phantom train
New member
Hey everyone - this topic has sporadically been covered in other threads, but I don't think a whole thread has been devoted to this (at least not recently).
Anyway, I was just wondering how other YIJC fans originally got into the show - was it when you first saw it on TV in the early 1990's, or did you see it later on cable, or on the VHS/DVD's?
I'll start:
Way back in late December 1991, I remember seeing the first trailer for "YIJC" on network TV (U.S.), at the tail end of a broadcast of one of the IJ films (possibly "Raiders"). From the trailer, I was immediately pulled in and got very pumped about seeing the show. Since this was pre-Internet, all the news/info. I got was in the then-sporadic "Lucasfilm Insider" magazine, which was the pre-cursor to the current "SW Insider". Since there wasn't a lot of new SW news to report at that time, Lucasfilm would devote a lot of space in the mag. to the YIJC.
Flash-forward to Spring 1992 - "Curse of the Jackal" was broadcast on TV, and I was blown away. Though this wasn't the IJ that I was used to, I liked the unusual approach that Lucas took, and enjoyed seeing early 20th century history through YIJ's eyes. It was also obvious that the show had a large budget, since everything seemed to be filmed on location in many foreign countries, something that is almost unheard of for a network T.V. show.
I remember this was one of the few shows I watched where all of the episodes were excellent. I remember especially enjoying the WW I episodes.
In fact, I was in college at this time, and the excellent WW I episode where Indy met Siegfried Sassoon and other British soldiers inspired me to write an English paper on World War I soldier poets.
I also enjoyed the very young Indy episodes, especially "British East Africa 1909", where little Indy met T. Roosevelt.
Anyway, I continued watching the show religiously throughout 1992 and 1993, and was frustrated at the constant cancellations and/or time/day changes that it was subjected to. It was especially dissapointing since YIJ was definitely better than a lot of other network TV shows, yet it never really found an audience while on TV.
In 1994/1995, since I didn't have cable, I had a friend tape the Family channel broadcasts of "Peacock's Eye", "Attack of the Hawkmen", "Travels with Father", and "Hollywood Follies". Though these were great, I was dissapointed that these tele-films were the end of the series.
In the late 1990's/early 2000's, I became aware of the VHS tapes of some of the tele-films, and saw a couple of them. However, when I found out that they would not release the whole series on VHS, I lost interest and didn't watch any more.
Flash-forward to Summer 2007 - it was announced that the entire series would be released on DVD, starting in Fall 2007. Excellent news, especially since I had thought the show would never be released on disc (I credit the release of the new IJ film this May as being the primary reason the YIJC was released on DVD).
When I saw the DVD's, it brought back memories of seeing the shows for the first time. Especially cool was that some of these episodes were never broadcast in the U.S. (i.e. the Franz Kafka episode, etc.), so I was seeing them for the first time.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to the release of Volume 3 of this series later this month. It will be great to see "Mystery of the Blues", "Scandal of 1920", and the rest of the series, after not having seen them for years.
Anyway, I was just wondering how other YIJC fans originally got into the show - was it when you first saw it on TV in the early 1990's, or did you see it later on cable, or on the VHS/DVD's?
I'll start:
Way back in late December 1991, I remember seeing the first trailer for "YIJC" on network TV (U.S.), at the tail end of a broadcast of one of the IJ films (possibly "Raiders"). From the trailer, I was immediately pulled in and got very pumped about seeing the show. Since this was pre-Internet, all the news/info. I got was in the then-sporadic "Lucasfilm Insider" magazine, which was the pre-cursor to the current "SW Insider". Since there wasn't a lot of new SW news to report at that time, Lucasfilm would devote a lot of space in the mag. to the YIJC.
Flash-forward to Spring 1992 - "Curse of the Jackal" was broadcast on TV, and I was blown away. Though this wasn't the IJ that I was used to, I liked the unusual approach that Lucas took, and enjoyed seeing early 20th century history through YIJ's eyes. It was also obvious that the show had a large budget, since everything seemed to be filmed on location in many foreign countries, something that is almost unheard of for a network T.V. show.
I remember this was one of the few shows I watched where all of the episodes were excellent. I remember especially enjoying the WW I episodes.
In fact, I was in college at this time, and the excellent WW I episode where Indy met Siegfried Sassoon and other British soldiers inspired me to write an English paper on World War I soldier poets.
I also enjoyed the very young Indy episodes, especially "British East Africa 1909", where little Indy met T. Roosevelt.
Anyway, I continued watching the show religiously throughout 1992 and 1993, and was frustrated at the constant cancellations and/or time/day changes that it was subjected to. It was especially dissapointing since YIJ was definitely better than a lot of other network TV shows, yet it never really found an audience while on TV.
In 1994/1995, since I didn't have cable, I had a friend tape the Family channel broadcasts of "Peacock's Eye", "Attack of the Hawkmen", "Travels with Father", and "Hollywood Follies". Though these were great, I was dissapointed that these tele-films were the end of the series.
In the late 1990's/early 2000's, I became aware of the VHS tapes of some of the tele-films, and saw a couple of them. However, when I found out that they would not release the whole series on VHS, I lost interest and didn't watch any more.
Flash-forward to Summer 2007 - it was announced that the entire series would be released on DVD, starting in Fall 2007. Excellent news, especially since I had thought the show would never be released on disc (I credit the release of the new IJ film this May as being the primary reason the YIJC was released on DVD).
When I saw the DVD's, it brought back memories of seeing the shows for the first time. Especially cool was that some of these episodes were never broadcast in the U.S. (i.e. the Franz Kafka episode, etc.), so I was seeing them for the first time.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to the release of Volume 3 of this series later this month. It will be great to see "Mystery of the Blues", "Scandal of 1920", and the rest of the series, after not having seen them for years.