3. Myths And Legends Brought Fantasy Back To The Silver Screen
Greek myths and legends have always been populartranscending cult status to light up the silver screen, the greatest of which were probably Clash of the Titans and Jason And The Argonauts. (Talos terrified me as a child!) There is no denying the magnificence of the monsters the late Harryhausen brought to life. But on television, budgets aren't (or weren't) quite as big. As such it was always going to be a challenge to bring those mythical creatures to life. Jim Henson made a stab at it with the excellent The Storyteller in 1988 and its follow up Greek Myths in 1990. But it was one series (and its spin off) that would bring myths and legends successfully back to the small screen. Hercules The Legendary Adventures might seem rather cheesy, but it sure was entertaining. Across six seasons, we were introduced to numerous gods, from Hera and Zeus to...yes, Thor and Loki. We faced cyclopses, dragons and even mummies. We traveled to Atlantis, Sumeria and Scandinavia. We were introduced to Medusa, Gilgamesh. Julius Caesar and Queen Nefertiti. Theres no denying that Hercules The Legendary Adventures mined every myth and legend there was to bring them onto screen. There was even an episode Yes Virginia, There Is A Hercules featuring an actor Kevin Sorbo, playing a character Hercules in a TV showbreaking the fourth wall many years before Supernaturals excellent season six episode The French Mistake. And if one series wasnt popular enough, along came Xena Warrior Princess, a spin off character from the first season of Hercules. This spin off was, if anything, more popular than its parent show. It had the same scope as the former, stretching from the Trojan War and the Persian invasion of Greece to Anthony & Cleopatra and Boadiceas ongoing fight against the Romans, there was the same historical/ global trotting adventures that made Hercules so popular. Coupled with a more interesting lead character (Xena was a villain looking for redemption) and the possibility of a lesbian romance between the two lead characters (sorry Buffy The Vampire Slayer), Xena Warrior Princess easily held its own against Hercules. And talking of Buffy, Xena went one better with not one, but TWO musical episodes!