Harrison Ford’s tenure as Indiana Jones has officially come to an end, with the actor calling Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny the final outing for his adventuring archaeologist. Few franchises are as closely associated with one actor as this one, and with Ford turning 81 shortly after Dial of Destiny‘s release, it’s safe to assume that Indy has hung up his fedora for good.
It may be surprising, then, to learn that the actor has actually played the part six times (seven if you count his voiceover work on the Disneyland ride), despite there only being five movies in the franchise. The sixth comes from the short-lived Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, where he stepped in for an extended cameo. It’s a weird appearance, not only because of Ford’s presence but because of the odd mixture of ideas and people associated.
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles Takes a Different Look at Ford’s Hero
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles aired for two seasons between 1992 and 1993, focusing on the character’s adventures in the early parts of his life. It was conceived as an extension of the opening scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, in which River Phoenix played Indy as a teenager. Indy’s co-creator George Lucas thought a series set in the same period would be a great fulcrum to teach kids about history. Hence, Indy spends his formative years traveling the globe and running into dozens of notable figures from the early 20th century, from T.E. Lawrence to Edith Wharton.
The show suffered from a high budget and low ratings, resulting in its cancelation. (And at the time, it felt like the end of the franchise, with The Last Crusade considered the final act of a trilogy.) It benefited from Sean Patrick Flannery’s young Indy, however, and it did attract a number of veteran and future stars, with the likes of Catherine Zeta-Jones, Max von Sydow and Liz Hurley making appearances.
Harrison Ford Takes a Curtain Call in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
Ford initially turned down the series: television was considered a second-tier medium and the actor’s career was soaring, with Patriot Games hitting movie screens a few months after Young Indiana Jones debuted. Actor George Hall played Indy as an old man in a set of bookends for each episode. But by the second season, with the show on its way to cancelation, Ford came off the bench and replaced Hall for one episode. And what an odd episode it was.
Season 2, Episode 5, “Young Indiana Jones and the Mystery of the Blues,” opens in Wyoming in 1950. Ford’s Indy and his Native American friend Grey Cloud take refuge in the middle of a storm, having reclaimed a tribal artifact from a gang of villains still hunting them. Indy finds a soprano saxophone in the cabin and relates how he learned to love jazz: segueing into the episode’s main story. Flannery’s young Indy finds himself in Chicago — with Eliot Ness as a roommate, no less — where he learns about blues music from real-life jazz musician Sidney Bechet. The episode then returns to Wyoming where Ford’s Indy uses a loud, atonal toot from the sax to drop a pile of snow on the villains just as they leave with the relic.
It’s a grab-bag of elements, most of which struggle to work together. Young Indy is ostensibly working his way through school at the University of Chicago, which matches his canon past. But combining blues musicians, gangsters and Ernest Hemingway as a newspaper reporter feels like throwing anything at the wall to make it stick. The episode also contains a number of historical errors (Bechet’s name is misspelled in the credits), yet the talent involved is staggering. A then-unknown Jeffrey Wright plays Bechet, and it was directed by Monty Python alum Terry Jones, which is shocking considering how surprisingly dull it all is. Ford himself has a lot of fun at least, with a twinkle in his eye and a roguish grin firmly in place. He’s unquestionably Indiana Jones here, making the whirlwind of what follows — including victory by saxophone — all the more surreal as a result.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is now playing in theaters.