George Lucas, Steven Spielberg's friend and partner on the Indiana Jones series, conceived of and executive produced (in association with Amblin Entertainment) this television series about the adventures of the famous big-screen archeologist during his formative years.
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, which aired on ABC between 1992-1993, sends Indy around the globe in his boyhood and journey into manhood, during which he experiences significant historical changes, including world-altering events such as the Mexican-American War and the First World War. Along the way he meets such historical luminaries and lightning rods as T.E. Lawrence, Winston Churchill, George Patton, Pancho Villa, Howard Carter, Charles de Gaulle, Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, Ernest Hemingway, Edgar Degas, Pablo Picasso, Louis Armstrong, George Gershwin and many more.
Playing Indy at various ages are Corey Carrier (Indy at 10), Sean Patrick Flanery (Indy from 16-21), Harrison Ford (Indy at 50) and George Hall (Indy at 93). Guest stars included Paul Freeman (Raiders of the Lost Ark), Max Von Sydow (Minority Report), Daniel Craig (Munich), Catherine Zeta-Jones (The Mask of Zorro) and the man himself, Harrison Ford, playing Indy in a wrap-around segment for the episode, The Jazz Age—the only time Ford has appeared as the character outside of the film series.
George Lucas and Lucasfilm employed groundbreaking digital production methods to realize the period settings and locales of the shows, including digital set extensions to recreate historical locales and post-production workflow.
The 28 episodes that aired on both network and later cable television were reedited into 22 feature-length films for home video release, under the title The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones. The DVD release of the series also included nearly 100 educational documentary films exploring the events and notable persons featured in Indy's adventures.
