September 10, 2025 • 32 mins
"Listeners, what would be the answer for you? Is it Buffy or Xena?”
Welcome to Season Four of 80s TV Ladies with hosts Sharon Johnson and Susan Lambert Hatem. In this episode, we dive into a nostalgic showdown between two iconic 90s TV heroines: Xena, the Warrior Princess, and Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.
Susan and Sharon discuss the origins, cultural impact, and strengths of both shows, debating who would win in a head-to-head fight, which show was more influential, and which had the best musical episode! They also speculate on which heroine iconic Wonder Woman iterations (70s WW played by Linda Carter and 2017's WW, played by Gal Gadot) would prefer.
Stay tuned for exciting details about our next guest, RJ Stewart, co-creator of Xena, and some engaging audio recommendations and show notes. This episode promises a delightful mix of history, pop culture analysis, and fanfare for these beloved series.
00:00 Welcome to 80s TV Ladies Season Four!
00:58 Introducing RJ Stewart and the Xena vs. Buffy Debate
01:35 History of Xena: Warrior Princess
02:50 History of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
04:45 Buffy vs. Xena: Who Would Win in a Fight?
07:17 Best 90s TV Ladies Superhero Show
12:25 Musical Episodes: Xena vs. Buffy
17:46 Buffy vs. Xena: The Ultimate Showdown
18:03 Wonder Woman's Preference: Xena or Buffy?
19:43 Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman: A New Perspective
24:18 90s TV Heroines: Beyond Buffy and Xena
26:00 Final Tally: Buffy vs. Xena
27:37 Upcoming Episodes and recommendations
30:07 Sign off and Farewell
AUDIOOGRAPHY
Xena: Warrior Princess
Streaming: Amazon Prime Video
Purchase: eBay
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Streaming: Tubi (free), Hulu, Disney+
Purchase: eBay
Crazy Hawk by RJ Stewart (Book)Purchase: Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble
Audiobook read by Katie Hagaman: Audible.
Guess What? We’re nominated!
For TWO People’s Choice PODCAST AWARDS!: Podcastawards.com
CONNECT
Visit 80sTVLadies.com for info and transcripts.
Sign up for the 80s TV Ladies mailing list.
Support us and get ad-free episodes on PATREON.
Join the Facebook page discussion at Facebook.com/80sTVLadies
Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review! Join us for more conversations with the people who shaped TV and pop culture.
Visit 80sTVLadies.com for more info.
Don’t miss out. Sign up for the 80s TV Ladies mailing list!
Help us make more episodes and get ad-free episodes and exclusive content on PATREON.
Welcome to Season Four of 80s TV Ladies with hosts Sharon Johnson and Susan Lambert Hatem. In this episode, we dive into a nostalgic showdown between two iconic 90s TV heroines: Xena, the Warrior Princess, and Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.
Susan and Sharon discuss the origins, cultural impact, and strengths of both shows, debating who would win in a head-to-head fight, which show was more influential, and which had the best musical episode! They also speculate on which heroine iconic Wonder Woman iterations (70s WW played by Linda Carter and 2017's WW, played by Gal Gadot) would prefer.
Stay tuned for exciting details about our next guest, RJ Stewart, co-creator of Xena, and some engaging audio recommendations and show notes. This episode promises a delightful mix of history, pop culture analysis, and fanfare for these beloved series.
00:00 Welcome to 80s TV Ladies Season Four!
00:58 Introducing RJ Stewart and the Xena vs. Buffy Debate
01:35 History of Xena: Warrior Princess
02:50 History of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
04:45 Buffy vs. Xena: Who Would Win in a Fight?
07:17 Best 90s TV Ladies Superhero Show
12:25 Musical Episodes: Xena vs. Buffy
17:46 Buffy vs. Xena: The Ultimate Showdown
18:03 Wonder Woman's Preference: Xena or Buffy?
19:43 Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman: A New Perspective
24:18 90s TV Heroines: Beyond Buffy and Xena
26:00 Final Tally: Buffy vs. Xena
27:37 Upcoming Episodes and recommendations
30:07 Sign off and Farewell
AUDIOOGRAPHY
Xena: Warrior Princess
Streaming: Amazon Prime Video
Purchase: eBay
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Streaming: Tubi (free), Hulu, Disney+
Purchase: eBay
Crazy Hawk by RJ Stewart (Book)Purchase: Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble
Audiobook read by Katie Hagaman: Audible.
Guess What? We’re nominated!
For TWO People’s Choice PODCAST AWARDS!: Podcastawards.com
CONNECT
Visit 80sTVLadies.com for info and transcripts.
Sign up for the 80s TV Ladies mailing list.
Support us and get ad-free episodes on PATREON.
Join the Facebook page discussion at Facebook.com/80sTVLadies
Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review! Join us for more conversations with the people who shaped TV and pop culture.
Visit 80sTVLadies.com for more info.
Don’t miss out. Sign up for the 80s TV Ladies mailing list!
Help us make more episodes and get ad-free episodes and exclusive content on PATREON.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Weirding Way Media.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
And so pretty into the city money manor.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Welcome to Eighties TV Ladies Season four, Episode one. We
hope you're settling into a splendid September. And speaking of splendid,
here are your hosts, Sharon Johnson and Susan Lambert HadAM.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Hello, I'm Susan and I'm Sharon. We're back and better
than ever, as the saying goes.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
That's right, Sharon. After an excellent summer of joy, travel
and resistance, I hope we're all ready for well more
of the same and also some all new eighties TV
Ladies episodes.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
In preparation for our first super cool guests of the
season are j Stewart, the co creator of Zeno Warrior Princess.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
We wanted to have a little fun and you know,
prime the pump because honestly, the minute we said Zena,
my brain immediately went to Buffy because there are two
sides for me of the same glorious nineties TV coin.
Speaker 5 (01:18):
I can see that, and it got us wondering who
would win?
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Ah, yes, who would win the ultimate question of Buffy
versus Zena. Before we get to the Battle of the centuries,
let's set the stage with a little history on our
two Titans of superpowered nineties ladies. First out of the
gate was Zena.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Zena warrior princess, first appeared as a recurring character on
Hercules the Legendary Journeys. In nineteen ninety five, she spun
off into her own first run syndication series, which premiered
September fourth, nineteen ninety five, ran for six seasons and
one hundred and thirty four episodes. Then it ended June eighteenth,
(02:00):
two thousand and one.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Zena follows the adventures of the formidable anti hero Xena,
a ruthless warlord also named Destroyer of Nations by the Way,
who seeks to atone for her dark past like decimating
entire villages, killing thousands and tens of thousands of people,
but now she fights for the greater good. In this show,
(02:23):
she is joined by her constant companion, the young Gabrielle
A Bard, who records her adventures.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
The series is a blend of ancient mythology, high fantasy, comedy,
and drama. Part of the first run syndicated TV shows
of the nineties Hercules, Cleopatra, Robin Hood, Babylon Five, etc.
It has two strong female leads Lucy.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Lawless playing Zena and Renee O'Connor playing Gabrielle.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
Let's take a quick look at Buffy.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is based on the nineteen ninety
two Joss Whedon film of the same name that's starred
Christy Swanson. The movie and the show follows Buffy Summers,
a teenage cheerleader who finds out she has been chosen
as the Slayer, a line of young women who are
chosen to fight against vampires and demons of the dark.
(03:16):
The series is a masterclass in metaphor, using vampire horror
as a metaphor for navigating adolescents. Buffy and her Scooby
gang friends balance a hectic high school life with saving
the world from their small town, which happens to have
been built over a hell mouth.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
As it happens that your small town is Buffy premiered
on the WB March tenth, nineteen ninety seven, ran for
seven seasons and one hundred and forty four episodes, ending
on May twentieth, two thousand and three. The last two
seasons were on UPN, and both WB and UPN are
(03:56):
now defunct networks, which is sort of interesting to me.
It starred Sarah Michelle Geller as Buffy Summers, Alison Hannigan
as Willow Rosenberg, Nicholas Brennan as Xander.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Harris, Anthony Stewart had as Rupert Giles Buffy Stoic and
Fatherly Watcher, David Briannas as Angel bad turned good turned
bad vampire, and James Marsters as Spike better bad turned
good vampire.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Something like that. It was hard to keep track of
the vampires and their love affairs with Buffy.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
To mention the back and forth between the bad good,
bad good who what they were in ex you know?
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Anyway, So let's so between Zena and Buffley, we just
wondered who would win in different matchups. First, let's talk
about the characters in a straight up head to head fight.
Who would win Buffy the vampire Slayer or Zena the
Warrior Princess.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Sharon Well, I think just from a physical standpoint, I'd
have to vote Zena. They both have good fighting skills,
but Zena is a much more physically imposing person than Buffy,
who's very diminutive. So I think from that standpoint, on
the surface, it seems to me that it would be Zena, right, but.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Buffy has supernatural strength and fast healing. She is the
chosen one after all. However, she's also a high schooler,
like you said, or a post high school adolescent, and
she really just wants a normal life. Zena wants to
be a good warrior. I think the only problem there
(05:40):
would be why would Zena have to fight Buffy?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Well, you know, I think we have to as we
go through this, we have to let go of those
kinds of questions because otherwise this will just get too complicated.
So let's say that, for whatever reason, the two of
them have to end up in the Thunderdome or something's
going to win, and I think I would have to
go with Sena.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
What about you?
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Well, okay, well I'm going to say that, yes, Xena
has a cool fighting yell, which is advantage there, and
her ultimate boomerang weapon, the Chakrum. But Buffy has her
plucky friends and a steak. So I'm gonna say that's
not really gonna help much in a battle against Sena.
(06:26):
But I do think it would be a good, fun,
epic brawl.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
So as you're looking at this, you're you're thinking it
would be Buffy and company fighting Zena or would it
just be I don't know what the female equivalent of
Mano Amano is.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
There we go them, there we go. Yes, I think
I agree with you. I think I was trying to
give Buffy a chance, but I really think it's got
to be Zena.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Well, Buffy's Puffy has her talents. I mean she's not
She's not without talent, not without her tools. Yeah, but
I think just in a physical fight, there's only so
much you can overcome. So I'd have to go with Xena, all.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Right, And I'm gonna have to agree with you as
much as I want to pick Buffy because I think
it would be fun. But enough about that now, which
is the best nineties TV ladies superhero show? Zena? Buffy?
Speaker 5 (07:26):
I think this time you should go first, Okay, all
right now.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
One of the problems is this may not be fair
because I love Buffy, like we have to sort of
give up our biases going in. I loved and watched
Buffy from the get go, and then watched Angel the spinoff,
so I'm much more familiar with it. I was in
from the beginning of that show, loved it, though I
(07:50):
think it drops off in later seasons, but that's okay.
And then Zena I appreciated more from Afar during the
course of its run, I was in at school and
it was not appointment TV for me. However, that said,
I appreciate that Zena took a side character from Hercules
(08:11):
and turned her into a huge phenomenon, like created a
character that feels like she literally existed in Greek mythology somehow.
So in that sense, there's something kind of amazing about
what they were able to accomplish with Zena that I
don't think anyone thought coming out of the gate. So
(08:34):
I think you could argue that Zena sort of created
more show out of nothing in some ways, to be fair.
And then again, Xena is beloved for so many reasons
by so many I would say a lot of nineties
TV babies love seeing.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
I have to confess here that I don't have as
much familiarity with zen as I did with Buffy. I
may have seen a couple of episodes of Zena when
it originally aired, and Buffy, because of my formerly stated
antipathy for shows about teenagers, I was not interested. And
(09:18):
then the fact that it had vampires and demons and
scary stuff in it.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
That was also just a no for me so out
from the beginning. Yeah, it just was never.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Something initially that I had any interest in it all. However,
to this day, I have never seen the first three
seasons of Buffy.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
Those are the high school years.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yes, the only episodes I've actually seen are the ones
from her post high school time. And honestly, I don't
remember how or why I started watching it, but I
suspect that it may have been because of Brittany.
Speaker 5 (09:53):
Oh very well could have because I know that she
loved the show.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
That makes sense, Yeah, I believe, But Brittany could have
talked you into it.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
Yeah, and it may have been.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Finally, when she was out of high school, I went, okay, fine,
I'll start watching some of it. So as for me,
of the which is the better shows? I liked not
only the complexity of what Buffy was dealing with. I mean,
She's taking on this fight she didn't want. She was
never particularly interested in it. It cost her dearly, yet
(10:24):
she continued to do it. She enlisted her own little
ragtag group of friends and allies to help her, even
turned one enemy into a friend somehow, and Spike more
than one.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
If we talk about Angel using her feminine wiles.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Really well, See again, I don't have any familiarity with
the Angel years, so I know it existed, but I
can't really speak of it. But I think for me,
I'd have to lean towards Buffy again in this instance.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Well, you know, Sharon, I think I have to agree
with you because Buffy is one of the shows that
I loved, Like, it was one of the shows that
made me excited to watch TV. I sat down, had
my thing. When Rich and I started dating, I was like, well,
if it's Thursday night, I will be watching Buffy, So
(11:16):
if you want to hang out with me, you can
come watch Bumpy Angel. But That's what I'm doing, and
so he did, so it worked out. But so I
love this show and it's my kind of show. I
love the humor of Xena. I love the wackiness of it.
But I am a sucker for a metaphor show, and
(11:38):
the metaphor of navigating adolescents as a horror metaphor is amazing. Like,
it's so great. There were so many times where I
was like, that is brilliant. We're having this scene that's about,
you know, Buffy getting grounded. So she can't go out
because her mom's grounding her, and her mom's like, yes,
I know at this age everything seems like life or death,
(11:59):
and she's like, yeah, because I have to actually save
the world tonight, mom, I got to go to the park.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Hey, So that.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
I'm a total, absolute sucker for that. Absolutely every time,
I will pick that kind of show over a warrior
show basically, which I also like. I love those shows,
and there's a lot to love about Zena, but I'm
going to save Buffy too. So okay, now here's a
funny one. Best musical episode. Now, both shows famously did
(12:33):
a musical episode. Actually, Zena did two, which I didn't
know till we started researching this. We've got Zena's the
bittersweet and liar Liar Hearts on fire versus Buffy's iconic
once More with feeling So you gonna make me go first?
(12:54):
On this make you go first? You didn't even know
there was a musical episode on Zena.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
No, I had no clue. Yeah, I had no clue.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
That said, for me, the musical episode for Buffy was
without question one of my favorite episodes, if not my
favorite episodes. I mean, listen, I'm a sucker for music
in a show in general, but.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
The way that it.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Was used in this episode was just remarkable. And having
Quentin Battle as basically responsible for all the singing his
demons caused all of that and use the music to
force these characters to really talk about their feelings, to
uncover and expose to the others what they were really
(13:45):
thinking and feeling.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
He played sweet Yes.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
So I just thought it was just a really amazing
episode of television just in and of itself.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
So I got to go with that, and I can't
argue too much, though I will make a couple points
for Zena here is that okay, Listen, I was such
a sucker for the musical episode. It brought me back
to my love of Buffy where it was sort of
waiting for me. The show is sort of I felt
getting a little bit off track, but that made me
(14:16):
stay to the end. I was like, that show just
got every piece of goodwill left in the universe in
my heart for it when it did the once More
with feeling, original music, beautiful choreography, the choreography of the
camera in that show I remember being so brilliant. All
of it was just really well crafted.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Oh yeah, the opening number is absolutely amazing. Going through
the motions. I think it's called yes, you know, expressing
how she's just buffy is just like, you know, I'm
not feeling it, Yeah, And I'm just trying to day
to day put one foot in front of the other.
But I don't really have any passion for this. The
inference that she wishes she just didn't have to do
(14:58):
this anymore. Music in particular, was everything that I'm just
a huge sucker for. Yeah, And it was just so
brilliantly executed and so brilliantly done. And there are still
parts of it I think about to this day. Even
though I haven't seen the episode for a long time,
it still kind of comes back to me.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
Well, I quite literally had a poster in this office
for the longest time, and you know, I had to
change it out because I you know, I had to
put up one of my posters. But what I do
want to say, because I'm always a big sucker for
the first and of the nineties superhero ladies, Xena was
(15:38):
actually first, which is interesting to me. The first of
its two musical episodes, Xena The Bittersweet Suite, very very clever.
Season three episode twelve aired February second, nineteen ninety eight,
and even its second episode was before the Buffy episode Liar,
Liar and Liar spelled l Y are lots of clever
(16:01):
titles for Zena. By the way, season five, episode ten,
it was actually episode one hundred of the show, so
I think that's one of the reasons they did a
very special episode. It aired January seventeenth, two thousand, whereas
Buffy once More with Feeling season six, episode seven aired
(16:21):
November sixth, two thousand and one. So with sheer numbers,
it would be Zena with sheer. First out of the gate,
it would be Xena Lucy Lawless no offense to Sarah.
Michelle Geller has a beautiful voice. She's quite quite good,
and she's singing that stuff. She's done performances live. While
(16:45):
the Bittersweet was a lot of fun and very cool
and inventive idea at the time, it was surreal. All
of Zena's surreal to me, it's like a fever dream,
and of the two, I prefer actually Liar Liar Hearts
on Fire because it was more fun. It weirdly made
(17:07):
more musical sense to me. It was super wrapped out.
I like the rap battle and the female filled the
cover of sisters are doing it for themselves. That's all
sexy and powerful. But Once More with Feeling is a
friggin' beautiful musical. It is story driven, the songs are
(17:29):
all original. It's no contest for me. Yeah, it's Buffy
once More with Feeling.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
It packs an emotional punch in a way that took
me off guard. I thought it would just be kind
of fun and kicky, but you get to the end
and it's just like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
Wow, Wow, been on a journey, You've been on absolute
journey and it just holds up. I have watched it
since the original and enjoyed it again. I think it
holds up. So I'm saying, and your say, Buffy absolutely. Now,
final question, but there's a two parter. Okay, because you
(18:09):
know our eighties TV ladies, you know we want to
keep up with the legacy. Who would the two greatest
wonder Women like best? Let's start with the OG sevent
d's Linda Carter Wonder Woman. Would she prefers Zena or Buffy? Well?
Speaker 5 (18:26):
Which one would Linda Carter prefer? Or which one? Linda
Carter's Wonder Woman her Wonder Woman.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
I think she'd prefers Zena only because they are more
of the same kind of superhero if you will, similar
kinds of powers and such, and grown women as opposed
to a teenager and then you know, a young woman
just out of high school. I think she would prefer
Zena for that reason.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
And I'm going to say yes to that too, because
Zena is a warrior. They're both warriors, are from warrior classes,
cultures and cultures. Yeah, so you know, she's old school,
more old school, and I think seventies wonder Woman Linda
Carter Wonderwoan would be a little suspicious of Buffy and
(19:12):
her ability to it would be like, okay, that's a child, yeah,
which she was. You know, she'd be encouraging, but not far.
Let me put it that way. She would bond, she'd
have a drink with Sina.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Wonder Woman and Zina are more contemporaries, whereas I think
that Wonder Woman would see Buffy is maybe a mentee,
so she's not on the same level.
Speaker 5 (19:37):
But so for that standpoint, I think she would just
prefer Zeno for Buffy.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
All right, Now, the second part of this question is, okay,
Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman from the first movie. I'm only
considering the first movie. Can in this scenario.
Speaker 5 (19:53):
Oh, that's such a good question.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
I think I'm still going to stick with Zena for
some of the same reasons, the two of them both
growing up in warrior cultures, having that mindset, whereas Buffy
was sort of dragged into this, you know, this was
just something that was thrust upon her in her adolescence
at a time when she's maybe a little vulnerable, and
she's like, Okay, I guess I'll do this. But I
(20:21):
think that Galcado's Wonder Woman, as with Linda Carter's, probably
since they grew up in it from birth, knowing that
this was part of what they were, would have embraced
it more so. I think her Wonder Woman would also
probably lean more towards Sena.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
And I'm going to disagree with you there. She's well,
I know we've been agreeing so much it's kind of
a scandalous. But I think what you said about the
reluctant hero is there's more of that in the Wonder
Woman that even though she's a hero, she's also a
fish out of water. She's navigating, trying to be both
(21:01):
a human and a superhero in a new world, and
she's all about fighting for humanity and protecting the innocent,
and even though Zena has that, she's more doing it
for reasons that are darker, and that Wonder Woman is
a lighter wonder Woman in some ways than the seventies
(21:23):
Wonder Woman to me, and that she sort of comes
to saving the world more naturally, more innocently, whereas I
think Buffy is sort of in that same role. So
I'm going to say that Wonder Woman would be more
aligned with Buffy.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Interesting to what degree do you think it might be,
because my perception is there certainly the season seven Buffy
and the gal Gado Wonder Woman are probably closer in age,
if you will, and.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Maybe the age thing for sure. And it's also again
the paths are similar by that point, because she's come
from an innocent path, even though she's from a warrior
class right dropping in to the world makes her an
innocent in the world.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
And that's not the case with Linda Carter's Wonder Woman.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
I don't think so, because when we meet the Linda
Carter Wonder Woman, she's already kind in the world. She's
already established, Okay, this is what I'm doing. She's not.
We don't follow her journey of what am I doing here?
And what is my responsibility? And can I be a
normal person and a normal life and be a superhero.
She's sort of finding her superhero strength over the course
(22:28):
of the first Wonder Woman movie. I would say I still.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Come back to the mindset that both of the Wonder
Women bring in coming into.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
Our world all.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
And I just feel that there would still be more
of an affinity with Zena, maybe even with Galgado's Wonder Woman,
kind of looking to Zena as a role model.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Oh, as a role model, I feel like the Linda
Carter Wonder Woman, and I could be wrong. I haven't
spent a lot time rewatching that show yet. She feels
more adult the whole time. Yeah, Whereas I think there
is more of a closer in innocence with Galgado navigating
the new world and the rules of that world and
(23:15):
the rules of fighting for good in that world. I
think that Journey to Me would make them very similar,
would make her be more aligned and understanding of Buffy
than Zena. I think she'd be suspicious of Xena because
it was past, but that's just me. So we disagree there. Yeah,
(23:36):
we agree on seventies wonder Woman and disagree on first
wonder Woman movie. And I think it has to do
with the reluctant superheroes. Say, I never saw her as
reluctant in the movie. Yeah, not really. I'm reluctant, maybe
the wrong one. Okay, it's it's.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Not certainly not in the same way that Buffy. To me,
it is always the yeah Buffies. Already she would have
been thrilled to just be a teenager and get to
live her life and grow up and you know, not
have all this other stuff to deal with, but.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
The coming into responsibility and superhero and I'm a big
fan of sort of that reluctant superhero club. We also, like,
I don't want to forget our other nineties TV superhero
Heroin honorable mentions, we got to give a shout out
to Dana Scully from The X Files, And can you
(24:31):
think of another nineties superhero esque female. I was trying
to There's lots of it. There's some an animation, but
I'm doing live action here.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Yeah, I'm not thinking of any off the top of
my head. From the nineties. There are several ladies in
the Star Trek Universal.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Yeah, yeah, that.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Kind of maybe not superheroes, but certainly made your care
from Deep Space nine, played by former guests an a visitor.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
Yes, that was so fun.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Is one of the best female characters. I mean, and
she her character was a resistance fighter when peace came,
had to kind of rethink to leadership, yeah, and reinvent
herself and then as things progress, you know, lean on
some of the things she learned growing up in that
world of resistance to continue to fight for the things
(25:24):
she believed in. So she's one of my all time
favorite female characters.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
That's true. I was kind of thinking of Sydney Bristow
from Alias, but I realized that when I went to
look up more about that. I always thought of that
as a ninety show, but it was really a two
thousand early two thousand.
Speaker 5 (25:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
Yeah, so that doesn't really count for a nineties anyway,
But I'd like that. I like the Nana visitor. I
think that's cool. Well, but I will say it was
a fantastic you know, sort of nineties TV has a
lot to show for itself with the showcasing strong, dynamic
women and heroes on television, but let's total this up here.
(26:03):
Let's see in the Xena versus Buffy the universe we have, well,
the first thing we have is character to character. We
both chose Zena, so that's two for Xena. Then show
to show, we both chose Buffy. For Buffy, Melissa, you
got to keep track of our our math here.
Speaker 5 (26:26):
Let's just thinking. Nobody told me there'd be math. Okay,
so it's tied.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
It's it's tied two to two, all right. And then
for musical episode, we both chose Buffy. Correct now it's
four to two, all right. But then in who would
wonder Woman like best Linda Carter wonder Woman, we were
in agreement Zena Zena, and then but Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman,
(26:51):
we split. I went Buffy and she went Zena. So
what do we got. It's a split, an even split.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
Yeah, really, oh well that makes sense.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
It's an even split. We don't know the answer, all right, listeners,
what would be the answer for you? Is it Buffy
or Zena? For all of these questions, but you know,
it's a tie. The greatest nineties superhero TV show tied
between Xena and Buffy. That is unexpected. That is unexpected,
(27:27):
but I like it. We will try to figure out
how to put a poll listeners and then you guys
can let us know. All right, but we did it.
Now we're going to hear all about Zena in our
next episode and all the adventures of our Jay Stewart.
I cannot wait. It's going to be really fun.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
It's a terrific episode. And he was so great and
so generous sharing things with us. Just another wonderful kid.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
I mean, it was super super fun. Yeah, yeah, all right,
so stay tuned for that.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Okay, So it's audioography time. You can find Buffy the
Vampire Slayer in a lot of places to be for
free Disney Plus and Hulu, and for sale at the
Apple and Amazon sites.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
I'm so hesitant to promote them. I'm mad at them,
but if you want the DVDs. Weirdly, there seems to
be some controversy over which version is good and which
version of bad. There was a reissue of the whole
set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, So step carefully, I
would say.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
When you say good and bad versions, does it mean
just quality of the DVD of the dvd? Oh my gosh,
I hadn't heard.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
That I couldn't really quite find a link. Some of
them are very expensive on eBay, So if you know
which is the better version of the DVD or you
have an opinion, we have DVDs here. I don't know
which ones they are. I don't know if it's even
the whole season. I think we just bought them season
by season. And Zena War Princess is not on any
of the free platforms as far as I know. You
(29:04):
can find it on Amazon Prime and for purchase on
the various purchase sites. Yeah, I was surprised that there's
not more ability to watch that for free.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
And speaking of r J Stewart, he has written a
book called Crazy Hawk, which we will talk about in
our interview, and I must say it's really great.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
I just zip through it. I couldn't put it down.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
So if you want to grab and read it before
our interview drops, you can find it at bookshop dot org.
Speaker 4 (29:36):
And I highly recommend the audiobook, which is beautifully read,
and you can find that at Audible and Spotify. So
we'll have some links in there. And here's a little
trailer for the book that we got from RJ himself.
Speaker 6 (29:52):
Deirdre lives for one purpose to get her sister back.
If she has to kill the kidnappers, that won't be
a problem. She's good at that crazy hawk by r J.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
Stewart.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
As we come to the end of this episode, just
wanted to once again say how much your support means
to us. It really does mean the world. Advertising pays
very little to us, so to help us pay for
the show and make more episodes, please check out patreon
dot com slash eighties TV Ladies and sign up for
(30:28):
the tear that best suits your budget.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
You can also support us for free by giving us
a rating on Apple or Spotify or if there's whatever
you find if there's a rating system there, or just
tell a friend about the show. We spread the love.
And also if you're on Patreon, you know you're clearly
a fan of the show, so thank you very very much.
But if you want, you know some certain thing on
Patreon that we can provide without too much trouble, we can.
(30:54):
We're happy to provide it to you, so let us know.
Also for our next episod so with mister r J. Stewart,
we will be bringing on a brand new nineties TV
baby on a Shekel who is very familiar with Zena
to help us through the interview because she watched it
extensively and adores it and loves it, so she was
(31:15):
going to be better at this interview than us, and
it's going to be so much fun. And she's one
of our new nineties TV Babies, so we will be
excited to welcome her to the show and we will
eventually have her on a regular nineties TV Babies episode.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
So with that, we hope Eighties TV Ladies brings you
joy and laughter and lots of fabulous new and old
shows to watch, all of which will lead us forward
toward being amazing ladies of the twenty first century.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
So the SORL
Weirding Way Media.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
And so pretty into the city money manor.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Welcome to Eighties TV Ladies Season four, Episode one. We
hope you're settling into a splendid September. And speaking of splendid,
here are your hosts, Sharon Johnson and Susan Lambert HadAM.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Hello, I'm Susan and I'm Sharon. We're back and better
than ever, as the saying goes.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
That's right, Sharon. After an excellent summer of joy, travel
and resistance, I hope we're all ready for well more
of the same and also some all new eighties TV
Ladies episodes.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
In preparation for our first super cool guests of the
season are j Stewart, the co creator of Zeno Warrior Princess.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
We wanted to have a little fun and you know,
prime the pump because honestly, the minute we said Zena,
my brain immediately went to Buffy because there are two
sides for me of the same glorious nineties TV coin.
Speaker 5 (01:18):
I can see that, and it got us wondering who
would win?
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Ah, yes, who would win the ultimate question of Buffy
versus Zena. Before we get to the Battle of the centuries,
let's set the stage with a little history on our
two Titans of superpowered nineties ladies. First out of the
gate was Zena.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Zena warrior princess, first appeared as a recurring character on
Hercules the Legendary Journeys. In nineteen ninety five, she spun
off into her own first run syndication series, which premiered
September fourth, nineteen ninety five, ran for six seasons and
one hundred and thirty four episodes. Then it ended June eighteenth,
(02:00):
two thousand and one.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Zena follows the adventures of the formidable anti hero Xena,
a ruthless warlord also named Destroyer of Nations by the Way,
who seeks to atone for her dark past like decimating
entire villages, killing thousands and tens of thousands of people,
but now she fights for the greater good. In this show,
(02:23):
she is joined by her constant companion, the young Gabrielle
A Bard, who records her adventures.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
The series is a blend of ancient mythology, high fantasy, comedy,
and drama. Part of the first run syndicated TV shows
of the nineties Hercules, Cleopatra, Robin Hood, Babylon Five, etc.
It has two strong female leads Lucy.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Lawless playing Zena and Renee O'Connor playing Gabrielle.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
Let's take a quick look at Buffy.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is based on the nineteen ninety
two Joss Whedon film of the same name that's starred
Christy Swanson. The movie and the show follows Buffy Summers,
a teenage cheerleader who finds out she has been chosen
as the Slayer, a line of young women who are
chosen to fight against vampires and demons of the dark.
(03:16):
The series is a masterclass in metaphor, using vampire horror
as a metaphor for navigating adolescents. Buffy and her Scooby
gang friends balance a hectic high school life with saving
the world from their small town, which happens to have
been built over a hell mouth.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
As it happens that your small town is Buffy premiered
on the WB March tenth, nineteen ninety seven, ran for
seven seasons and one hundred and forty four episodes, ending
on May twentieth, two thousand and three. The last two
seasons were on UPN, and both WB and UPN are
(03:56):
now defunct networks, which is sort of interesting to me.
It starred Sarah Michelle Geller as Buffy Summers, Alison Hannigan
as Willow Rosenberg, Nicholas Brennan as Xander.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Harris, Anthony Stewart had as Rupert Giles Buffy Stoic and
Fatherly Watcher, David Briannas as Angel bad turned good turned
bad vampire, and James Marsters as Spike better bad turned
good vampire.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Something like that. It was hard to keep track of
the vampires and their love affairs with Buffy.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
To mention the back and forth between the bad good,
bad good who what they were in ex you know?
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Anyway, So let's so between Zena and Buffley, we just
wondered who would win in different matchups. First, let's talk
about the characters in a straight up head to head fight.
Who would win Buffy the vampire Slayer or Zena the
Warrior Princess.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Sharon Well, I think just from a physical standpoint, I'd
have to vote Zena. They both have good fighting skills,
but Zena is a much more physically imposing person than Buffy,
who's very diminutive. So I think from that standpoint, on
the surface, it seems to me that it would be Zena, right, but.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Buffy has supernatural strength and fast healing. She is the
chosen one after all. However, she's also a high schooler,
like you said, or a post high school adolescent, and
she really just wants a normal life. Zena wants to
be a good warrior. I think the only problem there
(05:40):
would be why would Zena have to fight Buffy?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Well, you know, I think we have to as we
go through this, we have to let go of those
kinds of questions because otherwise this will just get too complicated.
So let's say that, for whatever reason, the two of
them have to end up in the Thunderdome or something's
going to win, and I think I would have to
go with Sena.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
What about you?
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Well, okay, well I'm going to say that, yes, Xena
has a cool fighting yell, which is advantage there, and
her ultimate boomerang weapon, the Chakrum. But Buffy has her
plucky friends and a steak. So I'm gonna say that's
not really gonna help much in a battle against Sena.
(06:26):
But I do think it would be a good, fun,
epic brawl.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
So as you're looking at this, you're you're thinking it
would be Buffy and company fighting Zena or would it
just be I don't know what the female equivalent of
Mano Amano is.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
There we go them, there we go. Yes, I think
I agree with you. I think I was trying to
give Buffy a chance, but I really think it's got
to be Zena.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Well, Buffy's Puffy has her talents. I mean she's not
She's not without talent, not without her tools. Yeah, but
I think just in a physical fight, there's only so
much you can overcome. So I'd have to go with Xena, all.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Right, And I'm gonna have to agree with you as
much as I want to pick Buffy because I think
it would be fun. But enough about that now, which
is the best nineties TV ladies superhero show? Zena? Buffy?
Speaker 5 (07:26):
I think this time you should go first, Okay, all
right now.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
One of the problems is this may not be fair
because I love Buffy, like we have to sort of
give up our biases going in. I loved and watched
Buffy from the get go, and then watched Angel the spinoff,
so I'm much more familiar with it. I was in
from the beginning of that show, loved it, though I
(07:50):
think it drops off in later seasons, but that's okay.
And then Zena I appreciated more from Afar during the
course of its run, I was in at school and
it was not appointment TV for me. However, that said,
I appreciate that Zena took a side character from Hercules
(08:11):
and turned her into a huge phenomenon, like created a
character that feels like she literally existed in Greek mythology somehow.
So in that sense, there's something kind of amazing about
what they were able to accomplish with Zena that I
don't think anyone thought coming out of the gate. So
(08:34):
I think you could argue that Zena sort of created
more show out of nothing in some ways, to be fair.
And then again, Xena is beloved for so many reasons
by so many I would say a lot of nineties
TV babies love seeing.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
I have to confess here that I don't have as
much familiarity with zen as I did with Buffy. I
may have seen a couple of episodes of Zena when
it originally aired, and Buffy, because of my formerly stated
antipathy for shows about teenagers, I was not interested. And
(09:18):
then the fact that it had vampires and demons and
scary stuff in it.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
That was also just a no for me so out
from the beginning. Yeah, it just was never.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Something initially that I had any interest in it all. However,
to this day, I have never seen the first three
seasons of Buffy.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
Those are the high school years.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yes, the only episodes I've actually seen are the ones
from her post high school time. And honestly, I don't
remember how or why I started watching it, but I
suspect that it may have been because of Brittany.
Speaker 5 (09:53):
Oh very well could have because I know that she
loved the show.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
That makes sense, Yeah, I believe, But Brittany could have
talked you into it.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
Yeah, and it may have been.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Finally, when she was out of high school, I went, okay, fine,
I'll start watching some of it. So as for me,
of the which is the better shows? I liked not
only the complexity of what Buffy was dealing with. I mean,
She's taking on this fight she didn't want. She was
never particularly interested in it. It cost her dearly, yet
(10:24):
she continued to do it. She enlisted her own little
ragtag group of friends and allies to help her, even
turned one enemy into a friend somehow, and Spike more
than one.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
If we talk about Angel using her feminine wiles.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Really well, See again, I don't have any familiarity with
the Angel years, so I know it existed, but I
can't really speak of it. But I think for me,
I'd have to lean towards Buffy again in this instance.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Well, you know, Sharon, I think I have to agree
with you because Buffy is one of the shows that
I loved, Like, it was one of the shows that
made me excited to watch TV. I sat down, had
my thing. When Rich and I started dating, I was like, well,
if it's Thursday night, I will be watching Buffy, So
(11:16):
if you want to hang out with me, you can
come watch Bumpy Angel. But That's what I'm doing, and
so he did, so it worked out. But so I
love this show and it's my kind of show. I
love the humor of Xena. I love the wackiness of it.
But I am a sucker for a metaphor show, and
(11:38):
the metaphor of navigating adolescents as a horror metaphor is amazing. Like,
it's so great. There were so many times where I
was like, that is brilliant. We're having this scene that's about,
you know, Buffy getting grounded. So she can't go out
because her mom's grounding her, and her mom's like, yes,
I know at this age everything seems like life or death,
(11:59):
and she's like, yeah, because I have to actually save
the world tonight, mom, I got to go to the park.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Hey, So that.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
I'm a total, absolute sucker for that. Absolutely every time,
I will pick that kind of show over a warrior
show basically, which I also like. I love those shows,
and there's a lot to love about Zena, but I'm
going to save Buffy too. So okay, now here's a
funny one. Best musical episode. Now, both shows famously did
(12:33):
a musical episode. Actually, Zena did two, which I didn't
know till we started researching this. We've got Zena's the
bittersweet and liar Liar Hearts on fire versus Buffy's iconic
once More with feeling So you gonna make me go first?
(12:54):
On this make you go first? You didn't even know
there was a musical episode on Zena.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
No, I had no clue. Yeah, I had no clue.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
That said, for me, the musical episode for Buffy was
without question one of my favorite episodes, if not my
favorite episodes. I mean, listen, I'm a sucker for music
in a show in general, but.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
The way that it.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Was used in this episode was just remarkable. And having
Quentin Battle as basically responsible for all the singing his
demons caused all of that and use the music to
force these characters to really talk about their feelings, to
uncover and expose to the others what they were really
(13:45):
thinking and feeling.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
He played sweet Yes.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
So I just thought it was just a really amazing
episode of television just in and of itself.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
So I got to go with that, and I can't
argue too much, though I will make a couple points
for Zena here is that okay, Listen, I was such
a sucker for the musical episode. It brought me back
to my love of Buffy where it was sort of
waiting for me. The show is sort of I felt
getting a little bit off track, but that made me
(14:16):
stay to the end. I was like, that show just
got every piece of goodwill left in the universe in
my heart for it when it did the once More
with feeling, original music, beautiful choreography, the choreography of the
camera in that show I remember being so brilliant. All
of it was just really well crafted.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Oh yeah, the opening number is absolutely amazing. Going through
the motions. I think it's called yes, you know, expressing
how she's just buffy is just like, you know, I'm
not feeling it, Yeah, And I'm just trying to day
to day put one foot in front of the other.
But I don't really have any passion for this. The
inference that she wishes she just didn't have to do
(14:58):
this anymore. Music in particular, was everything that I'm just
a huge sucker for. Yeah, And it was just so
brilliantly executed and so brilliantly done. And there are still
parts of it I think about to this day. Even
though I haven't seen the episode for a long time,
it still kind of comes back to me.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
Well, I quite literally had a poster in this office
for the longest time, and you know, I had to
change it out because I you know, I had to
put up one of my posters. But what I do
want to say, because I'm always a big sucker for
the first and of the nineties superhero ladies, Xena was
(15:38):
actually first, which is interesting to me. The first of
its two musical episodes, Xena The Bittersweet Suite, very very clever.
Season three episode twelve aired February second, nineteen ninety eight,
and even its second episode was before the Buffy episode Liar,
Liar and Liar spelled l Y are lots of clever
(16:01):
titles for Zena. By the way, season five, episode ten,
it was actually episode one hundred of the show, so
I think that's one of the reasons they did a
very special episode. It aired January seventeenth, two thousand, whereas
Buffy once More with Feeling season six, episode seven aired
(16:21):
November sixth, two thousand and one. So with sheer numbers,
it would be Zena with sheer. First out of the gate,
it would be Xena Lucy Lawless no offense to Sarah.
Michelle Geller has a beautiful voice. She's quite quite good,
and she's singing that stuff. She's done performances live. While
(16:45):
the Bittersweet was a lot of fun and very cool
and inventive idea at the time, it was surreal. All
of Zena's surreal to me, it's like a fever dream,
and of the two, I prefer actually Liar Liar Hearts
on Fire because it was more fun. It weirdly made
(17:07):
more musical sense to me. It was super wrapped out.
I like the rap battle and the female filled the
cover of sisters are doing it for themselves. That's all
sexy and powerful. But Once More with Feeling is a
friggin' beautiful musical. It is story driven, the songs are
(17:29):
all original. It's no contest for me. Yeah, it's Buffy
once More with Feeling.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
It packs an emotional punch in a way that took
me off guard. I thought it would just be kind
of fun and kicky, but you get to the end
and it's just like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
Wow, Wow, been on a journey, You've been on absolute
journey and it just holds up. I have watched it
since the original and enjoyed it again. I think it
holds up. So I'm saying, and your say, Buffy absolutely. Now,
final question, but there's a two parter. Okay, because you
(18:09):
know our eighties TV ladies, you know we want to
keep up with the legacy. Who would the two greatest
wonder Women like best? Let's start with the OG sevent
d's Linda Carter Wonder Woman. Would she prefers Zena or Buffy? Well?
Speaker 5 (18:26):
Which one would Linda Carter prefer? Or which one? Linda
Carter's Wonder Woman her Wonder Woman.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
I think she'd prefers Zena only because they are more
of the same kind of superhero if you will, similar
kinds of powers and such, and grown women as opposed
to a teenager and then you know, a young woman
just out of high school. I think she would prefer
Zena for that reason.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
And I'm going to say yes to that too, because
Zena is a warrior. They're both warriors, are from warrior classes,
cultures and cultures. Yeah, so you know, she's old school,
more old school, and I think seventies wonder Woman Linda
Carter Wonderwoan would be a little suspicious of Buffy and
(19:12):
her ability to it would be like, okay, that's a child, yeah,
which she was. You know, she'd be encouraging, but not far.
Let me put it that way. She would bond, she'd
have a drink with Sina.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Wonder Woman and Zina are more contemporaries, whereas I think
that Wonder Woman would see Buffy is maybe a mentee,
so she's not on the same level.
Speaker 5 (19:37):
But so for that standpoint, I think she would just
prefer Zeno for Buffy.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
All right, Now, the second part of this question is, okay,
Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman from the first movie. I'm only
considering the first movie. Can in this scenario.
Speaker 5 (19:53):
Oh, that's such a good question.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
I think I'm still going to stick with Zena for
some of the same reasons, the two of them both
growing up in warrior cultures, having that mindset, whereas Buffy
was sort of dragged into this, you know, this was
just something that was thrust upon her in her adolescence
at a time when she's maybe a little vulnerable, and
she's like, Okay, I guess I'll do this. But I
(20:21):
think that Galcado's Wonder Woman, as with Linda Carter's, probably
since they grew up in it from birth, knowing that
this was part of what they were, would have embraced
it more so. I think her Wonder Woman would also
probably lean more towards Sena.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
And I'm going to disagree with you there. She's well,
I know we've been agreeing so much it's kind of
a scandalous. But I think what you said about the
reluctant hero is there's more of that in the Wonder
Woman that even though she's a hero, she's also a
fish out of water. She's navigating, trying to be both
(21:01):
a human and a superhero in a new world, and
she's all about fighting for humanity and protecting the innocent,
and even though Zena has that, she's more doing it
for reasons that are darker, and that Wonder Woman is
a lighter wonder Woman in some ways than the seventies
(21:23):
Wonder Woman to me, and that she sort of comes
to saving the world more naturally, more innocently, whereas I
think Buffy is sort of in that same role. So
I'm going to say that Wonder Woman would be more
aligned with Buffy.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Interesting to what degree do you think it might be,
because my perception is there certainly the season seven Buffy
and the gal Gado Wonder Woman are probably closer in age,
if you will, and.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Maybe the age thing for sure. And it's also again
the paths are similar by that point, because she's come
from an innocent path, even though she's from a warrior
class right dropping in to the world makes her an
innocent in the world.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
And that's not the case with Linda Carter's Wonder Woman.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
I don't think so, because when we meet the Linda
Carter Wonder Woman, she's already kind in the world. She's
already established, Okay, this is what I'm doing. She's not.
We don't follow her journey of what am I doing here?
And what is my responsibility? And can I be a
normal person and a normal life and be a superhero.
She's sort of finding her superhero strength over the course
(22:28):
of the first Wonder Woman movie. I would say I still.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Come back to the mindset that both of the Wonder
Women bring in coming into.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
Our world all.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
And I just feel that there would still be more
of an affinity with Zena, maybe even with Galgado's Wonder Woman,
kind of looking to Zena as a role model.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Oh, as a role model, I feel like the Linda
Carter Wonder Woman, and I could be wrong. I haven't
spent a lot time rewatching that show yet. She feels
more adult the whole time. Yeah, Whereas I think there
is more of a closer in innocence with Galgado navigating
the new world and the rules of that world and
(23:15):
the rules of fighting for good in that world. I
think that Journey to Me would make them very similar,
would make her be more aligned and understanding of Buffy
than Zena. I think she'd be suspicious of Xena because
it was past, but that's just me. So we disagree there. Yeah,
(23:36):
we agree on seventies wonder Woman and disagree on first
wonder Woman movie. And I think it has to do
with the reluctant superheroes. Say, I never saw her as
reluctant in the movie. Yeah, not really. I'm reluctant, maybe
the wrong one. Okay, it's it's.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Not certainly not in the same way that Buffy. To me,
it is always the yeah Buffies. Already she would have
been thrilled to just be a teenager and get to
live her life and grow up and you know, not
have all this other stuff to deal with, but.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
The coming into responsibility and superhero and I'm a big
fan of sort of that reluctant superhero club. We also, like,
I don't want to forget our other nineties TV superhero
Heroin honorable mentions, we got to give a shout out
to Dana Scully from The X Files, And can you
(24:31):
think of another nineties superhero esque female. I was trying
to There's lots of it. There's some an animation, but
I'm doing live action here.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Yeah, I'm not thinking of any off the top of
my head. From the nineties. There are several ladies in
the Star Trek Universal.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Yeah, yeah, that.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Kind of maybe not superheroes, but certainly made your care
from Deep Space nine, played by former guests an a visitor.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
Yes, that was so fun.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Is one of the best female characters. I mean, and
she her character was a resistance fighter when peace came,
had to kind of rethink to leadership, yeah, and reinvent
herself and then as things progress, you know, lean on
some of the things she learned growing up in that
world of resistance to continue to fight for the things
(25:24):
she believed in. So she's one of my all time
favorite female characters.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
That's true. I was kind of thinking of Sydney Bristow
from Alias, but I realized that when I went to
look up more about that. I always thought of that
as a ninety show, but it was really a two
thousand early two thousand.
Speaker 5 (25:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
Yeah, so that doesn't really count for a nineties anyway,
But I'd like that. I like the Nana visitor. I
think that's cool. Well, but I will say it was
a fantastic you know, sort of nineties TV has a
lot to show for itself with the showcasing strong, dynamic
women and heroes on television, but let's total this up here.
(26:03):
Let's see in the Xena versus Buffy the universe we have, well,
the first thing we have is character to character. We
both chose Zena, so that's two for Xena. Then show
to show, we both chose Buffy. For Buffy, Melissa, you
got to keep track of our our math here.
Speaker 5 (26:26):
Let's just thinking. Nobody told me there'd be math. Okay,
so it's tied.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
It's it's tied two to two, all right. And then
for musical episode, we both chose Buffy. Correct now it's
four to two, all right. But then in who would
wonder Woman like best Linda Carter wonder Woman, we were
in agreement Zena Zena, and then but Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman,
(26:51):
we split. I went Buffy and she went Zena. So
what do we got. It's a split, an even split.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
Yeah, really, oh well that makes sense.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
It's an even split. We don't know the answer, all right, listeners,
what would be the answer for you? Is it Buffy
or Zena? For all of these questions, but you know,
it's a tie. The greatest nineties superhero TV show tied
between Xena and Buffy. That is unexpected. That is unexpected,
(27:27):
but I like it. We will try to figure out
how to put a poll listeners and then you guys
can let us know. All right, but we did it.
Now we're going to hear all about Zena in our
next episode and all the adventures of our Jay Stewart.
I cannot wait. It's going to be really fun.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
It's a terrific episode. And he was so great and
so generous sharing things with us. Just another wonderful kid.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
I mean, it was super super fun. Yeah, yeah, all right,
so stay tuned for that.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Okay, So it's audioography time. You can find Buffy the
Vampire Slayer in a lot of places to be for
free Disney Plus and Hulu, and for sale at the
Apple and Amazon sites.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
I'm so hesitant to promote them. I'm mad at them,
but if you want the DVDs. Weirdly, there seems to
be some controversy over which version is good and which
version of bad. There was a reissue of the whole
set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, So step carefully, I
would say.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
When you say good and bad versions, does it mean
just quality of the DVD of the dvd? Oh my gosh,
I hadn't heard.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
That I couldn't really quite find a link. Some of
them are very expensive on eBay, So if you know
which is the better version of the DVD or you
have an opinion, we have DVDs here. I don't know
which ones they are. I don't know if it's even
the whole season. I think we just bought them season
by season. And Zena War Princess is not on any
of the free platforms as far as I know. You
(29:04):
can find it on Amazon Prime and for purchase on
the various purchase sites. Yeah, I was surprised that there's
not more ability to watch that for free.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
And speaking of r J Stewart, he has written a
book called Crazy Hawk, which we will talk about in
our interview, and I must say it's really great.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
I just zip through it. I couldn't put it down.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
So if you want to grab and read it before
our interview drops, you can find it at bookshop dot org.
Speaker 4 (29:36):
And I highly recommend the audiobook, which is beautifully read,
and you can find that at Audible and Spotify. So
we'll have some links in there. And here's a little
trailer for the book that we got from RJ himself.
Speaker 6 (29:52):
Deirdre lives for one purpose to get her sister back.
If she has to kill the kidnappers, that won't be
a problem. She's good at that crazy hawk by r J.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
Stewart.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
As we come to the end of this episode, just
wanted to once again say how much your support means
to us. It really does mean the world. Advertising pays
very little to us, so to help us pay for
the show and make more episodes, please check out patreon
dot com slash eighties TV Ladies and sign up for
(30:28):
the tear that best suits your budget.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
You can also support us for free by giving us
a rating on Apple or Spotify or if there's whatever
you find if there's a rating system there, or just
tell a friend about the show. We spread the love.
And also if you're on Patreon, you know you're clearly
a fan of the show, so thank you very very much.
But if you want, you know some certain thing on
Patreon that we can provide without too much trouble, we can.
(30:54):
We're happy to provide it to you, so let us know.
Also for our next episod so with mister r J. Stewart,
we will be bringing on a brand new nineties TV
baby on a Shekel who is very familiar with Zena
to help us through the interview because she watched it
extensively and adores it and loves it, so she was
(31:15):
going to be better at this interview than us, and
it's going to be so much fun. And she's one
of our new nineties TV Babies, so we will be
excited to welcome her to the show and we will
eventually have her on a regular nineties TV Babies episode.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
So with that, we hope Eighties TV Ladies brings you
joy and laughter and lots of fabulous new and old
shows to watch, all of which will lead us forward
toward being amazing ladies of the twenty first century.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
So the SORL
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.