I don't think that's the case, although there's enough of a similarity that it bears having a discussion about why not.KODY 105 wrote: Wed Feb 16, 2022 3:06 pm I realize Jay Smouse is supposed to be the Rodney Rathbone replacement, which he struggles to do
In the limited sense that Rodney was an oft-villainous minor (technically, he was never a 'kid' in any of his appearances) character, who nevertheless interacted with the others on a regular basis, yes, that's fair enough; it'd be hard to argue with that.
But in the sense that Jay was intended as a drag-and-drop replacement for Rodney ("let's put Jay Smouse in all the scripts we would have put Rodney in before"), that's not really what they were going for, and it showed from some of his earliest appearances, although if you're listening to these in radio order, it will unfortunately be a couple of years before you loop back around to then.
I think the most succinct way to describe the difference is that Rodney was almost always portrayed as distinct from the regular 'kid/youth characters', not someone who would (or even could) 'hang out' with them, whereas Jay does all the time, and has from some of his earliest episodes (in "The Malted Milkball Falcon", he's a participant in a church-sponsored rockathon) . His situation is a little like Butch in "The Good, The Bad, and Butch", except that he lives in that zone full-time.I think most people would definitely agree that he's 'entertaining in his own way', though. His sense of humor and wit has made him a fan favorite, although in recent seasons it has been tarnished by his continuing crush on Zoe.
