Young Indy and his family meet Theodore Roosevelt, former President of the United States, who is on safari in British East Africa (now known as Kenya). Roosevelt is on an official expedition sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution to collect specimens for the National Museum in Washington. One particular specimen eludes him, though; the Fringe-Eared Oryx, which at one time was plentiful, now seems impossible to find.Indy is determined to help the awe-inspiring Roosevelt. He befriends a Massai boy, Meto, and learns about the ecology chain from a Maasai elder. Indy discovers the essential balance that connects all living things in the African savanna, and is troubled by the early 20th Century practice of killing animals for display in museum as a means of conservation.
Later, Indy then travels to Paris, to study the new artistic movements radically reshaping the artist scene. While the Louvre offers all sorts of staid classics, the "real" artists can be found living in some of the seamier -- and danger-filled -- corners of Paris. A young Norman Rockwell takes Indy into a bohemian café in Montmartre, where they see hot-headed artist Pablo Picasso and his quieter companion Georges Braques butting heads with an aging Edgar Degas. Picasso is determined to prove to the old guard Degas that he can paint as well as the former, and not single-handedly destroying the art scene as Degas claims.
Edited from the episodes "British East Africa, September 1909" and "Paris, September 1908", there are some timing issues, as the bridging scenes (taking the boat from Africa to Nice and then taking the train to Paris) indicate that the adventures in British East Africa take place before the adventures in Paris. However, the original television episode date system has the African adventures taking place a year after the trip to Paris. The DVD uses both 1908 and 1909 in the label, however the next episode, The Perils of Cupid, is 1908 only. In the segment in East Africa, it is clearly stated that Indiana Jones is ten years old (making it 1909), while in Paris, his age is stated as about ten (perhaps a change from the original episode?).
In the original episode "British East Africa, September 1909", there is a scene near the beginning where Henry Sr. and his friend Medlicot exchange their college greeting a la Henry Sr. and Marcus Brody's exchange of the greeting in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. This scene was not included in Passion for Life.
"Africa was the most powerful experience. We got to shoot in the Maasai Mora and in the Tana River. There is just something that reaches very deep inside you that you tap into. There's something about -- not just the animal kingdom, but this unique balance of life that is absolutely perfection. It is an extraordinary continent. Once you get out of Nairobi, Kenya, life has not changed for a thousand years. It's incredible." -- Producer Rick McCallum.
"I particularly wanted the Kenya episode, because the idea of doing an ecological adventure story was very strong. Teddy Roosevelt is a great character, and the relationship between Indy and the Maasai boy was something that I knew I could write well, and I knew would be great. Also, it's interesting -- this story is about language as well. Whenever Indy travels, he tries to learn the language, and so you're talking about communication between two boys from totally different cultures -- how Indy learns from this boy and his world and how he manages to solve Roosevelt's problem... It seemed like an honest-to-goodness story -- one I would want to watch." -- Writer Matthew Jacobs.