I've just realized that the only females we had in a producing roles in Xena was Chloe Smith and Liz Friedman. Babs Greyhosky left early.
The others were men. Feminist men but men nonetheless. Shame.
Still... some TV shows don't have any females in producing roles.
Why this matters is a producer is a leading role in TV art/entertainment. They often have the biggest job - not saying they're more hardworking.
Just their job requires working with the executives in the big offices and there's a reason why they don't want females hanging around them.
But when your TV show has female leads as the only leads in it... then you should be making an effort to have female producers. Xena did. But Xena was a very unique case where there was only ever 2 leads.
And they were both female as well as in a romantic-heavy dynamic.
It's funny how that never required having queer people in the office.
Just people who identified as female. But they had 2 so there you go.
Sorry. My head hasn't left this space since listening to Donny Duncan's interview with Xena Warrior Nutballs Podcast. I just can't get over it. If you were to ask me how many TV shows at the time Xena was airing were making the huge effort the Xena team was with making sure females were in leading roles behind the camera as well as in front...
I would probably only be able to offer you like 5 of them off the top of my head. Xena being the first. Buffy and Charmed following afterwards
I just... it was really not common at all back then. It still really isn't now.
And here's the thing... even with the small minority that were... that didn't mean that that show still wasn't male dominant. Even if they didn't want it to be. It was just really fucking difficult back then to get female creatives to take the risk because they weren't taken seriously so - if anything - if they do a reboot or revival of Xena, that needs to be a first priority. They have to get as many female creatives on board as they can if they ever do it.
I love the men of Xena. I love them to bits but they're very right.
Xena was never meant for men either in front or behind the camera. It was meant for male watchers yes, but the creative side was always meant to be through the female gaze. They have to get that right.