Xena and Hercules

[6/6/10 9:03 PM] Hercules and Xena were two of my favorite TV shows when they aired over a decade ago. I think I liked Hercules/Xena because it was like a comic book come to life (and I used to like to read comic books). Kind of a cross between a comic book and a kung fu movie.

Anyway, I notice Costco is carrying Hercules Season 1 and Xena Season 1 for $16.99. It's a new set put out by Universal released on April 20. The original sets were from Anchor Bay, no longer in production, but sold on ebay.

Apparently the video wasn't that good on some of the early episodes. And apparently it hasn't been improved on this set, but the major feature is that this Universal set contains subtitles, while the Anchor Bay version didn't.

The Xena set is a better deal than the Hercules set. Season 1 of Xena contains 24 episodes on 5 DVDs. Season 1 of Hercules contains only 13 episodes on 3 DVDs. The Anchor Bay version of Hercules also included the 5 movies which preceded the series. So that's a better deal too. Plus the Anchor Bay version contained commentary on certain episodes by Kevin Sorbo and Michael Hurst and others. The major drawback is that the Anchor Bay version doesn't include subtitles (or closed caption either on the first couple of seasons.)

No extras either on the Xena or Hercules, but the Anchor Bay Xena Season One was light on extras too (only on a separate CD-ROM).

Oddly Amazon is selling Hercules for $26.98 and Xena for $22.99. So Costco at $16.99 is clearly the better deal, even with the tax. But who knows how long Costco will be carrying them? (Hey, I saw they're selling the Three Stooges Collections again too! Sam Raimi and friends loved the Stooges.)

I couldn't resist the deal and picked up Xena today. Who knows how long it'll take me for me to finish watching? Still haven't finished Monk Season Two or Get Smart Season One, or Kung Fu Season One, or Bob Newhart Season Two (or did I even finish Season One yet)? I barely got started with V: The Complete Series (didn't even watch one complete episode yet). Evidently I'm more of a collector than a watcher!

... Well, I opened it up and started watching Cradle of Hope. I noticed the picture was pretty rough. But I guess still better than my VHS tapes off of Channel 2 or whatever channel it played on after that. I stopped that and went to episode 1, Sins of the Past, which looked pretty decent. Maybe it was because I was watching from farther away this time, but it seemed OK even when I got closer. I dunno. Maybe it's my eyes going bad.. Anyway, it looked OK on my standard 27" TV. But probably wouldn't look very good on a large screen (if you're sitting too close).

[6/9/10] Yep, it looks pretty blocky when looking at it closely on my 27" Panansonic. But passable on my Commodore 1702 monitor even up close. I think the video on V: The Complete Series is worse. But Kung Fu was pretty good IIRC.

Anyway, it was fun watching it again.

I think I might want to get Hercules LJ Season Two since I believe that played concurrenrly with Xena Season One. Let's see. The first episode of HLJ Season 2 was The King of Thieves (in which Bruce Campbell made his debut as Autolycus) and it aired 9/4/95 (that long ago?) The first episode of Xena (Sins of the Past) aired 9/4/95. Bingo.

Wow, talk about your Xena fanatics. Check out Whoosh! (from where the kung fu link above came from). Here's a few :) more links.


DVD Talk Reviews

Hercules, Season 1
Hercules, Season 2
Hercules, Season 3
Hercules, Season 4
Hercules, Season 5
Hercules, Season 6

Xena, Season 1 (wow, list price was 99.95 back then)
Xena, Season 2
Xena, Season 3
Xena, Season 4
Xena, Season 5
Xena, Season 6
Xena, Series Finale
Xena, 10th Anniversary Collection


Who sells the Anchor Bays new on eBay (do a search for Xena 10th Anniversary)? Let's see...

swashbuckle64 (generally sells them for 16.99 with free shipping)
featurepresentation2010
outthewazoo
Xenaversity2 (12/28/10)

[It looks like all of the above are now strangely inactive. The current seller is now legendaryheroes.]

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[10/24/11] Noticed that Xena is available on Hulu Plus. But strangely not Hercules. Young Hercules is though.

Ah, apparently it's because Hercules is available on NetFlix. And Xena too. What about Kung Fu? Just on DVD. Get Smart? Just on DVD too. Charmed is available streaming and DVD. Bob Newhart on DVD and on Hulu Plus. Dick Van Dyke: streaming and DVD and free on Hulu!. Mary Tyler Moore: DVD, but free on Hulu too!. Everybody Loves Raymond: DVD with a few episodes available at TV Land. King of Queens: DVD. Batman? apparently nowhere legal (except on HUB)

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[7/4/12] Apparently you can watch Xena and Hercules for free at Project - Free TV.  Quite possibly illegally though.

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[9/14/12] They've now started showing Hercules: the Legendary Journeys on HUB.  The high def feed zooms in and cuts off the top and bottom of the picture.  The resulting picture isn't very sharp.

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[9/23/13] Now that I have Netflix and access to all the episode of Hercules and Xena (well not the Hercules movies or the animated movie, but they do have Young Hercules too), I wonder if there is an order suggested to view them (mainly because the shows were on simultaneously for much their run).  Here are two suggestions (and another).

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[1/5/24] After not being available for a while, Hercules and Xena are now on Prime Video (well SyFy had been showing Xena off and on, but all the episodes have expired from my YouTube TV library, so it's been more than 9 months).  They're also have the five Hercules movies.