In a sort of prequel to the movie trilogy, Lucas escorts us into his protagonist’s past. Each one-hour episode alternately follows Indy as a young boy (Corey Carrier) and as a teenager (Sean Patrick Flanery). Now for that gimmick. Both Indys get around like the zebra mussel, and the people they attach themselves to are almost invariably history’s biggies. Egypt, 1908: as 10-year-old Indy explores the Pyramids, who should come riding across the sands but Lawrence of Arabia? “Call me Ned,” he intones in a plummy Oxford acccent, then proceeds to introduce our lad to archeology, hieroglyphics and reincarnation. Cut to Mexico: Indy, now 16, meets up with Pancho Villa and learns from him why bandits become revolutionaries. Later episodes: Indy goes on safari with Teddy Roosevelt, matches wits with Freud, hears a tirade by Lenin, rubs shoulders with Picasso and has sex with-Gott im Himmel!-Mata Hari.
As history lessons, these are not much more enlightening than Classic Comics. And as action-adventures, they seem oddly devoid of Lucas’s nail-gnawing pyrotechnics: Venice is sinking faster than the first half-hour of this series moves. Apparently, that’s intentional. Lucas sees the series as a coming-of-age story-a child growing up intellectually, a young man maturing emotionally. “The big risk,” he acknowledges, “is that viewers of the TV show will expect to see the feature films and be disappointed by the shortage of action and jeopardy. This is much closer to ‘American Graffiti’ than to ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’.”
Agreed, although the teenage Indy here suggests Huck Finn more than Richard Dreyfuss. Endearingly earnest, he experiences war in the trenches of Verdun, learns about racism on an African jaunt (Albert Schweitzer does a walk-on) and discovers love with a feisty British suffragette. The last episode is a genuine charmer, replete with soft-focus picnics by the Thames and a hilarious dinner party in which the suffragette skewers a piggy army captain named Winston Churchill. After a while, though, the parade of historical celebs begins to seem as hokily contrived as the “mystery guest” gig on the old “What’s My Line?” In the Pancho Villa segment, a fierce-looking American soldier swaggers into a cantina filled with bandidos, blows everyone away, piles the bodies in a wagon and delivers them to his admiring commanding officer. “Gentlemen,” says the CO to his aides, “better watch out for young George Patton.” caramba!
If nothing else, “Young Indiana Jones” may be the most lavishly mounted series in network annals and, at $1.5 million per episode, one of the priciest. The film crews trekked to remote locales in 11 countries, including India, Russia and China (where Indy undergoes acupuncture). Though Lucas didn’t do any directing himself, he handpicked such international talents as Denmark’s Billie August (“Pelle the Conqueror”), Australia’s Simon Wincer (“Lonesome Dove”) and Britain’s Jim O’Brien (“The Jewel in the Crown”). As for the costars, neither the 11-year-old Carrier nor the 26-year-old Flanery appears in any way related to Harrison Ford, though, when it comes to likability, they both fill his boots. You’ve got to love any child actor who, as Carrier did, begs a news-magazine reporter: “This is a history lesson but don’t tell the kids that!”
Indy’s TV debut is part of an intriguing new ABC strategy. To lure audiences with what it calls “event series,” the network has begun courting Hollywood’s most prominent filmmakers. Besides Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Oliver Stone have already signed on. In a medium that almost always bows to the lowest brow, that’s encouraging news. The question is whether ABC will allow such innovative spirits to pursue their own unique vision–or merely crank out more television. Lucas reports that he’s feeling pressure from the network to liven up his opening with more teen-grabbing action. “There’s a lot of nervousness,” he says. “But while I’m responsive to their concerns, I can’t do creative work according to their market research. Hopefully, the audience will be there.”
If anyone can solve The Riddle of the Ratings, it’s Indiana Jones. Of course, it wouldn’t hurt to provide him with a little, uh, education.
title: “The Nutty Professor” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-23” author: “Bettina Porterfield”
In a sort of prequel to the movie trilogy, Lucas escorts us into his protagonist’s past. Each one-hour episode alternately follows Indy as a young boy (Corey Carrier) and as a teenager (Sean Patrick Flanery). Now for that gimmick. Both Indys get around like the zebra mussel, and the people they attach themselves to are almost invariably history’s biggies. Egypt, 1908: as 10-year-old Indy explores the Pyramids, who should come riding across the sands but Lawrence of Arabia? “Call me Ned,” he intones in a plummy Oxford acccent, then proceeds to introduce our lad to archeology, hieroglyphics and reincarnation. Cut to Mexico: Indy, now 16, meets up with Pancho Villa and learns from him why bandits become revolutionaries. Later episodes: Indy goes on safari with Teddy Roosevelt, matches wits with Freud, hears a tirade by Lenin, rubs shoulders with Picasso and has sex with-Gott im Himmel!-Mata Hari.
As history lessons, these are not much more enlightening than Classic Comics. And as action-adventures, they seem oddly devoid of Lucas’s nail-gnawing pyrotechnics: Venice is sinking faster than the first half-hour of this series moves. Apparently, that’s intentional. Lucas sees the series as a coming-of-age story-a child growing up intellectually, a young man maturing emotionally. “The big risk,” he acknowledges, “is that viewers of the TV show will expect to see the feature films and be disappointed by the shortage of action and jeopardy. This is much closer to ‘American Graffiti’ than to ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’.”
Agreed, although the teenage Indy here suggests Huck Finn more than Richard Dreyfuss. Endearingly earnest, he experiences war in the trenches of Verdun, learns about racism on an African jaunt (Albert Schweitzer does a walk-on) and discovers love with a feisty British suffragette. The last episode is a genuine charmer, replete with soft-focus picnics by the Thames and a hilarious dinner party in which the suffragette skewers a piggy army captain named Winston Churchill. After a while, though, the parade of historical celebs begins to seem as hokily contrived as the “mystery guest” gig on the old “What’s My Line?” In the Pancho Villa segment, a fierce-looking American soldier swaggers into a cantina filled with bandidos, blows everyone away, piles the bodies in a wagon and delivers them to his admiring commanding officer. “Gentlemen,” says the CO to his aides, “better watch out for young George Patton.” caramba!
If nothing else, “Young Indiana Jones” may be the most lavishly mounted series in network annals and, at $1.5 million per episode, one of the priciest. The film crews trekked to remote locales in 11 countries, including India, Russia and China (where Indy undergoes acupuncture). Though Lucas didn’t do any directing himself, he handpicked such international talents as Denmark’s Billie August (“Pelle the Conqueror”), Australia’s Simon Wincer (“Lonesome Dove”) and Britain’s Jim O’Brien (“The Jewel in the Crown”). As for the costars, neither the 11-year-old Carrier nor the 26-year-old Flanery appears in any way related to Harrison Ford, though, when it comes to likability, they both fill his boots. You’ve got to love any child actor who, as Carrier did, begs a news-magazine reporter: “This is a history lesson but don’t tell the kids that!”
Indy’s TV debut is part of an intriguing new ABC strategy. To lure audiences with what it calls “event series,” the network has begun courting Hollywood’s most prominent filmmakers. Besides Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Oliver Stone have already signed on. In a medium that almost always bows to the lowest brow, that’s encouraging news. The question is whether ABC will allow such innovative spirits to pursue their own unique vision–or merely crank out more television. Lucas reports that he’s feeling pressure from the network to liven up his opening with more teen-grabbing action. “There’s a lot of nervousness,” he says. “But while I’m responsive to their concerns, I can’t do creative work according to their market research. Hopefully, the audience will be there.”
If anyone can solve The Riddle of the Ratings, it’s Indiana Jones. Of course, it wouldn’t hurt to provide him with a little, uh, education.
