Forgotten But Not Lost: The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles

In this series of writings, I’ll be exploring one of those great or not so great ideas that are available to the public but are somewhat obscured.

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. George Lucas’ pet project before the Star Wars prequels that (maybe?) got him thinking about the origins of important characters in fiction. The most commonly available version of the series jumps right into Indiana Jones’ past starting at roughly the age of 7. His father, Professor Henry Jones Sr., has received an invitation to go on a speaking tour around the world. Seeing this as an opportunity to educate his son, Henry decides to bring him, his wife, and his old tutor from Oxford along. Later we see Indiana Jones join the Mexican revolution, the Belgian army, The French Intelligence, and the American Intelligence during World War One. We see some of his early college days as well as a few of his earliest globe-trotting adventures.

Why don’t I remember this?

Historical Figures and settings offer
many new possibilities, like a jam
session with the great George Gershwin!

A big reason this series fell into obscurity was the criticism that it received for not being similar enough to the movies that were released. While the movies were pretty much a strict action/ adventure series (we can talk about the inconsistencies between the movies and actual history some other time), The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles are a lot more historically based, almost jumping ship from the adventure genre and into the historical-fiction style. I would not say this was a bad thing and I actually wish I watched this series before undertaking a few history classes at school seeing as how they took a large subject like Hinduism and turned it into a manageable, bite-sized piece of concise information. Placing more emphasis on Historical figures also brings up possibilities like Indy fighting off german spies and stealing back plans for Thomas Edison.

While some episodes are based on the historical, others are based much more in the fantastical, even more so than the movies. Some of these episodes give the impression that maybe George Lucas was looking through some fan fiction with concepts like “Indy V Dracula” and other such craziness.

The acting in the series is a high point. The kids who played Indy did a good job even when considering that they are child actors and if we are to be real here, the actor who played eight-year-old indy was a lot better than eight-year-old Anakin Skywalker. Along with seeing Indy grow up we also get to see how his father got to the point he was in The Last Crusade, slowly becoming more and more distant from his son.

Who would I recommend the series to?

Many war and battles scenes are in the series. Short but
ImpliedSex Scenes appear in maybe 2 episodes, and there
are some episodes that may frighten and scare younger
 children.like I said. He fights Dracula in an episode.

This is a relatively family-friendly show. I would give the whole thing a relative “PG” rating. There are a couple of episodes and scenes to watch out for with younger children that may be scary, particularly seeing as how a large chunk of the series does take place during World War One and they don’t shy away from showing the war in all of its infamy. Another advantage to showing this series to your family is that the history, cultural, and philosophical discussions in the series are very sound and get you into the mindset of the people living through the turn of the century and thinking about ideas like race, feminism, and religion in a fairly healthy manner.

Teens and Adults can also find a lot of fun in the series exploring young love and enough action and adventure that it is still very much Indiana Jones at its heart and soul. While the first several episodes are really good and profound in their own way, the action and adventure doesn't really kick up until the 4th episode or so.

As with all things I speak of on this blog, I encourage parents to preview episodes/ movies before their children. This is a series that where I highly recommend this practice for children under 10 in some cases. each episode usually does a good job standing on its own though so it's almost unnoticeable when an episode is skipped.

Where is it available?

Almost the whole thing is available on Amazon Prime. Episodes are also available on YouTube. One episode titled “Mystery of the Blues” (which features a cameo from Harrison Ford) is not available through Amazon Prime but is on YouTube in its entirety.

You can also find the DVD set with relative ease. The DVD version may be different though as the original TV release of the series featured a 90-year-old Indiana Jones starting the series and narrating the stories by talking to strangers about how he got interested in archaeology. These scenes are pretty awkward as it’s kind of painful to see the greatest action hero ever losing his marbles through the early 90’s, but the newer releases have extra scenes added in where the young Indiana Jones explains (via letter or conversation) what happened and then voice-overs from him to explain the background to what was happening, making the series a lot more comfortable and easier to take seriously.\

It’s a fun time, and here’s a small taste of the series for you to enjoy until I finally convince you to check it out yourself.

What are some of your favorites that were "Forgotten but not lost"? bring them up in the comments and it could be featured at some point! Thanks for liking, sharing, and commenting. Be sure to check out my Facebook Page and remember to always be your best self.