rchanyahootv:

Twenty years after its premiere, Xena:
Warrior Princess is still alive
and well —thanks in no small part to its availability on Netflix.
Looking back, its influence on modern action shows like Blindspot
and Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D. are clear, and star Lucy Lawless — who’s now kicking zombie butt on Ash Vs. Evil Dead — continues to be bombarded with
adulation for her first major television role. In honor of its
anniversary (and the recent release of a new 20th anniversary soundtrack) here are twenty things you probably didn’t know about
the show — one for every year.

1. Lawless Modeled Xena’s look on a
Tennis Star
Xena was originally going to be blond,
but the actor thought that an Amazon princess should look “big and
bronze and dark-haired,” according to a 2015
interview — like, say, Argentinian tennis champ and US Open
winner Gabriela Sabatini (below). Also, she got to save her hair, since her
natural color is dark blond and she didn’t want to spend the next six
years bleaching it.

2. Lawless Was the Second Person
Cast for Xena
The first was Vanessa Angel, who you
probably don’t remember as the genie-like “perfect woman” from
the Weird Science TV show.
Another near-miss in casting? The role of Joxer — played by Ted
Raimi — almost went to Wallace Shawn, of Princess Bride
fame. Of course, now, such
casting would be inconceivable.

3. The Warrior Princess Costume Now
Resides in the Smithsonian
In 2006, the outfit was donated to the
Museum of Natural History. Lawless probably doesn’t mind — the actress once said the
original constricted her ribs, so at first, she felt like she was
having constant panic attacks on set.

4. Multiple Medical Situations Were
Written Into the Show

What do you do when you have a show
whose titular character can’t do her usual assortment of flips and
kicks because she shattered her hip doing a spot for The Tonight
Show? Shoot some body-swap
episodes featuring Callisto (Hudson Leick) and maybe put her in some
less physical situations, like the beauty pageant in “Here She
Comes … Miss Amphipolis.” Or if your star gets pregnant? Create
a “Twilight of the Gods” story line in which Xena’s child is catalyst
for the destruction of the Greek gods.

5. Xena Has Two Simpsons Action
Figures
If you’re the star of an action TV
show, of course you’ll have an action figure. But how many people can
say they’ve had an action figure made by a show they’re not even on,
much less two? Lawless
appeared on the tenth “Treehouse of Horror” — as herself, but
dressed as Xena — and proved so popular, she made it into both a
Treehouse playset and the 25 Greatest Celebrity Guest Stars line.

6. Dwarf Planet Eris Was Almost
Called Xena
Well, never officially. But the team
that discovered Eris called it Xena and the media used that name for
a while until the International Astronomical Union handed down the
final decision. The “Xena” nickname came about because it started with X (the
tenth planet), it sounded mythological, and they were looking to add
more female names to the night sky.

7. The Credits Had a Running Joke

It started as an occasional joke in
season 1, but by season 2, every episode had a fake disclaimer
reminiscent of the “no animals were harmed” message from the
American Humane Association. These include, “Despite Gabrielle’s
incessant hurling, Ulysses’ ship was not harmed during the making of
this motion picture,” “No oversized Polynesian-style Bamboo
Horses were harmed during the production of this motion picture.
However many wicker lawn chairs gave their lives,” and, from the
final episode where [SPOILER ALERT] Xena dies, “Xena was permanently
harmed in the making of this motion picture, but kept her spirits
up.”

8. The Accent is Southern California
The show was shot in New Zealand and
features an international cast, so a dialect coach was hired to give
the fictional world some uniformity. Rather than go for a Standard
American English, though, the show opted for Southern California.
Maybe in hopes that people would leave their TVs on after Baywatch
and not notice the change?

9. The Theme Song is Sung in
Bulgarian

The bagpipe-like instrument at the
beginning also hails from Bulgaria; it’s called a gaida. Here are the
lyrics in English:

The Warrior Princess rides alone.

Her past drives her from shame.

Against the forces of a dark world

She fights for good, not for fame.

Horns sound her coming, blare her
name.

Make way the warrior! Cheer!

Drums beat a rhythm, let villains
beware

The Warrior Princess is here!

11. The Chakram is Real…

…and was used as recently as WWI in
France. An old issue of Popular Mechanics says
that Sikh soldiers fighting for the Allies in France carried them
and, when thrown, could cut a 2-inch thick stalk of bamboo. No
mention of whether it could strike five men, then return to the
owner, sadly.

12. Lawless Hated Doing Fight Scenes
How do you play a warrior princess when
you don’t much care for the warrior part of the job? “My only
defense was to get good at it,” she said in an interview for the
Television Academy archives. “Get it over and done with ASAP.”

13. There Was Almost a Disco Episode
Xena
had more than one musical episode, but this one would have put them
all to shame. Alternately known as “The Sappho Episode”, it would
have ended with Xena and Gabrielle kissing “with deep and sincere
passion.” Whether producers chose not to resolve the “will
they/won’t they” of the hinted at — but never explicitly stated — lesbian relationship or whether there were just too many rights
issues with the music (which would have included Donna Summer
classics like  “Last Dance” and “Love to
Love You Baby”) isn’t clear.

14. Karl Urban Played 4 Different
Roles on the Show

Though you probably know him as
“Bones” McCoy from the rebooted Star Trek movies,
Urban’s first taste of international fame came from Xena,
where he played two minor roles — Mael and Kor — and two major
recurring roles — Julius Caesar and the god Cupid. Of course, that
doesn’t hold a candle to Lawless, who played six separate
characters (eight, if you include the two other roles she played in
the original Hercules series).

Renèe O’Connor, Lawless, Kevin Sorbo, and Michael Hurst

15. Three Actors Played Their Own
Children
Two human — Renèe
O’Connor (who played Gabrielle and her daughter, Hope) Marton Csokas
(who played Borias and his son, Belach) — and one horse — Tilly
(who played Argo and Argo I).

16. Gabrielle Did Most of Her Own
Stunts

Of course, the show’s stunt team were
some of the best in the business. But perhaps since Gabrielle had
fewer dangerous stunts, O’Connor handled the bulk of them —
including the famous shot where she did a backflip while kicking a
cannibal in the face from season 6’s “The Abyss,” which was done
without any of the Hong Kong-style wirework that the show often
employed.

17. The Show Won One Emmy — for
Music
Despite its enduring popularity and
legacy, Xena was never a critical darling. But the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences did honor the score: Composer Joseph LoDuca was nominated
seven times and won once in 2000.

18. Xena’s Name and her Iconic Cry Are
Both Bastardizations

“Xenos” means stranger in Greek, and
“Xena” is a mutation of the word. Her battle cry comes from the funeral
ululations of Iranian women. Lawless couldn’t get her tongue to mimic
them, though, so she went with the “AYIYIYIYIYI!” we know today.

19. Xena Had 9 Lives (Well, 3 Really)
She was brought back in season 2 by ambrosia, and in season 5 by the prayers
of Eli (Galavant’s Timothy
Omundson), but there was no coming back from her death in the final episode of the series. Even in the fantasy world of Xena, cremation’s
pretty tough to get around.

20.
Xena Quickly Became More Popular than Hercules…
…and Hercules didn’t like it. “Xena
took all my directors, they took half my writing staff, they took
everybody to go and work for that show,” Kevin Sorbo told SFX
Magazine in 2001. He also complained that the shows didn’t
collaborate as much as they could have. 

And one thing you probably did know:

Xena Was Gay
The
producers and the studio both had their own reasons for not wanting
Xena and Gabrielle’s relationship made explicit – and Lawless
herself never made a definitive choice during the show’s run. But she
told Lesbian
News in
2003 that, in retrospect, Xena was “Gay. Gay, definitely.” She
wouldn’t even say she’s bisexual; as far as she’s concerned, Xena and
Gabrielle, “They’re married, man.”

Xena: Warrior Princess is available to stream on Netflix.

I knew some of these, but not all (especially not the first one)