Spinoff of Odyssey?

[Reddo]

A new spin-off series may be in the works for older Adventures in Odyssey fans, ages 13 – 20, featuring your 3 favorite characters, Whit, Connie and Eugene, and other old favorites as well! The stories and situations will center around Campbell County Community College and deal with spiritual warfare, covert government operations and more! This idea is not yet officially approved by Focus on the Family, but if it sounds exciting to you, tell all of your AIO friends! Lets get this spin-off series on the air!

I'd love for this to happen

[Bren]

Sounds like an awesome idea to me.

[Parker Family]

Interesting!!! I'd love to see this happen!

[Jesus' Princess]

I would love to have something like this! Lets hope it happens

[Knight Fisher]

This is what we have been hoping for.

[snubs]

This is what we have been hoping for.

^EXACTLY! It's like a dream come true. I really hope it works out.

And I also hope they keep it straight when dealing with different issues. You know, no sugar coating. They have been doing that a little too much in the new episodes.

[Joy]

I really hope it gets through, too! Eh, I don't really care about the age limit. I've read plenty of teen books , and I don't expect AIO to be quite , well, more mature than Homelanders.

[TigerintheShadows]

That sounds wonderful.

Famous last words, thefinalhour.

[Joy]

Oh, come on. Have you ever read a book centered on an 18 year old guy fighting terrorists when YOU were 10 years old? Didn't think so. Homelanders is the most graphic book I've ever read. I love it! It can get a bit sickening at times, but, oh well!

[The Top Crusader]

Well, this is something fans have bandied around in the past, I wish there was some kind of source or quote from a Focus employee listed. It would be great, but I'll believe it when I see it. >_>

I know back in the day we were all convinced we were getting a spinoff for teenagers with the Barclays in Pokenberry Falls, but instead they were just written off, lol. >_>

[Reddo]

Well, this is something fans have bandied around in the past, I wish there was some kind of source or quote from a Focus employee listed. It would be great, but I'll believe it when I see it. >_>

I know back in the day we were all convinced we were getting a spinoff for teenagers with the Barclays in Pokenberry Falls, but instead they were just written off, lol. >_>

It's from a person who's worked on AIO in the past.

[Amethystic]

Ehhh... as nifty of an idea as it might seem at a passing glance, FotF, put out something on spiritual warfare? These are the people who can have a whole radio episode about teen occult participation without once bringing up the direct supernatural threats. (This was their adult show, mind you, not AIO.) There's more to supernatural stuff than "God says stay away from the occult is bad and you should just pray really, really hard if you see something that makes you uncomfortable" and I don't know if FotF has the spiritual stance as an organization to do that. However, when it comes to life choices like relationships and having faith in the amoral college setting, they're more than capable of giving helpful advice.

[jesusfreak]

I think for all of us who want to see AIO grow and tackle harder issues, this seems like a great idea. But I think this might cut their listeners. They have a lot of old fans supporting AIO. For me, I would definitely continue listening, purchacing, and supporting both. But how about you guys? Do you think that it would hurt the original AIO of they're trying to pull their older listeners to a different show?

[Knight Fisher]

I think for all of us who want to see AIO grow and tackle harder issues, this seems like a great idea. But I think this might cut their listeners. They have a lot of old fans supporting AIO. For me, I would definitely continue listening, purchacing, and supporting both. But how about you guys? Do you think that it would hurt the original AIO of they're trying to pull their older listeners to a different show?

If they get rid of Emily Jones I will support them as much as I used to. But I do not support blackmailers not getting punished.

[The Top Crusader]

There is logic in making a split so the original series can keep its focus on what it originally intended to be... but yeah, hard to say how the fan base would re-act. A lot depends on how they handle it. If they just alternate production cycles and there are half as many "regular" AIO then it wouldn't lead to over saturation, but hard to say how people who want the younger demographic would react... people are terribly stupid as a whole these days and I could see complaints that the spinoff is too mature even though it clearly states its age range... especially if they carry over the same characters. People are easily confused and frightened. Like Sand People.

Older fans though should overall be fine with this, but again it could mean that "regular" AIO dips its age range and really caters to the younger, so it could lose all appeal to older listeners who aren't listening with their little kids.

[Jimmy Barclay Fan]

There has been talk of spinoffs in the past that never came to be. The Barclays in Pokenberry Falls, Phil Lollar mentioned one in his interview podcast with Connie. A spinoff would be cool.

[Sapphire]

This sounds awesome! I hope it will go through!

[Catspaw]

I won't get my hopes too high at this point, but this sounds like it could be very interesting! I would continue to listen to the "original" line, but more mature stuff sounds like an idea whose time might have finally come!

[King Butter Turtle]

I have several thoughts on this idea

First, it sounds like it would work better as a post-AIO spinoff, and obviously, I don't want Odyssey - as we currently know it - to go away for a long time. Taking three very primary characters (not to mention the setting) seems... too similar to the original series for two separate shows to run simultaneously. It seems like it might feel like it's trying to be 'mature Odyssey' which will probably just make us (listeners who grew up on AIO but, are older than the target age range) just wish it were classic AIO. Yes, I like the idea of a Christian radio drama made for a teen audience that delves into some deeper issues and is made in a similar fashion to AIO but, using many of the same characters, the same location and being produced at the same time, probably with coextensive production staffs seems... weird. -like, the two series would exist in a vendiagram-esque simultaneousness (do I get bonus points for making up two words in the same sentence? ) In that sense, I prefer the Novacom spinoff idea from back in the day. Of course, there are mixed opinions on Novacom but, my only point is that if there's gonna be a spinoff started before AIO ends, it should have a relatively minimal connection to the standard Odyssey. (i.e. - The Last Chance Detectives - really the only thing it shared with AIO was Jason which kept it from feeling like 'this-is-Odyssey-but-not-really')

Second, it, honestly, doesn't sound like the best idea for a series to me. I mean the description is quite minimal but, it makes me wonder about several things...

• If it's about Whit, Connie and Eugene, why does it take place at CCCC? As of now, those characters have almost no link to the college in regular AIO so, will Eugene start working there again? Will Connie become a student? (I guess she took an art class there in TGRC but...) Will Whit become... a professor?
• What would they do with the college? In regular Odyssey, we've only really known the college as it was necessary for characters (primarily Eugene) but, if it were to be the center of this spinoff, it would have to take on the role of Whit's End, which means we would have to know more about it (as we do about Whit's End), have it feel like a natural place for things to take place (as we do about Whit's End), etc.

But, the biggest thing I wonder about is how they would deal with... college stereotypes. (for lack of a better term) Christian universities tend to be quite conservative places. You would expect most Bible colleges to teach a FOTF-type world view but, CCCC isn't a Christian college. On the other hand, secular universities tend to be very liberal places (politically, theologically and culturally) which would certainly create an interesting conflict for presumably-Christian characters (protagonists, if you will) and would be a launching point for jumping into those 'deeper issues' for a more mature audience. But, the problem with that is that CCCC has never been portrayed as such. Would the spinoff take the regular Odyssey version of the college and throw in a few wacko profs, neonazi demonstrators and questionable philosophy? (ok, maybe neonazis is a stretch but, you know what I mean )

Lastly, I find Adventures in Odyssey to be a show that, in theory, shouldn't need to be spun off from. The original idea was to have a show that would transcend a front-of-the-packaging 'target age range'. A series that was geared primarily towards kids and looked at things form a kids perspective but, at the same time successfully avoided a Sunday school level of cheesiness, told some stories with a slightly older audience in mind and put elements in every episode that could be appreciated by all ages. The idea was to have a series that could be listened to on a family road trip - the kids laughing at some jokes the parents didn't, the parents laughing at some jokes the kids were too young to get, and the vast majority of jokes being so well-written, kids, teenage siblings and parents alike would all be laughing together. And, the same goes for the lesson/moral. It would be primarily geared towards kids 8-12 but, younger kids, older kids, and much older adults could all take something from every episode. That's a large part of what's made Odyssey so successful. Some, of course, feel that it used to be that way but, has gotten worse and that the new episodes are too 'little-kiddy' and that kind of listener is the kind to be very excited about the prospect of a spinoff like this. But, isn't the great thing about Odyssey (or, 'just the older ones', if you must) that it brings families together and gives a wide-age-ranged audience a common series to enjoy? So, isn't splitting a new series off from Odyssey and creating sort of separate 'young kids' and 'older teens' brands counterproductive to that which makes Odyssey such a quality program?

To conclude, please don't assume that I think this is a terrible idea. I certainly would appreciate looking into some more 'mature' topics from a slightly older (college student's) perspective. I just have some concerns as to how that would affect the classic series and how it would change what we know 'Adventures in Odyssey' to be.

[snubs]

KBT, you raise some key concerns. Some of which I was actually thinking about. I will post my thoughts later though -I don't feel like typing a long post.