Today, Ryan Gosling is known for his work in movies. What some of you might not know is that he was part of the same graduating class of The Mickey Mouse Club as singers Britney Spears (The X Factor), Christina Aguilera (The Voice), Justin Timberlake, & JC Chasez, and before going full bore into movies, Gosling's only other series gig was in 1998's Young Hercules for Fox.
Set up as a prequel and a spinoff from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, as there was a backdoor pilot on that series, Young Hercules reimagines Herc (Gosling) as a teenager, along with his friends. Fox thought they had a hit on their hands, but the series was cancelled after 1 season.
Unfortunately, the series now languishes in Universal's vaults, as it isn't on any cable channel that I know of at present.
The following sample video presents an early issue between Herc and Apollo.......
Believe me, the parent series was much better. Rating: C.
5 comments:
The original Hercules series (and Xena) were rather light to begin with; this show was even lighter and quite frankly that was its problem.
Most of the stories were trying to create teen angst for Herc and his buddies and it was a tough sell. I will say Gosling made for a better Young Hercules physically than Ian Bohen. At least he had light colored hair!
Addendum:
Isn't that Ian Bohen in that clip? It's definitely NOT Ryan Gosling!
Nope. Far as I can tell that is Gosling. It's consistent with the other Young Herc clips that I found on YouTube.
Young Hercules was an extremely popular show, the ratings were phenomenal. The reason for the cancellation was due to ownership of the series and the failings of another program. The same year Young Hercules debuted, Fox had their own mystical creation on the schedule, Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog. The show did well in the ratings (and earned a second season) but was outrageously expensive and the coinciding tie-in toyline collected dust in the clearance bins. Young Hercules with no real merchandising push, could thrive on ratings alone, but that revenue wouldn't go to Fox. It was being shared by Fox and USA. Fox Kids in order to save themselves from embarrassment tacked the failings of Mystic Knights onto Hercules and cancelled both series. The budget for Mystic Knights would go to Power Rangers and the time slot reserved for another Fox Series.
Ok, thanks.
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