Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

For six years, we watched a semi shirtless Kevin Sorbo travels the lands of mythical ancient Greece as the swashbuckling Hercules in the landmark series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. The series was broadcast on American television in several different markets via syndication and was quite popular as the series established a large fan base.

The series premiered in 1995 and ended in 2001, and was a lot of fun to watch and the program spawned another successful show called Xena: Warrior Princess starring a then relatively unknown female actress named Lucy Lawless in the title role.

Each week, viewers of the program watched Hercules and his loyal friend and ally Lolaus, portrayed by actor Michael Hurst, take up the challenge of an adventure which could take them to any one of several different mythical or real world towns or cities.

Hercules's main protagonist was actually his stepmother Hera, who knew of her husband Zeus's tryst with a female mortal and the subsequent birth of her stepson.

This led to many adventures where Hera had some influence on the events that transpired in many of the series' early episodes. Later, the show's writers would introduce other villains such as Ares, the God of War and half brother to Hercules as well as the aforementioned Zena: Warrior Princess and Dahak, who later replaced Ares as the show's main villain.

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys also boasted some of the industry's best talent at the time in Sam Raimi who was one of the show's executive producers, and actor Bruce Campbell.

Raimi is known for his penchant for horror. His credits include the series The Evil Dead which he wrote, directed, and produced staring Bruce Campbell. Raimi is also responsible for the movies Drag Me to Hell, the first Darkman film as well as the Toby McGuire Spiderman films.

Bruce Campbell of course played the title role of Ashley J. "Ash" Williams in the Evil Dead series of films, and other less than memorable films including Escape from New York, Maniac Cop and Bubba Ho-Tep.

His role on Hercules the Legendary Journeys was Autolycus in the series. Campbell was a part of the series and was also a recurring character on Zena.

The special effects that were a part of the series were fantastic for their time. Created by a New Zealand company called Weta Workshop, the special effect that were a part of the series were ahead of their time and allowed the viewer to believe in things such as centaurs and harpies and other legendary mythical creatures.

The series still boasts a fairly large fan base which includes fan sites and message boards, as well as entire seasons of the show that are available on DVD.