XENA MEDIA REVIEW #24 (08-11-97) Part 3 of 4 ====================== CUT HERE ============== [368] 07-01-96 ESCAPE. The Digital Journal of Speculative Fiction. 292 words. "Editorial" by Marie Loughin, editor. http://www.interink.com/escape/volume_1/ number_5/1.html COMMENTARY: This delightful article is yet another in a series of Xena-inspired flights of fancy in the media. The most recent example is in the August 1997 Esquire where the writer reports watching a XWP episode with three graduate students (gender unknown) and discovering that all of them have the same sexual fantasy about Ms. Lawless. Over time it seems that folks have either fantasized about being Xena or being in lust with her or Ms. Lawless. Could it be that XWP is tapping into something that has been suppressed by society for a long time? Wonder what that says about our culture? [DS] REPRINT: I want to be Xena, Warrior Princess. Perhaps I am influenced by the semi-hypnotic quality of the show. Hey, any television is hypnotic when watched in a near-comatose state at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday night. I told my husband, Tom, that I like being able to slide off the couch and into bed to dream of striding about with a great big sword, lopping off the heads of oversized bullies. Tom said, That's okay. I like going to bed dreaming I'm married to Xena. Since this obsession began, Sunday has become my favorite day of the week. For one, it's the only day I get to sleep past 7:00 a.m. The rest of the week, I arise with my 3-year-old. (Lucy Lawless has a kid -- why should motherhood stop me from being Xena?) On Sundays I awaken slowly, basking in the glow of vague dreams of glory and major b***-kicking. I bound through the house on spring-loaded legs, startling the cat with war cries of: hieeieeieeieeieee before launching myself at last night's dinner dishes. Every graceful move I make is accompanied by the sharp hhhhwit of air crashing inward to fill the vacuum created by my swift movements. Even the roaches tremble in fear at my passing. But, as the day wears on, the dreams fade and harsh 20th-century reality sets in. Things like telephones, cars, electricity, hygiene, and even the television from whence the fantasy has sprung, creep into my pre-civilized dreamworld until I am, at last, Marie, Mundane Mother, ready for Monday to begin. At least until next Saturday night. Ever helpful and sympathetic, Tom says I will never truly meld with my persona as Xena, Warrior Princess...not until I wear her outfits. [369] 07-01-96 MORTAL BELOVED. Episode no. 16. Second release. Guest stars: Bobby Hosea (Marcus) and Paul Willis (Atyminius). Written by R.J. Stewart. Directed by Garth Maxwell. COMMENTARY: See XMR161.5 for synopsis and commentary. [370] 07-02-96 THE VANCOUVER SUN. Page C11. 1079 words. "TV and the Ratings Game: News sells is just one of the signposts indicating U.S. viewer trends in the high-tech Nielsen surveys.: Dysfunctional Voyager manages a fall return" By Alex Strachan. COMMENTARY: A Canadian perspective of the US Nielsen game. This article reported the final ratings for the 1995-96 television season in the U.S. Overall a fascinating article about how an outsider interpreted the data, Mr. Strachan reported that XWP was ranked 14th, while HTLJ earned an 11th rating and STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE ranked 8th. [KT] REPRINT: Looking at the final Nielsen ratings for the 1995-96 television season in the U.S. is like following a road map through the collective consciousness of America's pop-culture heartland. Digging deeper for insight into why people watch what they do is more difficult, but not impossible. ER, the most popular show of the past decade, averaging 32 million viewers each week, is part soap opera, part nerve- wracking drama. It's one of the few shows with the ability to make viewers cry as well as laugh. Seinfeld (31.6 million viewers weekly) is a situation comedy about nothing in particular -- which millions of viewers can relate to; the secret, of course, is that it is funny. Friends (28 million viewers weekly) taps into 20-something angst and has a wry but gentle take on dating in the '90s. Viewers still have a hard time working the remote control: Five of the six most-watched programs in the U.S. air on Thursdays, on NBC, but only three of the five are actually worth watching. ER and Seinfeld are givens. It is easy to guess why Friends has hit such a popular nerve, though I have never been as taken with it as some of my own friends. The Single Guy (6th, 24.8 million viewers weekly) and Caroline in the City (4th, 25.9 million weekly) are "time slot hits," popular only because they are nestled comfortably between ER and Friends. This fall, Caroline in the City moves to Tuesday nights at 9:30, and its popularity should move accordingly. Deeper down on the list, things get interesting. The eroding medium of broadcast TV has seen the U.S. networks' combined share of the viewing audience drop to 65 per cent, from 69 per cent the previous year. Pay cable (in Canada, the equivalent of the specialty channels) gained five per cent, to nearly a third of all viewers. The remaining audience is divided between independent stations like KVOS and small, public-access stations like Rogers Cable-4 and public television. A handful of established series made dramatic gains, from the good (The X-Files, which jumped from 61st to 40th, with 15.5 million viewers weekly) to the bad (Coach, a quantum leap from 52nd to 15th) and the just plain ugly (Walker, Texas Ranger, from 33rd to an inexplicable 12th, with 19.4 million viewers weekly). At the other end of the spectrum, once-popular shows that fell out of favor with viewers included Grace Under Fire (14th, after finishing 4th last year), Roseanne (slipping to 19th from 9th), Ellen (44th, from 13th), Murder She Wrote (63rd, from 10th) and Hope & Gloria (99th, from 18th). Murder She Wrote and Hope & Gloria were hurt by moving to new nights, a lesson Caroline in the City should consider. Due South, popular with Canadians, appears to have worn out its welcome in the U.S: it slipped to 93rd from 54th, and has not been picked up for a third season (accurate over-all, season-ending figures are not available for Canada because of the fractured, low-tech nature of ratings gathering -- see Peter Wilson's article at right). With a few exceptions -- Due South, in-house CBC programming, NHL telecasts, national news magazines and local newscasts -- the figures parallel those in the U.S.). Other Nielsen trends worth noting: * Americans are learning what Canadians have known all along: news sells. 60 Minutes, 20/20, Dateline NBC and PrimeTime Live posted sharp gains. More U.S. viewers tune into Nightline each night than watch either David Letterman or Jay Leno. * 10 p.m. Friday has collected a logjam of viewers with 20/20 (19.6 million), Homicide: Life on the Street (12.4 million) and Nash Bridges (12.1 million) all qualifying as hits for their respective networks. Another 15.5 million viewers tune in every Friday to The X-Files . So what happened to going out? * The X-Files may be a bona-fide hit and Fox's most successful show but it is still seen each week by half as many viewers as watch ER -- at least in the U.S. * Murder One, 74th and watched each week by 12.1 million viewers was judged a disaster for ABC, while Nash Bridges, tied for 74th and also seen by 12.1 million viewers, was judged to be a hit for CBS. It's all a matter of perspective. * Strange Luck was seen by 8.9 million viewers every week, while Sliders attracted 8.7 million. Strangely, Strange Luck has been cancelled, while Sliders has been renewed. Go figure. (Sliders, incidentally, will be shifting its production this fall to Los Angeles from Vancouver to take advantage of Tinseltown's sound stages and less miserable weather. Sliders is the second full-time series to defect from Vancouver in the past year because of the weather; the other, The Marshal, has just been cancelled by ABC). * Other shows may be seen by more people and cancelled, but Star Trek: Voyager (131st, seen each week by 7.3 million viewers) continues to plod along on its predecessors' coat-tails, buoyed by its brand-name recognition and the belief that somewhere, somehow, the moribund series will manage to turn a corner. Voyager is watched by fewer people than tuned in to either The Monroes, Dweebs, Misery Loves Company, Courthouse, Charlie Grace or Kindred: The Embraced - all cancelled after less than two months on the air - but no matter. Captain Janeway, the carping starship captain with the voice of a Conehead, and her dysfunctional crew will be returning in the fall for a new season -- a trick not even Jean-Luc Picard could have pulled off. If Voyager is UPN's idea of a hit, couldn't they have found room for a second season of Nowhere Man? Compared to Voyager's 131st ranking, Nowhere Man's 148th-place finish doesn't look so bad after all. * The most popular shows in syndication last year were, respectively, Wheel of Fortune (with 10.8 million viewers), Jeopardy! (with 9.2 million) and The Oprah Winfrey Show (7.8 million). Repeats of Home Improvement (4th), Seinfeld (5th) and The Simpsons (7th) dominated syndicated comedies, while Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (8th, seen each week by 2.9 million viewers) edged Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (11th) and Xena: Warrior Princess (14th) as syndication's most popular dramas. Baywatch fell to 21st. Time for Pamela Lee to hang up her swimsuit? * The least-watched prime-time network show of 1995-96 was something called Simon, which ranked 158th and drew a whopping 2.0 million viewers across Canada and the U.S. for the WB network. I can't say that I had the pleasure. Hardly anyone else did either. [371] 07-02-96 THE BUFFALO NEWS. Page 7C. 951 words. "Ch. 29 Ax Fells 'Hercules,' 'Xena'; TV Guide Poll About; Kathie Lee Is Flawed" By Alan Pergament. COMMENTARY: Channel 29 of Western New York state pulled the plug on airing HTLJ and XWP. The station had the rights to extend airings through September, but pulled them because of the low ratings earned in the May sweeps. Channel 29's history of inconsistent scheduling was blamed for the low ratings earned by the station. In September, airing rights for HTLJ and XWP will go to Channel 49, currently a religious channel which will become a WB affiliate when it swaps it's license with Channel 26, a new channel which may not be functional until early 1997. This meant that the area would not get HTLJ and XWP until Channel 26 would be able to swap licenses with Channel 49. [KT] All I can say is this is a good example of how TV failure and success can have nothing to do with the quality of a show. [DS] Graphic is of Kevin Sorbo. EXCERPT: Hercules (Kevin Sorbo) has lost his power in Western New York. So has Xena (Lucy Lawless). The villain is television politics. Channel 29 General Manager Don Moran pulled the popular syndicated series "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" and "Xena: Warrior Princess" following the May sweeps after the station lost the rights to the shows, effective this fall. Channel 49, the religious channel that will become an independent station affiliated with the WB Network after swapping the license with a new Channel 26, has won a power play over "Hercules" and "Xena." "We couldn't come to terms and didn't renew them," explained Moran. The syndicator, MCA TV, then made a deal with Channel 49, which may not be on the air until early 1997. If Channel 49's switch is delayed, Hercules and Xena will be powerless in the fall. Channel 29 could have kept the shows on until September, but Moran pulled them. "We're punishing the syndicator," said Moran candidly. And the viewer is caught in the middle. "Those shows never grabbed a foothold here," said Moran. "They are great shows. I love them personally." "Hercules" and "Xena" are big national hits in syndication, but Channel 29's inconsistent scheduling of them was one reason for their failure to catch on here. Once upon a time, "Hercules" ran in prime time here, but it was relegated this season to weekend afternoons, when Fox sports programming disrupted its scheduling. As part of its deal for the two shows, Channel 49 also bought a movie package from the syndicator, Moran said. It was a barter package that Channel 29 was not interested in. In barter deals, the syndicator gives the movies to stations without cost in return for the stations' agreeing to carry national ads. "I don't want barter movies," explained Moran. "(Channel 49) needs them to keep programming costs low. I would rather pay cash for movies and have inventory to sell."... [372] 07-03-96 to 07-25-96 NOTE: Production charts for 07/96. [372a] 07-03-96 DAILY VARIETY. 5754 words. ""TV and Cable Production Chart" COMMENTARY: Production chart for LA area: HTLJ and XWP. EXCERPT: Abbreviation: SUPR EXP-Supervising executive producer(s); EXP-Executive producer(s); COEXP-Co-executive producer(s); SUPR PROD-Supervising producer(s); PROD-Producer(s) COPROD-Co-producer(s); DIR-Director(s); CASTING-Casting director. Affiliated production companies indicated when applicable in parentheses after show title. Anthology titles follow show title. Unless a specific director is noted, show uses various directors. Gray screen indicates new entry this week. The TV Production Chart includes only programs that cast actors in the L.A. area.... ...MCA TELEVISION (818) 777-1242 HERCULES: THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS (synd) (in assn w/Renaissance Pictures) EXP, Robert Tapert, Sam Raimi; COEXP, John Schulian; SUPR PROD, Robert Bielak; PROD, Eric Gruendemann; COPROD, David Eick; CASTING, Beth Hymson-Ayer. XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS (synd) (in assn w/Renaissance Pictures) EXP, Robert Tapert, Sam Raimi; COEXP, R.J. Stewart; SUPR PROD, Steven Sears; PROD, Eric Gruendemann; COPROD, Liz Friedman; CASTING, Beth Hymson-Ayer.... [372b] 07-11-96 DAILY VARIETY. Thursday. 5867 words. "TV and Cable Production Chart" COMMENTARY: Production chart for LA area: HTLJ and XWP. Same info as XMR372a. [372c] 07-18-96 DAILY VARIETY. Thursday. 6026 words. "TV and Cable Production Chart" COMMENTARY: Production chart for LA area: HTLJ and XWP. Same info as XMR372a. [372d] 07-25-96 DAILY VARIETY. Thursday. 6267 words. "TV and Cable Production Chart" COMMENTARY: Production chart for LA area: HTLJ and XWP. Same info as XMR372a. It great to know our favorite show is still in production!!! [373] 07-04-96 THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER. Page F04. 1342 words. "Summer on the Set; Television: Cool Cable and PBS Provide Antidotes to the Prime-time Rerun Dog Days" By Kinney Littlefield. COMMENTARY: In an article about what to watch on TV during the rerun season, Littlefield cited the movie "Topx: Biker Women" on TBS as something to watch and ended the idyll with "Think Xena on a Harley Wideglide." [KT] It's interesting to see Xena becoming the standard for tough. Although this article uses Xena in reference to a movie about women, we've also seen references where Xena has been used as a short-hand method of describing toughness and invincibility in men. [DS] EXCERPT: Fried on "Friends" reruns? Demoralized by "X-Files" deja vu? Don't Uzi your set just yet. Post-Independence Day comes a new wave of cool programming on cable and PBS that's incisive enough, radically styled enough, to put standard network pablum to shame. Once you surf off rerun-ridden ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC OK, you will want to catch NBC's Olympics coverage the tube promises to be a real summer sizzle. Here's our take on smog season's best alternative viewing fare.... ..."Topx: Biker Women" (6 and 10 p.m. Aug. 25 and 10:05 p.m. Aug. 26, TBS). Picture four gorgeous gal bikers on great big shiny hogs, road-tripping from the famed Sturgis, S.D., motorcycle rally to California. Soft-porn cliche? Slightly, but great light fun. These real-life veteran bikers photographer Gail DeMarco, writer Jamie Elvidge (wife of actor Perry King), singer Gevin Fax and writer Cris Sommer-Simmons (spouse of the Doobie Brothers' Patrick Simmons) make savvy observations about life, love and Harleys as they expertly freeway-fly. Think Xena on a Harley Wideglide. B... [374] 07-04-96 OVER THE HEDGE. Syndicated comic strip. Thursday. Contributed by Lachlan a Mcgrath [nhne76a@prodigy.com] COMMENTARY: "Over the Hedge" was a comic strip featuring a hip raccoon and turtle who made comments on life in Suburbia. In a three panel strip, the turtle was showing the raccoon his concept for a new development, "Turtopia", where animals and humans would live in harmony. In the first panel, the raccoon said, "What makes you think people will GO for your Turtopian concept?". The turtle replied, "Look, they want to be close to nature, but not TOO close.". In the 2nd panel he continued, "We give them what THEY want." At which point the raccoon read from the brochure, "`Tasteful, regularly scheduled foraging with random displays of adorableness'" In the third panel, the turtle continued, "and WE get what WE want!" As the raccoon finished the Brochure: "`Free digital satellite access to the 24 hour `All Xena, All the Time' network." [KT] I really don't have anything to say about this. I'm too busy chuckling. [DS] [375] 07-05-96 THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL (Memphis). Page 1C. 1361 words. "Oases pin TV's dry season, Olympics, conventions, and undiscovered gems" By Tom Walter. COMMENTARY: In yet another article about what to check on TV during the re-run season, Mr. Walter actually offered HTLJ and XWP. Gracious enough to mention Renee O'Connor, to give Ms. Lawless a graphic, and to cover the show in a paragraph of a healthy length, Mr. Walter ended his offering discussing the special appeal of XWP to 14 year old boys. [KT] EXCERPT: Where do caffeine-saturated Friends fans go when even they have seen enough of the adorable sextet? What to do when Martin has performed one too many double takes for your taste? Now that you know how your favorite shows ended their seasons, aren't the reruns a little anticlimactic? Sure, you're watching less television in the summer. In fact, everyone's watching less network TV. Last week, the Big Three networks had their lowest rating ever for a week that didn't include the Fourth of July weekend or political convention coverage. By contrast, basic cable services have seen their viewing increase the past couple of weeks to record levels. Most of us need at least a little TV to get us through until fall premiere season. So what is there to watch? ... ...And yes, the Republican and Democratic conventions will be there for political junkies in August.... ...But that still leaves a huge chunk of time, a void, a chasm. You can always catch up on network shows you missed the first time out. Frasier fans, for instance, can catch up on Home Improvement if they want to. But somehow, that doesn't seem like enough. Be adventurous. Find something you may have ignored altogether during the season, and for what you might have thought were good reasons. Which is another way of saying hello Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess. These two, especially Hercules, already are hits in syndication. Millions of people watch them. But in Memphis, WLMT-TV Channel 30 schedules them from 7 to 9 Thursday nights, one of the most competitive two-hour stretches in television. (They also air on Channel 30 from 1:30 to 3:30 a.m. Monday night.) Beyond a few snippets during commercials of other shows, I'd not seen either of these. Alas, my loss. Hercules refuses to take itself seriously. Herc (Kevin Sorbo) and his sidekick Iolaus (Michael Hurst) range over ancient Greece (actually present- day New Zealand) righting wrongs, fighting Herc's stepmother Hera, facing down monsters and having a grand old time. The series is filled with anachronisms (a roadside falafel stand that gives Iolaus indigestion), winks to the audience and enough cartoon violence - kicking, stabbing, etc. - to keep any 14-year-old happy. The dialog is remarkably contemporary, and little effort is made to stay historically accurate. Some of the castles look as if they belong in medieval Europe, others in 16th Century Turkey, and still others have appeared previously only in a production designer's fevered dreams. Xena (played by Lucy Lawless), is a Hercules spin-off. Xena was introduced on Hercules and originally was determined to destroy Hercules. Then the producers saw her potential as a series star. She underwent a radical conversion and became a heroine. She and her sidekick Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor) roam the countryside battling bad guys, righting wrongs, etc. And speaking of 14-year-old boys: She wears a leather minidress, shows decent cleavage and kicks with the best of them. (Side note: It's remarkable how people in both series' ancient world seem to have availed themselves of plastic surgeons.) Hercules and Xena also appear on cable station WGN, when they aren't pre-empted by baseball. You can catch Hercules at 7 p.m. Friday and 4 p.m. Saturday, and Xena at noon and 11:30 p.m. Sunday.... ...GRAPHIC: (Color) In Xena: Warrior Princess, Lucy Lawless plays the heroine who roams the land battling bad guys, righting wrongs, etc., (Color) Kevin Sorbo plays the hero in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, ignoring historical accuracy but having lots of fun.... [376] 07-05-96 XENA MEDIA REVIEW. No. 14. Edited by and annotations by Kym Masera Taborn. COMMENTARY: A world press review of coverage on XWP, Renee O'Connor, or Lucy Lawless. Covered 02/9/96 through 02/25/96. NATPE reports; XWP overseas; Xena toys; Mike & Maty Interview; Lucy Lawless interviews; Kevin Sorbo interview; Inside Trek interview; Xena as President; John Schulian; and more [KT] [377] 07-07-96 THE SUNDAY STAR-TIMES (Auckland). Page 11. 811 words. "Showcasing a top crop of talent" By Linda Herrick COMMENTARY: A New Zealand newspaper looks at how local actors are doing on XWP. [DS] EXCERPT: ...ACTOR Simon Prast extends his Alan Rickman-style of villainy in Xena: Warrior Princess on Wednesday (TV3, 8.30pm). Prast, the nasty Paul Churchill in Shortland Street, plays Nemos, King Gregor's devious adviser who steals Pandora's Box, containing "The Hope of Mankind". The "plot" is full of wind but Prast says he had a ball filming the episode, especially the banquet scene. "We'd been drinking Ribena all day and it had a placebo effect. Lucy (Lawless, who plays Xena) fell over her outfit and I muttered I'll take the clumsy one', which cracked everyone up." The heavily armoured actor manfully tackled the riding scenes aboard a "stallion" -- a sawhorse -- and his sinister goatee look proved to be much ado about glue. In Prast's words: "It was great fun." The episode also features Beryl Te Wiata in a small role.... ...GRAPHIC...PRAST in Xena. [378] 07-07-96 THE NEW YORK TIMES. Section 2. Page 25. 1368 words. "Punching the Stop Button Before the VCR Takes Over" By William McDonald. COMMENTARY: In a drawn out self-reflection of the author's obsession with tape recording tv shows off the tv and never having the time to watch them, Mr. McDonald mentions Xena in passing when he opined about the positive merits of taping: "You don't have to decide between 'America's Most Wanted' and 'Xena: Warrior Princess,' both occupying the same time slot on different channels; you can simply tape one while watching the other." [KT] EXCERPT: THE PAINFUL MOMENT OF truth about my VCR habit came on a rainy spring Saturday as I was chucking out a kitchen drawerful of old Chinese takeout menus. Reaching for a bunch, I felt the tip of my right index finger impaling itself on a bent staple still protruding from a menu that had once been fastened to a brown paper bag in which the General Tso's Chicken, or whatever the dish was from some long-forgotten dinner, had been delivered in. I gasped, of course, and emitted a gut-satisfying=7F curse. But even more significant was the epiphany. Suddenly I grasped the folly of my videophilic ways. I had been cleaning out the drawer, you see, to make room for what was, at the time, my expanding library of videocassette tapes. My wife had duly informed me that the living-room floor behind the television set was no longer an acceptable place to store them. Nor, for that matter, was the space under the television table. And though I'd given over one shelf of a bedroom bookcase to the best of my video archive, my bibliophilic conscience would not allow me to oust any more books, even dog-eared paperbacks, for the benefit of black-plastic cassettes in cheesy cardboard sleeves with skinny, peeling handwritten labels. Hence my expansionist designs on the kitchen drawer. And thus the stage was set for the reality check amid the Chinese menus. Things must really be out of hand, I realized, when the paraphernalia of soulless electronic home entertainment could encroach on the wholesome domain of Frigidaire. You don't, after all, stack your canned tuna in the stereo cabinet. So I finally had to ask myself, Why am I preserving all this stuff? Let me hastily note that by "stuff" I do not mean the video versions of movies that come in seductively glossy boxes and sell for $25 or so, the worst of which end up in a bargain bin at Woolworth's. In fact, I could never understand why anyone would want to buy a feature-film video when you could just rent it once and be done with it. (Who, please tell me, is going to suggest on a Saturday night, "Honey, what do you say we stay home and watch our copy of 'Judge Dredd' again"?) No, what I'm talking about are the six-hour blank tapes that you fill up incrementally with programs recorded right off your own television. I was partial to classic movies and documentaries, though I'd also preserved both Super Bowl appearances by my beloved Giants, complete with pregame analysis and at-home interviews with the players' mothers.... ...Another beauty of the machine is that with it you don't have to miss anything. You don't have to decide between "America's Most Wanted" and "Xena: Warrior Princess," both occupying the same time slot on different channels; you can simply tape one while watching the other. And you can leave the house and be assured that on your return "Days of Our Lives" will be awaiting you as a nighttime experience. The sense of omnipresence is illusory, of course, but it's intoxicating nonetheless. And for moments you'd like to preserve forever, well, you can.... [379] 07-08-96 THE HARTFORD COURANT. Page A1. 1535 words. "Gone on Dogs; Camp for Canines and Friends Is Truly a Bone Voyage". By Helen Ubinas. COMMENTARY: Rabid fan named her 1-year-old pointer "Xena the Warrior Princess" and paid over $685 to attend Camp Gone To The Dogs with her dog. [KT] EXCERPT: To even begin to understand dog people, it helps to visit a place such as Camp Gone To The Dogs. Set against The Putney School's rolling hills and endless green fields, the boarding school has become the vacation spot for people willing to pay hundreds of dollars for the kind of quality people/poochie time that is usually unavailable and often unacceptable most anywhere else. Besides the huge RVs and motor homes bought specifically for the comfortable riding pleasure of the four-legged campers, and the rows of DOGCRZY and NOSNFF license plates, it is important to note that the people here are not ordinary, run-of-the-mill dog lovers. They're hard-core hounders. The kind of dog people who, like Lynn Deering, a schoolteacher from Florida, think nothing of working a night job to earn the $685 plus it costs for a week at camp with her 1-year-old pointer, Xena the Warrior Princess, or who, like Kathy Bicek, of Chicago, enthusiastically drives 900 plus miles in her unpredictable 10-year-old Toyota to reward Kodi, her 2-year-old "designer dog," -- the camp's nice way of saying mutt -- for being "such a good girl." These dog lovers do whatever it takes to get to doggie camp. They come even if their military husbands are being shipped to Bosnia, even if they finally saved up enough money and vacation=7F time to take that much-dreamed-about trip to England or even if, like John and Claire Rolando of Vernon -- who brought their black Labrador David and 130- pound Rottweiler Goliath to camp -- they are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary.... ====================== CUT HERE ============== XENA MEDIA REVIEW #24 (08-11-97) Part 3 of 4