BEANSTALKS AND BAD EGGS

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

PROMO TRANSCRIPTION
THIS IS NO FAIRY TALE
(Autolycus walking to castle in the clouds)
(Spear flying between Hercules and Autolycus)
Typhoon: "Fe, fie, fo, fum."
THIS IS AN ALL NEW HERCULES THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS
(Beanstalk sprouting)
(Hercules smacks serpant)
Autolycus: "All that for a bean?!"
A DESPERATE DAMSEL
(Leanna watching Hercules and Autolycus flying through the air)
Hercules: "Just come with me."
Leanna: "I can't! Go!"
PUTS HERCULES AND THE KING OF THIEVES
(Hercules with baby harpie on his back)
(Autolycus smacking himself in the face)
AGAINST A NOT-SO NAUGHTY GIANT
(Hercules pulls a rug from under Typhoon)
Typhoon: "I'll kill him!"
WHO DOESN'T KNOW JACK
Typhoon with serpant: "To the moon, Herc!"
THE SEASON PREMIERE
Hercules falling from beanstalk.
HERCULES THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS

TV GUIDE PROMO
The fourth season begins with Our Hero climbing a beanstalk on a playful, effects-filled adventure. Herc and pal Autolycus find a nasty giant named Typhoon and the kidnapped damsel Lianna in a castle in the clouds. They also find three golden eggs, which hatch into mischievous, munchkinlike Harpies. But when Harpies mature, they're more than just mischievous, so Herc must find a way to keep them off the beanstalk and away from Earth. He and Autolycus must also instruct Typhoon about love. It turns out that he's not so nasty after all -- and he likes Lianna, who has developed a grudging fondness for him.

Hercules and Autolycus team up to rescue the caretaker of golden Harpy eggs from the clutches of a giant living in the clouds.

Hercules and Autolycus climb a giant beanstalk to a castle in the clouds, where they chase after Harpies and battle the giant Typhoon in an effort to rescue the kidnapped Lianna.

Autolycus tries to steal treasure from a powerful giant who lives in the clouds.

Hercules and Autolycus climb a beanstalk to rescue a captured lady.

AIRING AND RATING INFORMATION
1st RELEASE: 09/29/97
An AA average of 5.5
Competition from Syndicated Action Dramas:
(1) XENA ranked 5th with 6.1 ("The Furies" 47/301)
(2) HERCULES ranked 6th with 5.5
(3) STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE 9 ranked 8th with 5.4 ("A Time to Stand" 125/601)

2nd RELEASE: 11/24/97
An AA average of 4.9
Competition from Syndicated Action Dramas:
(1) X-FILES ranked 6th with 6.5
(2) XENA tied 12th with 5.1 ("The Furies" 47R/301)
(2) STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE 9 tied 12th with 5.1 ("Statistical Probabilities" 133/609)
(3) HERCULES ranked 15th with 4.9
(4) EARTH: FINAL CONFLICT with 3.8 ("Horizon Zero" 08/108)
(5) CONAN with 2.0 ("Imposter" 10/110)

SYNOPSIS:

Synopsis by Liz Sheppard

Hercules is visiting an old dying woman who tells how to find her mother who was taken by a giant. The woman dies and Herc goes to find Autolycus. Auto and Herc are in a big treasure room and Auto goes to do his thing in stealing a pouch. When Auto finds out that the pouch holds a single bean, he throws the bean away and a big bean stalk grows.

Auto starts climbing the beanstalk because when he stole the pouch, he took a jewel and triggered the alarm, so now thugs are after them. Big long fight scene that is in every Herc ep breaks out. Herc climbs up after Auto. When Auto reaches the top, he finds a beautiful big castle in the distance. He justs repeats to himself "Big castle, big treasure". Herc meets up with Auto and they enter the castle and find a beautiful young girl named Leanna, singing. She's happy to find people her own size, but is scared when her big angry friend will wake up.

Thugs pay other thugs two hundred dinars to go after Herc and Auto because of the jewel Auto stole.

The giant wakes up. His name is Typhoon and he's not a very nice person. he smells a Grecian man and wants to check to see if Fi, Fe, and Fofum are alright. Typhoon and Leanna argue while the duo try to excape with Leanna. Typhoon finds them but they get outside, but Auto tries to steel something and gets caught. Outside, Herc finds a very angry thug that gets eaten by something in the cloudy floor.

Typhoon wants to kill Auto, but Auto and Leanna doesn't want him to do it. Typhoon and Leanna argue some more. Typhoon gets frustrated and Auto wooes him wil his knowledge of women.

Leanna is the caretaker of the harpy eggs and tells Herc that once they hatch, she's able to leave. Auto tries to teach Typhoon how to be a ladies man, but is kind of unsuccessful. He's learning how to dance and blow a kiss among other things. Herc decides to take the eggs to Hades for him to deal with and he leaves. Typhoon walks in with Autolycus style facial hair on, trying to be romantic, but ends up insulting her. He gives up and throws Auto into the egg batch, cracking one of the eggs. The harpy comes to and is about to kill Auto.

All the harpies hatch and look a little like Gremlins. Act like them, too. Leanna is super happy that they are hatched because she can leave. Typhoon comes and locks up the duo in a bird cage. Herc can't break the bars for some reason and makes Auto use his skills to get them out. While he's working, he's whistling. One of the harpies start whistleing too and they make a nice duo. They play fetch and end up getting the key. Herc gets out but keeps Auto in the cage to keep him out of trouble.

Herc and Typhoon have a little talk. Herc knows that Typhoon is in love with Leanna and reminds Typhoon of how his brother Typhon is with love. Typhoon then lets Auto out of the cage and gives Leanna her freedom. She doesn't really seem like she wants to go. Fi, Fie, and Fofum then excape out the window and head to the beanstalk.

Herc and Auto play a *fun* game of hide and go seek with the harpies. While playing, one of the harpies gets eaten by the big serpent thing, but Herc does the Heimlich on it and the baby is saved. Herc then throws the serpant away. But the kids go down the beanstalk anyway. The duo go after them, but Fi falls. Herc bungees off the beanstalk and saves him. They return the babies to Typhoon and Leanna. She decides to stay with the big guy and be a mother to the harpies. They *do* need a mother.

Herc and Auto then return to Earth, with Typhoon pulling the beanstalk after them. They go their separate ways, but are still *partners*.

COMMENTARY:

This commentary is by Kent Simmons.

This episode was NOT the best choice for the season premiere but it wasn't the worst comedy episode to take place during season four. The episode was more or less a childish storyline. However thanks to Bruce Campbell and some funny harpies, it wasn't a horrible episode.

The villan, Typhon's nasty giant brother, Typhoon was nothing special. The relationship between Lianna and him was bearable and it had a happy ending. The interaction between Hercules and Auto was nicely done as always. The kid harpies were the only entertaining thing, and for those who hate critters and comedy, they were not funny though. The key to having a good season premiere is not to have childish things- since they won't fare well. This ep would have been good to have as the third or eigth episode, but not the first new one after a whole heep of reruns. I didn't mind it, bit didn't thing it was as good as the premiere should be.

I was hoping they would have perhaps started were "Atlantis" during season 3 had ended and maybe worked out something between Herc and Cassandra, and Auto could have even played into the whole storyline.

Some Things to Look Out For

The music used during the Barbarians first apperance was the original Ares music during HTLJ's First Season and during the Ares/Xena talk fight scene in "Ties that Bind" during XWP's First Season.

The small house that Alyssa lived in was seen in many other episodes.

The music during Typhoons dancing scene was used in "Stranger in a Strange World" later on in season four.

Highlights

Auto complaining over his robbery of the bean. "All that just for a bean?"

Typhoon dancing and acting like Autolycus.

The Kid Harpies playing around with each other.

The Harpies handshake.

The Harpies playing around with Auto and Herc.

The Auto/Harpie duet.

Herc saying "Were not partners" after Auto swings away and says "Partner" to Hercules.

This episode gets 4 out of 5 stars for making me laugh at times. I would have suggested they air "Heros Heart" than "Regrets" and than "Bad Eggs." I would call this episode a preseason new episode, since it was hard to imagine it as the first all new episode.

MUSIC USED

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

(10) Cute Harpies

TALES OF THE HERCAVERSE

01-13-99. From Kent Simmons. This episode pays homage to the fairy tale "Jack and the Beanstalk."

01-13-99. From KSZoneW. Atlantis: Cassandra's house was the same one shown in sevral episodes. In HTLJ's "Judgement Day" it was Serenas house. In XWP's "Destiny" it was Niklios Healing House. It was also in HTLJ's "Beanstalks and Bad Eggs" as the house of Alyssa. It was also used in HTLJ's "And Fancy Free" as the house of the digruntled father of Althea.

01-13-99. From KSZoneW. From My Little Cupcake: The harp from HTLJ's "Beanstalks and Bad Eggs" was seen in the dance hall.

TRANSCRIPT

Click here to read a transcript of BEANSTALKS AND BAD EGGS.

DISCLAIMER

No permanent cases of Harpies were reported during the production of this motion picture picture.