The campfire scene was originally longer in length, but cut out. It has Xena at her campfire lamenting the loss of her cook, the only reference to her missing her old life with her army. They had Gabrielle convince Xena to bring her along because she can cook, but they rewrote the ending. They wanted to end with the two characters building a personal connection, rather than make it a joke.
Lucy Lawless, the actress who plays Xena, had previously appeared on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys as Lyla in "As Darkness Falls" and as Lysia in Hercules and the Amazon Women.
Renée O'Connor the actress who plays Gabrielle, had previously appeared on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys as Deianeira of Troy in Hercules and the Lost Kingdom.
The theme song for "Xena: Warrior Princess" was a modified version of "Kaval Sviri (The Flute Plays)" from "Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares". In the original "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" episode where Xena was introduced, the original Kaval Sviri was the music used to announce Xena racing into battle. The Yale Women's Slavic Chorus did an excellent rendition of the song on their website(http://www.yale.edu/ysc/media.htm), which also includes a translation: the song is a young woman's declaration of love for a stranger playing pipes in a village. According to the YWSC, it's lyrics are translated as, "A piper is playing in the village. Mother, if that piper is from our village, I will love him from today till tomorrow around noon. If he is from a neighboring village, though, I'll love him my whole life."
The roles of Xena and Gabrielle were originally cast with actresses Vanessa Angel as Xena and Sunny Doench as Gabrielle. These two actresses both were hired for the parts but pulled out for personal reasons.