A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Pros:  Fairly effective marriage of two separate Young Indiana Jones Chronicles episodes Cons:  Feels a tad uneven, and the mood is downbeat.  In the middle of the 1991-92 TV season (March 1992, to be precise), ABC and George Lucas's Lucasfilm Limited attempted a daring experiment; to give viewers a mixture of educational material - primarily focusing on early 20th Century history - and entertainment (edutainment for short) in a series titled The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.   Like Lucasfilm's 2008-2013 Cartoon Network animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars , The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was an anthology; instead of being a linear narrative which starts in 1908 and ends in 1923, the series jumped around the timeline and alternated episodes with preteen Indy (played by Corey Carrier) and teen/young adult Indiana/Henri Defense/Henry Jones, Jr. (Sean Patrick Flannery).  Each episode was "framed" with prologues and epilogues set in t...

In 1994, a year after ABC canceled George Lucas's ambitious but expensive  The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles , Lucasfilm Limited produced a two-hour TV movie which continued the adventures of a college-age Henry Walton Jones, Jr. (Sean Patrick Flanery) before he became a professor of archaeology and a globetrotting adventurer. Written by Jonathan Hales ( Star Wars - Episode II: Attack of the Clones, The Scorpion King ) and Matthew Jacobs (T he Emperor's New Groove ),  Young Indiana Jones and the Hollywood Follies  was the first of four follow-up stories that were shown on cable's The Family Channel after its original network pulled the plug on the critically-acclaimed but very pricy "edutainment" series. Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Hollywood Follies Also known as  Young Indiana Jones and the Hollywood Follies (VHS) Chapter 22: The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Hollywood Follies (Disc 9, Volume Three: Years of Change) Set in 1920 Hollywoo...

In the middle of the 1991-92 TV season (March 1992, to be precise), ABC and George Lucas's Lucasfilm Limited attempted a daring experiment; to give viewers a mixture of educational material - primarily focusing on early 20th Century history - and entertainment (edutainment for short) in a series titled  The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Like Lucasfilm's current Cartoon Network animated series  Star Wars: The Clone Wars ,  The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles  was an anthology; instead of being a linear narrative which starts in 1908 and ends in 1923, the series jumped around the timeline and alternated episodes with preteen Indy (played by Corey Carrier) and teen/young adult Indiana/Henri Defense/Henry Jones, Jr. (Sean Patrick Flannery).  Each episode was "framed" with prologues and epilogues set in the series' "present day" and starring George Hall as "Old Indy", a 90-something retiree who still wore his trademark fedora but also sported an ey...

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade's soundtrack recording, like most albums of the genre, has its virtues and vices. Even keeping in mind that it was released originally in 1989 in records, cassettes, and the still-new CD format, it is still an album that offers John Williams' score for the third film in the Indy series, but not enough of it.  Having veered by design into dark thematic and musical territory in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, director Steven Spielberg, producer George Lucas and composer Williams decided to revisit the more fun and thrilling tones of Raiders of the Lost Ark, adding depth to Indy's character by including his father, Professor Henry Jones, Sr. and new themes reflecting the father-son dynamic and the quest for the Holy Grail.  Keeping in mind the limitations of this album, the music here is enjoyable. Listen to "Indy's Very First Adventure" (track 1) and you can almost see young Indiana Jones (as incarnated by the late River...

After the cancellation by ABC of his ambitious and expensive television series,  The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles,  executive producer George Lucas tried several methods to save the show and give viewers - especially pre-teen kids and young adults - its trademark mix of education and entertainment. For instance, after ABC axed  Young Indy  from its lineup (citing the show's lavish budgets as its primary reason), Lucasfilm Limited produced four made-for-TV movies which aired on cable's Family Channel over a two-year period (1994-1996).  Another life-saving measure was the hiring of film editor T.M. Christopher, who not only had worked with Lucas as an editor on the Classic  Star Wars  Trilogy, but also with Milos Forman in cutting 1984's  Amadeus. Christopher (who also was involved in the 1997 updating of the original  Star Wars  films into their still controversial Special Edition versions)  was assigned to  re-edit 44 episod...

(C) 2007 Lucasfilm Ltd. and Paramount Home Video In the early 1990s, after the success of  Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade , producer George Lucas came up with an ambitious project: a 70-episode live-action TV series chronicling the adventures of a young Henry (Indiana) Jones, Jr. as a pre-teen boy and a restless adolescent, taking the future archaeologist on a globetrotting journey of self-discovery and preparing him for his raid on the Lost Ark and other "rare antiquities" in the three Steven Spielberg-directed movies.  Lucas assembled a creative team that included top-notch writers (Frank Darabont, who would later write  The Shawshank Redemption  and  The Green Mile , wrote five episodes), directors (Mike Newell, Nicolas Roeg, Simon Wincer), and a crew that would later be better known for its work on the  Star Wars  prequels - designer Gavin Bocquet, cinematographer David Tattersall, editor Ben Burtt, and producer Rick McCallum, plus a s...