Hercules and the First Day of School
THE NARRATOR: "...The Greatest Challenge of All is..." THE MUSES: "...High School."
This is the overall theme of the episode for poor young Herc. This tale opens with Herc training with Phil when Zeus appears and demands Phil send his boy to school to get an education and learn proper etiquette. Herc is accepted to the prestigious Prometheus Academy.
MISCELLANEOUS TRIVIA:
We find out that each morning Herc must take the "School Barge" to the Academy. It looksed like Miss Casseopeia (Alice Ghostley) was the Barge Driver???
On his first day we meet Parenthesis (Eric Idle) the School Councellor. Jokes related to Herc's school I.D. card ensue from that point on.
Icarus takes it upon himself to befriend the newbie Herc and show him how to be a geek....errr, show him the ropes.
Mr. Euclid, the Mathematics Instructor is seen but does not speak.
Funny antics surround the normal functions of the School's Cafeteria.
Ajax (which one?) is introduced... He's definitely a meat-head bruiser type, but I'm not sure he's a school bully... Later episodes will probably reveal him to be a jock, and the captian of the school sports team.
Herc meets Cassandra and witnesses her "Cassandra-Vision" for the first time. Cassandra, probably due to her curse to see future disasters, suffers from serious low self-esteem. Herc asks her if Icarus is her boyfriend and she says no, "He's my STALKER". :-)
Herc meets Adonis (not voiced here by Diedrich Bader apparently, but who?). If anyone qualifies as "School Bully" it's probably him (via his two thugs). He likes to force Icky to do his bidding like an automaton. Herc tries to intervene, but fails miserably.
All this sets the stage for Herc's goal for this episode and the introduction of one of the most anticipated characters on the show!!!! :-)
GOAL: To prove to everybody at school he's not a looser. METHOD: Defeat a monster and prove he's a hero! MEANS: Go to the Domain of..... Echidna, Mother of All Monsters! (Kathy Lee Gifford). Great Cameo!! Too bad her screen time was so short, Kathy Lee does a very good job playing this bitchy role! :-) I liked it. SUBJECT of HERC'S GOAL: Echidna's son, the two-headed Bi-Clops Orthos (Wayne Knight & ????Jeff Bennett???). Hmmm... maybe the second voice was Cody... :-)
Funny banter:
ORTHOS: "But Ma!" ECHIDNA: "Shut your pie-hole Mister!" ORTHOS: "Mother!" ECHIDNA: "That goes double for you!" *************** ORTHOS: "Do you even know where you are going?" ORTHOS: "No, but I do know we have to eat someone important or mother is going to eat us." ORTHOS: *gasp!* "She wouldn't." ORTHOS: "I think she would. The last couple of family reunions had some empty seats. .....There was talk!"
Herc's attempt to defeat Orthos only serves to annoy them, but does inspire them to seek out someone important at the Academy to eat. Since Adonis is always ready to brag on himself, he becomes their target. Enter Herc, who must save Adonis from his own stupidity. Apparently this is but the first time Herc must save Adonis from himself (i.e., "The Prince of Thrace" episode). Of course our Hero defeats the Bi-Clops, but, true to the theme of the episode, Adonis grabs all the glory! Boo!!!!
Overall a good episode... Not one of the best, but a nice way to introduce many of the important elements that we will be seeing throughout the series.
I'm not a big fan of Kathy Lee Gifford, but I got to say, I'm sold on her Echidna character, and I hope she appears several more times in future episodes!
Rich (xephyr)
CASSANDRA: "Living in a deluded fantasy is probably the only way to survive this Underworld on Earth!" *****
CASSANDRA: "I foretold you so!"