Copyright 1997 Landmark Communications, Inc. The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA) March 10, 1997, Monday, FINAL EDITION SECTION: DAILY BREAK, Pg. E1 LENGTH: 1740 words HEADLINE: HERO WORSHIP; HERCULES. XENA. THEY'RE TOUGH. THEY'RE SEXY. AND IN THE WORLD OF TV; SYNDICATION, THEY'RE MUSCLING OUT THE COMPETITION. BYLINE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST BODY: OH, WOW. Hercules is in trouble. He's lost his superhuman strength. The cruel gods and bloodthirsty warriors who have been trying for ages to destroy him are succeeding. He's overmatched in hand-to-hand combat against a small army of swordsmen. Clang! Bang! Clang! Hercules is losing. He's fallen to his knees. I see blood. He's hurt. If somebody doesn't help Hercules, he'll soon be dead meat. Relax, Herc. Help is on the way. ''Yi-yi-yi-yi-yi!'' It's the battle cry of Xena, Warrior Princess. She's come with her very large sword and ''chakram'' - a razor-sharp Frisbee - to save her bud Hercules. Cool. On WTVZ a week or so ago, both Hercules and Xena appeared in an episode of ''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys,'' a crossover that doesn't happen often since Xena spun off into a series of her own (''Xena: Warrior Princess.'') I believe they were last seen together freeing Prometheus from the Cave of Hephaestus. ''Xena'' is doing phenomenally well in syndication in its second season. Ratings are up 36 percent. In syndication, it's the highest-rated drama. No show in syndication is more popular with women 18 to 49 or with teens. Men love ''Xena,'' too. Do we ever. I'm not ashamed to admit I lust after the Warrior Princess just as women I met at a gathering of program syndicators in New Orleans recently had the hots for Hercules. And Tarzan. And Sinbad. They pushed to be close to Hercules (Kevin Sorbo). Women stood in line to get an autograph from Tarzan (Joe Lara). They melted before Sinbad (Zen Gesner). Me? I begged to interview Xena (Lucy Lawless). In TV syndication, it's the era of the superhero, who swashes and buckles in a time long ago in a land of ancient gods, warriors, kings, demons and monsters. And in no market is that more obvious than Hampton Roads where WTVZ rolls out Xena, Hercules, Tarzan and Sinbad from 3 until 8 p.m. on Saturday with ''Baywatch'' tossed into the mix at 5. ''Hercules'' and ''Xena'' are seen on more than 200 stations in the U.S. and in 20 foreign countries. Arriving in syndication in the fall is another superhero: ''Conan, the Adventurer'' starring Ralf Moeller. While ''Xena,'' with a 3.8 rating (almost 4 percent of Hampton Roads' 631,000 TV households), isn't as hot here as was ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' in that series' early years, it is ''extremely popular,'' to quote Channel 33 spokesman Mark Hudgins. The combined rating of the four Saturday superheroes on Channel 33 is substantial: 9.0. For Xenaphiles here whose appetite for the lovely Lucy is never satisfied, there is joy on the weekends. ''Xena'' airs Saturday on WTVZ at 7 p.m. and again on WTVZ Sunday at noon. Plus twice more on cable Sunday with WGN showing it at 2 p.m. (unless preempted for baseball) and 1:30 a.m. Monday. If viewers want even more of Xena, her Internet connection is www.mca.com/tv/xena. ''I love the glitz,'' says Lawless of the fame that has come her way almost overnight. Had she taken her parents' suggestions to become a marine biologist, she would have missed all this. What is the appeal of ''Xena''? ''Fantasy and friendship,'' said Lawless in New Orleans, where her sword, chakram and leather costume were nowhere in sight. She wore a designer pants suit in beige that nicely set off her full-moon face, long, dark hair with bangs and light-blue eyes. Lawless is 28, divorced, the mother of 8-year-old Daisy. She has yet to recover fully from falling off a horse during a silly piece of business she was doing with Jay Leno on ''The Tonight Show.'' That fall on hard pavement in Burbank, Calif., put her in the hospital for three weeks and all but shut down production of ''Xena'' for three months. ''I still can't do some things on camera I did with ease before the accident. I can't do some of my kicks, and I still don't ride. But all things considered, I had a miraculous recovery.'' Lawless uses a stunt double today. She used a stunt double before her fall. Although not yet 100 percent healthy, Lawless does the sword fights and the scenes in which Xena is knocking some poor warrior silly with a frying pan. ''I do everything that's safe for me to do,'' she said. As Xena, she has no noticeable accent while speaking what she calls generic American. Off camera, she is definitely Lawless, the New Zealander. The people she meets in airports, at fan fests and conventions in the U.S. are stunned when she opens her mouth. Out comes the sound of New Zealand. It's like an Aussie accent, but softer. ''They're also surprised I'm only 6 feet tall. They expect someone much bigger. They say I'm younger and prettier in person, which I like,'' said Lawless. It is almost by accident that ''Xena'' has evolved into the hottest, hippest and campiest drama outside network television. She was introduced in ''Hercules'' as a power-mad warrior woman who set out to kill the man she later learned to love. Who knew she'd be a star? If your memory is sharp, you'll recall Lawless as Lyla, Deric the Centaur's young bride, and as Lysia, the Amazon enforcer, on early episodes of ''Hercules,'' before she became Xena in a three-episode story arc. Now she's strictly Xena, although the producers have had her play three roles in some episodes, including her dead-ringer friend, Princess Diana. It was a hoot to see her playing her dark alter ego, the bad Xena, in an episode in 1996. ''My name is Xena with a capital Z.'' That's sly humor. Both ''Hercules'' and ''Xena'' have a lot of it. Producers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert also use special effects liberally, including 3-D animation. The four syndicated shows about the superheroes are a mix of action, computerized special effects, sexuality - if you think Lawless has cleavage, check out Jacqueline Collen of ''Sinbad'' - and dialogue that is a mix of the Medieval and 1990s' one-liners. Hercules to a warrior he's just flattened: ''That's gotta' hurt.'' After an episode of ''Xena'' in which Lawless' character kissed a contestant in the Miss Known World beauty pageant, one magazine suggested she's a lesbian. The magazine dwelled on Xena's deep friendship with her sidekick, Gabrielle, played with pluck by Renee O'Connor. ''That's strictly friendship occurring between two women who like and respect each other,'' said Lawless, who's had it with all this lesbian buzz. She doesn't mind talking about her private life, which is just now settling down after the divorce. ''When I was off the job recuperating at home, I sorted out some things with my daughter that needed sorting out. I'm a much better mother now. ''My daughter feels threatened by my role as Xena. She feels that people want me to be Xena and not the woman who is her mother. Daisy feels that other people want a piece of me because I am Xena, and that frightens her. At school, she is constantly asked, 'Is your mommy Xena? Is your mommy Xena?' She feels that she must share me with others, and that in some ways she has lost her mother,'' said Lawless. Just as she was arriving in New Orleans from New Zealand, where ''Xena'' is filmed near Auckland, her show began to soar in the ratings. That's great, said Lawless, but the best is yet to come. ''The show has yet to peak,'' she said. ''Xena has yet to conquer the U.S. Midwest. How is it doing where you live?'' Fabulous, I said. (When I asked Infoline callers if they liked the syndicated shows with the four superheroes, and if so, why, the neatest reply came from a 16-year-old Suffolk girl. ''I don't watch 'Hercules' because Kevin Sorbo is cute or a hunk or anything like that,'' she said. ''I watch because he's a great role model.'') A capsule summary of the syndicated superheroes: ''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys,'' WTVZ, Saturday at 6 p.m. and 1 a.m. Sunday - This series took off almost immediately after its January 1995 premiere. Kevin Sorbo stars as the the son of Zeus and mortal mother Alemene. Hercules is strong, smart and has a sense of humor. He's good at kick-boxing and swordplay and facing down fire-breathing dragons. His sidekick is Iolaus (Michael Hurst). Lately, ''Hercules'' has been heavy on the dramatics as he lost his superhuman strength and his wife, Deianeria, who was murdered. ''Xena: Warrior Princess,'' WTVZ, Saturday at 7 p.m., Sunday at noon - Just nine months after she first appeared on ''Hercules'' in several Amazonian roles, Xena had a series of her own starring Lucy Lawless in the title role with Renee O'Connor as her spirited sidekick. Lots of nice give-and-take between these two. Xena, who was a dark character on ''Hercules,'' is now the hero in a world of barbaric tribes, slave traders and other evildoers. She's great at the martial arts, can handle all the weapons of the time, and bounces around like a circus acrobat. The producers have her battling other women warriors, all manner of gods and monsters (usually with one eye) and lately even had her do a little time travel. ''Tarzan, the Epic Adventures,'' WTVZ, Saturday at 3 p.m., unless preempted for hockey, and 2 a.m. Sunday - This series isn't produced to be campy like ''Hercules'' and ''Xena,'' but it's basically the same blend of action, special effects and good vs. evil. Joe Lara has a bit more edge and attitude than Tarzan characters of the past. Lara says he wouldn't do this series if it were a spoof or ''mocked the Tarzan legacy.'' He said, ''I insisted that Tarzan not be made to look stupid, which is easy to do when a guy is running around in his underwear.'' ''The Adventures of Sinbad,'' WTVZ, Saturday at 4 p.m., unless preempted for hockey, and Sunday at 5 a.m. - Today's visual effects technology was made for a fantasy like ''Sinbad'' in which Zen Gesner stars as the sailor who finds adventure at home in Baghdad and on the open sea. If it's not a rock monster, it's some fire-breathing creature or natural menace like quicksand threatening Sinbad and his pals, who include a sorcerer's apprentice played by Jacqueline Collen. Her ally is a hawk named Dermott. They connect telepathically. Talking to reporters about ''Sinbad'' in Los Angeles not long ago, series creator and executive producer Ed Naha stressed that his hero is not Superman in a sweatband. ''Our hero is no god. He has no superhuman powers. He lives by his wits and his athletic prowess, He's a seafaring knight in shining armor, but with no springs in his feet,'' said Naha. Now stand by for the animated version of Hercules, Tarzan, Xena and Sinbad. ''Yi-yi-yi-yi-yi!'' GRAPHIC: Color Photo by MCA TV Kevin Sorbo stars in "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" on WTVZ. LOAD-DATE: March 12, 1997