The network acquired documentaries from George Lucas that were originally planned to accompany his Young Indy TV series.

The History Channel has acquired a set of 94 short documentaries commissioned and overseen by George Lucas. The documentaries were intially meant to be companion pieces to Lucas’s ABC series The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, but never aired on television.

The educational docs, covering a variety of topics including ballet, slavery, and Al Capone, run between 30 and 60 minutes each. All will debut between next fall and the summer of ’08 on the History Channel’s Web site History.com.

According to an interview with Young Indy producer Rick McCallum, who’s been working with Lucas on the documentaries, the docs will be completed by the end of this month. Here’s what he had to say about the project:

There is a historical timeline that takes you through the life of Young Indy and incredible documentaries about the people that he meets. That was a fun and fantastic experience.

McCallum also mentioned that he hopes that Paramount will release the planned The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones DVD set before this Christmas.

The History Channel is expected to announce the documentaries as well as other upcoming specials and original programming today at a Gotham upfront presentation.

Source: Variety