Young Hercules is a prequel series to the television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys that originally aired on Fox Kids Network. After a pilot film aired on Feb. 17, 1998, the series premiered on September 12, 1998, and ended on May 14, 1999, with a total of 50 episodes over the course of one season. It stars Ryan Gosling in the title role, who took over from Ian Bohen who starred in the pilot movie and four episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. The series was inspired by the Greek myths of Heracles.
Contents
Plot
The series follows Hercules as he attends the Academy, where the wise centaur headmaster, Cheiron, trains him in the ways of the warrior. There, he befriends Prince Jason, the future king of Corinth, and Iolaus, a former thief who was sentenced to train at the Academy instead of going to prison. Hercules also meets the Academy's first female cadet, Lilith.
The show features Ares, the god of war, and his attempts to destroy his younger half-brother to win Zeus' favor. Among his allies are his nephew Strife and the goddess of retribution, Discord. The series also features two other villains: Hera, the queen of the gods and Hercules' stepmother, and Apollo, the god of the sun and Hercules' half-brother.
Other characters of interest include Kora, the innkeeper who, unbeknownst to Hercules and his friends, is a devotee of Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. As the series progresses, it is revealed that Kora has special powers that allow her to do Artemis' bidding. There are hints of romance between Hercules and Kora, but their friendship keeps things innocent.
Cast
Main
Ian Bohen as Hercules (pilot only)
Ryan Gosling as Hercules
Dean O'Gorman as Iolaus
Chris Conrad as Jason
Supporting
Jodie Rimmer as Lilith
Mfundo Morrison as Theseus
Nathaniel Lees as Cheiron
Angela Marie Dotchin as Kora
Kevin Smith as Ares
Joel Tobeck as Strife
Meighan Desmond as Discord
Katrina Browne as Cyane, an Amazon
Jason Hoyte as Hephaestus, god of metallurgy
Sharon Tyrell as Alcmene
Alison Bruce as Simula
Elizabeth Hawthorne as Hera
Jay Ryan as Cadet
John Bach as Zeus
Production
Young Hercules' executive producers were Robert Tapert and Sam Raimi. Liz Friedman and Eric Gruendemann were co-executive producers, and former MTV producer Cynthia Hsiung was producer of the series. Eric Lewald and Julia Lewald were head writers. In New Zealand, where principal photography was shot, Janine Dickins held down the fort as the New Zealand producer while three series directors took turns shooting the episodes in blocks of four along with a fourth director for second unit. Chris Graves, Charlie Haskell and Andrew Merrifield shot principal photography and Simon Rabbi shot second unit. Later in the series, Simon Rabbi shot principal photography for the 50th episode, "Valley of the Shadow."
The series has been used in case studies of how to shoot television series efficiently. Traditional television series are shot one episode at a time. Young Hercules was shot in blocks of four episodes at a time. The three main directors of the series were on a rotation, one director for each four episode block. The four would be written with this in mind, keeping sets, locations, and actors similar in all four episodes even if story and plot lines might not interrelate. This saved tremendous amounts of money and time allowing the series to be shot on a shoestring budget, but with maximum on-screen dollars. The 50 episodes had a budget of roughly $20 million which includes above and below the line costs. Shooting in New Zealand also allowed the series to circumvent considerable Guild regulations for further savings. Additional money was saved shooting the series on 16 mm film. Early research was done to see if digital cameras could be used, but it was determined that technology was not adequate at the time to make digital filming economically viable.
Principal photography took place in New Zealand while post-production elements including visual effects and music were all edited and integrated together in Los Angeles. Ian Bohen played Young Hercules in the pilot movie and was offered the part, but opted not to move to New Zealand where the series would shoot principal photography. Early on in the series, special visual effects were conceived by Richard Taylor's Weta Workshop, the then little known visual effects company that went on to win several Academy Awards for their work on The Lord of the Rings. Weta and Richard Taylor stepped off Young Hercules early on to work on Lord of the Rings. In fact, the early production days of Young Hercules saw many of its crew leave to work on the then little known Peter Jackson sensation, Lord of the Rings.
Location
The series was filmed entirely in New Zealand, at Studio West in West Auckland.
Episodes
The series was aired out of order. The episodes are listed below, as presented on DVD, in the order of their production codes. Despite this, the episodes list is not completely correct chronologically. For example, in "The Head That Wears the Crown" Jason is crowned king, yet in several following episodes, such as "Winner Take All", he is still a prince. Similarly, even though Lilith visits Hercules' mother in "Mommy Dearests", they later appear to meet for the first time in "Home for the Holidays".
Reception
The series aired on the Fox Kids Network at first on Monday through Friday at 4:30 p.m. PST and Saturday mornings at 8:30 a.m. PST. Later in the year, the series aired Monday through Friday only at 3:30 p.m. PST. Although ratings on Fox Kids were strong for the season (2nd top-rated live-action series below Power Rangers), Young Hercules was not renewed.
Home media
On June 23, 2015, Shout! Factory released Young Hercules: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time.