17 replies to this topic

[Bondian]

Hi, Folks.

Have just spent the last few weeks thoroughly enjoying this series on DVD. Although I may have caught a glimpse when they were first aired, I must say that I didn't realise how amazingly well made, and quite intoxicating this series was/is.

From the brilliant Corey Carrierfirst episode, to Sean Patrick Flanery (a kind of Roger Moore/William Shatner/David Cassidy good looking young actor), the series takes us around the globe in a well crafted and dare I say (dare, dare) fantastic journey. Both Indy's mother (Ruth de Sosa, and father Lloyd Owen are very convincing. In fact Lloyd Owen when he says "Junior" has a smattering of Connery.

Although I love Harry Ford in the movies, this series is far more appealing and thought provoking. Why, may you ask. Mainly because it doesn't suffer from big budget movie pretence, and the need to over dramatised situations. All the comedy from the movies is here, and the tension, fantastic location and acting is extremely well under scored by the extremely talented composer Laurence Rosenthal. I love John Williams scores to the Indy movies. Rosenthal does him more than justice with his vast knowledge of world music, and his articulate approach.

Both Carrier and Flanery act extremely efficiently in their roles. Not once, do we see a blink of 'Hollywood' stardom in their eyes. Both appear to be completely dedicated to proving to us (the audience) that they're genuinely comfortable in their roles.

Each episode features tyrants, or the gentry from the turn of the century with great attention to detail. And what's amazing, each episode has more than an hour of special features with real footage covering the events.

We may mock George Lucas, but we must also agree he's a genius when it comes to writing, or getting ideas for something original.

I say. Kudos to you, George (hope you don't mind me being on first name terms ). 'The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles' is a televisual masterpiece, and thank you. Without knowing what made 'Indiana', 'Indiana', we could have been wrong to think he found his 'niche' in later life. But, no. Your brilliant television series tells us how he became the man he is today.

George Lucas. Thank you for this series. And if the 'Young Bond' is a quarter as good as YIJ. It's an adequate payback from the wonga we've spent purchasing the 'Star Wars' videos and DVDs.

If the television (if it ever takes off) is ever as good as this, you'll be my new father.

Cheers,

Iandiana Wanker.

Trivia. Daniel Craig features in one episode. Can you name it?.

[doublenoughtspy]

Sorry Bondian, but with the digital removal of George Hall as the older Indy from all of these episodes - it makes the release nothing but bogus.

More Lucas ret-conning of history.

[Bondian]

I really do not know about that, my friend.

Just enjoyed this series. Please enlighten me.

Cheers,


Ian

[doublenoughtspy]

One review from Amazon sums it up...


Sadly the versions of the original episodes on this set have been badly edited, removing both the original opening titles and the present day introductions by an older eyepatched Indy (as Played by George Hall) . Basicly Lucasfilm has released the TV Movie edits in a roughly chronological order to show how Indiana Jones grew up , which on this volume creates major continuity blunders as the Age of Lead actor Corey Carrier will jump by two or three years in the space of one movie. then he magicly de-ages for the start of the next Movie in the set.
What is particularly insulting is the way in which the original pilot episode YOUNG INDIANA JONES AND THE CURSE OF THE JACKAL has lost its original second half which creates a discordant jump in the edited version on this set which is now called MY FIRST ADVENTURE

in the original version the story revolves around the theft of an Jackal headpiece from an egyptian tomb which is first investigated by young Indiana as played by Corey Carrier and then resolved by Sean Patrick Flannerys 16 year old version of Indy. the original version was well balanced , gripping and was resolved in the space of one episode. in the botched up version on this set all the Sean Patrick Flannerry material is gone, replaced with a story about Child slavery (episode 41)which renders MY FIRST ADVENTURE as a hatchet job.

Im selling my set and keeping my Original , UNCUT , off air copies from the original transmissions, as they are what I and a huge number of fans wish to own instead of this travesty

[Bondian]

Thanks for that, mate. Wonder why they had to hack this up.

Still. Butchering aside, it's a great series. Make me wonder if the series of 'Star Wars' would really work. Or Ewok.

Any other fans?.

Cheers,


Ian

[Brisco]

I love The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles! Lucas' butchery always pisses me off, but in this case it's not nearly as egregious as with the Star Wars special special editions, which I refused to get. Frankly, the Old Indy wrap-arounds were generally pretty cheesy, and they're not necessary to enjoy the show. Some could be really cool, but in some cases the tags actually ruined the episode. The one with Elizabeth Hurley, for instance, is MUCH better in its current form. In the original broadcast version, Old Indy concludes his story sadly, "and I never saw her again." Then, lo and behold, an old version of her JUST HAPPENS to walk into the very charity event he's at recalling the story and they have a joyous reunion! It undercut all the pathos of the story with such a preposterous, schmaltzy turn of events. I DO, however, wish that the Hall bits had been included as bonus features, for posterity's sake. I also wish that they'd included some commentaries or making-of documentaries amidst all the truly wonderful historical ones. And some of the splices (especially the ones with a notably older Carrier or balder Remy) are appalling and embarrassing for a company like Lucasfilm who should have been able to at least make them seemless with their industrial light and magic. But for some reason, none of this really bothers me. I'm just so glad to be able to watch a show I loved so much again, and really surprised at how well it holds up!

Some of it is surprisingly adult too. I can't imagine the broadcast version of the Mata Hari episode, for instance, actually included that nudity on ABC? I'd think I would remember that...

Stick with it, Bondian. It's annoying that Lucas won't include a historical record of what his show was to begin with, but cutting Old Indy is NO REASON not to watch these new discs. Plus, those who shun them miss out on some really amazing documentaries.

Brisco

[Bondian]

Thanks very much for your knowledgeable reply, mate.

Looks like I need to watch the originally screened versions. They must be repeated on cable some day.

Cheers,


Ian

[jaguar007]

The History Channel does show them, but unfortunately it is not the original cut. I probalby have a couple of original eps buried in my boxes of old VHS tapes, including the one where Harrison Ford did the opening as Indiana in the 1950s. I wonder if Lucas will also cut that one out when that episode/movie hits DVD.

[RivenWinner]

what happened here is that when the show was prematurely cancelled, LucasFilm had a good few episodes on their hands, and so in the mid 90s, they started to release the show on VHS...where they cut, edited and slopped together episodes to try and make "movie" verisons. They labeled this the "Indiana Jones Collection" or something like that, and each tape had a volume number. The tossed in the real films at the end of the collection. "Temple of Doom" became Volume 23 (remember, it's a prequel), the newly retitled "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark" was Volume 24 and the "The Last Crusade" was volume 25. basically, the whole thing was a complete joke.

my understanding is that there were still several episodes, and parts of episodes that were never put out on VHS, and now (well, for the most part, lol) the entire, complete show is avaiable on DVD.



Back to the show however...yeah, it really is well made. The amount of locations and places around the world where they filmed this show is simply amazing...especially when you consider that this is just a TV show. It includes tons of guest stars (yes, including Danial Craige).

the one thing that sorta bothers me is how Indy somehow ends up in all these important early 20th century events, and how he meets so many historical figures. I thought that was a bit annoying, but I understand that that was one of Lucas' goals for the show.

Edited by RivenWinner, 10 February 2008 - 06:37 PM.

[Gobi-1]

I love Young Indy and tore through each volume as they came out. Looking forward to Volume 3.

The re-editing of the series is annoying but I understand why they did it. It's most obvious during the Corey Carrier episodes but they squeek by with the Sean Patrick Flannery episodes.

The series was always in a state of flux from day one. Originally the series was to debut with just a one hour episode. ABC wanted a movie-of-the-week so they edited together the episodes Egypt 1908 and Mexico 1916 to create the "movie" Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal.

ABC was never fully committed to the show and kept moving it around it's schedule. Halfway through it's run on ABC George Hall's opening a closing segments were dropped and the focus of the show changed from one hour episodes to a movie-of-the-week format. I remember Phantom Train of Doom and Mystery of the Blues being advertise as ABC Movie Events, especially Blues since Harrison Ford cameoed.

ABC cancelled the series and George Lucas took it to the Family Channel which aired four more movies, Treasure of the Peacock's Eye, Travels With Father, Attack of the Hawkmen and Hollywood Follies.

Edited together tv episodes to make feature lenght movies is nothing new, Walt Disney did it with Davy Crockette and Zorro, The Man From U.N.C.L.E did it as well. The series was never really giving a fair shake so I can't blame Lucas for repackaged it to try and give it a second chance.

Now I would have preferred that the series reverted back to one hour episodes for DVD but I think Lucas has chosen to keep them in the movie format because it's easier to sell them to tv channels as individual movies then as an entire season of episodes. If you know the circumstances behind the scenes it's easier to accept the show the way it is now.

By the way TheRaider.net has a very good Young Indy section. I highly recomend you check it out.

http://www.theraider..._indy/index.php

[marktmurphy]

Terrible series. Take a hugely well-known and loved brand and then remove everything that people enjoyed about it? The madness of George Lucas on show. Again. Hugely boring.

[Bondian]

By the way TheRaider.net has a very good Young Indy section. I highly recomend you check it out.

http://www.theraider..._indy/index.php

Thanks for the link.

the one thing that sorta bothers me is how Indy somehow ends up in all these important early 20th century events, and how he meets so many historical figures. I thought that was a bit annoying, but I understand that that was one of Lucas' goals for the show.

Yeah. He seems to meet them all. But there's nothing in the history book to say that an American chap named Henry 'Indiana' Jones Jr was there.

It's a great educational series for kids. However, the real footage in the documentaries is amazing and sometimes quite gruesome.

[zencat]

I really enjoy Young Indy, but the price of these DVD sets is just too high. I bought the first set. Great extras. But now I'm watching and waiting for the price to drop on set 2 before making a move.

[Lotman]

The UK DVDs, do they have Dutch subtitling? I'm asking because I haven't seen them here in the Benelux yet.

[zencat]

I picked up the second set, The War Years. Haven't watched it all, but so far, these are very strong episodes.

[Brisco]

I picked up the second set, The War Years. Haven't watched it all, but so far, these are very strong episodes.

I think it's definitely the most solid batch of the bunch, although there's good stuff in Vol. 3 as well. The War Years is certainly the most espionagey, though, which is appealing to me! For the bulk of Vol. 2, Indy is a spy.

Brisco

[J.C.D'Arc]

I remember one fellow's complaint about the "Young Indiana Jones" series on another board: "Why," he asked "did they turn Indiana Jones into Forrest Gump?" And I agree with his implied criticism.

[Blonde Bond]

I remember this series. I don't remember a lot of it, since they never run re-runs in finnish television, but I remember enjoying it. I also had one 'Young Indy' comic book, which I think was an adaption from the war years episode some of you already mentioned, since it had Indy in midst of a war in a full soldier getup.

I hope they release some of these dvd's here, when the movie is released.