeter — they wanted to save money. Little did they know that Xena would eventually sort of eclipse and become really bigger than [Hercules], which is pretty funny to see from the origin. It was nice to sort of be there when it started.
As much as I loved Xena, I do dispute these two comments...
"
Xena: Warrior Princess brought something to TV that had never been done seriously before — a
female-led action series that boasted all the stunts, guts, and glory of its male-centered parent series,
Hercules: "
and Lucy's own observation...
"But it was always going to be those two. It was a new model for storytelling, you know, [because] we hadn't seen two female leads [on TV before] so that was never going to change"
Sorry Lucy, there was a little show back in the 1980's called Cagney & Lacey that had 2 female leads on TV that did love each other (platonically) very much and fought crime for 7 seasons and 4 TV movies, the last two coinciding with season 1 & 2 of XWP so I doubt Lawless can legitimately claim ignorance.
As for another female lead TV series that aired 9 months ahead of XWP... one only has to look at my handle to figure out a more recent competitor to Lucy's claim.
I agree that the absence of comments from Renee is disappointing, but at least everyone else kept talking about her in the article.
And of course... Rob Tapert has to tease us before he lets us go...
TAPERT: It was an anomaly at that time to have a female-driven kick-ass show. And so, with the success of Xena, it opened the doors for everything that came after. We are trying to launch a new version of Xena. It would not be the story of Xena and Gabrielle with Lucy and Renee. It would be like they did with Star Trek, a reimagining of that universe. Whatever it's gonna be, it will be different, which is exciting. Thirty years later, it has to be different.
TAPERT: The weird thing is, I was always a reluctant participant of reboots. Because I've done 134 episodes or whatever it is, I don't feel like there's a fresh series of stories that I haven't told yet. That could be my lack of imagination, but I didn't want to recast Lucy and Renee. But for a feature, now 30 years on, I'm interested in doing that. I don't know when and where it is, but they're gonna see a script somewhere in the next three to six months, and one can only hope.
Am I alone in wishing they would reboot by moving these two soulmates a dozen hundred years into the future so we can have "younger" actresses that can deal with the physical stresses of this work, and also not having to rehash previous story lines? (Please, no more Ceaser crucifying our princess.)
The Mid 90's really were a great time for female protagonists.
Golden GIrls ended their 7 seasons in 1992.
Designing Women ended their 7 seasons in 1993.
Cagney and Lacey were finishing their TV movies in 1996.
Murphy Brown's 10 seasons ended in 1998.
Star Trek Voyager and Xena Warrior Princess both debuted in 1995, followed 2 years later by Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
All three series would last into the 21st century with a combined 20 seasons.
And that was back when a season lasted 22 episodes long, and not the 6-10 we frequently get now a days.
Sigh.
Oh, and just one more thing, for people who always thought about going to a Xenw:WP convention, be aware that in the fall of 2026, Creation Entertainment's Xena convention will be moving (for at least 1 year) to New Jersey.
Oh, and happy belated 30th anniversary to a couple of my favorite characters.
