Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: What Really Went Wrong

Posted by Ultraman Tiga from ts004d27.las-nv.concentric.net on July 10, 1998 at 04:09:58:

This is really in resposne to a thread below, but since I'm going off on a tangent I decided to make a new post out of it.

I think more than anything else hurting the series, was ABC's handling of it. The hype for it definately got in the way. It's just like the new Godzilla flick with all those exciting commercials announcing how it is so new and bold - and then most viewers are put off when they get something more quiet, old-fashioned, and slower paced than they thought it was going to be.

Putting the show on after the Mondy Night Football program was thier most horrendous mistake. A romantic, fascinating, historical character study IS NOT going to appeal to a bunch of mid-life frat-losers drunk on Beer and Cheetos!

There's no question that the Sean Patrick Flanery was the right guy for the job. He was the perfect younger, more innocent version of Harrison Ford. There's no question about the quality of the writing: Johnathan Hensliegh is very successful now, and Frank Darabont wrote and directed SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, which won Oscars! (Pardon me if I'm mistaking that for just nominations, been a while since I viewed the video box).

To make matters worse, they started shuffling the show around all over so that TV GUIDE couldn't even label it for the right times and days (look how much damage was done to 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN with that), and on top of that: the editing of the commerical ads were pitiful! I cringe everytime I look at my tapes and see those! The show nothing but the explosions and people mumbling and/or shouting! It gives you no indication of what you're really in for.

The audience was definately out there: consider the premier ratings and then the runaway success fo the juvenile books from Random House (even Star Wars' books never made it to fifteen), a series that was resuscitated even AFTER the show left for cable. (Then there's the fact that FAMILY CHANNEL got good ratings off the movies that they showed).

If I were George Lucas, I would have thought the best thing for YIJC was definately syndication. If people so despised slow-moving, histrionical and educational entertainment, then they wouldn't still be tuning into STAR TREK.

Hopefully, the videos of THE ADVENTURES OF INDIANA JONES AS A YOUNG MAN will rectify the Chronicles' bad reputation.

TIGA

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: This is really in resposne to a thread below, but since I'm going off on a tangent I decided to make a new post out of it.

: I think more than anything else hurting the series, was ABC's handling of it.  The hype for it definately got in the way.  It's just like the new Godzilla flick with all those exciting commercials announcing how it is so new and bold - and then most viewers are put off when they get something more quiet, old-fashioned, and slower paced than they thought it was going to be.

: Putting the show on after the Mondy Night Football program was thier most horrendous mistake.  A romantic, fascinating, historical character study IS NOT going to appeal to a bunch of mid-life frat-losers drunk on Beer and Cheetos!

: There's no question that the Sean Patrick Flanery was the right guy for the job. He was the perfect younger, more innocent version of Harrison Ford.  There's no question about the quality of the writing: Johnathan Hensliegh is very successful now, and Frank Darabont wrote and directed SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, which won Oscars! (Pardon me if I'm mistaking that for just nominations, been a while since I viewed the video box).

: To make matters worse, they started shuffling the show around all over so that TV GUIDE couldn't even label it for the right times and days (look how  much damage was done to 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN with that), and on top of that: the editing of the commerical ads were pitiful!  I cringe everytime I look at my tapes and see those!  The show nothing but the explosions and people mumbling and/or shouting!  It gives you no indication of what you're really in for.

: The audience was definately out there: consider the premier ratings and then the runaway success fo the juvenile books from Random House (even Star Wars' books never made it to fifteen),  a series that was resuscitated even AFTER the show left for cable.  (Then there's the fact that FAMILY CHANNEL got good ratings off the movies that they showed).

: If I were George Lucas, I would have thought the best thing for YIJC was definately syndication.  If people so despised slow-moving, histrionical and educational entertainment, then they wouldn't still be tuning into STAR TREK.

: Hopefully, the videos of THE ADVENTURES OF INDIANA JONES AS A YOUNG MAN will rectify the Chronicles' bad reputation.

: TIGA

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