The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles is a TV series that ran from 1992 to 1996. A form of "edutainment," the 44 episode series explores the childhood and youth of the fictional character Indiana Jones. The series primarily stars Sean Patrick Flanery as Indy aged 16-20, but also includes several episodes with Corey Carrier as Indy aged 8-10. George Hall also played Indy at age 93 for the bookends of each episode. The show was created and executive produced by George Lucas, who was also behind the Indiana Jones feature films.
The series was designed as an educational program for children, spotlighting historical figures and important events, using the concept of a prequel to the films as a draw. Most episodes feature a standard formula of an elderly (94-year-old) Indiana Jones (played by George Hall) in present day (1993) New York City encountering people who spur him to reminisce and tell stories about his past adventures. These stories would either involve him as a young boy (10, played by Corey Carrier) or as a teenager (17, played by Sean Patrick Flanery). In one episode, a fifty-year-old Indy (played by Harrison Ford) is seen reminiscing. Initially, the plan was for the series to alternate between the adventures of Indy as a child (Corey Carrier) and as a teenager (Sean Patrick Flanery), but eventually the episodes featuring Flanery's version of the character dominated the series. The series revealed that the elderly Jones has a daughter, and a grandson named Spike.
Many of the episodes involve Indiana meeting and working with famous historical figures. Historical figures featured on the show include Leo Tolstoy, Pancho Villa, Charles de Gaulle, and John Ford, in such diverse locations as Egypt, Austria-Hungary, India, China, and the whole of Europe. For example, Curse of the Jackal prominently involves Indy in the adventures of T. E. Lawrence and Pancho Villa. Indy also encounters (in no particular order) Pablo Picasso, Eliot Ness, Charles de Gaulle, Al Capone, Norman Rockwell (same episode as Picasso) Louis Armstrong, Winston Churchill, and Sigmund Freud; At one point, he competes against a young Ernest Hemingway for the affections of a girl, is nursed back to health by Albert Schweitzer, and goes on a safari with Theodore Roosevelt.
The show provided a lot of the back story for the films. His relationship with his father, first introduced in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, was further fleshed out with stories about his travels with his father as a young boy. His original hunt for the Eye of the Peacock, a large diamond seen in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, was a recurring element in several stories. The show also chronicled his activities during World War I and his first solo adventures, including his first run-ins with Belloq, the villain from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
Psych
Psych is an American dramedy television series. The show stars James Roday as Shawn Spencer, a young police consultant whose "heightened observational skills" and impressive detective instincts allow him to convince people that he is psychic. The program also stars Dulé Hill as Shawn's best friend, straight man and reluctant partner Gus, as well as Corbin Bernsen as Shawn's captious father, Henry.
Shawn originally becomes known as a psychic when, after calling in a tip on a crime covered on the news, the police become suspicious of his knowledge. Theorizing that such knowledge could only come from the inside, they are about to arrest him when he uses his observations to convince all present that he is psychic. The interim police chief warns Shawn that if his "powers" are fake, he will be prosecuted. With no choice but to keep up the act, he makes the most of it. Pretending to have psychic powers allows him to engage in strange and comic behavior as he turns real clues into hunches and otherworldly visitations. He enjoys teasing Gus, a socially awkward pharmaceutical representative, over his eclectic interests (including a love for comic books and superheroes, spelling bees, and astronomy).
The Dukes of Hazzard
The TV series, The Dukes of Hazzard, followed the adventures of two good old boys, Bo and Luke Duke, living in an unincorporated area of the fictional Hazzard County, Georgia, racing around in their modified 1969 Dodge Charger, The General Lee, evading corrupt Boss Hogg and his inept county sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane. Bo and Luke had been sentenced to probation for illegal transportation of moonshine.
Many episodes revolved around Boss trying to engage in an illegal scheme with criminal associates. Some of these were get-rich-quick schemes, though many others affected the financial security of the Duke farm, which Boss had long wanted to acquire for nefarious reasons. Other times, Boss hired known criminals to frame Bo and Luke for crimes such as bank robbery (thus, resulting in probation revocation and allowing Boss easily to acquire the Duke farm). It was up to Bo and Luke to uncover the schemes and foil the criminals.
Due to their fundamentally good natures, although Boss Hogg continually tried to frame them, the Dukes were always willing to help him out: More than once Boss was targeted by former associates who were either seeking revenge or had turned against him after a scheme unraveled in any number of ways: Boss' greedy nature, Rosco's bumbling, the criminals simply outsmarting the two, or their consciences coming to the surface. Sometimes, criminals who were even more crooked and ruthless than Boss came to town. Sheriff Rosco also found himself in trouble more than once. On such occasions, Bo and Luke usually had to rescue their adversaries as an inevitable precursor to defeating the bad guys.
