Nostalgia for YIJC: How did you originally get into the show?

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.
 

ReggieSnake

New member
I'm on the other end of the spectrum. I didn't see the show when it first aired, and have yet to see most of the episodes, much less the old bookends.

I first learned the show even existed while looking for the Indy trilogy to buy on ebay (after seeing it for the first time in 2004), and saw Treasure of the Peacocks Eye coupled with the newer VHS sets. I ended up buying the 1989 set, so I didn't get it.

About the same time I borrowed the Lucasfilm: the first 25 years from the library. I forced myself not to read the chapter on YIJ in detail, hoping I'd get to watch them someday. Shortly thereafter I began sporadically visiting theraider.net and The Raven and learned they would be coming out on DVD.

We finally got a fast connection, so I thought I'd get into the whole forum thing and I joined here in December. I found out the HC was playing the show on Sat. mornings so I started taping the episodes starting with Masks of Evil. I loved it! About a month ago I bought the first and second set on ebay, and have been making my way slowly through them.

So, I have you Raveners to thank that I've gotten into the show (Esp. Adamwankenobi, Flannery10 and of course, our resident Dr. of all things YIJ, Stoo.;)), I'm looking forward to watching them all!
 
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Flannery10

New member
Thanks Reggie Snake. I'm really happy you like the show and wish there were more people who would appreciate the series.

The first time I even heard about the show, was in 2002. I was only 3 years old when the pilot "Curse of the Jackal" aired, so I had never seen the Indiana Jones movies and therefore I didn't get to see the show when it originally aired. Then in 2002, I lived in Germany at that time, I went to our local supermarket and they had a pretty big audio-video department there. They had a few VHS on sale, including "Phantom Train of Doom". Maybe it was fate, or just good luck, that I picked one of the most action-packed episodes of the series, and one of very few that were never re-edited. I was immediately hooked up by the beautiful cinematography and the plot, and therefore was quite eager to see more episodes.

I bought a couple of old recordings from ebay, since I had read about the originals and wanted to see them. That was, when I decided to support the original version, instead of the re-edits. I have to admit, that I bought the DVD sets, but only because I was happy to get a chance to see the episodes I haven't seen before, even though perhaps not as good as they used to be.
 

Adamwankenobi

New member
I have now-vague, but fond memories of first seeing the show when I was about three or four. (And like Old Indy, I had to wear an eyepatch myself at the time, because I am legally blind in my right eye, and the eyepatch had been prescibed to help save that eye from going fully blind.) What's weird though, is that I only remember seeing an episode or two, and the opening logo/sequence stuck in my mind. After that, I sort of forgot about the series for several years.

Throughout the nineties, I heard people talk about the Indiana Jones character a lot, and had caught a few glimpses of Temple of Doom and Last Crusade on TV, but I still showed little interest, and was more into Star Wars. But around Christmas of 1999, while in Wal-Mart, I discovered a box set of the films, which had a mysterious bonus tape (which I later discovered was "Treasure of the Peacock's Eye") packaged on the side of the box. I convinced my grandmother to get it for me, and the first tape I watched was TotPE.

Kind of like Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back (upon landing on Dagobah), there was "something familiar about this tape". :p I recognized the guy playing Indy, and then watched the interviews at the end of the tape. The man introduced himself as Sean Patrick Flanery, a name I had heard before. And then there was George Lucas, who I recognized as the creator of Star Wars! I was intrigued, and then watched the films and the interviews that accompanied them (which is then where I learned that Lucas and Spielberg were planning to make a fourth film). But of the four tapes, that Young Indiana Jones tape stuck in my mind. By 2000, I had got my own computer and the internet. But again, I seemed to forget about the series for several years.

Then sometime in 2004/2005, I started to get interested in Indy again when I read about Indy 4 getting ready to shoot (which of course was written by Frank Darabont, who I hadn't heard of at the time and didn't know that he was also a writer for Young Indy). I started telling everyone I knew about the fact that there was going to be an Indiana Jones 4, but no one seemed excited but me. :( Then in 2005, my mom bought me the DVD set of the trilogy for Christmas (a recurring theme, haha). I. WAS. IN AWE. at how awesome these films were and became amped up again about Young Indy and Indy 4 (thus, the two became inseperable n my mind). I started looking for more information on the series, and discovered a 2002 interview with Rick McCallum where he said it would be years until the show would be released on DVD. I was disappointed, but I waited. It was during this time that I joined TheRaider.net, with my fist post being in a Young Indy thread dealing with preservations of the original episodes.

Also during this time, I discovered the differences between the current versions and how the series was originally aired on TV. From the descriptions I read, I realized that the original episodes sound a lot better, so I hoped that Lucas would put those on the DVDs whenever the DVDs were released. I stumbled upon the original opening logo on the internet sometime in 2006, and that's when the memories started flooding back: I had seen this before! Seeing the logo gave me these warm feelings. It was strange, but these memories got me more and more obsessed with this show.

Around New Years of 2006, Indy 4 was officially confirmed to begin shooting in summer of that year. I was ecstatic, and began to lurk (but rarely post) a bit at TheRaider.net. In March 2007, I listened to an .mp3 on StarWars.comn where Lucas announced that the series would finally make its way to DVD. Even though I was disappointed that only the re-edits would be on them, I was still excited that I could finally be able to see the whole series (minus the Old Indy bookends, which I was determined to locate and see). I was very excited leading up to the release, and pre-ordered Volume One from Amazon.com. The day I received it, I showed several of these "movies" to my family memebers and... to my surprise... THEY LOVED IT! So we watched all of Volume One, and I watched the lecture, played the game, and browsed through the awesome timeline. I'm still in the process of getting through all the documentaries. Around this time, I finally started regularly posting at The Raven, and have made some good friends here. Then in December... you guessed it... I received Volume Two for Christmas. We then watched all of that, and again, I watched the lecture, played the game, browsed through the timeline, and am still getting through the documentaries.

Needless to say, this series has firmly become my favorite TV series of all time (tied with Firefly, that is (y) ). Young Indy has turned me into a history nut... so much that people get tired of hearing me talk about it... just like a lot of people get annoyed at Old Indy in the series! And as great as the DVD releases have been, I've been disappointed with the absence of the original episodes and the lack of behind-the-scenes features. Recently, Stoo has been kindly posting the Old Indy bookends for me to finally see. Also, I recently tracked down the book The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, On the set and Behind the Scenes and read it. I've also bought The Mata Hari Affair novel, based on the "Verdun" and "Paris 1916" episodes of Young Indy. Right now, I'm eagerly awaiting the April 29th release of Volume Three, and am still on the lookout for those original episodes. :)

ReggieSnake said:
So, I have you Raveners to thank that I've gotten into the show (Esp. Adamwankenobi, Flannery10 and of course, our resident Dr. of all things YIJ, Stoo.;)), I'm looking forward to watching them all!

You're welcome. ;)
 
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Yure

Well-known member
You know, it was the early 90s, and I was twelve or so. My first impact as a kid to the old grumbling Indy with the eyepatch and the kane was kinda devastating. Sad in many ways, I actually started writing my own fanfic (should still be in the attic somewhere) on a diary, in which his quest was to get young again (no, it wasn't the fountain of youth :D). Never finished it though. It also explained why he wasn't immortal due to the Great Seal in LC :D I think it wasn't that bad for a pre-teen...
 

Junior Jones

New member
I think I've told my story before. If you want to dig through some old threads, you can probably find it. But I'll re-tell it here to save you the trouble.

I had seen (parts of?) the Indiana Jones movies when they were broadcast on television, and I enjoyed them. But I wasn't "a fan". They were good movies, but there are a lot of good movies, and I didn't have any special attachment to them.

I saw a commerical for the upcoming TV series, and what really piqued my interest was the history and the travel. Period drama in exotic locations. So I decided to check out the premier movie, Curse of the Jackal, and see what it was like.

I had a commitment that evening, but I cut out early so I could be home by 8:00. My girlfriend was over, and we watched the premier together, and I was hooked!

I hated history in school, but since have learned that its doesn't have to be dull and dry. As the episode progressed, I loved it more and more. During commerical breaks, I would run down to the basement where we kept the family encyclopedias, and grab a few volumes to take back upstairs. L for Lawrence; C for Carter; T for Tut; P for Pancho Villa (or is it V?); H for Hearst. By the end of the show I had half the encyclopedia set stacked on my bed.

If I remember right, the show premiered on a Wednesday and was rebroadcast on Saturday. I bought some video tapes and recorded every episode.

I later got the movies, then the books, the comics, the video games, a hat, a leather jacket... and I named my son Henry.

But it all started with Curse of the Jackal. (By the way, my girlfriend at the time is now my wife. She still watches the DVD's with me.) :)
 

NoCamels

New member
I'm pretty sure I heard about YIJC from the preview on my VHS copy of Last Crusade. I was about 11, and so I had to convince my parents every week to stay up until 9:00 so I could watch the show (bedtime was 8:00 until high school, when I finally changed their minds.) Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. Between the early bedtime and our TV reception going away due to a change by the broadcasting station (we didn't have cable), I only remember pieces of episodes from that time. For some reason, a lot of these were Old Indy bookends. I have no idea why.

For years, I watched Last Crusade a lot just to watch the Young Indy preview. Then one day my dad found a bunch of the videos at the store and bought 6. The store never got any more, so we watched Phantom Train of Doom, Attack of the Hawkmen, Daredevils of the Desert, Spring Break Adventure, Trenches of Hell, and Tales of Innocence and kept looking unsuccessfully for more episodes.

I started to hunt down obscure Sean Patrick Flanery movies. I was already interested in history, but Young Indy also got me interested in the decade of 1910-1920. I had relegated Young Indy on DVD almost to the same level of likelihood as the english version of Mysterious Cities of Gold on DVD (as in, great obscure TV show, not likely to ever happen).

And now I own volumes 1 and 2, (y) (and paid far more than I normally would for a tv show (n) ) and I can't wait for volume 3. Maybe MCoG can still happen...
 

Adamwankenobi

New member
Junior Jones said:
I think I've told my story before. If you want to dig through some old threads, you can probably find it. But I'll re-tell it here to save you the trouble.

I had seen (parts of?) the Indiana Jones movies when they were broadcast on television, and I enjoyed them. But I wasn't "a fan". They were good movies, but there are a lot of good movies, and I didn't have any special attachment to them.

I saw a commerical for the upcoming TV series, and what really piqued my interest was the history and the travel. Period drama in exotic locations. So I decided to check out the premier movie, Curse of the Jackal, and see what it was like.

I had a commitment that evening, but I cut out early so I could be home by 8:00. My girlfriend was over, and we watched the premier together, and I was hooked!

I hated history in school, but since have learned that its doesn't have to be dull and dry. As the episode progressed, I loved it more and more. During commerical breaks, I would run down to the basement where we kept the family encyclopedias, and grab a few volumes to take back upstairs. L for Lawrence; C for Carter; T for Tut; P for Pancho Villa (or is it V?); H for Hearst. By the end of the show I had half the encyclopedia set stacked on my bed.

If I remember right, the show premiered on a Wednesday and was rebroadcast on Saturday. I bought some video tapes and recorded every episode.

I later got the movies, then the books, the comics, the video games, a hat, a leather jacket... and I named my son Henry.

But it all started with Curse of the Jackal. (By the way, my girlfriend at the time is now my wife. She still watches the DVD's with me.) :)

Now THAT's what I call an Indy success story. :hat:
 

Dr Jones

New member
It was 'Treasure Of The Peacocks Eye' for me on VHS, it was whilst I was out in our local Asda (Wal-Mart for the US..I think?) store for the weekly shop.

Already a growing fan of Indiana Jones with the new videos and taped TV films, I wasn't looking for Young Indy but saw it in the video section..sort of called to it by fate if you will... :p


Anything to further my love for Indy at such a wild and exciting age, I managed to persuade Mum to buy the £10.99 VHS (remember the days before DVD!?), and from then on the excitement, imagination and global stories had me hooked and so the search for the other videos went from there.



Fast forward a few years...and now I can remember how it all started for me and also see unseen episodes with the DVDs!

(y)
 
For me I have vague memories of seeing a couple of episodes, or parts of back in the nineties; but what stuck in my head was the bookends, and I have very little memory of the actual stories themselves, it always seemed to be on in the backround in my cousin's house or something. And then that was it, I was about 10 at the time, and did not have any sort of attention span.

Not sure I even knew what Indiana Jones was back then... but then I saw Star Wars, then Indiana Jones, which I think always existed in my subconsious, I just had never seen it ( heres a kid who used to bother his babysitters with questions on eygptology when I was 5) like Star Wars, I saw the movies in reverse order, not sure when. Anyway, I was sorta well into being nuts about Indiana Jones when they finally decided to release Young Indy on Video in 99. Got a little bit over obsessed though, compiling a folder of Indiana Jonesness with timelines, video covers, drawings, information on the editing of Young Indy, (which I still hadn't seen yet) Then I got Phantom Train of Doom free with the box set, and I was hooked. But they couldn't release the things fast enough to satisfy my appetite, and when they decided not to release Hollywood Follies or Mystery of the Blues over here; not to mention the rest of the chapters, I was gutted. I'd sent away for that map and everything, remember that? The Map you stuck a sticker on per chapter? I was pretty annoyed I never got to stick on the Hollywood or Chicago stickers...

I saw most of the episodes on BBC in 2000/2001, taping them and watching them over and over again, although I only saw Chapters 2 to 5 on buying the DVDs.

But yeah, very influential show for me, I'd always loved history and archaeology, though without Indiana Jones I doubt I'd have gone on to getting a degree in both of them, quite literally actually, Treasure of the Peacocks eye's Malinowski scenes inspired me to pack in animation, which was not what I had hoped it to be, and head back home to study drama (by way of Archaeolgy, History, the middle east and Thailand, in one of lifes strange bends on the road). The show and movies have shaped my understanding of the world by highlighting areas of further study, and has made me fairly different to the man I was 10 years ago, in an indiana jones sort of way. I still set out on adventures in partial Indy gear, though usually I get a bit embarrassed with the attention that hat attracts in more exotic parts of the globe, that and its usually too hot to wear that jacket anywhere, it spent Thailand, and Istanbul to cairo, as well as most of Europe sweating away in my bag....

But yeah, Young Indy... has a very special place in my heart.

Its just a pity I can't make my housemates watch it.

Oh and nocamels, they just released Mysterious cites of Gold English Translation in HMV over here, maybe look up HMV's website?
 
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Adamwankenobi

New member
Jeremiah Jones said:
But yeah, very influential show for me, I'd always loved history and archaeology, though without Indiana Jones I doubt I'd have gone on to getting a degree in both of them, quite literally actually, Treasure of the Peacocks eye's Malinowski scenes inspired me to pack in animation, which was not what I had hoped it to be, and head back home to study drama (by way of Archaeolgy, History, the middle east and Thailand, in one of lifes strange bends on the road). The show and movies have shaped my understanding of the world by highlighting areas of further study, and has made me fairly different to the man I was 10 years ago, in an indiana jones sort of way. I still set out on adventures in partial Indy gear, though usually I get a bit embarrassed with the attention that hat attracts in more exotic parts of the globe, that and its usually too hot to wear that jacket anywhere, it spent Thailand, and Istanbul to cairo, as well as most of Europe sweating away in my bag....

That's an awesome story. :hat: You should send it to Lucasfilm. :cool:
 

NoCamels

New member
Jeremiah Jones said:
Oh and nocamels, they just released Mysterious cites of Gold English Translation in HMV over here, maybe look up HMV's website?

YES!!!!!! Thank you, Jeremiah Jones! I'd honestly given up on it ever happening. And it looks like it will be released in the USA later this year! (y) (y) (y) (y)

I am speechless with happiness. Two of my all-time favorite TV shows will now be on DVD- Young Indy, and Mysterious Cities of Gold!
 

NoCamels

New member
That would be fun. Indy comandeers the Golden Condor! ;)
Actually, if I remember right, doesn't the City of Gold have some kind of self-destruct system? It's also in South America...there's temples...it could work! :D
 

Crack that whip

New member
phantom train said:
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.

The "Lucasfilm Insider"... the Lucasfilm Fan Club magazine, the one that eventually became the Star Wars Insider? I was a regular reader of that myself (I was a charter member of the fan club when it launched in '87), and I'm sure that's how I first found out about The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles myself, though I believe I also kept up with it in Starlog magazine and the like. Anyway, I'd long been a big fan of not just Star Wars and Indiana Jones, but Lucasfilm in general, just particularly Star Wars and Indiana Jones. I was totally jazzed when I first found out about the show, even though I think I was initially just the eensiest bit disappointed with the early descriptions of how the show would differ from the movies - I had yet to open my eyes to the character's greater potential. Eventually, though, the series launched, and I watched it faithfully and found it absolutely wonderful - though very different from the features in tone and style, I thought it complemented them beautifully, and expanded upon and developed the character in ways that made him an even greater character than he already was. I thought, and still think, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was one of the best TV series ever, and the last of George Lucas' truly great works (I do, of course, have high hopes for a certain new movie in May ;) :) ).

I taped it regularly at the time, and got friends of mine who were more casual Indy fans watching it, and they actually enjoyed it quite a bit. In particular, one of my best friends and I developed a habit / ritual of getting together late the night it aired and watching my freshly-taped episode together (he worked odd hours at the time and couldn't generally watch the broadcasts, but could come over a couple hours later), after I'd already seen it once. We had a blast (this same friend and I later formed a similar ritual for late-night get-togethers over Mystery Science Theater 3000). When I learned it was in ratings trouble, like so many other shows I've loved, I wrote to ABC (more than once, I'm especially proud to say!) to express my support. Though I realize I probably had no impact whatsoever, I'd like to think that I (and perhaps a few thousand other people) helped keep it going just a tiny bit longer.

After the series' cancellation I tried to keep up with any developments pertaining to the show, particularly as I knew there was still a wealth of material that hadn't aired yet, and made a point of following the movie airings on the Family Channel when they happened some years later, though it wasn't always easy to find out about them since they weren't on on a weekly basis or whatever. When some of the movie reedits became available on VHS alongside the movie reissues in '99 I was sorely tempted to pick them up, but I was already getting DVDs by then and figured I should hold out for the new format. Now I'm getting them and enjoying them (even though I find the new versions the most frustrating of all George's tinkerings with his older works, right alongside Greedo shooting first), but I do kind of wish I'd gotten the VHS anyway, if just to have the nice package art.
 

phantom train

New member
Quote:

"The "Lucasfilm Insider"... the Lucasfilm Fan Club magazine, the one that eventually became the Star Wars Insider? I was a regular reader of that myself (I was a charter member of the fan club when it launched in '87), and I'm sure that's how I first found out about The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles myself, though I believe I also kept up with it in Starlog magazine and the like."

Yes, that's the Lucasfilm mag. I was talking about - I'm not sure it was called the "Lucasfilm Insider", but it was something along those lines. I remember that in 1991/1992, that magazine would devote almost entire issues to the series, and that was also where I found out most of the info. on the show.

Quote:

"I thought, and still think, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was one of the best TV series ever, and the last of George Lucas' truly great works."

I agree that YIJC was an excellent TV show. In my opinion, at the time of it's release, it was the best TV drama ever, up to that point. I'm fairly sure there will never be another show like it again.
 

Matinee Idyll

New member
phantom train said:
I agree that YIJC was an excellent TV show. In my opinion, at the time of it's release, it was the best TV drama ever, up to that point. I'm fairly sure there will never be another show like it again.

I love the show, but it certainly wasn't the best TV drama up to that point.

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Nurhachi1991

Well-known member
I remember my brother watching it and I liked it as well I did not know what was going on but it had alot of action in it. I saw Young Indy before I even saw the movies
 

Adamwankenobi

New member
Matinee Idyll said:

Ah, the wonderfully weird world of David Lynch! :hat: Yes, Twin Peaks is a great series, but still not as good as YIJC IMO. :whip:

Gosh, there were several great show in the early nineties. YIJC, Twin Peaks, Star Trek: The Next Generation, etc. :cool:
 
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