Re-Visiting Odyssey...Twenty Years Later

Finding out what has changed, and what stays.

Whit's wiping down the counter, Connie's mopping the floor, and the kids are sipping on their milkshakes. If you want to talk about Adventures in Odyssey the radio drama, this is the spot to do just that!
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Noitartst
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Re-Visiting Odyssey...Twenty Years Later

Post by Noitartst »

I was checking in, after having not for two decades, basically. I heard an episode on the radio, and thought I'd check in. I heard of one character named Cindy, and vaguely thought she was Lucy, a character I vaguely remembered, but now a teenager, or something.

I checked Wikipedia, but found she had left about a year or two after I'd stopped following. I was more shocked, however, that there was a big character purge in 2008, disposing of the Rathbones, among others.

I was very sorry to hear it.

In any case, I was interested to see how Odyssey was doing, after all these years, social changes, and the like. I was interested in how CHristian social media was holding up, and what kind of stories, it now tells.
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Woody
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Post by Woody »

Moved this to Whit's End, where we place Odyssey-related discussion.

Yes, a lot of things have changed, some for the better, most for the worse, in my opinion. The quality of the albums since 51 has gradually increased with each album (except 58), so I'm hopeful that this trend will continue.

As for the new characters, I'm beginning to warm up to them, especially Matthew. Well, I was, until they changed his voice three times. >_> Jules is an interesting character, I'm hopeful that they'll keep her around to provide contrast to the views of the main characters in a non-extreme way (Ms. Adelaide, anyone?).
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Noitartst
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Post by Noitartst »

What are the kind of stories they now tell, as opposed to what they used to?

As I was looking through the threads the images on the posters were very pop culture, I found; this surprised me, a little.
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snubs
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Post by snubs »

Noitartst wrote:What are the kind of stories they now tell, as opposed to what they used to?
How come you don't just check out the new episodes for yourself? Then you could best formulate your own opinion. :) Because, everyone views things differently, and you may be getting biased opinions from other people. ;)
Noitartst wrote:As I was looking through the threads the images on the posters were very pop culture, I found; this surprised me, a little.
Well, they do have to keep up the generation. I mean, the old art was fitting for the time, but now looks dated. So they felt they needed to give it a face lift. *shrugs*

As I've mentioned before in past threads, I never liked the art, new or old. However, (in the new art) I do like that you can see Eugene's eyes and that Connie finally looks more modern and "with the times." =p It's just more realistic. Though if I had it my way, the art would look nothing like that. I found, the best album covers to be the ones that didn't have any AIO characters on them. ;)

Also, by depicting the characters.. it gives them an image. So, if say, I were to draw my image of Wooton, everyone would likely say, 'That's not how Wooton looks.' :boohoo: But it's an audio drama.. and part of an audio drama is using your imagination to bring the scenes and people to life. So everyone has their own image. By giving the characters a specific image it takes away from the imagination. Luckily, this hasn't effected me much because I don't really focus on the character drawings.

I actually love most AIO fan art more than the official art (as I've said before). \:D/
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Post by Pound Foolish »

Noitartst wrote: I was more shocked, however, that there was a big character purge in 2008, disposing of the Rathbones, among others.
Yes, they did that before with the second generation of aio when Paul Herlinger came along, giving rise to some of my favorite albums and characters. Just like that time, it was because the previous voice of Whit was deceased.

Many characters they just plain to remove. Dave Madden (voice of Bernard, now deceased) was quite old and ill, Walker Edmiston (Tom) was deceased, others had moved away and FotF can't afford to fly actors in. It's kind of expected when a show lasts over 28 years. :P I think we come to take that for granted. AIO is the second longest running radio drama in existence. But yeah, it's a shock when you first find out.
Noitartst wrote: I was interested in how CHristian social media was holding up, and what kind of stories, it now tells.
Well lots has happened but you won't hear it from my fingers. :P I like people to just listen to a few episodes and catch up.

But they're still telling much the same stories. The focus is still family, comedy, and God. There's still Kids Radio episodes, slice of life, sagas, etc. Lately they've tended to do a lot more connected episodes with long plot threads.

Just a note, people's opinion on how well aio is doing naturally varies from blog to blog and board to board. If you read the Soda Shop Message Boards, for instance, you'll find people are overall quite happy with the current aio. Or if you read the comments on whitsend.org. Here, admittedly, not as much. ;)
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