Line #0 Trivia/YoungHercules


1	* AbilityOverAppearance: Some executives were skeptical of casting Ryan Gosling as Hercules since he was so skinny (whereas Creator/KevinSorbo was brawny), but Gosling won them over with his performance.
2	* ActorAllusion:
3	** In "In Your Dreams," Cheiron knows a fair amount about Morpheus and the dream realm. A few years earlier, Nathaniel Lees played a priest of Morpheus in "[[Recap/XenaS01E03Dreamworker Dreamworker]]" on ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess''.
4	** In "Get Jason," Paul Norell plays Buterus, an assassin who infiltrates the Academy by pretending to be a cook. On ''Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys'', Norell played Falafel, a recurring LethalChef.
5	** In "My Fair Lilith," Lilith says she knows a "red-haired bard girl." In ''Xena'''s "Sacrifice" two-parter, Jodie Rimmer played a childhood friend of Gabrielle.
6	* DuelingShows: Came about just as ''WesternAnimation/HerculesTheAnimatedSeries'' was airing (as part of Creator/{{ABC}}'s Creator/OneSaturdayMorning) as well.
7	* ExecutiveMeddling:
8	** Creator/FoxKids opposed any major serialization, but they did allow some episodes to be linked (such as the Amazon and Bacchus arcs).
9	** Fox Kids enforced the usual censorship rules. According to Eric and Julia Lewald, the writing staff could roll with it since they knew what to expect from working on previous Fox Kids shows, but the Renaissance Pictures staff chafed and frequently complained (likely because they were used to the freedom that came from working in first-run syndication).
10	* IronyAsSheIsCast: Ryan Gosling is a famously skinny guy, playing one of the great strongmen of legend.
11	* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Unlike its parent series or ''[[Series/XenaWarriorPrincess Xena]]'', ''Young Hercules'' spent many years under this trope (though it had been available in its entirety on Hulu for some time); this was par for the course as far as Creator/FoxKids series went (Universal's ''[[WesternAnimation/WoodyWoodpecker The New Woody Woodpecker Show]]'' has suffered the same fate). The trope was finally averted in 2015, with Creator/ShoutFactory releasing a complete series set and individual volumes.
12	* OutOfOrder: Episodes sometimes aired in ways that contradicted continuity, such as characters already knowing each other and then meeting for the first time.
13	** Lilith's introduction is the first such example. She has a prominent role in "Herc and Seek" and already knows the main trio, only for her to be a freshly arrived cadet in "Girl Trouble" (which premiered the following day).
14	** Similarly, Hercules already knows Discord in "Inn Trouble" and then meets her during the "Battle Lines" two-parter. [[note]]He had actually seen her even earlier than that in the PilotMovie, but only briefly and didn't learn who she really was at the time.[[/note]]
15	** "Down and Out in Academy Hills" depicts the first time Hercules met Hephaestus, but it originally premiered after he had already made a few appearances.
16	** Lilith accompanies Hercules and Iolaus to Alcmene's in "Mommy Dearests" for some R&R and helps clean up the mess Lucius made, but then meets Alcmene in "Home for the Holidays" and worries about being a stranger imposing on her hospitality.
17	** Jason is PutOnABus in "The Head That Wears the Crown" after finally becoming king, but he's present for "Me, Myself and Eye" and "Iolaus Goes Stag" (where he is referred to as still a prince).
18	** The DVD set is in production order. Due to the production schedule, episodes had to be done in blocks (four at a time) to make use of the same sets and guest actors. This does solve the problems listed above, but it creates a few new ones that didn't exist in the airdate order.
19	*** "Under Siege" and "The Beasts Beneath" (both featuring Theseus) are slotted before "Adventures in the Forbidden Zone" (his introduction).
20	*** It also mucks up Hercules knowing about Kora being in service to Artemis. "Hind Sight" and "Iolaus Goes Stag" are placed early in the run, and he's fully in the know, but "Golden Bow" (where Hercules learns the truth) is placed towards the end of the run.
21	*** "The Head That Wears the Crown" is in the middle of the run and there are a number of Jason appearances still left. Some of these appearances can still work under this order, due to having Jason attend to state business and not explicitly referring to his title, but a few do make reference to him still being a prince.
22	* ProductionPosse: The Lewalds hired several writers (such as Mark Edens, Brooks Wachtel, Steven Melching, and Len Uhley) who had worked with them, either on other Universal projects (''WesternAnimation/{{Exosquad}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/WingCommanderAcademy''), other Fox Kids series (''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'' and the infamous ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersUnitedTheyStand''), or other shows (''WesternAnimation/{{DuckTales\|1987}}'' and ''Franchise/RoboCop Alpha Commando'').
23	* PromotedFanboy: Writers/story editors Eric and Julia Lewald were fans of the other shows in the franchise, so they were thrilled to "write Hercules and Iolaus as kids."
24	* RealLifeWritesThePlot: One of the big rules was that Hercules could never meet Zeus in this series. When production knew they weren't going to be renewed for a second season, producer Cynthia Hsiung suggested doing just that for the last episode. Her bosses rejected that idea, but she managed to convince them to okay a story where Zeus met Hercules while in a mortal disguise.
25	* TheOtherDarrin:
26	** Ian Boen played Young Herc in the pilot movie and on ''HTLJ''. As Boen opted not to continue, Ryan Gosling took over for the series.
27	** There was also Sharon Tyrell, who played Herc's mother, Alcmene, in the series. In the pilot movie, she was played by Rachel Blakely. In ''HTLJ'', Alcmene as a young woman was played by Kim Michalis.
28	** Anthony Ray Parker played Bacchus in one episode of ''Xena: Warrior Princess'', but Kevin Smith (Ares himself) played him on this show.
29	* TroubledProduction: Slightly. The bonus feature on the DVD alludes to writers being dropped at the last minute and their replacements having to just jump right in. Also, due to the production schedule, the story editors had to juggle 15 to 20 scripts at once.
30	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
31	** There were discussions of doing a spin-off about Kora.
32	** The Lewalds almost weren't involved in the series, as they were still on ''[=RoboCop=]: Alpha Commando'' and obligated to stay for another month or so to finish the remaining scripts. So they wouldn't lose a new job for a show that was winding down, an MGM executive agreed to release Eric early.
33	* WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants: According to Brooks Wachtel, the earliest episodes were written before the staff had seen video of the New Zealand-based actors' work. He said they had to take a leap of faith in regards to how the characters would sound and behave.
34	* YouLookFamiliar: Michael "Iolaus" Hurst appears as a peddler in the pilot movie. He also returns in "A Lady in Hades" to reprise the role of Charon.

Context Trivia / YoungHercules