And next week, that heroic syndicated siren in the leather tunic -- brought to life each week by Lucy Lawless and cast and crew working on both sides of the Pacific -- turns 100 episodes old.

"You have to give equal amounts of credit for the series to, first and foremost, Lucy Lawless, because she brings something special to the character that would not have worked with anyone else," insists Rob Tapert, executive producer of the series. "But everyone on and in the show works to keep it interesting and evolving. This is not just a character fixed at a moment in time. Xena is someone we can all relate to on our quests for redemption."

Those not familiar with the show certainly are familiar with the character. Lawless stars as Xena, a warrior traveling through imaginary lands along with her sidekick Gabrielle, co-star Renee O'Connor, slaying real and personal dragons as they live through tales of mythical proportions. "Xena," now in its fifth season in first-run syndication, is celebrated by critics as a unique combination of action and fantasy, sensual and cerebral, that entertains viewers on their own levels.

"In this business we are all trying to be geniuses, but the truth of the matter is that good shows work and bad shows don't, and normally when you see a show work over time it's because it continues to be done well," observes Steve Rosenberg, president of Studio USA's international division. "You have to offer (audiences) something more. And 'Xena' does." The show's demographic breakdown attests to that. Domestically, "Xena" is No. 1 with adults 18 to 34 and adults 25 to 54, as well as with teens and children. It boasts an impressive number of female viewers -- very unusual for the genre -- and continues to be the overall top-rated syndicated show on a weekly basis.

"It's an action-adventure with a lot of character, heart and humor, and all are important in the mix," observes R. J. Stewart, who wrote the pilot and is now one of the show's executive producers. "We do such a big opera, and it's good that we can all laugh at ourselves, get a little haughty with the genre and wink at the audience. We're saying, 'We know what we are doing, and you do too. People like that."

Though the show was initially dismissed as merely a female "Hercules," those associated with it insist it has always been much more.

"'Hercules' was about a hero solving problems, but 'Xena' is about a woman struggling to remain good against a demonic force against her, and (who has) a deepening relationship with another person," says Stewart. "She's tortured by a dark past. That's why she's such a very interesting character." "I think the most important thing about Xena's character is that she doesn't behave in any of the ways conventionally associated with being a woman," observes Lit Friedman, a former co-executive producer on the series. "They just treat her as if she was Clint Eastwood. That was the model: a hero of few words. That gave her a freshness that no one had seen before in the context of an action series."

The character of Xena was created for a three-episode are on the "Hercules" series by john Schulian, co-executive producer of "Hercules" at the time.

"We wanted to do the story of a woman who came between Hercules and his best friend, and Rob (Tapert) had said he always wanted to do something with a female warrior, so we wed the two ideas," recalls Schulian. "They cast Lucy in one of the two-hour 'Hercules' movies as a guest star, and she was striking playing a bad girl. We knew the camera really liked her and we thought we would give her a try, and as soon as we saw her in the first day of dailies, we knew she was perfect. " Still, "Xena" probably never would have made the transition from guest star to series star had it not been for Universal's quest for a new companion in the two-hour Action Pack block it had sold countrywide. "Vanishing Sun," a martial arts series originally packaged with "Hercules," did marginally well, but didn't live up to hopes.

"We knew someone was going to copy us, and we didn't want to leave the time period to someone else to do a clone," recalls Ned Nalle, then executive vp of Universal Television in charge of first-run syndication, now president of Universal Worldwide Television. "So we decided to ask Rob and Sam to do something themselves." The character of Xena quickly became the focus of their thoughts. When the pair came back with the idea of a female action hero, the studio folks were intrigued. "We knew this would be something more. Rob is never interested in delivering a status quo, and we took the bet on their creative abilities," says Nalle. "For that reason, we weren't so surprised it was good or that it hit, but we were surprised when it became such a viewing habit"

The stations also were initially intrigued, too, but they were not necessarily convinced.

"We absolutely had to talk them into if" says Nalle.''Trying to get them to suspend their disbelief was an arduous task, and Rob and Sam did a fantastic job convincing them that this was a shrewd move, a good counter programming choice." "By that time 'Hercules' was a big hit, so here we were with a spin-off of a hit show," says Dan Fille, a former MCA-TV executive, now executive in charge of development at Universal Worldwide Television. "There was skepticism, but no one had believed in 'Hercules,' either. We had a compelling presentation because of the 'Hercules episodes, and that helped. Others at NATPE were selling from cardboard cutouts, but here Sam and Rob had actual footage. We got incredibly lucky."

The series chugged a little out of the starting gate during its initial season when it was teamed with "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" -- the audience apparently wary of this new kind of hero. But by its second season, "Xena" caught up with and passed "Hercules," then took off. By February of that second season, the show blasted the "Star Trek" franchise out of the top spot among syndicated hours. It has since been the top-rated show in that category for three seasons straight and, at its current pace, is likely to finish as the No. 1 show for the fourth year in a row. The show has also performed well on USA Networks, where it is currently paired with "Hercules" on weekends.

"Xena" has also found an audience across the world, even in an increasingly crowded action-hour market.

'"There's tons of competition," says Peter Hughes, executive vp and co-head of Universal International Television. "But this program stands out in terms of the quality of the show and the manner of execution. This series has style and appeal and humor, and when you put all those elements together, Rob (Tapert) and his staff have come up with an incredibly appealing package.

Seen in 115 countries, "Xena" has been able to maintain its strong station base throughout the run. As in the U.S. syndication market, it's seen in all day parts with all sorts of lead-ins, yet somehow manages to find its audience in each. "In the U.K., it's one of the top American series, and in France it's ranked No. 1 in its time period with young adults and No. 2 with total viewers," says Hughes. "In Germany, it comes in second in its time period, and that's a tough market to do well in for American programs," Hughes offers. "I also just found out, talking to Turkish clients, that 'Xena' is the No. 1 show overall in Turkey. When you are in 115 territories, you are covering most of the world and you have to maintain a wide appeal in order to renew year after year -- and 'Xena' does that. In the past, audiences have grown tired of action programming rather quickly, but if you have a good program it stays in demand and this one has."

Keeping audiences tuning in across five seasons has meant guiding the show's overall direction while not restraining its eclectic style. "In the first season, viewers got to see the stars grow not only as characters, but as actresses as well," says Chris Manheim, one of the show's longtime writers and now one of its producers. "As time went on we were able to take the stories into more complicated places because of that growth. Now, they push us to grow, and we push them to grow further. That deepens the-layers of the program. Now there is a history we can build on."

"We always had the idea that it would be a buddy picture, but what we discovered is how that has become the centerpiece of the whole show," recalls Stewart. "Both Rob and I came to understand that this is what made the series work, the relationship of these two women. It was more than just the sexual thing that people talk about. It was the relationship." And, in fact, the sexual edge that many feel has developed was more spontaneous, ~~ca~ated. 'Lit's something we just stumbled on," says Stewart. "We hadn't planned it, but we love the positive feedback we get and, yeah, we play on it and have fun with a" "There's a continuing debate about their sexuality," admits Tapert. "But that's a· good thing. If any segment of society finds something positive in this role model, they can feel better about themselves. We are trying to be affirming to a wide variety of folks." Manheim thinks it's femininity not necessarily sexuality -- that drives the show. She is the show's only female staff writer (though the show uses women freelancers on a regular basis) and she concedes that she probably has brought something important to the table. "Not to say the guys couldn't do it as well without me. And I've never had to say a woman wouldn't do this or that to something they wrote. I probably do bring a certain woman thing to it. But we really do try to make Xena more than a woman. We try to make her a human being, and that probably heightens the show' s appeal."

"Xena never has taken itself too seriously," says Steven Sears-- a former co-executive producer on the show, of its core appeal. "As realistic as it tries to be, we didn't write everything as a minor chord. The show has had its tongue in cheek from the beginning, and it's a comedy one week and a drama the next. That is really what separated it from the rest. Every time we talked about the show, we wanted to know about its heart. Others work on the visual and action first, but we took a completely different attitude.

"It is an action show," says Manheim. "But within this action genre I know I have gotten to write a couple of Westerns, a monster movie, a musical, a Greek tragedy, a disaster film. I don't know where else you get that kind of variety on television." But in the end, it all comes down to Lawless.

"This is a female lead who makes no apologies, and Lucy fits the role perfectly," says Sears. "When she walks into frame, you believe she can kick your ass, has problems and has a complex view of the world. She plays it perfectly. We never wrote the character down as a plot device and we never turned her into a victim. When you watch this kind of television, you want to follow a hero, and that's what we did with her. Plain and simple.

"And it doesn't hurt," Sears concludes, "that she looks great in leather."

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