The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones – Volume One DVD set looks great. Somehow I missed the series when it originally aired (probably because that was my senior year in high school and the year before I went to college). The few episodes I’ve gone back and watched were quite a departure for TV at the time. The show feature more action, effects, and historical content than anything on TV at the time. Now, 15 years later, we’re all spoiled by shows that have huge effects budgets and computer effects at their disposal. At the time, Young Indy was groundbreaking.

Despite the high price tag on this (and following) sets, I’d still like to pick them up. Just watch the video above for an example of th extra content George Lucas and LucasFilm have put into this DVD set. Young Indy has been one of the most requested shows on DVD since the format began. Lucas always stated he wasn’t going to put the set out until had time to archive it as he wanted. He envisioned a DVD laden with extra features and historical content that accented each episode in the series. With the Star Wars prequels out of the way, it looks like he found the time and delivered on his promise. The first volume set has only 7 (of 22) episodes, but they’re spread across 12 DVDs. Just part of the extra feature on the volume one set include:

The 38 historical companion films are original works from the Lucasfilm documentary unit, headed by CBS News veteran David Schneider. The documentaries complement the episodes with insights from scholars, historians and luminaries from a wide range of disciplines, bringing remarkable and fresh insight into The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones. They include interviews with Gen. Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger, Gloria Steinem, Martin Scorsese, Barbara Boxer, James Earl Jones, Hal David and Deepak Chopra, along with some of the world’s pre-eminent academics.

The “episodes” included on the DVD will be the 2-hour versions. Lucas envisioned the show as a throwback to the serial films of his youth and every two episodes of the series combined for larger story. Later VHS releases edited the episodes together. There were 44 episodes originally produced and since the DVD touts only 22 episodes, it’s safe to assume the versions being released wil be the 2 hour, edited together episodes.

One last comment, I like that the packaging mirrors the box set of the Indiana Jones films. These will look nice sitting on a shelf together. I can’t wait to pick these up and start watching them with Carter. It should be a fun way to introduce the concept of “history” and important characters from the world’s history.