The Decline of Adventures in Odyssey

[Marvin D.]

Friends, Romans, ToOers, lend me your eyeballs. I come to criticize AIO, not to praise it. The evil in this show lives on, the good is often buried away in the old episodes. So let it be with AIO. The noble ToOers hath told you AIO was (or is) ambitious. If it were so, it was a grievous fault. And grievously hath y'all answered it. Here, under leave of nobody but myself--for I am an honorable man, so are all my other parts--, all honorable men, come I to speak at the critiscm of AIO. It was my friend, faithful and just to me. But I say it has declined, and I am an honorable man.

--From Antony's Speech from Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, the up-beat 21st century version

In case ya haven't gotten it, Ima reviewing AIO's new season: Album 51-53. Here is part one, Album 51. Be warned. Avid lovers of the season will be shocked. Thankee. And...I kinda came off...reporter-like. So yah


“Ahh, Whit, this is wonderful,” are the opening words we hear (well, except for Chris) as we launch back into AIO after the 2-year hiatus with Album 51, Take it From the Top. However, wonderful might be too strong of a word to describe the relaunch. Interesting, perhaps, but not quite wonderful.

We begin with what Connie describes as wonderful—the Inspiration Station. In an adventure that teaches us about inspiration (or, at least, it should have, because I sure didn’t learn a lot about inspiration, except for maybe the fact that when I feel depressed, I should not play toss with glasses), we get back into AIO, with a dull feeling that things are not as they should be. Building this feeling from around Album 49 with Wooton’s gradual change around Victoria and the kiddiness starting to slide in again after chasing Dalton Kearn, one could sense that “something was rotten in the state of Denmark”. Even when the writers tried to make Album 50 one with different feelings (romance with The Triangled Web, danger with Accidental Dilemma, comical relief with License to Deprive, and history with A Capsule Comes to Town), it fails as a superb album. However, it did have its moments (though the Whisperer was NOT one of them), and then Connie pushed the red button which transported her to the Inspiration Station while wrecking Odyssey.

Skip two years into the future our time, or hours their time. Whit’s aged backward, Kelly’s gone, Bernard, the Washingtons, Lucy and Jack, and all our favorite characters are gone, and a bunch of new guys come in, including a Eugene rip-off called Matthew, a guy who sounds like his tonsils are in need of repair who goes by the name of Barrett the Carrot Ferret, a melodramatic wanna-be musician, yet typical teenager with a whiny voice named Olivia, and a stuck up wanna-be detective named Emily Jones. Oh boy.

Once we get through inspiration, we get a full dose of the Parkers, and find out that their family is portrayed to look like an every-day family. You know, fighting siblings, cluttered house, the works. However, it all feels staged. Compared to the Barclay kids, these ones are fake. Blah. Once they solve their clutter problem by ACTUALLY realizing that there are HUNGRY AND POOR KIDS who could actually USE THEIR STUFF (I mean, come on. You’re telling me they never had any idea that there are needy kids? Seriously!), we move on to meet our NEXT family in an all-but-forgettable adventure, Game for a Mystery. With a rip-off of Zapazoids to Verminoids, drum roll for Barrett and Emily Jones!
*dies*
Instant dislike of Emily is what hits me, and pretty soon with Barrett—a kid who obviously doesn’t know how to speak in a lower tone. We limp through a mystery with the unbelievable powers of Emily Jones, Puh-ri-vate eye, and her sidekick—er, partner Matthew. Laaaame. Cheeeesee.
Finally, we get a look around Odyssey in Target for a Week, as we’re introduced to the newest bullies, and get a look at how the school goes. It’s decent, but if a certain person whose name begins with a W and ends with a N and has o-o-t-o in the middle weren’t in it, it would be much better.

Then we jump back to family life in Odyssey, with our two only families who seem to live in town (remember the contest in Grandma’s Christmas Visit? Who were all the contestants?). First Eugene cuts his hair—it’s For the Birds—and we see the not-so-perfect-yet-still-too-fake life of the Parkers with Camilla’s wanting a pet. Yet, even then, something’s missing with all the new families. It still seems too formal. There’s no more extreme fighting (take Donna and Jimmy at about any time), Eva and David get along perfectly, and it’s just really...eh. We pass along to Emily learning that she ain’t always right (and she forgets that lesson immediately), and then Grandma comes to visit the Parkers. Mama Lucia/Abeulita/whatcha-wanna-call-her is probably the closest thing to a real character we have, being the over-pampering, yet Spanish-scolding grandmother (“Eva, why haven’t you taught this man how to speak?”, believing Spanish is el único lenguaje para aprender.) Time passes on to little Ms. Olivia, that...one who’s obsessed with fingernails (when she tries to learn guitar), and is the perfect Ms. Drama Queen, who makes a pretty bad teenager—squeaky voice, shopper (more on this in Opposite Day).

We close off Take it From the Top with the only DECENT episode, The Jubilee Singers (and no, it’s not only because I like music). We learn some history, a catchy new song or two, and why Red uses really weird phrases like “a june doing the jitterbug dance”...or something like that. We end the album with a less-than-satisfactory episode, and are left to wait for the Mystery of the Clock Tower, a not-so-original mystery (but that’s for next time).

Has our beloved radio drama Adventures in Odyssey gone downhill? Many disagree, saying that the Green Ring Conspiracy has brought it back up (more on that too, later), but with what we know of Album 54, it could be headed back the same way. With no good old characters to keep (except for Connie, Eugene, Whit, and Wooton—and Whit’s weird, Wooton’s out of the picture, and Connie and Eugene both have changed), lots of new kids, and a total new revamp, some might say that it’s definitely losing the original feel it had. Starting even before the relaunch, there’s been a considerable decline in the history of AIO. Will it ever be able to work its way back to the prime days of the show? Only time can tell.
And with that, I shut up for now, having ranted enough to bore you to sleep.

[Graces4you]

I'm not saying that I agree with all of this, but a few months ago, I realized the Red is almost a replacement for Bernard. Bernard is one of my favoirtes, they can't get rid of him!

[Musical Shutterbug]

This is one of the greatest things I have ever read. So truthful, so truthful. Very well written and presented, I might also add

Skip two years into the future our time, or hours their time. Whit’s aged backward, Kelly’s gone, Bernard, the Washingtons, Lucy and Jack, and all our favorite characters are gone, and a bunch of new guys come in, including a Eugene rip-off called Matthew, a guy who sounds like his tonsils are in need of repair who goes by the name of Barrett the Carrot Ferret, a melodramatic wanna-be musician, yet typical teenager with a whiny voice named Olivia, and a stuck up wanna-be detective named Emily Jones. Oh boy.

THANKYOUTHANKYOU. At last someone agrees with me. They removed the timeless and loved classic characters of the past, and attempt to throw in some really, really cheesy replacements. Bad choice.

[Knight Fisher]

I'm not saying that I agree with all of this, but a few months ago, I realized the Red is almost a replacement for Bernard.

Don't make me kill you... I really don't want to. But no one, no one! replaces Berny. I mostly agree with you Marv. After all it is what I have been saying since the Inspiration Station pt 2.

[Stop Wooton' Around]

But what was AIO supposed to do, bring people back from the grave. I agree Odyssey is not as good. However if you listen to the Green Ring Conspiracy and try not to thing of the old Whit, it was good! Admittedly some storylines have been pathetic like "Wooton's Broken Pencil Show." You kinda have to put the Old Odyssey behind you to listen to the new episodes.

[Steve]

Actually the new Whit vs. Old Whit thing has never ever bothered me. I guess I'm just more easygoing than you guys.

I forsee a DVD: "The Rise and Fall of Adventures in Odyssey"

[Leonard Meltsner]

As I listened to 51 and 52 yesterday, I must say that, maybe it was having just listened to AIO for 46.5 straight consecutive hours, but I didn't think it was all that awful. I know it wasn't very good in many places, but it wasn't all THAT awful. I think that the "Woe is our ruined Odyssey" song is getting a teensy bit old, as so many have sung it ever since 51.

[American Eagle]

Once upon a time, the actor for the most beloved character on an audio drama died. His loyal listeners mourned. After a few years, the producers brought in a new guy to fill the role. This character's name was Whit. The writer's did their best to write fun, creative and entertaining shows. They actually succeeded now and then.

However, in comes an new, atrocious album. Some of the plots include stealing a pair of shoes, having the same birthday forever and ever, and one sister being annoyed at another sister because she has an "imaginary friend". Most of the shows are split in half which removes almost all of the story's developmental. Oh, and don't forget the notorious digital revenge of a villain who has already been killed. This album and the next are two of the most disliked albums by most fans.

However, lo and behold, the show redeemed itself with an exciting mystery that unfolded; the Novacom saga! It featured some of the greatest characters in the history of Odyssey; Whit, Connie, Mitch, Jason, Tom, Mr. Charles, Agent Bourland, Monica Stone, Arthur Dent, and more. The show was saved and back on track.

The show continued its success for some time. However, the voice actor for Whit passed away once again. His loyal listeners mourned. After a few years, the producers brought in a new guy to fill the role. The writer's did their best to write fun, creative and entertaining shows. They actually succeeded now and then.

However, in comes an new, atrocious album. Some of the plots include stealing a lame video game, having a boring garage sale, and one sister being annoyed because her brother won't use a risque love card. Most of the shows are focused on characters that fans are not used to. Oh, and don't forget the arrival of one of the most nagging women around who simply won't give daughter any respect. This album and the next are two of the most disliked albums by most fans.

However, lo and behold, the show redeemed itself with an exciting mystery that unfolded; The Green Ring Conspiracy! It featured some of the greatest characters in the history of Odyssey; Whit, Connie, Eugene, Jason, Wally Haggler, Monty, Detective Polehaus, Jay, Katrina, and more. The show was saved and back on track.

Woohoo we are saved! Long live Odyssey.

[Leonard Meltsner]

That was great! I loved that AE!

[Bob]

(an explanation as to how this has happened before and things aren't as bad as people keep saying they are)

Leonard and American Eagle pretty much said the gist of what I wanted to say, but couldn't work up the motivation to.

All this constant talk on the forums about how Odyssey isn't any good now, usually while ignoring or glossing over the show's many weak points prior to the relaunch, strikes me as applying something of a double standard... if an episode back in the day had issues, or was too silly, or something, that's okay; it's good because it's old, but if a new episode is like that, it's automatically a nominee for "Worst Episode Ever".

The reality of the situation strikes me as being more balanced: Old Odyssey wasn't always that good, and new Odyssey isn't always that bad.

[jelly]

Thanks for saving me the work of actually listening to any of them, Marv.

I've been saying this ever since rumors started to grow, and I'll say it again: unless you're a very easily satisfied fan, you'll simply have to treat the new AIO relaunch as if it were an entirely new radio show. If an old fan were to turn on the radio expecting a fun episode of BTV and anxious to hear Benerard and Wooton banter about something pointless, they'll of course be completely crushed to find out that such episodes have been replaced by random annoying kids and that the few characters who remain are not like the same characters they once knew. But are the new episodes bad? From everything I've heard, of course they're not! You simply have to approach them without standards.

[Bob]

...expecting a fun episode of BTV and anxious to hear Benerard and Wooton banter about something pointless...

It seems to me that if this is the average fan's expectations for an AIO episode, they have no right at all to complain about how far Odyssey has fallen.

In the very first album, I believe every single episode, except for "Gifts for Madge and Guy", is serious slice of life. This trend doesn't change too much in the other early albums; there'll be maybe one light-hearted or adventure episode, and then virtually all the rest are realistic episodes with pretty realistic situations.

Coincidentally, I might point out that most of these episodes do not centrally rely on Whit & company; they're primarily centered around the kid characters of the era. You could have put Jack Allen, or Tom Riley, or just about any other mature Christian character in AIO history in the place of Whit and the episodes would have been about the same. It was only in album 5, "Daring Deeds, Sinister Schemes" when the character development was taken up a notch and it started to matter whether you had Eugene or Connie in an episode. Even then, though, the group that became known as the "central cast" wasn't really critical in most of the episodes until around album 9 or 10, and I think it could be argued that some of those episodes are actually worse than their predecessors.

Furthermore, one of the best eras in Odyssey history is generally considered to have taken place after Whit left -- which shows that even Mr. Whittaker, contrary to common belief, isn't critical to the show's existence. It doesn't really matter if the characters are the same or not; what matters is that they're well-characterized and placed in realistic situations, which they haven't always been. Album #51 doesn't change any of this; it just continued most of the trend that had been going on for some time anyway. I'd say it actually helped, since album #50 was a huge step down from the quality writing in #49; it would be hard to get much worse than #50 in my opinion. At least with new characters, you have to put in some effort to develop them; you don't have the luxury of being able to stay in a rut and churn out one generic comedy episode after another.

It's just what I said in the "stupidest episodes" topic -- the average silliness quotient of an episode directly correlates to the episode's level of quality, usually in a negative sense. The sillier your overall writing is, generally the worse the episodes are likely to be. All of the Odyssey eras that are considered to be "great" -- early era, DBD, Whit's return, Novacom, Eugene's father, the Mandy's-family and Grady arcs -- all have one thing in common, that their episodes were generally more serious than not. All the eras that are considered to be awful, like #33 and #34, and post-Novacom, are generally sillier than not. I don't think this is a coincidence.

[Marvin D.]

This is one of the greatest things I have ever read. So truthful, so truthful. Very well written and presented, I might also add

Thank you

But what was AIO supposed to do, bring people back from the grave. I agree Odyssey is not as good. However if you listen to the Green Ring Conspiracy and try not to thing of the old Whit, it was good! Admittedly some storylines have been pathetic like "Wooton's Broken Pencil Show." You kinda have to put the Old Odyssey behind you to listen to the new episodes.

More on this later

Actually the new Whit vs. Old Whit thing has never ever bothered me. I guess I'm just more easygoing than you guys.

I forsee a DVD: "The Rise and Fall of Adventures in Odyssey"

Directed and produced by me

As I listened to 51 and 52 yesterday, I must say that, maybe it was having just listened to AIO for 46.5 straight consecutive hours, but I didn't think it was all that awful. I know it wasn't very good in many places, but it wasn't all THAT awful. I think that the "Woe is our ruined Odyssey" song is getting a teensy bit old, as so many have sung it ever since 51.

I never sing for people

However, lo and behold, the show redeemed itself with an exciting mystery that unfolded; The Green Ring Conspiracy! It featured some of the greatest characters in the history of Odyssey; Whit, Connie, Eugene, Jason, Wally Haggler, Monty, Detective Polehaus, Jay, Katrina, and more. The show was saved and back on track.

Woohoo we are saved! Long live Odyssey.

....and then Penny and Wooton and Connie come back in Album 54 and we go downhill again. WHEE.

(an explanation as to how this has happened before and things aren't as bad as people keep saying they are)

Leonard and American Eagle pretty much said the gist of what I wanted to say, but couldn't work up the motivation to.

All this constant talk on the forums about how Odyssey isn't any good now, usually while ignoring or glossing over the show's many weak points prior to the relaunch, strikes me as applying something of a double standard... if an episode back in the day had issues, or was too silly, or something, that's okay; it's good because it's old, but if a new episode is like that, it's automatically a nominee for "Worst Episode Ever".

The reality of the situation strikes me as being more balanced: Old Odyssey wasn't always that good, and new Odyssey isn't always that bad.

I know, but we had our share of cheesy episodes back then--most of the half-episodes, Fairy Tale-a-vision, and so forth. Trust me, I still complain about those ones--and pick out little errors in them. But in the new season, more of the episodes are cheesier as compared to the old ones.

You simply have to approach them without standards.

And that's easier said then done. If the change weren't so radical (taking out almost ALL the characters and bringing in totally new ones), but slowly happened, it would be better. Now we have to deal with it all at once.


Oooh, controversy

[American Eagle]

However, lo and behold, the show redeemed itself with an exciting mystery that unfolded; The Green Ring Conspiracy! It featured some of the greatest characters in the history of Odyssey; Whit, Connie, Eugene, Jason, Wally Haggler, Monty, Detective Polehaus, Jay, Katrina, and more. The show was saved and back on track.

Woohoo we are saved! Long live Odyssey.

....and then Penny and Wooton and Connie come back in Album 54 and we go downhill again. WHEE.

DUDE, it contains an entire episode about THE GREAT JAY SMOUSE. Saying you thought '51 was dumb is being critical. Being pre-critical of '54 is just plain hatin'.

And that's easier said then done. If the change weren't so radical (taking out almost ALL the characters and bringing in totally new ones), but slowly happened, it would be better. Now we have to deal with it all at once.

It's been almost two years. You can now deal with it... over three solid albums.

[Marvin D.]

However, lo and behold, the show redeemed itself with an exciting mystery that unfolded; The Green Ring Conspiracy! It featured some of the greatest characters in the history of Odyssey; Whit, Connie, Eugene, Jason, Wally Haggler, Monty, Detective Polehaus, Jay, Katrina, and more. The show was saved and back on track.

Woohoo we are saved! Long live Odyssey.

....and then Penny and Wooton and Connie come back in Album 54 and we go downhill again. WHEE.

DUDE, it contains an entire episode about THE GREAT JAY SMOUSE. Saying you thought '51 was dumb is being critical. Being pre-critical of '54 is just plain hatin'.

And that's easier said then done. If the change weren't so radical (taking out almost ALL the characters and bringing in totally new ones), but slowly happened, it would be better. Now we have to deal with it all at once.

It's been almost two years. You can now deal with it... over three solid albums.

Anything with Wooton anymore is no fun--and I've given him 3 albums to make up mind.

2 years with nothing, and then you have a totally radical change from one album to the other. It's not little by little, it's just one minute you have all these normal characters, the next minute they're all gone.

[Graces4you]

We close off Take it From the Top with the only DECENT episode, The Jubilee Singers (and no, it’s not only because I like music). We learn some history, a catchy new song or two, and why Red uses really weird phrases like “a june doing the jitterbug dance”...or something like that. We end the album with a less-than-satisfactory episode, and are left to wait for the Mystery of the Clock Tower, a not-so-original mystery (but that’s for next time).

I know almost all of the music from Jubilee singers, would you like me to post me singing it on here?

[Marvin D.]

Please do

[Musical Shutterbug]

But what was AIO supposed to do, bring people back from the grave?

I would prefer that they end the show completely, rather than making all of their fans suffer.

[Graces4you]

Please do

Okay I will, will the website for post your voice work?

[UNCLEBITTLES]

This is one of the greatest things I have ever read. So truthful, so truthful. Very well written and presented, I might also add

Skip two years into the future our time, or hours their time. Whit’s aged backward, Kelly’s gone, Bernard, the Washingtons, Lucy and Jack, and all our favorite characters are gone, and a bunch of new guys come in, including a Eugene rip-off called Matthew, a guy who sounds like his tonsils are in need of repair who goes by the name of Barrett the Carrot Ferret, a melodramatic wanna-be musician, yet typical teenager with a whiny voice named Olivia, and a stuck up wanna-be detective named Emily Jones. Oh boy.

THANKYOUTHANKYOU. At last someone agrees with me. They removed the timeless and loved classic characters of the past, and attempt to throw in some really, really cheesy replacements. Bad choice.

Preach it man!