Many many thanks to GWN socani@ComCAT.COM
for transcribing this!
Thanksgiving Herc & Xena Battle-On-Marathon
26 November 1998
Lucy Lawless hosted 9 hours of Herc & Xena Episodes
Hey all, I felt like transcribing all of Lucy's bit during the Battle-on-a-Thon, so here it is. Lucy was very animated and humorous, which of course I can't transcribe, so use your imagination. I didn't get two parts because of errors setting my VCR, so if someone else who has them could transcribe them and post it (or email it to me) I'd really appreciate it. The bits I missed were: halfway through "The King of Thieves", and the beginning of "The Reckoning". Any errors in the transciption or typing are solely mine. For those who don't get USA, enjoy!
9:00 Callisto - no Lucy intro to this ep
9:30 Callisto - “In the chariot scenes, we were learning how to do things, so in these earlier episodes such as Callisto and Hooves and Harlots, we really did it the hard way...we did everything for real, so where people are being dragged there is no trickery going on. We’ve learned to cheat things much more effectively so you can see Xena’s face being dragged without causing grievous bodily harm to our stars, so what you’re seeing is pretty much the real deal in these eps.”
10:00 The Warrior Princess - “Huh? huh? Alright, let’s see what’s coming up next. [handed envelope by an unseen person] Thank you, my lovely assistant. OK, it’s The Warrior Princess. This was the first time I ever played Xena, and on the first day, I went to work....it was the biggest job I’d ever had...sat down in the make-up bus....and burst into tears. I’m not ready for this! But I guess I was. Well, you be the judge.”
10:30 The Warrior Princess - “When we first sat down and in the make-up bus discussing how we wanted Xena would look, they wanted to take me blonder because my natural hair color is kind of a light ash blond...dark blond...and I just knew that this would make my hair fall out in a matter of months, so I said ‘no,no,no...she should be like Gabriela Sabatini. She should be, you know, bronzed and big and strong and sexy’, so that’s what we did...we went with dark hair. I think it was a good choice. What do you think?”
11:00 Is There a Doctor in the House - “Ooooh, so chilling. She’s so bad! (refering to Xena in The Warrior Princess). Let’s find out what the next ep is. [handed envelope by an unseen person] Thank you. [gives unseen person a look up and down] Va va va voom!. Ok. Is There a Doctor in the House. The network was a little put off by the amount of blood that appeared in this episode. There was this great scene where Xena gets to cauterize a leg using a shield over a hot flame, and we had to cut it out, but you know, you could see the steam going.This was one of my absolute favorites from the first series, and I’m still very proud of it. Here we go.”
11:30 Is There a Doctor in the House - “The chakram was actually a real weapon and it was launched off the finger [Lucy demonstrates by twirling her index finger up in the air] because, of course, it was terribly sharp. Well, we experimented with the terribly sharp ones and it didn’t go down very well, so we modified it and came up with the old frisbee throw chakram.”
12:00 The King of Thieves - “I hope you enjoyed that scene as much as I enjoyed filming it. Renee and I actually ad libbed quite alot of the resuscitation scene and it’s quite difficult for two fairly young actresses, so it still makes my heart glad. Alright, what’s next? Next is from Hercules:The Legendary Journeys The King of Thieves. This episode has the man of talents, the wonderful Bruce Campbell. Bruce of one of the most fantastic physical comediens you’ll ever meet, so we are very happy to have him on board. Take a look.”
12:30 The King of Thieves - “?”
01:00 A Royal Couple of Thieves - “How was that, huh? Alright, let’s see what’s next. Another Bruce Campbell special. It’s A Royal Couple of Thieves. Bruce of one of the most fantastic physical comediens. It’s a Bruce Campbell-a-thon!”
01:30 A Royal Couple of Thieves - “In a Royal Couple of Thieves this is where we rip off....sorry...this is where we pay homage to Peter Gunn with our Dance of the Seven Veils, but on our budget it became The Dance of the Three Veils. Here we go.
02:00 The Gauntlet - “Groovin’. We are rockin’ now! Now, let’s see what’s next. Thank you [smiling to unseen person handing her the envelope, then does a Meg face]. It’s back [under breath, apparently refering to person who handed her the envelope]. The Gauntlet, from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. This is where we get to see Bob Trebor wearing drag. This was the second time I ever played Xena. It’s a very very dark episode, very moody, and very stylish. Take a look.”
02:30 The Gauntlet - “In The Gauntlet, Xena really takes a pummeling. It was my first introduction to the physicality of the role, to stunt fighting, and I got licked. Take a look at this.”
03:00 Hooves and Harlots - “Terrifying! I’m sure it’s all going to come alright, though.They’re going to be friends one day. Alright. Here we go. Thank you very much. What’s next. Hooves and Harlots. In the ride to battle, the chariots are being drawn by centaurs, and since we didn’t have many centaurs available on the day, we cheated but it looks alright. Take a look. So, back to the episode.”
03:30 Hooves and Harlots - “In Hooves and Harlots I have a big fight with Queen Melosa of the Amazons and we fight with chobos, which are those sticks....they are about two and half feet.... and we were really going for it, so it was quite a challenging fight. Take a look.”
04:00 The Enforcer - “So that was Hooves and Harlots! Va va va voom [regarding Hooves and Harlots]. What’s next? Thank you, my trusty assistant. Hercules: The Legendary Journeys The Enforcer, with Karen Shepard, coming up. This will be a good one. Karen is a very famous martial artist and works in a lot of Hong Kong films so, enjoy this. She’s the real goods.”
04:30 The Enforcer - “In Greek mythology the Goddess of Vengeance was Nemesis, and that’s why today an unbeatable rival is known as your nemesis, and here’s a good one for Herc.”
05:00 The Reckoning - “?”
05:30 The Reckoning - “I seem to remember that on the day we ad libbed that Xena pops Gabrielle one, Renee and I thought that would be funny, so it made it in the final cut, I think. Take a look at this.”
06:00 The Outcast - “I hope you enjoyed the Reckoning, and let’s find out what’s next. Thank you. And it is. From Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Outcast, starring Kevin Sorbo, and me! In this episode, we already knew that Xena was going into series, so I dyed my hair dark. They brought back the Lyla character which I had played previously. Kevin couldn’t let this go by, so he slipped in a little ad lib about, ‘doesn’t she remind you of Xena?’ Of course Iolaus says no, not a bit. So, watch out for it. Here we go.”
06:30 The Outcast - “You know, we um....small injuries are just part of the job. You are never without bruises and you just long ago stopped complaining about things like that, you know...torn ligaments and things....you know, they’ll just call you a big baby if you complain about that sort of thing, so we have to have something pretty major if you want to get a day off...you have to, I don’t know, smash your pelvis....brain damage is good...that seems to go down well. But generally, no, it doesn’t matter what happens to you. You just get back on that horse and ride.”
07:00 The Titans - “Yup, givin’ birth to a centaur. Let’s see what’s next. Here we go. Happy Thanksgiving to.....The Titans. In this episode it was the first time we had ever played with forced perspective. We were really learning on the job, and it works pretty well...no special effects, it’s all done on camera.”
07:30 The Titans - “I think the thing that strikes people most when they come onto our set is to hear us dropping in and out of accents, so, you know, Xena will be talking about something incredibly serious, and then we’ll say [Lucy now shouts over her shoulder in her own NZ accent, in pretend anger], ‘Oh, for crying out loud! Would you shut up!’ So, a lot of that goes on. And it’s quite difficult for us to do an American accent. It took a lot of practice, and every now and again you’ll hear us mangle our vowels a little bit. I know when I come back from a holiday it takes me a week to get back in there. Hmmm, not a lot of people knew that!”
And that's it! _____________________________________________________