THE APPLE

GUEST STARS, CAST & CREDITS
PROMO TRANSCRIPTION
TV GUIDE PROMO
AIRING AND RATING INFORMATION
SYNOPSIS by Liz Sheppard
MUSIC USED
TALES OF THE HERCAVERSE
TRANSCRIPT
DISCLAIMER

PROMO TRANSCRIPTION
ON THE NEXT HERCULES
(Aphrodite giggles)
Hercules: Aphrodite!
Aphrodite: You sure do know how to spoil a girls fun!
THE GODDESS OF LOVE WEAVES A DEADLY SPELL
(Aphrodite holding a golden apple)
Hercules: The gods are at work here.
Aphrodite: How do you like them apples?
IGNITING A DANGEROUS SPARK
(People fighting)
Hercules: All of you, now stop it!
OF PASSION
Aphrodite: How's this?
Hercules: Thank you.
AND WAR
King Diadorus: Go!
Athena: Who's the most beautiful?
Aphrodite: Winner takes all.
ON THE NEXT HERCULES THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS

TV GUIDE PROMO
Aphrodite acts more like the goddess of war than of love when she casts a spell that makes Iolaus the apple of a princess's eye.

Iolaus judges who is the most beautiful goddess, Aphrodite, Artenmis or Athena.

Iolaus is used as a pawn by the scheming love goddess Aphrodite to prevent a marriage between the children of two feuding kings.

Hercules intervenes when Aphrodite threatens a marriage.

Iolaus is used as a pawn by Aphrodite to stop a wedding.

AIRING AND RATING INFORMATION
1st RELEASE: 02-19-96
An AA average of 6.5
Competition from Syndicated Action Dramas:
(10) STAR TREK: Deep Space Nine 6.7
(12) HERCULES 6.5
(17) XENA 5.6
(19) BAYWATCH 5.2

2nd RELEASE: 07-08-96
An AA average of 5.7
Competition from Syndicated Action Dramas:
(6) HERK 5.7
(10) XENA 5.0
(9) STAR TREK: Deep Space Nine 5.1

3rd RELEASE: 12-30-96
An AA average of 5.8
Competition from Syndicated Action Dramas:
(12) STAR TREK: Deep Space Nine 6.0
(13) HERCULES 5.8
(15) XENA 5.4
(18) BAYWATCH 4.7

SYNOPSIS:

Synopsis by Liz Sheppard

Hercules is sleeping on the beach when he's woken up by Iolaus surfing. Herc says it will never become popular. Herc plans to visit King Sidon in Syros while Iolaus does some fishing. King Sidon's daughter is marrying King Diadorus of Delos's son in order to bring peace to their kingdoms. You see, these two kings pretty much hate each others guts and they figure their kids tying the knot is the only thing that can help them be friends. It doesn't work very well. Syros worships Artemis and Delos worships Athena. Thera, Sidon's daughter, and Epius, Diadorus' son, arrive and they all toast to peace.

While Iolaus is fishing, he catches a huge clam shell with the goddess of love inside. Sure, that happens to me all the time. Aphrodite's sister's Artemis and Athena appear and declare that Iolaus is the judge of their beauty contest and that the contestants aren't allowed to talk to Iolaus until he judges them. While Iolaus is exercising, he's visited by Artemis who gives him a deal. If he picks her, she'll make him into the mightiest hero ever. Afterward, he runs into Athena who gives him a deal of being the wisest man ever of he picks her.

During the judging contest, Aphrodite gives Iolaus a golden apple that will make any mortal woman he wants fall in love him and if two people touch it at the same time they'll be soul mates forever. He picks her and plans to try out the apple on a woman on the beach. The woman is Thera. Herc goes to find her and sees her all over Iolaus like a cheap suit. He tries to take her back to Epius but she's still wild for Iolaus. Iolaus goes to find Aphrodite and she tells him the spell is broken. Iolaus tries to give her the apple back but she says to keep it. Thera is back in love with Epius but Iolaus shows up with the apple and she falls back in love with Iolaus. Diadorus calls her a harlot and orders his men to kill her. Sidon orders his men to kill Iolaus and Diadorus' men if they harm his daughter. A regular fight turns into a food fight and Herc breaks it up by saying that the gods are involved. Herc has a talk with Epius saying that it wasn't Thera's fault.

Iolaus tries to explain the spell to Thera by showing the apple to her but Herc walks into the cave and takes it. He shows it to Aphrodite and he finds out that the beauty contest was so that Artemis and Athena's towns would go to war and Aphrodite could take over and get the gold there. She used Iolaus as the judge to do it be breaking up the marriage. She undoes the spell and Herc throws the apple in the ocean. After he leaves, the apple reappears in her hand. Back in the cave, Thera has become normal again. She begs for forgiveness from Epius and he accepts. An old woman drops some apples on Iolaus and he catches a golden one. Aphrodite laughs and disappears and Thera is back in love with Iolaus. Epius gets mad at Thera but they, along with Herc and Iolaus, escape the fight going on between the kings.

Epius and Thera hide in the cave when Sidon, Diadorus and their armies arrive and a fight breaks out. Thera tries to beg forgiveness again but he doesn't accept. She leaves the cave and starts fighting. Epius decides to fight too and they fall in love again. Herc take the golden apple and makes the two quarrelling kings touch it. They're now the best of friends and Aphrodite's ticked.

Herc and Iolaus see some kids surfing and they laugh about surfing never being popular.

MUSIC USED

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys - Original Television Soundtrack. Joseph LoDuca. Uni/Varese Sarabande; ASIN: B0000014XJ.

(24) Surfing Iolus/Tubular

TALES OF THE HERCAVERSE

01-06-99. From Beth Gaynor. At the Cherry Hill NJ Con (08/29-30-/98) Alexandra Tyding's (Aphrodite) stated that her favorite episodes were THE APPLE and STRANGER IN A STRANGE WORLD. Asked if she could do anything she wanted with Aphrodite for an episode she stated that she'd make her into a rock star. She even sang a line from Fiona Apple's "Criminal" for us: "I've been a bad, bad girl..." Tydings also shared that she never had a clue that the Aphrodite character would become so popular, but she says she's loving it. When she first read the script to THE APPLE, she was surprised at how weird and funny it was, especially coming from an hour-long show instead of a sitcom, but she really wanted to try out for the role so she could go to New Zealand. She hadn't seen HERCULES (or XENA), but the travel sounded great. So she auditioned, and the amused casters asked her "You didn't have very much fun with that, did you?" She got the phone call later that day to tell her exactly what she was wanting to hear, "You're going to New Zealand."

06-06-98. THE APPLE was the freshman directing effort of star Kevin Sorbo. It also introduced the character of Aphrodite.

TRANSCRIPT

Click here to read a transcript of THE APPLE.

DISCLAIMER

No extremely oversize clam shell wind-surfing apparatuses housing goddesses of love were harmed during the production of this motion picture.