The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles is an Emmy Award-winning American television series that ran from 1992 to 1996. A form of "edutainment," the 44 episode series explores the childhood and youth of the fictional character Indiana Jones. The series primarily stars Sean Patrick Flanery as Indy aged 16-20, but also includes several episodes with Corey Carrier as Indy aged 8-10. George Hall also played Indy at age 93 for the bookends of many episodes, though Harrison Ford bookended one episode. The show was created and executive produced by George Lucas, who also executive produced the Indiana Jones feature films.

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 previously appeared as Ford's son 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
George Lucas wrote an extensive time-line 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. Each outline, included the place, date and the historical persons Indy would meet in that episode, and would then be turned over to one the the series writers. 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"). 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"). The series' director of research&mdash;Deborah Fine&mdash;claimed that the crew originally had a timeline extending from 1908 to 1922.

Casting
Harrison Ford was originally offered the role of the older Indiana Jones (which eventually went to George Hall), but he turned it down, it is said, because he thought television had nothing to offer his career; however, Ford appeared as a middle-aged Indy (age 50) in the episode The Mystery of the Blues, which aired in March 1993. For the brief appearance as the middle-aged Indiana, Harrison sported a beard. This is because he was filming The Fugitive (1993) at the time his scenes were shot, and he didn't have time to shave it.

River Phoenix, who played young Indy (aged 13) in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, was originally offered the title role in the series, but turned it down, because he did not want to return to television. It was originally planned that after The Last Crusade, a second trilogy would be made with Phoenix as the young Indiana Jones and Ford as Henry Jones Sr. (effectively playing his own father). It became increasingly difficult for all parties to fully realize a second trilogy and so a TV series was thought of as the next best thing and a way to test if a prequel set of films could work; however, Phoenix's untimely death in 1993 changed all that.

Paul Freeman, who played Rene Belloq in Raiders of the Lost Ark, portrayed an unrelated character named Frederick Selous in a couple of episodes. Additionally, the late William Hootkins (Major Eaton from Raiders of the Lost Ark) played Russian ballet producer Sergei Diaghilev in "Barcelona, May 1917". In the episode Attack of the Hawkmen, Star Wars veteran Anthony Daniels played Francois, 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.

Filming
A wide variety of filmmakers both wrote and directed many episodes of the series, including such high-profile names as Frank Darabont, Nicolas Roeg, Mike Newell, Deepa Mehta, Joe Johnston, Jonathan Hensleigh, Terry Jones, Simon Wincer, Carrie Fisher and Vic Armstrong. George Lucas was given a 'Story By' credit in many episodes, along with his input as a creative consultant.

The series was unusual in that it was shot on location around the world. Partly to offset the cost of this, the series was shot on 16mm film, rather than 35. 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&mdash;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.

Effects
In some of the new additional scenes that were shot in 1996 with Corey Carrier, digital techniques were used to shrink Corey to make him appear younger.

Music
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.

Plot


The series was designed as an educational program for children and teenagers, spotlighting historical figures and important events, using the concept of a prequel to the films as a draw. Most episodes feature a standard formula of an elderly (93-year-old) Indiana Jones (played by George Hall) in present day (1993) New York City encountering people who spur him to reminisce and tell stories about his past adventures. These stories would either involve him as a young boy (10, played by Corey Carrier) or as a teenager (17 to 21, played by Sean Patrick Flanery). In one episode, a fifty-year-old Indy (played by Harrison Ford) is seen reminiscing. Initially, the plan was for the series to alternate between the adventures of Indy as a child (Corey Carrier) and as a teenager (Sean Patrick Flanery), but eventually the episodes featuring Flanery's version of the character dominated the series. The series revealed that the elderly Jones has a daughter named Daphne, and a grandson named Spike.



Many of the episodes involve Indiana meeting and working with famous historical figures. Historical figures featured on the show include Leo Tolstoy, Pancho Villa, Charles de Gaulle, and John Ford, in such diverse locations as Egypt, Austria-Hungary, India, China, and the whole of Europe. For example, Curse of the Jackal prominently involves Indy in the adventures of T. E. Lawrence and Pancho Villa. Indy also encounters (in no particular order) Pablo Picasso, Eliot Ness, Charles de Gaulle, Al Capone, Norman Rockwell (same episode as Picasso), Louis Armstrong, Winston Churchill, Vladimir Lenin and Sigmund Freud. At one point, he competes against a young Ernest Hemingway for the affections of a girl, is nursed back to health by Albert Schweitzer, and goes on a safari with Theodore Roosevelt.

The show provided a lot of the back story for the films. His relationship with his father, first introduced in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, was further fleshed out with stories about his travels with his father as a young boy. His original hunt for the Eye of the Peacock, a large diamond seen in Indiana Jones and the 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.

Cast



 * Corey Carrier .... Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. (age 10)
 * Sean Patrick Flanery .... Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. (age 16)
 * Harrison Ford .... Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. (age 50)
 * George Hall .... Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. (Age 93)
 * Ronny Coutteure .... Remy
 * Lloyd Owen .... Professor Henry Jones, Sr.
 * Ruth de Sosa .... Anna Jones
 * Margaret Tyzack .... Miss Helen Seymour

Television


The pilot episode was aired by ABC in the United States in March 1992. For the pilot, the episodes "Egypt, May 1908" and "Mexico, March 1916" were edited together to form the television movie Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal. Eleven further hour-long episodes were aired in 1992 (seven in the first season, four were part of the second season). Only 16 of the remaining 20 episodes were aired in 1993 when ABC cancelled the show. The Family Channel later broadcast the unaired episodes and also produced eight more episodes (each part of two-part television movies, making four 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.

Home video
In the early nineties, a laserdisc boxset of fifteen episodes was released in Japan, along with a documentary on the series. In 1999, re-edited versions of the series were released on VHS. However, only twelve of the planned twenty-two tapes were produced. In April 2007, producer Rick McCallum announced that the complete series was being prepared for DVD release; the first set of episodes would be available by Christmas 2007.

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 supposedly smooth transitions. The newly shot "Tangiers, 1908" was joined with "Egypt, 1908" from the original pilot episode Young Indiana Jones and 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. The "Mexico, March 1916" segment from Curse of the Jackal has been joined with "Princeton, 1916" to form Spring Break Adventure. 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 93-year-old Indy bookends for the original series were removed, as well as Sean Patrick Flanery's bookend for Travels With Father (It would seem that bookend was dropped so that it could be expanded into the second half of Winds Of Change). However, the Harrison Ford bookend, set in 50s, from The Mystery of The Blues was not cut.

The 1999 collection also included the four episodes that were made for the ABC network that never aired. Including Florence, May 1908, Prague, Aug. 1917, Transylvania, Jan. 1918, and Palestine, 1917 (note that the dates of these episodes have changed to be a part of the collection). Palestine may end up as the most interesting as it has been made into a film of its own, versus the one-hour version that aired in Europe. As stated above Tangiers, 1908 and Morocco, 1917 were filmed just for this collection. Finally, the little bit of Princeton, 1919 that was shown in the Family Channel's airing of Young Indiana Jones Travels With Father, was actually a part of its own one-hour story now combined with Paris, May 1919.

VHS and Laserdisc
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 idea was that the series and films made up "the complete adventures of Indiana Jones", and they were marketed as such; The series was labeled as Chapters 1-22, while the films were labeled as Chapters 23-25. In an effort to promote the series, Treasure of the Peacock's Eye was included with the purchase of the film trilogy box set. As a result, while the other videos are often expensive and difficult to find, multiple copies of Peacock can often be found at many thrift stores for low prices. The twelve VHS releases were released worldwide over the course of the year 2000, including the U.K., Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, Mexico, France, and Japan. The UK 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". 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 in all, 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 16mm prints and remastered the soundtracks. This, along with efforts to get best quality masters and bonus materials on the sets, delayed the release to a date later than expected. It was ultimately decided that the release would tie into the release of the fourth Indiana Jones feature film. A fourth film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, was officially announced in December 2006.

In 2004, in preparation for the restoration of the original Star Wars trilogy, Lucasfilm sent Lowry Digital some of the 16 mm footage from the series as a test. It is unknown what effect, if any, that this had to do with the series' DVD release.

In a 2007 interview with Star Wars fan site Tochestation.nl, McCallum stated that after five years in production, the "first set" of the series was expected to be released around Christmas of 2007&mdash;although he could not confirm the exact date or any other details. On July 10, 2007, Paramount Home Entertainment (through CBS DVD, whose cousin production company predecessor, Paramount Television, partnered with Lucasfilm on the series) announced that the series will be released in three volumes on DVD, with the first set to be released on October 23, 2007; however, at Star Wars Celebration Europe, Rick McCallum stated that the first DVDs will be released on October 13th. Since the 13th is on a Saturday, this was deemed by some to be unlikely. StarWars.com finally confirmed October 23, 2007 as the correct first date, while giving December 18, 2007 as the release date for the second volume, and Spring 2008 as the planned release date for the third volume. Two variations of Volume One were released: one as simply "Volume One", and the other as "Volume One, The Early Years" in order to match the subtitle of Volume Two.

The History Channel acquired television rights to all 94 of the DVD historical documentaries. The airing of the documentaries is meant to bring in ratings for the history channel and serve as marketing for the DVD release and the theatrical release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The History Channel and History International began airing the series every Saturday morning at 7AM/8C on The History Channel, and every Sunday morning at 8AM ET/PT on History International. Following each episode, two documentaries related to the respective episode are aired. A new division of History.com was created devoted to the show. Additionally, 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&mdash;providing regular updates, insider looks and promotions related to them. However, Lucasfilm and Paramount soon set up an official website proper for the series&mdash;YoungIndy.com. Paramount released a press kit for the media promoting the DVDs, which consists of a .pdf file and several videos with interviews with Lucas and McCallum, and footage from the DVDs. 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." He believes the series is a good way to teach high school students 20th Century history. 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 is currently in post-production.

The DVD release is in three volumes as The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones:


 * The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume One, The Early Years was released on October 23, 2007. It contains 12 discs, including Chapters 1-7, as well thirty-eight in-depth companion documentaries, interactive game & timeline, and a historical overview. It contains all of the episodes with Corey Carrier as well as some episodes with Sean Patrick Flanery.


 * The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume Two, The War Years is scheduled for release on December 18, 2007. It will contain 9 discs, including Chapters 8-15, as well twenty-six in-depth companion documentaries, interactive game & timeline, and a historical lecture.


 * The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume Three, The Years of Change is scheduled for release on April 29, 2008. It will contain Chapters 16-22 and about thirty documentaries.

The DVDs present the re-edited versions of the series, similar to the VHS release. While the original television broadcast versions skipped around chronologically in the character's life&mdash;alternating stories between Indy as a child and Indy as a teenager&mdash;the DVDs present Indy's life in chronological order. The DVD episodes correspond to two one-hour TV episodes, combined together, with the George Hall bookend segments removed. Some of the episode pairs work well together, such as episodes 6 and 7 forming Oganga, the Giver and Taker of Life. However, others are more disjointed, such as Passion for Life, which was made from "British East Africa, September 1909" and "Paris, September 1908".

Reaction
From 1992 to 1994, the series was nominated for twenty-three Emmy Awards and won ten. In 1993, Corey Carrier was nominated for the Young Artist Award in the category of "Best Young Actor Starring in a Television Series". In 1994, David Tattersall was nominated for the 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".

Though the series won many awards, it also earned its share of criticism. The New York Times called the pilot "clunky".

Marketing and spin-offs
Four volumes of music from the series were released on CD. The show also spawned a series of adaptations and spin-off novels, a Sega Genesis video game entitled Young Indiana Jones and the Instruments of Chaos, trading cards and other products.

In 2005, a person claiming to be a LucasArts employee started an internet rumor that a Young Indiana Jones film was in the works. However, nothing came of the rumor. It has also been rumored for several years that a new Indiana Jones television series is in the works. The good DVD sales and recent television ratings of Young Indy re-runs has apparently re-sparked interest from Lucasfilm in such a show.

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

Trivia

 * Vic Armstrong, Harrison Ford's stunt double in the Indiana Jones films, directed the first half of Chapter 13: Adventures in the Secret Service. Besides being world's most prolific stuntman, Vic Armstrong is also a respected second unit director.
 * Writer, director and three-time Oscar nominee Frank Darabont wrote the screenplay for 5 episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. He was also hired to write the script for Indiana Jones IV in 2004. But unfortunately, his script got turned down by George Lucas a year later.
 * A few chapters of the TV-series were directed by successful directors:
 * Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park 3, Hidalgo and The Rocketeer) directed Chapter 6: Spring Break Adventure.
 * Simon Wincer (Free Willy, The Phantom and Operation Dumbo Drop) directed Chapter 8: Trenches of Hell, Chapter 11: Oganga, The Giver and Taker of Life and Chapter 15: Daredevils of the Desert.
 * Terry Jones (actor/director of the famous British comedy group Monty Python) directed a part of Chapter 14: Espionage Escapades.
 * The bridging segment where T.E. Lawrence confronts Demetrios was shot in Tunisia on August 11, 1997, during the production of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, with Joseph Bennett and Vic Tablian returning to reprise their roles and doubles playing the parts of Pierre, Indy, and Helen.
 * On May 13, 1991 shooting began on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, in Almeria, Spain, the same location used for the tank chase in Last Crusade.
 * The black horse Sean rode in the Pilot episode was called "Hurricane" and was the same black horse Harrison Ford rode in the Indiana Jones movies.
 * In the 2000 film Wonderboys, one of the Young Indiana Jones episodes can be seen on a TV while a character is changing channels.
 * The characters of Mystery Science Theater 3000 reference the show in several episodes from the early 1990s.