The series follows Hercules, as a teenager, training as a hero, as well as trying to adjust to life. With his free-spirited friend Icarus, his future-seeing friend Cassandra, and his teacher Philoctetes, he battles his evil uncle Hades. Like all teenagers, though, Hercules has to worry about peer pressure when the snobbish prince Adonis ridicules him. The series notably contradicts several events in the original film.
Episodes
Characters
A majority of the cast from the film reprised their roles for the series.
Hercules – The god-turned-mortal hero-in-training, thus, he is half-mortal, half-god. He is the son of both Zeus and Hera.
Philoctetes – The satyr hero trainer is one of the few characters from the movie whose voice actor who did not return.
Pegasus – The winged horse "with the brain of a bird" formed from clouds by Zeus, he is the childhood pet and faithful companion of his owner Hercules.
Icarus – Hercules' best friend, the boy who escaped from a labyrinth with his father on wax wings appears as a complete nut. Despite his accident, Icarus still flies every chance he gets resulting in a few more encounters with the Sun and other perils, often requiring Hercules to rescue him. Icarus is very adaptive, hence could adjust to about every situation, except when he is very jealous and acts irrationally. He could become an ultraserious soldier at boot camp or a nearly identical version of Hades himself. Thankfully, at the end of each episode, he reverts to his own odd self. He is also completely obsessed with Cassandra and flirts with her at every opportunity he gets. His father, Daedalus, is a teacher in the academy and Icarus does not acknowledge his parents' divorce. When Icarus graduates, he goes into inventing with his father and makes a fortune, earning the commercial title "Icarus, the Wax-Wing King".
Cassandra – The Trojan Warprophet appears as an attractive, yet antisocial girl, who has visions of the future once in a while, which are rarely believed. Icarus is obsessed with marrying her, though she has shown she has no reciprocation. She tolerated his presence even before Hercules joined the trio because otherwise, she would have had no friends, but even after she gained Hercules as a friend, she still continues to socialize with Icarus and even admitted to him that she considers him a good friend. After graduating, she joins the Oracle Friends Network.
Zeus – Hercules' father and king of the gods, he is always ready to provide advice on hero work, but is often prone to mistakes and recklessness, himself.
Hades – Ruler of the Underworld as well as Hercules' uncle and nemesis, he is wisecracking, devious, and hot-tempered; he constantly schemes to steal control of Mount Olympus from his brother Zeus.
Guest stars: A few guest stars who have ended up on the show are Merv Griffin, Jennifer Aniston, and Lisa Kudrow. With Aniston, Kudrow, and Tate Donovan, it became a Friends minireunion. While on Friends, Donovan played Aniston's love interest Joshua. He became a part of the show, right after his marriage to Aniston ended. Also, while they were dating, Aniston became a part of one episode called "Hercules and the Dream Date", in which she played Hercules' love interest, Gallatea, who was sculpted from clay.
Production
Development
The series was produced by Tad Stones, who had previously done Aladdin. The directors of Hercules, John Musker and Ron Clements, jokingly said to him while the film was being produced: "Hey, Tad, we're doing a pilot for a series". The producers decided that the irreverence of the movie would be captured more easily by setting it within the events of the movie, with Stones declaring that "by ignoring continuity and trying to stay true to the elements of humor and adventure in the film, we came up with a much stronger series that really stands on its own". Since James Woods signed to voice Hades again, along with most of the cast of the film, many big-name actors were interested in taking part on the show. Over 150 celebrities took a part in the series, some self-lampooning: Merv Griffin played a griffintalk show host, game show hostWink Martindale played a riddle-expert sphinx and Mike Connors, famous for Mannix, played Athenian policeman Chipacles. Disney's revamping of Greek legend moved to the small screen in the late summer of 1998. Disney's Hercules had the Greek god still in "geek god" mode, before his "Zero to Hero" transformation. In the series, "Herc" was enrolled at Prometheus Academy, a school for both gods and mortals. Since events occur before young Herc meets and falls for the lovely Megara, he is joined by two new friends Cassandra and Icarus.
In 1998, The Show Simsub From ABC to CTV stations; all private CTV stations that Carried Global shows which also aired Hercules: The Legend Journeys on the same day, as well for some ABC stations. In 2000, Hercules moved to the now-defunct channel Toon Disney, where it continued airing until 2008. Disney XD aired the series for the first time in June 2011, when the channel launched in Canada. On November 12, 2019, the series returned to Disney+.
Reception
Critical
CommonSenseMedia gave the series a rating of 4 stars out of 5, noting that this "better-than-average spinoff has heart and brawn." Calhoun Times and Gordon County News gave the series 3 stars out of 4.
Awards and nominations
Movie: ''Zero to Hero''
Four episodes of Hercules were reformatted into the movie and released to home video. The episode "Hercules and the Yearbook" serves as the linking narrative, with random clips replaced with the episodes "Hercules and the First Day of School", "Hercules and the Grim Avenger" and "Hercules and the Visit From Zeus". Some of the dialogue between Hercules and Meg was altered to fit the episodes.
