Perfect DVD Release!

Ok, guys. Since many of you complained about the DVD release, I think we should discuss the DVD set we really want to see. These would be my ideas:

contents: I think they should release two volumes (with 22 original episodes each). I don't care if they put it in chronological order or the order they were aired. The boxes should include 2 DVDs per episode (one with the original episodes+commentary) and the second one with the historical documentaries, some making-ofs and other bonus stuff.

exceptions:

Curse of the Jackal: I think we all agree the split-up of the pilot episode was the worst idea in the history of Young Indiana Jones. Lucas should put Egypt and Mexico together again and don't make any changes to the original pilot.

Travels with Father: Since I have never seen the bookend episode (Princeton, 1919) I can't give an opinion on this one, but I think it would be a bad idea to put Princeton back with Travels with Father. I liked the George Hall and Harrison Ford bookends, but in my opinion the idea of a Flanery bookend is a little bit confusing. I'm looking forward to read your opinion on this.

Daredevils of the Desert: Since the original was only 45 minutes long, I think they should put the original on Disc 1 and the longer "Director's cut" on Disc 2.

Mystery of the Blues: I think the Harrison Ford version should be on Disc 1 and the alternate version with George Hall bookends on Disc 2.

Barcelona, 1917 and German East Africa, December 1916: These episodes were redubbed for the re-edits and the originals would be my first choice for the DVD release.

Tangiers, May 1908: Since Corey Carrier looks much older in this episode than he should be, they should rename it (Tangiers, Fall 1910)

And all the episodes that were changed in their date, should get their original title back.

There are probably some exceptions I forgot and other things that would be vital for an original episode release. These would be my ideas and I'm sure you all have different opinions, so I'm looking forward to read your replies.

All I want is the episodes as they aired originally. That plus a behind the scenes featurette (could be an old one) and some audio commentary on some of the episodes with Sean P. Flannery, Corey, writers, and of course George Lucas.

OK guys. You asked for it. This is my ideal set:

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles - The Complete Series (housed on 4 Blu Ray discs in a box set)

Disc 1:
- All three seasons remastered and presented in broadcast order
- 5.1 and 2.0 sound, English subtitles
- Audio commentaries on all/as many as possible episodes by writers/directors/actors/Lucas/McCallum
- The complete teleplays, including unused scripts, list of unwritten script ideas and production notes

Disc 2:
- Film versions, 5.1 and 2.0 sound, English subtitles
- Introductions to each episode by Lucas/McCallum (on why Indy is involved, story, etc.)

Disc 3:
- All 94 historical documentaries, divided by episode
- All three historical lectures
- Interactive timeline
- Young Indy interactive games

Disc 4:
- All behind the scenes footage
- Young Indy: Around the World documentary
- “The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: A Look Inside” VHS mini-docs
- “Indiana Jones: Behind the Adventure” doc
- October 2007, Movieweb.com interviews with George Lucas and Rick McCallum for the series' original DVD release
- The StarWars.com web documentary "Here We Go Again”
- Doc on series merchandising, products and books/comics series
- Doc on connections to film Indy (references, story/char elements, etc.)
- Doc on various TV airings and home video releases and Drew Struzan's VHS art
- Doc on changes for the "film" versions
- Doc on the unfilmed episodes/scripts
- All original TV advertisements and episode bumpers, with VHS trailer and Lucas/Flanery interviews
- Poster gallery
- Behind the scenes photo gallery

Packaging and menus:
- Stronger box (a la the trilogy box set), with same design, but original series title
- Overview and episode guide booklet
- Indy's complete journal booklet
- Sub-menu listing chapter stops on all episodes and episode formats (on film versions, chapters are called names of orig episodes)
- Similar menu and DVD inside box designs

Very good Adam, but I'm not sure if there's any chance to put the series on Blu-ray and I think it would be hard to put almost 44 hours of film on a disc. But where would you put "Mystery of the Blues" with George Hall bookends, on Disc 1 or somewhere to the Bonus Features?

Flannery10 said:

Very good Adam, but I'm not sure if there's any chance to put the series on Blu-ray and I think it would be hard to put almost 44 hours of film on a disc. But where would you put "Mystery of the Blues" with George Hall bookends, on Disc 1 or somewhere to the Bonus Features?

Click to expand...

The series isn't quite 44 hours. With commercials, yes. But as far as the series' actual runtime goes, it's more like 33 hours. Blu ray discs have the capacity for 50 hours, so I think it would fit pretty well.

And, I forgot about those George Hall bookends for Mystery of the Blues. That also leads me to something else I forgot, a deleted scenes section (and bloopers!). Those bookends would go on disc 4 in a deleted scenes section, since they appear in neither the original broadcast episode or the film version of Mystery of the Blues (well, in the US, that is).

Only way fans will get what they want is when George Lucas is dead and the rights have either been passed down or bought by a studio. Which in itself is a double-edged sword. Just be careful what you ask for.

I don't know. With Star Wars, he was pretty vocal about hating the original cuts of the original trilogy, but with Young Indy, he's had more of a "I like it this way better" attitude.

Adamwankenobi said:

English subtitles

Click to expand...

And all the other world languages like Finnish.

VP said:

And all the other world languages like Finnish.

Click to expand...

LOL, OK. English, Spanish, and French on the Region 1 sets. All the other regions have subtitles for their respective surrounding countries.

Adamwankenobi said:

I don't know. With Star Wars, he was pretty vocal about hating the original cuts of the original trilogy, but with Young Indy, he's had more of a "I like it this way better" attitude.

Click to expand...

What he did to Star Wars was movie blasphemy. I don't even want to go there, too aggravating. In the case of Young Indy, he has said that he always wanted to do movie of the week (2-hours with commercials) rather than single episodes. So that is why he decided to merge many of the earlier episodes. However, he often merged two episodes that really had nothing to do with each other. The result was a confusing mess in my opinion. As for the George Hall bookends, yeah supposedly he hated them. But he wrote and created them! If they were so bad, he's to blame, they were his idea. My point is that people buy DVD's of TV shows especially for nostalgia. They want to relive the show as they remembered it. If you want to change it, then do so separately, as Star Trek has done with TOS Remastered.

Grizzlor said:

What he did to Star Wars was movie blasphemy. I don't even want to go there, too aggravating. In the case of Young Indy, he has said that he always wanted to do movie of the week (2-hours with commercials) rather than single episodes. So that is why he decided to merge many of the earlier episodes. However, he often merged two episodes that really had nothing to do with each other. The result was a confusing mess in my opinion. As for the George Hall bookends, yeah supposedly he hated them. But he wrote and created them! If they were so bad, he's to blame, they were his idea. My point is that people buy DVD's of TV shows especially for nostalgia. They want to relive the show as they remembered it. If you want to change it, then do so separately, as Star Trek has done with TOS Remastered.

Click to expand...

The way I see it, if he had wanted to do the show this way originally, he had his chance. He's George Lucas, he can pretty much do what he wants. But he's infamous for his "This is how I always envisioned this" lies with Star Wars, so I doubt this is any different.

I mean, by simply watching these re-edited "films", you can tell he never intended it this way originally. Each half of most of them is structured with a beginning, middle, and end. And that bridging footage often tries to tie together two completely unrelated episodes, as you say. They are often unrelated both in story and in tone. Anyone can tell you that it's just bad storytelling the way they are resented on the DVDs.

I think the original vision was to tell the story through bookends in a chronological order, but since the beginning is pretty boring like with Star Wars they decided to include episodes with Flanery in the first season.

Yeah, he really should have thought about that earlier, instead of putting episodes together that really have nothing to do with each other. One day, he probably will release the originals in perfect quality (like the DVD release), but that day is very far in the future I'm afraid.

I had hoped 14 broadcast hours as in volume 1 would ship on 4 discs. With docs, 8 discs would have been tolerable. But 12 discs (many half-full) is just sloppy and indulgent.

Moedred said:

I had hoped 14 broadcast hours as in volume 1 would ship on 4 discs. With docs, 8 discs would have been tolerable. But 12 discs (many half-full) is just sloppy and indulgent.

Click to expand...

I think they've realized that mistake, as Volume two puts all of the episodes with their respective docs, for a total of nine discs.