Saturday, April 28, 2012

Blogging A to Z: The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles

Throwback time! You may not remember this series which originally aired in the early 1990s for only a couple TV seasons. Like the Indiana Jones films, the TV series exploring a younger Indy was created and produced by George Lucas. It's a pretty cool idea given so much of Indiana Jones' life is wide open prior to the movies - what was his life like before he became a professor? The series debuted a couple years after the third film: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which even featured scenes of a young Indy played by River Phoenix. 

For the TV series, teenage Indy was played by Sean Patrick Flanery, a '90s hottie most known for films like Powder and later the cult fave The Boondock Saints. The show featured an elderly version of Jones who served as a sort of narrator, with the episode taking place as a flashback to a teen or a 10-year-old kid Indy. 

Ultimately the show was canceled because ratings weren't high enough to allow for the costly expense. Four made-for-TV movies aired between 1994 - 1996 to continue the story. 

Why You Should Watch: It's available on Netflix and DVD and is a deeper dive into the Indiana Jones universe. It's suited for kids and is more of family entertainment than anything edgy. A lot of historical characters pop up so it's even somewhat educational!

Factoid: Harrison Ford shows up in an episode called "Young Indiana Jones and the Mystery of the Blues."

8 comments:

  1. I've never seen this show but since this is the second blog I've seen it on today, maybe I need to give it a look.

    That's cool that Harrison Ford shows up in an episode. I love stuff like that.

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  2. I absolutely loved this show when it aired in the 90s. I was pretty smitten with Sean Patrick Flanery too :) I remember being so bummed that it got cancelled. Thanks for the blast from the past.

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  3. I own the series on VHS and DVD. There is actually no narration in any of the episodes.
    It's a great series.
    It actually wasn't really cancelled; it just took too long between episodes to keep it up as a series. They did all of the filming on location and spent years working on the episodes that were finally produced.
    The DVD series is beyond excellent. Besides the episodes, there are documentaries about all of the historical figures and events from each episode.

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  4. I vaguely remember this... whew, my list of books to read and shows to watch has grown since doing this Challenge! :)

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  5. @Andrew - thanks for the corrections? I pieced my fuzzy memories with information I found online so I guess not all of it was accurate. I didn't even remember the 10-year-old Indy, only teen Indy, which I guess says a lot about my age and what interested me in the show :)

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  6. Well, it's a common misconception about being cancelled, because that's usually what happens. It kind of amounts to the same thing. Viewership fell because it took too long between episodes after they finished airing the ones that were prepared before hand. But there's a clip somewhere of Flannery talking about the 3 or 4 -years- they spent doing location shoots, and they just, in the end, couldn't keep the schedule up. That's why the last few were aired as "movies" as opposed to episodes of the series.

    The DVDs have several episodes that were finished later, which is very cool.

    I actually think it's a great investment for anyone with kids, because they are so full of history. Accurate history. And great documentaries that they spent years making.

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  7. Oh and the thanks for the corrections should have had an ! not a ? after it!

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  8. I used to love this show! Will have to look it up on Netflix - thanks for reminding me of it!

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