Original episodes on the upcoming DVDs?

Adamwankenobi

New member
Since I was born in 1989, I was too young to remember this series when it aired. Later on, when I discovered this series on video, I reallized via the internet that there was more to the series with the bookends and opening/ending credits. Even though I've never seen an original episode, I think the series worked MUCH better that way. I love history and I love intelligient TV, and am very much looking foprward to the DVD release of this show in the next year or two. But I seriously hope Lucas learned a lesson from the poor sales of the videotapes, and allows the ORIGINAL episodes to be released. The original episodes seem to have a certain charm to them, with the title credits coming on and old Indy telling a story about a certain event in his life. WTF was Lucas thinking in re-editing this series back in the mid-90s? :confused:
 

Violet

Moderator Emeritus
I was pretty peeved off as well. I was born in 1988, but was lucky that I have memories of watching the original on television, after school in my early years, and on the odd occasion, they show the original episodes on telly during the holidays. And I also happened to once had in my hands the original episode videos, "Curse of the Jackal" and "Perils of Cupid." I rented these and only copied "Curse of the Jackal" as I liked that better and at the time, didn't see a point in recording "Cupid" coz it was crap! However, years later returning to the same video store, they have disappeared!!!

Considering that Lucas didn't intend to release the original untouched SW movies on DVD but did last year, we might be able to expect the same after (and if ) Indy IV comes out.
 

VP

Moderator Emeritus
Violet Indy said:
Lucas didn't intend to release the original untouched SW movies on DVD but did last year

No he didn't. He released heavily modified versions of the Special Edition SWs in 2004. He's going to release the unmodified Laserdisc versions in DVD for a limited period this fall.
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
I have no desire to see Old Indy riding around in a monster truck, except in a DVD extra. The "movies" lack a little in the finales, but they're less cheesy.
This gives air dates and suggests many episodes are still unaired.
 

Violet

Moderator Emeritus
VP said:
No he didn't. He released heavily modified versions of the Special Edition SWs in 2004. He's going to release the unmodified Laserdisc versions in DVD for a limited period this fall.

Then what were those three disc collection that was released last year, that were not claimed to be Special Edition? Which had the original posters as the covers.
 

Adamwankenobi

New member
I just wish Lucas would listen more to his fans about his decisions like this. Does he not reallize that the (small) fanbase for the Young Indy series are the same ones who want the original episodes? They (us) are the ones who will be the primary buyers of the Young Indy DVDs. And does he not reallize that the customer is always right? :mad:
 

Jay R. Zay

New member
Adamwankenobi said:
I just wish Lucas would listen more to his fans about his decisions like this. Does he not reallize that the (small) fanbase for the Young Indy series are the same ones who want the original episodes? They (us) are the ones who will be the primary buyers of the Young Indy DVDs. And does he not reallize that the customer is always right? :mad:

if the customer was always right, many good movies would never have been shot at all. the customer isn't always right. the artist is always right. the only unfortune situation is when the "maker" isn't an artist. which, on the other hand, doesn't make the customer more right. the customer always demands mainstream (that's what logic implies). mainstream, on the other hand, is nice for slight and shallow entertainment but for nothing more. the customer is right as far as something is a matter of money. but the customer is not right as soon as we have things that can't be counted in dollars. which, for example, is style, creation, art, uniqueness, genius.
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
Adamwankenobi said:
I've never seen an original episode
You can read the 26 bookend synopses here. A preview:
  • Indy is having lunch with his accountant to go over his taxes
  • Indy attends the Annual Celebrity Tennis Shoe Auction
  • Indy is at a hospital with a swollen foot from a bee sting
  • Indy tries to retrieve his hamburger he accidentally dropped in the mailbox
  • Indy witnesses a clerk at a doughnut shop being extremely rude
  • Indy tries to find a parking spot in a crowded parking lot
  • Indy spots a trashy gossip magazine
  • Indy wants to see the end of a soap opera
Some people like to romanticize the original episodes. They use the love-the-old-stuff-hate-the-new-stuff line that's as old as pop culture itself. What was eviscerated was pure cornball. I'm all for stringing the bookends together into one big featurette or extremely well-hidden easter egg. Only when everyone can witness the damned bookends will this debate finally end.
 

Junior Jones

New member
I admit that many of the bookends were corny and more than a little lame, but some were very cool, especially those that tied in more directly with the rest of the episode.

Some of my favorites:
Paris, 1908 - Old Indy attends an art auction. As a boy he saw Pablo Picasso demonstrate his skill by imitating a Degas painting and tricking the old master into signing it. In the closing bookend some Japanese businessmen purchase Picasso's Degas from the auction and then turn to Indy and say, "Someday, perhaps we can afford a Picasso."

Petrograd, 1917 - At a museum, Old Indy visits an exhibit about the Russian Revolution. He points out to the curator that some of their information is incorrect and proceeds to tell what he knows of the events. At the end, the curators asks about Indy's sources, and Indy says, "I was there." He points to a photo where, in one corner, a small figure is running, blurred but obviously wearing a fedora.

Another example is in British East Africa, 1916. Young Indy and his Belgian regiment rescue an orphaned boy. It's only in the bookends that we learn that the boy is Bartelemy Boganda, who will become the "George Washington" of his country.
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
I doubt they'll banish the bookends from the DVD's. I'll join the protest if they're absent. Yet they have been wise to downplay them. They sound like parody... "Indiana Jones and the Trashy Gossip Magazine of Doom" is the sort of cynical title film geeks invent. Like these. (They're actually quite funny.)
 
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