Did Xena (Lucy Lawless) wear contact lenses to bring out the color of her eyes?
I was watching a re-run and they are the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen!
(Yes, I’m in love…) 
Lucy never wore contacts as far as I’m aware.
Her eyes are really just that blue!
WOW! Incredible!
Lucy Lawless’s hair is naturally sort of dark blonde. They wanted to bleach it for Xena but she realized that would cook her hair & convinced them to dye it dark brown.
So her naturally blue eyes were extra noticeable.
Yeah, from what I remember back in the day, (old Xenite here), Lucy had originally appeared on Hercules in a different supporting role and they wanted her to dye her hair to look different for the Xena character when they cast her for the redemption trilogy. (Lucy wasn’t the first choice, but she was the one who picked up the phone.)
FTR, I know the show is frowned on around here, but I really do think it’s underrated by the Dope. It wasn’t without it’s flaws but it was a transcendent in it’s day and without it there wouldn’t have been a Buffy. (Or a Willow and Tara for that matter…) I think people forget how popular it was in late 90’s.
For what it’s worth, you also have to remember that that show was filmed in New Zealand, often on location right near the ocean. Why is that relevant? Because when you pair up blue eyes like Lawless has with the midday sun reflecting off a very blue ocean, it can make even pale blue eyes (like my own) seem ridiculously, almost unnaturally blue.
Case in point: when I was a kid going to school at UC Santa Cruz, the dining hall at my college had these large sliding glass doors all along the wall that looked out over the hillside, with a view all the way down to the ocean. On any clear, bright day, anyone blue-eyed who sat on the far side of the table at lunchtime would have the ocean reflected in his or her blue eyes, making those eyes look artificially super-blue. Almost like they were glowing. I’ve seen it myself, and had people comment about it to me when my own eyes caught some of that reflected light. Quite striking, to say the least.
And yes, Jihi, I too am always amazed at how quickly that show fell off the face of the earth, especially considering some of the real obscurities that get slavishly devoted attention on this site. I wasn’t aware *Xena *was specifically frowned upon around here, but I guess that explains why it’s almost never brought up. Weird.
Maybe I haven’t been here long enough to know that Xena is “frowned upon.” If so, to heck with the frowners.
The show went on for so many years that some not-so-hot episodes were made; a few of the arcs in later seasons didn’t make much sense. But I know enough Greek (& other) mythology to enjoy the ways the show played games with all the ancient stories. And ancient history, too. “Where In the World is Xena?” would make a great educational game; look up the real stories tied up in knots for each episode! In myth, there are usually several alternate versions, anyway. -
The *Bitter Suite *was amazing–Once More With Feeling was not the first Musical Episode.
So much of the show was really funny. Some of that spirit was shared with Hercules & made me give that show–which I’d initially ignored because Kevin Sorbo is *so *not my type–a second look. And we met some really interesting actors. Karl Urban proved his versatility by playing Julius Caesar & Cupid; he’s continued doing so. Hudson Leick had fun as Psycho!Barbie! Bruce Campbell was already known but always a joy to see. Then, there was the much missed Kevin Smith…
If you’re in love with Lucy Lawless, look up what she’s been doing recently. Two words: assless chaps.
Indeed. According to wikipedia
I like Xena and am not familiar with any antipathy towards it here. I’m also confused by the constant references to Buffy.
Xena premiered two years before Buffy did, yes, but the Buffy movie was first and ass-kicking women wasn’t exactly an obscure trope even when it came out. Also, though they’re both about women fighting monsters, they really weren’t that similar in tone, with Xena taking itself a lot less seriously, and being much more “epic”.
As for Buffy’s firsts, the coy relationship between Xena and Gabrielle isn’t much like Willow and Tara’s except that they’re all women, and I don’t think anyone’s ever claimed OMWF was the first TV musical. Those things were impossible to avoid for a few years during this timeframe.
Which is the better show in your opinions?
Xena or Legend of the Seeker
I’m going to need more detail here.
Well, you can Google ‘lucy lawless assless chaps’ for a start. She’s been doing musical performances, singing rock & roll and pop hits. For a while she was performing wearing assless chaps, although with panties underneath. She has also worn a schoolgirl outfit and stripped down to a see-through body stocking with a thong underneath, and kissed her female singer/dancer, in a rock opera she performs as as a schoolgirl named Sapphy.
And no, I did not just dream all this last night. There are some videos on this youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/happykt
About the “frowners” comment, I have to admit I may be speaking a little bit out of my ass. It’s true that it’s not brought up around here much at all which, in and of itself, shouldn’t be taken as a negative. I guess it’s more of a general impression. I do know when I have seen it mentioned it’s almost always lumped in with all of those other horrible fantasy shows that came out around the same time that only lasted a year each, and sometimes less. (Sinbad, Robin Hood, Conan, Beastmaster, Relic Hunter, the list goes on…)
I can’t really support that assertion so I’ll go ahead and withdraw it. I just don’t want anyone to think I’m trying to demonize people just for not liking the show.
Now here’s the thing about Buffy…
I’m a huge Buffy fan as well. I loved that show and I liked Angel even more. I consider myself a fan of Joss Whedon in general.
Buffy always gets praised for being “brave” and “groundbreaking” in it’s approach to a feminist action hero. I wouldn’t deny the show those accolades but Xena was doing it years before and to some people it feels like a slight against the show. And it’s true that the “female action hero” wasn’t exactly novel even when the original Buffy movie came out in early 90’s. But if that’s case then none of them were “groundbreaking” and the importance of both shows, beyond being pop culture fads, are being inflated. I don’t believe that’s true and I don’t think anyone here would argue that either.
If push came to shove, I’d probably say Buffy was the better executed show and it stole a lot of Xena’s thunder at the time… That still bothers some people. But I admit that’s just stupid fan politics. 
Also, calling Xena and Gabrielle’s relationship “coy” is, I think, missing a large part of the reason the show was successful in the first place. For many people, (myself included), that was THE reason the show worked and it worked so well. That was the shows backbone. Through bad acting, ridiculous plots and a wretched fifth season, that was what kept bringing people back. And everyone knew this from the producers down to the most casual of television viewers. The X&G relationship was THE heart of the show. And it wound up being much more successful than anyone could have hoped from a campy, cheap, chop-socky fantasy that came out in 1995.
Xena’s last season was in 2000-2001, which was also the fourth season of Buffy when Tara debuted. I really don’t think I’m going out on a limb when I say the Willow/Tara relationship wouldn’t have happened or wouldn’t have happened the same way had X/G not demonstrated that it wouldn’t hurt the shows demographics.
Those shows failed to capture the magic of Xena. Basically, dress a pair of big-tittied lesbians up in a set of brown leather bondage outfits, give them a sword, anAerobie, a stick (later Chinese sai’s…whatever) and then have them wander around the ancient world kicking ass, falling in streams, dressing up in sexy disguises, and whatnot. Occassionally have them hang out with their hot Amazon friends, hot Greek godesses, hot evil chicks.
Yeah, because that’s all the show was about. How could I have been so blind all these years?
I love Xena. I much prefer it to Buffy, which I merely like. Your analysis eems off on about a hundred different levels, not least fo which is that Lucy Lawless is hardly “big-titted,” and Renee O’Connor is even less so. And I think the ambiguity about the nature of Xena & Gabrielle’s relationship is part of the appeal. They certainly were not lesbians. Xena was probably bisexual; if Gabrielle had any attraction to women, it was specifically to Xena.
I wouldn’t say “love” but I found Xena entertaining enough. It didn’t take itself as seriously as those other shows (including Buffy). It was a perfect Sunday afternoon show. Maybe it was just Sam Raime’s touch.
Hard to believe the first episode came out 14 years ago.
I was a huge Xena fan, so much that my dad gave me a set of nesting chackrum-like things he bought at a sci-fi con for my birthday. I was 32 or so. 
I loved the take on greek myths and the combination of high/low fantasy.
I lost interest near the end of the 4th season, and barely watched the 5th because the storylines were too painfully bad. But if the series came back on cable in syndication, I would absolutely watch them whenever I could.
In fact, Xena is why I missed out on a couple of years of Simpsons episodes. It means that even today I get to see syndicated Simpsons episodes that are completely new to me.