Young Indiana Jones, caught up in the Great War.
Back in the early 1990s, George Lucas conceived of something breathtakingly ambitious: He’d educate young people on the history of the 20th century by entertaining them with the adventures of a young Indiana Jones. The series followed the intrepid budding archaeologist from childhood through young adulthood, meeting a wide and wild range of major historical figures along the way. It was a hoot, but it cost a fortune to make and didn’t really catch fire, so it didn’t last. But Lucas was committed — and not lacking in both pull and money — so the series was re-packaged at The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, and released as a DVD set in the late ’90s.
And that DVD set was a real treasure, for it contained historical documentaries meant to accompany and complement the action in the series episodes. Since Young Indy got himself mixed up with the Columbus Raid in 1916, and the East Africa Campaign in the Great War (The Phantom Train of Doom), and met T.E. Lawrence as an archaeologist in Arabia, there was some important 20th Century Frontier Partisan history to mine.
Some excellent person has uploaded the lot on YouTube, and they are well worth your time. The documentary on Frederick Courteney Selous is the only one of its kind that I’m aware of, and thus a treasure worthy of raiding the tomb of a long-lost TV series to find…
Enjoy, amigos…
Matthew says
I’ve been an Indiana Jones fan since my dad took me too see The Last Crusade as a kid. I had wanted the second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and was disappointed … until I actually saw the movie. Some consider Last Crusade the weakest movie in the bunch but I loved it. Right after we saw Indie my dad took me to see TMNT movie but I preferred Indy.
Like the Predator, there are a lot of good comics on Indy by Dark Horse. I read an omnibus collection of them and they were pretty good. There was one were Indy fights a giant octopus. I think Dark Horse wanted to do a cross-over with Doc Savage but never got around to it.
Padre says
That show came out when I was the target audience and I loved it. There was a series of accompanying short novels that went along with it, and I had all of those, too.
A few months back my 12 year oid son found the series on Youtube and now I have the pleasure of seeing him fall in love with the stories and the history.
JimC says
Ah, that is wonderful.
lane batot says
That came out back in my more primitive days when I had zero TV(nor radio) reception, living deep in a cleft of remote Appalachia, so I never saw any of them. I’ll havta check and see if’n I can git me a DVD copy of the series!
Natty Bumpo says
Sat down with both of my boys when they were around 12 or so and we watched the entire series during the summer. They got a better history education from these videos than anything in school would have come close to getting.
JimC says
Yep. That’s damn good parenting, I’d say.
Stanley Wheeler says
Cool!
I don’t think I ever got to see the series. I was intrigued by the beginning of Last Crusade set in 1912 — as my great, great grandfather was the sheriff of San Juan County, Utah at about that time. He was eventually murdered in 1935 by James Palmer. Exciting times. A short version of the story can be found here: https://fourcornersfreepress.com/murder-in-canyon-country/
I will check out those videos.
JimC says
Wow.
tom says
stanley wheeler, et al: for a longer version of james palmer crimes check out a book by arizona author scott thybony. the book is titled “the disappearances, a story of exploration, murder, and mystery in the american west” he goes in to a longer version of the crime spree. the book also has the disappearance of everett ruess, and the lost saga of author dan thrapp, in the southwestern usa.
Ron Thompson says
SWEET!!!!