Young Indiana Jones series, older Indiana? Sell me on the series..

Being a HUGE Indiana Jones fan (almost equal to SW) I never caught on to the Young Indiana Jones series when it aired on TV. I must confess, I didn't watch one episode. Can't say why. I had no prejudices...just didn't watch it.

A couple of nights ago I watched a couple of openings on Youtube, which obviously feature a old Indy, who I am assuming begins each episode with a set up to that nights adventure.

I couldn't even get past this old guy. Am I in the minority? He even sounds British (not there is anything wrong with that)! He looks and acts more like Indy's old Butler than Indy himself.

Am I in the minority? I'd love to pick up the series on DVD, but I don't know.

Can some die hard Indy fans sell me on the series?

I always thought that the young Indy series was decent although he seems to meet every single important/famous person from the turn of the century. If you can find a season for cheap or rent one through Netflix give it a shot. Old Indy has been edited out of the DVDs by the way.

-John

I also struggled to like this series. Basically, I just had to let go of the Indy theme and enjoy the historical exposure. My 7 and 10 yo old boys liked it much more than I did (at least the episodes that explored WWI).

As you probably know, Harrison Ford makes an appearance in a seen filmed in Wyoming in one of the episodes.

Ultimately, I did like theme, but it wasn't the easy ride that the trilogy gave me.

Cheers

Sebastian

Hated the series. Detested the little brat playing li'l Indy, had a hard time watching Sean Patrick Flanery as someone who would grow up to be Harrison Ford, was embarrassed when the old eyepatch-geezer behaved like a cliche grumpy/senile old coot. Guy was more Abe Simpson than Henry Jones, Jr. Causing a ruckus at the health care center? Indiana Jones? Never. Not much dignity there.

The weekly bumping into a major 20th century historical person wore kinda thin, too. Guess it was a nice try teaching history to American children, but the credibility of the show and characters suffered.

Besides, the hat looked horrible.

That said, I did enjoy the Mystery of the Blues episode, mostly because of the Harrison Ford bookends. The plot was kind of what could be expected, having Indy in a 1920's Chicago setting would naturally lead to gangsters and Eliot Ness... Ford was cool though.

I never saw it, but my impression was that it had more of an educational/after school special/kid's show vibe than might be desirable...is that a fair assessment?

sebastian said:

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I also struggled to like this series. Basically, I just had to let go of the Indy theme and enjoy the historical exposure. My 7 and 10 yo old boys liked it much more than I did (at least the episodes that explored WWI).

As you probably know, Harrison Ford makes an appearance in a seen filmed in Wyoming in one of the episodes.

Ultimately, I did like theme, but it wasn't the easy ride that the trilogy gave me.

Cheers

Sebastian

For the most part, this is how I view the series. It's a fun historical series with good production values for a TV show in the early 90s. It's not really an "Indy" series, except perhaps for Mystery of the Blues or the one in Transylvania.

I enjoy it, though. I just don't watch it AS an Indy show. The DVD sets aren't bad, either. For younger kids with not a ton of historical exposure, the extras on the history discs are pretty good. Actually, sad to say it, but they're better than a lot of History Channel shows anymore.

Solo4114 said:

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I enjoy it, though. I just don't watch it AS an Indy show. The DVD sets aren't bad, either. For younger kids with not a ton of historical exposure, the extras on the history discs are pretty good. Actually, sad to say it, but they're better than a lot of History Channel shows anymore.

I'm in the same boat about the documentaries. much better than what's on History Channel right now. I actually learned something from them.

Sure the Chronicles (er Adventures) aren't theatrical feature material, but they're still fun.

Old Indy has been removed, you'll only see him in old homemade recordings uploaded somewhere. He isn't in the DVDs from what I understand (haven't watched mine yet).

Treadwell said:

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Old Indy has been removed, you'll only see him in old homemade recordings uploaded somewhere. He isn't in the DVDs from what I understand (haven't watched mine yet).

I thought I remembered seeing Old Indy when the show originally aired and had wondered what happened when I saw re-runs. Any idea why those scenes were cut?

Yeah, they cut him out completely, along with any references to a daughter. He was frequently used as a framing device in the original show, which was a 1hr format, so turning the episodes into 2 hr mini-movies makes that more difficult. I think the only one that wasn't like that was Mystery of the Blues which was a full-length piece.

Part of the issue is that the DVD set is also done in chronological order, so the young kid is in like 9 of the first set, and then disappears completely, whereas the TV show often would tell a story where the first half is him as a kid, and the second half is him as Sean Patrick O'mygodmynameisseriouslyIrish. It probably wouldn't have made sense to have Old Indy talking about something in one episode and then missing the "middle" parts that would've been the start of "part 2" of that story, especially if "part 2" of that story is now suddenly the second half of a totally different episode.

Treasure of the Peacock's Eye is, I think, a good example where the story starts when Indy is 9, and then wraps up with him in his 20s. Now try sticking Old Indy at the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Might not have made much sense.

Skip the episodes with Indy as a kid and stick with the Sean Flannery ones. They're silly, but many of them are fun enough to watch. The World War I episodes are decent.

If you have Netflix, they're on there if you want to watch them without commiting to purchasing anything.

Really? That must be relatively new. Cool. I own the set, but I'll add 'em so I don't have to hunt for DVDs.

So, I started watching YIJC on Netflix. Putting it in chronological order is...weird. They have episodes back-to-back you have young Indy from season 1 next to young Indy from season 2 or even season three and the age difference between them when it's only supposed to be maybe a month between places they visit is jarring to say the least.

They even have 'bumpers' to segway from the first 30 min to the next with older kid Indy that makes it horrible (Watch S1E2 with Young kid Africa, old kid 'going to Paris' then young kid again 'Paris' episode)

It really is a horrible job putting the DVD collection together.

Still watching it...but if this keeps pulling me out of suspension of disbelief like this, I might just move on to Sean Patrick episodes.

I did not enjoy the show at all, it had as much of an Indy flavor as a bag of pork rinds. The educational aspect was none too subtle and it lacks those little things that made some of the movies so good like quality, action, and adventure.

The kid-Indy stuff really is kinda weak. Particularly because the actor aged noticeably in the 2-3 seasons he was on. There are still some kind of interesting stories with him, but I never really liked the ones with "kid Indy" all that much. Sean Patrick Flannery episodes, though, are a lot better.

I liked the WW1 stuff but hated the kid episodes. Old Indy? Embarrassing to be honest.

I only vageuly remember watching an odd episode when it came on. Honestly I didn't think it made past season one. I cought the blues episode on YouTube, watched the opening and end with Ford, skipped the rest.

By the time this was coming on I was a bit older and I agree the kid episodes didn't get my attention and by then I just gave up.

Michael Bergeron said:

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I liked the WW1 stuff but hated the kid episodes. Old Indy? Embarrassing to be honest.

I remember one episode where Old Indy got arrested for something and thrown in the pen with a bunch of tough looking younger guys. Almost immediately he begins with 'well who's got an escape plan??' and 'you mark my words, I'll be out of here in an hour!'. From there he eventually gets to tell the story of that episode.
At the end of the episode it cuts back to prison where it seems that his constant jabbering has annoyed the hell out of both the prisoners and the guards- and they decide to let him out just so they don't have to hear him anymore.

As he's being escorted out, Old Indy shouts back at the prisoners 'I TOLD you I'd be out in an hour! HA HA HA HAAAA!!' Indy hasn't changed

Probe Droid said:

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Skip the episodes with Indy as a kid and stick with the Sean Flannery ones. They're silly, but many of them are fun enough to watch. The World War I episodes are decent.

That's what I just need to give in and do. I've started the series several times, but can't get through the episodes with the kid.

Some episodes are better than others. Indy just basically meets every famous historical figure of the time. I really like the ones in WWI, but some of the episodes are boring.

Has anyone seen the "Peacock's Eye"? Is it any good?

Peacock's Eye is probably the only one where you might want to watch the "Kid" half of the episode first. It's ok, but it's not quite the ripping yarn that a traditional Indy movie is, title notwithstanding.

Honestly, the best approach is to just watch the Flannery episodes. The bulk of them relate to WW1 and events related to it (e.g. the 1916 Irish Revolution, the 1917 Russian Revolution, the African campaigns, etc.). The Mystery of the Blues is the one with the Ford bookends. It mostly deals with prohibition-era Chicago and some of the opening moves of the mob wars during that era (e.g., the killing of Big Jim Colosimo), as well as the state of race relations and music.


Really, the big thing I'd remind folks is that this is a very 90s production. That means the budgets, while decent for the 90s, aren't astronomically high. Also, the acting and just the way the thing is shot (pacing, framing of shots, even the film stock) all feel very "90s." It's broader in its acting than most modern stuff, which means it isn't quite as serious, and certainly isn't what I'd call "dark" even in the episodes that deal with some pretty dark stuff (e.g. Trenches of Hell).