[1][2][3][4] The series explores the childhood, adolescence and early adulthood of the fictional character Indiana Jones and primarily stars Sean Patrick Flanery and Corey Carrier as the title character, with George Hall playing an elderly version of Jones for the bookends of most episodes, though Harrison Ford bookended one episode.

The series was designed as an educational program for children and teenagers, spotlighting historical figures and important events set during the Progressive Era of the 1900s, the 1910s, and the 1920s.

Most episodes feature a standard formula of an elderly (93-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.

The 2008 film Kingdom of the Crystal Skull introduces Mutt Williams as his son with Marion Ravenwood, but the series makes no mention of a son; this is explained by the film Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), which establishes Mutt Williams to have been killed in the Vietnam War.

Historical figures featured on the show include Leo Tolstoy, Howard Carter, Charles de Gaulle, and John Ford, in such diverse locations as Egypt, Austria-Hungary, India, China, and the whole of Europe.

Indy also encounters (in no particular order and not limited to) Edgar Degas, Giacomo Puccini, George Patton, Pablo Picasso (same episode as Degas), Eliot Ness, Charles Nungesser, Al Capone, Manfred von Richthofen, Anthony Fokker, Annie Besant, Charles Webster Leadbeater, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, Norman Rockwell (same episode as Degas and Picasso), Louis Armstrong, George Gershwin, Seán O'Casey, Siegfried Sassoon, Patrick Pearse, Winston Churchill, a young Ho Chi Minh, Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, and Carl Laemmle; at one point, he competes against a young Ernest Hemingway for the affections of a girl but they end up becoming friends, is nursed back to health by Albert Schweitzer, has a passionate tryst with Mata Hari, discusses philosophy with Nikos Kazantzakis, and goes on a safari with Theodore Roosevelt.

Later, in the 2008 film Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Indy describes his adventures with Pancho Villa (chronicled in the first episode) to Mutt Williams (at the time, his sidekick; later on revealed to be his son).

[5] Most episodes of the series depicted famous and not-so-famous historical figures, including but not limited to Theodore Roosevelt, T. E. Lawrence, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Norman Rockwell, Charles de Gaulle, Leo Tolstoy, Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, Manfred von Richthofen, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, George Patton, Al Capone, Pablo Picasso, Giacomo Puccini, Frederick Selous, Franz Ferdinand, Princess Sophie of Hohenberg, Edith Wharton, and Mata Hari.

Notable guest stars (playing either fictional or historical characters) include: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Daniel Craig, Christopher Lee, Clark Gregg, Tom Courtenay, Peter Firth, Vanessa Redgrave, Beata Pozniak, Jennifer Ehle, Elizabeth Hurley, Timothy Spall, Anne Heche, Paul Freeman, Jean-Pierre Castaldi, Jeffrey Wright, Jeroen Krabbé, Jason Flemyng, Michael Kitchen, Kevin McNally, Francisco Quinn, Ian McDiarmid, Max von Sydow, Douglas Henshall, Jon Pertwee, Sean Pertwee, Vincenzo Nicoli, Terry Jones, Keith David, Lukas Haas, Frank Vincent, Jay Underwood, Michael Gough, Maria Charles, Elsa Zylberstein, Isaach de Bankolé, Emil Abossolo-Mbo, Haluk Bilginer and Saginaw Grant.

During the concept stages of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Lucas and director Steven Spielberg decided to reveal some of this backstory in the film's opening scenes.

This decision to reveal an adventure of a young Indiana led Lucas and crew to the idea of creating the series.

[8] Lucas wrote an extensive timeline detailing the life of Indiana Jones, assembling the elements for about 70 episodes, starting in 1905 and leading all the way up to the feature films.

[citation needed] Each outline included the place, date and the historical persons Indy would meet in that episode, and would then be turned over to one of the series writers.

Had the series been renewed for a third season, Young Indy would have been introduced to younger versions of characters from Raiders of the Lost Ark: Abner Ravenwood ("Jerusalem, June 1909") and René Belloq ("Honduras, December 1920").

[citation needed] Other episodes would have filled in the blanks between existing ones ("Le Havre, June 1916", "Berlin, Late August, 1916"), and there would even have been some adventures starring a five-year-old Indy (including "Princeton, May 1905").

[10] The episode was never produced, and the idea ultimately evolved into the 2008 feature film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

[12] A number of actors connected to the Indiana Jones films and/or George Lucas's Star Wars franchise made guest appearances.

Harrison Ford appeared as a middle-aged Indy (age 50) in the episode "Young Indiana Jones and the Mystery of the Blues", which aired in March 1993.

The late William Hootkins (Major Eaton from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Porkins from Star Wars) played Russian ballet producer Sergei Diaghilev and Wolf Kahler (Colonel Dietrich in Raiders of the Lost Ark) played a German diplomat in "Barcelona, May 1917".

[13] A variety of filmmakers wrote or directed episodes of the series, including Frank Darabont, Nicolas Roeg, Mike Newell, Deepa Mehta, Joe Johnston, Jonathan Hensleigh, Terry Jones, Simon Wincer, Carrie Fisher, Dick Maas and Vic Armstrong.

Lucas was given a "Story By" credit in many episodes as he was the creative overhead on the series pitching most of the storylines the writers would then flesh out under his supervision.

The pilot, the feature-length Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal, was later re-edited as two separate episodes, "Egypt, May 1908" and "Mexico, March 1916."

[14] The revised and updated edition of the book George Lucas: The Creative Impulse, by Charles Champlin, explains how The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles series would be re-edited into the new structure of twenty-two Chapter TV films, for the 1999 VHS release.

New footage was shot in 1996 to be incorporated with the newly re-edited and re-titled "chapters" to better help it chronologically and provide smooth transitions.

Also included in the home video release were four unaired episodes made for the ABC network: Florence, May 1908; Prague, 1917; Transylvania, 1918; and Palestine, 1917.

In an effort to promote the series, the episode "Treasure of the Peacock's Eye" was included with the purchase of the movie trilogy box set in the US.

[16] At the October 2005 press conference for the Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith DVD, McCallum explained that he expected the release to consist of 22 DVDs, which would include around 100 documentaries which would explore the real-life historical aspects that are fictionalized in the show.

Lucas and McCallum hope that the DVDs will be helpful to schools, as they believe the series is a good way to aid in teaching history.

Lucas explained that the series' DVD release will be shopped as "films for a modern day high school history class.

The show also spawned a series of adaptations and spin-off novels, a NES game The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles developed and published by Jaleco, a Sega Mega Drive game Instruments of Chaos starring Young Indiana Jones, trading cards and other products.