The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles

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

- Tagline

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, commonly refered to as Young Indy, is an Emmy Award-winning American television series created by George Lucas, which ran on ABC from 1992 to 1993, and The Family Channel from 1994 to 1996. It explores the youth of the fictional character Indiana Jones, who is portrayed as taking part in many significant events of the early 20th century. The series features four incarnations of the title character; Sean Patrick Flanery played Indy aged 17 through 21, Corey Carrier played the 9 through 11 year-old Indy, and George Hall portrayed an elderly Jones for the framing bookends of most episodes. Additionally, Harrison Ford reprised his role for a season two episode, taking the usual place of Hall.

Lucas, who had previously served as executive producer and provided the stories for the Indiana Jones feature films, began developing the series in 1990 as "edutainment" that would be more cerebral than the films. The show was his first collaboration with producer Rick McCallum. Lucas again served as executive producer, and wrote the stories for many of the episodes. Writers and directors on the show included Carrie Fisher, Frank Darabont, Vic Armstrong, Terry Jones and Ben Burtt. In the show, Indy crosses path with many historical figures, who were played by stars such as Christopher Lee, Bob Peck, Jeffrey Wright, and Marc Warren.

Young Indy debuted on ABC on March 4, 1992. Though critically acclaimed, it lasted two seasons before being canceled in 1993 due to low ratings. Four made-for-TV movies based on the series were produced from 1994 to 1996, and were aired on The Family Channel. The series was comprehensively re-edited and re-packaged for home video as The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, which was partially released on VHS in 1999, and released in full on DVD in 2007 and 2008.

Concept
The series was designed as an educational program for children and teenagers, spotlighting historical figures and important events of the early 20th century, using the concept of a prequel to the films as a draw. Most episodes feature a standard formula of an elderly Indiana Jones (played by George Hall) in present day (1992/1993) New York City reminiscing on his life as a child (Corey Carrier) and young adult (Sean Patrick Flanery). For a season two episode, a fifty-one-year-old Indy (Harrison Ford) is seen reminiscing. The initial plan was for the series to alternate between the two young versions of the character, but eventually the episodes featuring Flanery dominated the series.

Episodes were produced and intentionally aired out of chronological order, with episodes covering either Indy's adventures during his father's 1908-1910 lecture tour, his adventures as a soldier in World War I, or his early days in college. The show provides a lot of the back story for the films; Jones' 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 Peacock's Eye, a large diamond seen in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, is explored in Young Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Peacock's Eye. The series also revealed that in his later years, Indy has a daughter, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Many of the episodes also involve Indiana meeting and working with famous historical figures. For example, the pilot prominently involves Indy in the adventures of T. E. Lawrence and Pancho Villa. Some of the historical characters have recurring roles: Jones develops a lifelong friendship with T.E. Lawrence, becomes friends with Ernest Hemingway, and re-encounters characters such as Pablo Picasso and Nancy Stratemeyer.

There were some plans for later episodes to include characters appearing and referenced in the movies, improving therefore the continuity between the series and the movie trilogy. Characters scheduled to be included would be René Emile Belloq (as young Indy's colleague) and Abner Ravenwood, as his mentor. Unfortunately, those episodes were planned for the third season of the series, which was canceled.

Cast and characters

 * Corey Carrier as Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. (ages 9 to 11). Carrier was 11 when he was cast for the role. His manager had given him a list of TV series he could try out for, and after his initial audition, he was called back several times before getting the role. Like Flanery, Carrier had viewed the Indiana Jones films before production began on the series, finding Henry Jones, Sr. to be his favorite character. During the first year of production, Carrier's family was able to travel with him, and his mother served as his tutor. Carrier also was able to do some of his own stunts. Carrier and co-star Flanery spent little time together during production, as they were often shooting episodes simultaneously around the world.
 * Sean Patrick Flanery as Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. (ages 17 to 21). For the role of young Indy, Lucas wanted an actor who could effectively portray Jones as idealistic and naive. River Phoenix, who played Young Indy in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, was originally offered the role, but turned it down because he did not want to return to television. Flanery, who had never done a screentest prior to auditioning for Young Indy, played the character for six scenes from what would become "German East Africa, December 1916" in full make-up and wardrobe for hs Young Indy audition. Three weeks later, Flanery was informed that he got the part. Upon receiving the role, Flanery was given a large amount of research material on the histroical characters who would be involved in the series. Vic Armstrong, who had previously served as stunt double for Harrison Ford and stunt coordinator for the Indiana Jones films, assisted Flanery in many physical acts in the show, such as using a lasso, using a whip, and mounting a horse. However, Flanery prefered to do his own stunts whenever possible. Producer Rick McCallum provided Flanery with copies of the feature films, which Flanery used to study Harrison Ford's mannerisms he would later attempt to emulate in the series.
 * Harrison Ford as Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. (age 51). 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. 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.
 * George Hall as "Old Indy" (ages 93-94). Harrison Ford was originally offered the role of the older Indiana Jones, but he turned it down because he felt television had nothing to offer his career. The role eventually went to George Hall. Hall's scenes were shot at Wilmington, North Carolina, and are set in the present day (1992/1993). The idea for an Indy in his 90s originated with author Rob McGregor, who originally wrote an older Indy bookending his novel Indiana Jones and the Peril at Delphi. Although these segments were cut from the book, the "Old Indy" concept later resurfaced in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.
 * Ronny Coutteure as Remy Baudouin. Coutteure's native language was French, and he spoke very little English, so he worked extra hard in memorizing his lines. His wife accompanied him during the filming of each episode.
 * Lloyd Owen as Professor Henry Jones, Sr.. Since Sean Connery had previously played the role in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Owen prepared for the role by viewing many of Connery's films in order to learn to imitate Connery's accent.
 * Ruth de Sosa as Anna Jones. Very little had been established about the character prior to production, so de Sosa was allowed to create many aspects of the character, in additon to the basics that had been established by Lucas.
 * Margaret Tyzack as Miss Helen Seymour.

Development
"The films are like a fictionalization of a real person, but in the series we're doing the "real" person. The films are completely action-oriented. They have a very, very small and minor plot &mdash; something happens and Indy has to do incredible things to save the world. What can we do for the next hour and a half to move this thing at lightning speed? Whereas the Chronicles is totally about character development. There is some action, but mostly it's about a boy who learns about life, which is unusual for global television. Everything he learns about, from his relationship to food, women, ethics, morality, to the way he interrelates with people, he learns from the rest of the world, not America."

- Rick McCallum

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 to the idea of creating the series. Once he had made the decision to produce the show, Lucas asked the opinions of Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford, who were supportive of the project.

Writing
"By the time this is finished, you'll have a good picture of life from the age of five to twenty, and then from thirty-five to fourty, and then ninety to ninety-five. So you'll have these little bits of his life that have been documented."

- George Lucas

According to the series' director of research Deborah Fine, the crew originally developed a timeline extending from 1908 to 1922 of all major events and people of the time period. 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.

After all of the writers were hired, they met at Lucas' Skywalker Ranch, where they lived and worked together while writing the scripts. They worked on one story per day, with each writer being assigned specific episodes. According to writer Frank Darabont, the witing staff wrote a total of three seasons worth of scripts before the series was canceled.

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"). Though Lucas intended to produce episodes leading up to a 24-year-old Jones, the series was cancelled with the character at age 21.

Filming
"I think we've given a whole new meaning to location shooting, at least in television."

- Rick McCallum

Lucas envisioned each episode as being "like a feature film for television". As a result, directors were hired who had mostly backgrounds in feature films, and each director was hired to fit the script in question. A wide variety of filmmakers were involved with the writing and directing for many episodes. Lucas was given a 'Story By' credit in many episodes, along with his input as a creative consultant.

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 films. The show was ambitiously shot across over 25 countries for over 150 weeks. Series one shot from March 1991&mdash;March 1992, while the second series began two months later and wrapped in April 1993. Filming for the final four episodes took place from January 1994&mdash;May 1996. While the crew was filming in Prague, Steven Spielberg visited the set to view the production.

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. Each production was looked at as one film, and the production's episodes were produced nonlinearly. 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
The series was one of the first to make extensive use of digital technology. It was an experimentation ground in digital effects for Lucasfilm. 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.

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). The American Broadcasting Company were unsure of Lucas's cerebral approach, and attempted to advertise it as an action-adventure like the films. Ratings were decent, if unspectacular, and ABC was nervous enough to put it on hiatus after six episodes until September 1992. Only 16 of the remaining 20 episodes were aired in 1993 when ABC cancelled the show. With only four episodes left of the second season to air, ABC eventually sold the show to the Family Channel. They changed the format from 50-minute episodes to 90-minute TV movies. 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.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, US cable companies rebroadcast portions of the series. In 1996, Lucas and editor T.M. Christopher re-edited the series into 22 feature-length episodes known as "chapters", which make up The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones. 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 chapter versions present Indy's life in chronological order. The chapters correspond to two one-hour TV episodes, combined together, with the George Hall bookend segments removed. In order to connect some episodes, Lucas shot a large amount of bridging footage, while he also expanded some episodes with new footage. In 1998 and 1999, the Fox Family Channel (now ABC Family Channel) rebroadcast the four TV movies that it shown earlier as The Family Channel.

Marketing and spin-offs


The series was first announced in 1990. To promote the series, Paramount released each of the original films on VHS through participating McDonalds restaurants. The Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade VHS included a one and a half minute preview of the series. Pizza Hut was one of the marketing partners for the series.

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. Following the series' cancelation, four made-for-TV movies were produced by Lucasfilm and The Family Channel based on the series: Young Indiana Jones and the Hollywood Follies, Young Indiana Jones and the Attack of the Hawkmen, Young Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Peacock's Eye and Young Indiana Jones: Travels with Father.

During production of the series, Lucas became interested in 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.

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. According to Habro officials, there is a possibility of Young Indy figures being produced as part of the new Indiana Jones action figure line.

Home video
The series received its first home video release on April 21, 1993, when a Laserdisc box set was released in Japan containing fourteen 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 November 1993, six volumes of episodes were released by Paramount Home entertainment and CIC Video on VHS in PAL format in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland. The first three volumes were released on November 8, 1993,  and the final three volumes were released on November 22, 1993. In 1994, eight NTSC format VHS tapes with a total of fourteen episodes from the first two seasons were released in Japan.

Reception
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles received mixed reception from fans, although it won 10 Emmy Awards from 23 nominations, and also earned a 1994 Golden Globe nomination for Best Drama series. 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".

Though the series won many awards, it also earned its share of criticism. The New York Times called the pilot "clunky", felt that the show's educational elements were too obvious and forced, and felt that the show relied too heavily on the audience's prior knowledge. The National Coalition on Television Violence named the series the most violent television series of 1993, with an average of 60 acts of violence per episode. The series has been criticized for its purposefully inconsistent tone and style, and the fact that two actors play Young Indy.

During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, which was conducted when he was on the set of "Mystery of the Blues", Harrison Ford remarked "This show as far as I'm concerned is the best thing on television and has nothing to do with my connection to Indiana Jones." The characters of Mystery Science Theater 3000 reference the show in several episodes from the early 1990s. In the 2000 film Wonderboys, a clip from the Young Indiana Jones episode "Ireland, April 1916" can be seen on a TV while a character is changing channels. A 2006 episode of the Cartoon Network series Robot Chicken features a Young Indiana Jones in a parody of Raiders of the Lost Ark.