The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles

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(Redirected from
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones
)
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
Adventure
Created byGeorge Lucas
Based on
Characters
by
Developed byGeorge Lucas
Starring
Narrated byGeorge Hall
Theme music composerLaurence Rosenthal
Composers
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes28 (plus 4 TV films) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producerGeorge Lucas
ProducerRick McCallum
CinematographyDavid Tattersall
Camera setupSingle-camera setup
Running timeapprox. 45 min. per episode
Production companies
Original release
Network
  • ABC
  • The Family Channel
ReleaseMarch 4, 1992 (1992-03-04) –
June 16, 1996 (1996-06-16)
Related
Indiana Jones

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles is an American television series that aired on

University of North Carolina at Wilmington. The series was a Lucasfilm production in association with Amblin Television and Paramount Television.[1]

The series explores the childhood, adolescence and early adulthood of the fictional character Indiana Jones and primarily stars Sean Patrick Flanery and Corey Carrier as the title character, with George Hall playing an elderly version of Jones for the bookends of most episodes, though Harrison Ford bookended one episode. The show was created and executive produced by George Lucas, who also created, co-wrote, and executive produced the Indiana Jones feature films.

Due to its large budget and low viewership ratings, the series was canceled in 1993. However, following the series' cancellation, four

made-for-television
films were produced from 1994 to 1996 in an attempt to continue the series. In 1999, the series was re-edited into 22 television films under the title The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones.

Overview

Map of countries Indiana Jones visits in the series

The series was designed as an educational program for children and teenagers, spotlighting historical figures and important events set during the

Mutt Williams as his son with Marion Ravenwood
.

Many of the episodes involve Indiana meeting and working with famous historical figures. Historical figures featured on the show include

Picasso), Louis Armstrong, George Gershwin, Seán O'Casey, Siegfried Sassoon, Patrick Pearse, Winston Churchill, a very young Ho Chi Minh, Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, and Carl Laemmle; at one point, he competes against a young Ernest Hemingway for the affections of a girl but they end up becoming friends, is nursed back to health by Albert Schweitzer, has a passionate tryst with Mata Hari, discusses philosophy with Nikos Kazantzakis, and goes on a safari with Theodore Roosevelt
.

The show provided back story for the films. His relationship with his father, first introduced in Last Crusade, was depicted in episodes showing his travels with his father as a young boy and brief times as a young adult. His original hunt for the "Eye of the Peacock", a large diamond seen in Temple of Doom, was a recurring element in several stories. The show also chronicled his activities during World War I and his first solo adventures. Later, in the 2008 film Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Indy describes his adventures with Pancho Villa (chronicled in the first episode) to Mutt Williams (at the time, his sidekick; later on revealed to be his son). He also mentions his mother to Mutt.[2]

Cast

Corey Carrier as the child Indiana Jones
Sean Patrick Flanery as the young adult Indiana Jones
Harrison Ford reprise his film role as Indiana Jones as a guest star
George Hall as 93-year-old Indiana Jones
Clockwise from top left: Corey Carrier, Sean Patrick Flanery, George Hall, and Harrison Ford portrayed Dr. Henry 'Indiana' Jones, Jr. in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.
Role Actor Season TV movies
1 2 1 2 3 4
Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr. Corey Carrier
(age 8–10)
2 5
Sean Patrick Flanery
(age 16–21)
5 17
Harrison Ford
(age 50)
1
George Hall
(age 93–94)
6 20
Henry Jones Sr. Lloyd Owen 2 6
Anna Jones
Ruth de Sosa 2 5
Miss Helen Seymour
Margaret Tyzack 3 5
Remy Baudouin
Ronny Coutteure 5 4
T. E. Lawrence Joseph A. Bennett (young) 1
Douglas Henshall 2
Ernest Hemingway Jay Underwood 3
Role Actor Chapter
The Early Years The War Years The Years of Change
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr. Corey Carrier (age 8–10)
Sean Patrick Flanery (age 16–21)
Harrison Ford (age 50)
Henry Jones Sr. Lloyd Owen
Anna Jones
Ruth de Sosa
Miss Helen Seymour
Margaret Tyzack
Remy Baudouin
Ronny Coutteure
T. E. Lawrence Joseph A. Bennett (young)
Douglas Henshall
Ernest Hemingway Jay Underwood

Guest appearances

Most episodes of the series depicted famous and not-so-famous historical figures, including but not limited to

.

Notable guest stars (playing either fictional or historical characters) include:

Production

"Before the world discovered Indiana, Indiana discovered the world."

Development

During the production of the Indiana Jones feature films, the cast and crew frequently questioned creator George Lucas about the Indiana Jones character's life growing up. During the concept stages of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Lucas and director Steven Spielberg decided to reveal some of this backstory in the film's opening scenes. For these scenes, Lucas chose River Phoenix to portray the character, as Harrison Ford believed that Phoenix most resembled Ford as a young man. Phoenix had appeared as the son of Ford's character in The Mosquito Coast. This decision to reveal an adventure of a young Indiana led Lucas and crew to the idea of creating the series.

Writing

Lucas wrote an extensive timeline detailing the life of Indiana Jones, assembling the elements for about 70 episodes, starting in 1905 and leading all the way up to the feature films.[citation needed] Each outline included the place, date and the historical persons Indy would meet in that episode, and would then be turned over to one of the series writers.[citation needed] When the series came to an end about 31 of the 70 stories had been filmed. Had the series been renewed for a third season, Young Indy would have been introduced to younger versions of characters from Raiders of the Lost Ark: Abner Ravenwood ("Jerusalem, June 1909") and René Belloq ("Honduras, December 1920").[citation needed] Other episodes would have filled in the blanks between existing ones ("Le Havre, June 1916", "Berlin, Late August, 1916"), and there would even have been some adventures starring a five-year-old Indy (including "Princeton, May 1905").[citation needed]

During production of the series, Lucas became interested in the crystal skulls.[4] He originally called for an episode which would have been part of the third season involving Jones and his then friend Belloq searching for one of the skulls.[5] The episode was never produced, and the idea ultimately evolved into the 2008 feature film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.[6]

Casting

Phoenix and Ford were respectively approached by Lucas to reprise their roles as the younger and elder Indiana Jones respectively, but both turned the offer down as they had no desire to do television. Ultimately,

Sean Patrick Flannery was cast as a young adult Indy, with George Hall portraying a 90 years old Indy in the bookend segments of most episodes.[7]

A number of actors connected to the Indiana Jones films and/or George Lucas's Star Wars franchise made guest appearances. Harrison Ford appeared as a middle-aged Indy (age 50) in the episode "Young Indiana Jones and the Mystery of the Blues", which aired in March 1993. Paul Freeman, who played Rene Belloq in Raiders of the Lost Ark, portrayed Frederick Selous in a couple of episodes, while Roshan Seth, who played Chattar Lal in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, played a North African sheikh in "Morocco, 1917" (later re-edited into "Tales of Innocence"). The late William Hootkins (Major Eaton from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Porkins from Star Wars) played Russian ballet producer Sergei Diaghilev and Wolf Kahler (Colonel Dietrich in Raiders of the Lost Ark) played a German diplomat in "Barcelona, May 1917". In the episode Attack of the Hawkmen, Star Wars veteran Anthony Daniels played François, a French Intelligence scientist (in the mode of James Bond's "Q") who gives Indy a special suitcase filled with gadgets for a special mission in Germany. Clint Eastwood was approached to play the elder brother of Indiana Jones, but he turned it down despite a $10 million offer.[8]

Filming

A variety of filmmakers wrote or directed episodes of the series, including Frank Darabont, Nicolas Roeg, Mike Newell, Deepa Mehta, Joe Johnston, Jonathan Hensleigh, Terry Jones, Simon Wincer, Carrie Fisher, Dick Maas and Vic Armstrong. Lucas was given a "Story By" credit in many episodes as he was the creative overhead on the series pitching most of the storylines the writers would then flesh out under his supervision.

The series was unusual for its time in that it was shot on location around the world. Partly to offset the cost of this, the series was shot on

35mm
. This created a 1:33:1 aspect ratio. The series was designed so that each pair of episodes could either be broadcast separately, or as a 2-hour film-length episode. Each episode cost about $1.5 million and the filming with Young Indy usually took around 3 weeks. The first production filming alternated between "Sean" and "Corey" episodes. The segments with old Indy were referred to as "bookends." Filming a pair of them typically took a day and most were shot at Carolco Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina and on location in Wilmington. The show also featured footage from other films spliced into several episodes.

The series was shot in three stages. The first production occurred from 1991 to 1992, and consisted of sixteen episodes; five with younger Indy, ten with older Indy, and one with both—for a total of seventeen television hours. The second production occurred from 1992 to 1993 and consisted of twelve episodes; one with younger Indy and eleven with older Indy, for a total of fifteen television hours. The third and final production occurred from 1994 to 1995, and consisted of four made-for-television movies, for a total of eight television hours. In 1996, additional filming was done in order to re-edit the entire series into twenty-two feature films.

Additionally the series had an audio format of Dolby Stereo.

Soundtrack

The series' main theme was composed by Laurence Rosenthal, who wrote much of the music for the series. Joel McNeely also wrote music for many episodes; he received an Emmy in 1993 for the Episode "Scandal of 1920". French composer Frédéric Talgorn composed some music for the episode set in World War I France ("The Somme, July 1916/Germany, August 1916"). Music for "Transylvania, September 1918" was composed by Curt Sobel.

Broadcast history

Television

SeasonEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast airedNetwork
16March 4, 1992 (1992-03-04)April 8, 1992 (1992-04-08)ABC
222September 21, 1992 (1992-09-21)July 24, 1993 (1993-07-24)
TV films4October 15, 1994 (1994-10-15)June 16, 1996 (1996-06-16)The Family Channel

The pilot episode was aired by

The Family Channel later produced four two-hour TV movies that were broadcast from 1994 to 1996. Though Lucas intended to produce episodes leading up to a 24-year-old Jones, the series was cancelled with the character at age 21.[9]

Home media

The revised and updated edition of the book George Lucas: The Creative Impulse, by Charles Champlin, explains how The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles series would be re-edited into the new structure of twenty-two Chapter TV films, for the 1999 VHS release. New footage was shot in 1996 to be incorporated with the newly re-edited and re-titled "chapters" to better help it chronologically and provide smooth transitions. The newly shot Tangiers, 1908 was joined with Egypt, 1908 from the Curse of the Jackal to form My First Adventure, and Morocco, 1917 was joined with Northern Italy, 1918 (now re-dated as 1917) to form Tales of Innocence. Also included in the home video release were four unaired episodes made for the ABC network: Florence, May 1908; Prague, 1917; Transylvania, 1918; and Palestine, 1917. The series itself was also re-titled as The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones.

The 93-year-old Indy bookends for the original series were removed, as well as Sean Patrick Flanery's bookend for "Travels With Father"; however, the Harrison Ford bookend, set in 1950, from "Mystery of The Blues" was not cut.[10]

Laserdisc and VHS

The series received its first home video release on April 21, 1993, when a

Laserdisc
box set was released in Japan containing fifteen of the earlier episodes and a short documentary on the making of the series. The discs were formatted in NTSC and presented with English audio in Dolby surround with Japanese subtitles. In 1994, eight NTSC format VHS tapes with a total of fifteen episodes from the first two seasons were released in Japan.

On October 26, 1999, half of the series was released on VHS in the United States for $14.99 each, along with a box set of the feature films. The series was labeled as Chapters 1–22, while the feature films were labeled as Chapters 23–25. In an effort to promote the series, the episode "Treasure of the Peacock's Eye" was included with the purchase of the movie trilogy box set in the US. The episode was chosen for the fact that its plot continues into the opening of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which was labeled as the first film chronologically in the film trilogy.

In other countries different chapters were included, for example in the UK The Phantom Train of Doom was included. The twelve VHS releases were released worldwide over the course of 2000, including the UK, Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, Mexico, France and Japan. The UK, German, French, Hungarian and Netherlands tapes were in PAL format, while the tapes released in the rest of the countries were in NTSC format.

DVD

In 2002, series producer Rick McCallum confirmed in an interview with Variety that DVDs of the series were in development, but would not be released for "about three or four years".[11] At the October 2005 press conference for the Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith DVD, McCallum explained that he expected the release to consist of 22 DVDs, which would include around 100 documentaries which would explore the real-life historical aspects that are fictionalized in the show. For the DVDs, Lucasfilm upgraded the picture quality of the original 16 mm prints and remastered the soundtracks. This, along with efforts to get best quality masters and bonus materials on the sets, delayed the release.[12] It was ultimately decided that the release would tie into the release of the fourth Indiana Jones feature film.

Two variations of Volume 1 were released by CBS DVD, one simply as "Volume One", and the other as "Volume One — The Early Years" in order to match the subtitle of Volume 2.

History International began airing the series every Saturday morning at 7AM/6C on The History Channel, and every Sunday morning at 8AM ET/PT on History International. A new division of History.com was created devoted to the show. As Paramount and Lucasfilm had already reserved IndianaJones.com solely for news and updates related to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, StarWars.com temporarily served as the official site for the DVDs—providing regular updates, insider looks and promotions related to them.[16] However, Lucasfilm and Paramount soon set up an official website proper for the series—YoungIndy.com.[17] Paramount released a press kit for the media promoting the DVDs, which consists of a .pdf file[18] and several videos with interviews with Lucas and McCallum, and footage from the DVDs.[19]
A trailer for the DVDs was also published on YoungIndy.com, with a shorter version being shown on The History Channel and History International.

Lucas and McCallum hope that the DVDs will be helpful to schools, as they believe the series is a good way to aid in teaching history. Lucas explained that the series' DVD release will be shopped as "films for a modern day high school history class."[20] He believes the series is a good way to teach high school students 20th-century history.[21] The plan was always to tie the DVD release of the series to the theatrical release of the fourth Indiana Jones feature film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which was released on May 22, 2008.[11][22][23][24]

Companion historical documentaries

Ninety-four historical documentaries were created over a nearly five-year period by Lucasfilm's documentary crew for the DVD release of the series. Each documentary covers a historical topic connected to the chapter to which it is associated. The television broadcast rights for these documentaries was secured by the

History Channel
. They were executive produced by Lucas and McCallum.

Historical overview lectures

  • Vol. 1 – Historical Lecture: "The Promise of Progress"
  • Vol. 2 – Historical Lecture: "War and Revolution"
  • Vol. 3 – Historical Lecture: "New Gods for Old"[25]

Content here was copied from which has a compatible CC-BY-SA-3.0 license: http://indianajones.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_The_Adventures_of_Young_Indiana_Jones_DVD_additional_features

DVD name Region 1[26] Region 2
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume One — The Early Years October 23, 2007 February 25, 2008[27]
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume Two — The War Years December 18, 2007 March 24, 2008[28]
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume Three — The Years of Change April 29, 2008 April 28, 2008

Streaming

As of 2023, the series is available to stream on Disney+ alongside the original four Indiana Jones feature films, to commemorate the release of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.[29]

Reception

The series was nominated for 18

ASC Award in the category of "Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Regular Series". At the 1994 Golden Globes, the series was nominated for "Best TV-Series — Drama".[31]

Though the series won many awards, it also received some criticism. The New York Times called the pilot "clunky" for example.[32]

Marketing

Four volumes of music from the series were released on CD. The show also spawned a series of adaptations and spin-off novels, a

and other products.

References

  1. ^ "TheRaider.net - The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles". www.theraider.net. Retrieved 2023-05-25.
  2. ^ Indiana & Mutt Travel to Peru | Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) HD 4K, retrieved 2023-05-25
  3. ^ Landry, Alysa (6 April 2017). "Saginaw Grant: playing an Indian on TV". Navajo Times. Archived from the original on 7 January 2019. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  4. ^ Adler, Shawn (2007-10-05). "George Lucas Promises 'Crystal Skull' Will Be As Good As First Indiana Jones Flick". MTV News. Retrieved 2007-10-06.
  5. ^ Young Indy That Could Have Been – List of episodes never produced
  6. ^ Huver, Scott (2005-04-28). "One-On-One with George Lucas". Hollywood.com. Archived from the original on 2005-09-07. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  7. ^ "The Making of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles - Chapter 2: Casting". TheRaider.net. Archived from the original on January 16, 2013. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  8. ^ Munn, p. 233.
  9. ^ Weinraub, Bernard (January 27, 1992). "George Lucas on Issues, Ideas and Indiana Jones". The New York Times. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
  10. ^ IGN: The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones – Volume 3 Review
  11. ^ a b Hettrick, Scott (October 24, 2002). "Bigger Picture: Producer to Rattle the Sabers". Videobusiness. Retrieved 2006-06-24.
  12. ^ "Star Wars DVD Press Event". 2005-10-07. Archived from the original (mp3) on 2009-02-26.
  13. ^ Nordyke, Kimberly (April 30, 2007). "Web series, Lucas docus are History". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2015-02-07.
  14. ^ History.com Developing Digital Originals With Groundbreaking Military Blog and Short-Form Broadband Series Archived 2012-07-21 at archive.today
  15. ^ Crupi, Anthony (May 1, 2007). "History Channel site reborn with 94 Lucas docs". HollywoodReporter.com. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-04-30.
  16. ^ Star Wars: Community | Other Lucas Films Archive Archived 2007-10-11 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones Archived 2008-02-21 at the Wayback Machine, Paramount Home Entertainment
  18. ^ Indiana Jones
  19. ^ The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, Vol. 1 12 Discs Video Clips – MovieWeb Archived 2007-10-16 at the Wayback Machine
  20. ^ TheForce.Net – Latest News – An Evening With George Lucas
  21. ^ Lowry, Brian (March 4, 2007). "Lucas opens up at Paley Festival". Variety.
  22. ^ The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles DVD news: New Update On TV-DVDs Ties Release Firmly To Indy 4 Film | TVShowsOnDVD.com Archived 2006-05-09 at the Wayback Machine
  23. ^ The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles DVD news: Update on the release timeline | TVShowsOnDVD.com Archived 2006-02-23 at the Wayback Machine
  24. ^ "Wiest takes part in documentary on Lucas series". Hattiesburg American. June 10, 2005. Retrieved 2006-07-09.[dead link]
  25. ^ List of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones DVD additional features
  26. ^ Star Wars: Community | Young Indiana Jones Comes to DVD Archived 2007-08-29 at the Wayback Machine
  27. ^ Amazon.co.uk: The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones Vol.1 [1992]: DVD: Vanessa Redgrave, Anne Heche, Elizabeth Hurley, Corey Carrier, George Hall, Lukas Haas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Sean Patrick Flanery
  28. ^ Amazon.co.uk: The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones Vol.2: DVD: Corey Carrier, Vanessa Redgrave, Anne Heche, George Hall, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Elizabeth Hurley, Lukas Haas, Sean Patrick Flanery
  29. ^ Chan, J. Clara (2023-05-16). "'Indiana Jones' Films to Land at Both Disney+ and Paramount+ In New Deal". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2023-06-03.
  30. ^ Primetime Emmy Award Database | Emmys.com
  31. ^ "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" (1992) – Awards
  32. ^ O'Connor, John J. (March 4, 1992). "Review/Television; Meeting Indiana Jones as a Boy and a Teen-Ager". The New York Times. Retrieved May 25, 2010.

Further reading

  • Champlin, Charles. George Lucas: The Creative Impulse (Harry N. Abrams, 1997).
  • Madsen, Dan. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: On the Set and Behind the Scenes (Doubleday Books for Young Readers, 1992).
  • Munn, Michael (1992). Clint Eastwood: Hollywood's Loner. London: Robson Books. .
  • "Young Indiana Jones Magazine articles and other things". InnerMind.com. The Inner Mind. Retrieved 22 August 2014.

External links