Bob wrote:Well, to be fair, it didn't feel like the show was written by the same writing staff a while ago, either, back after album 32 -- which I think was because it wasn't.
2) Golden Age stories are more plausible.
When you listen to a lot of the old episodes, like, say, "Two Sides to Every Story", it's funny because it's true. None of the situations that're portrayed in that episode are unreasonable. The worst thing that happens, the television going up in flames, seems relatively plausible and isn't even because of a deliberate action on the part of Donna or Jimmy.
Likewise, although "Thanksgiving At Home" does imply some unrealistic decisions (like Jimmy suggesting they use a chisel on the turkey), we don't necessarily see that they do any of these things. For the most part, we only know that they rely on conventional food-preparation techniques (the microwave, etc.) that simply aren't suited to the task of baking a turkey...a mistake that real children might make.
Finally, Golden Age children are always aware of their bounds. If they're disrespectful or disobedient, it's to an extent that you might expect a reasonable child to be in real life. Think back to "Family Vacation", when Jimmy and Donna are fighting it out in the back of the car; that's entirely believable. Likewise, their gradual drift from their parents' real instructions in "Two Sides" is believable.
Modern Age children meet very few of these standards; since the Washingtons were intended to be like a Barclay replacement, I will primarily use them for my counter-example.
A story that comes to mind, if you're looking for a "Two Sides" story, done Washington-style, is that episode where the kids decide that they have the right to do "just what Xavier does". They end up doing a whole bunch of things that their parents have explicitly prevented, up to and including crashing the lawnmower. Most of these things seem implausible in their own right; just one of them would be bad enough, and yet these kid characters go on to do *all* of them. It's such an extreme step up that it becomes entirely implausible.
Likewise, compare "An Agreeable Nanny" to "Thanksgiving At Home" -- the same situation is there, in that the kid characters consider using blatantly inappropriate tools to solve their immediate problems. The only difference is that the Parkers actually do it, and that leaps off into the bounds of fantasy...on the bright side, though, they do get punished for it, which didn't happen to the Washingtons (read below).
Finally, modern children are more likely to be ill-behaved or disobedient. The episode that pops into my mind as I write this is the Washington's visit to the fancy restaurant -- I can't remember its name -- where Tamika and Marvin run amok through most of the dinner. In reality, you know that your parents would've killed you if you left the table for more than ten minutes, much less if you did even half of the things they did in that episode...but that's not how things are in Modern-Age Odyssey. Mrs. Washington basically just says "I'm very disappointed in you" and lets them off with a slap on the wrist. There's no real punishment or significant grounding, in spite of the fact that their two bratty, uncontrolled kids turned a high-dollar restaurant upside-down, with property damage, blatant disrespect of adults, etc., etc., and etc. The Washington parents themselves seem entirely unconcerned, throughout the dinner, that their children are not in their sight, or eating the meal they presumably ordered. The entire thing crosses the line of fantasy into outright insanity, as though it's a Bizarro World where all the rules of decorum are turned upside-down. It's hard to imagine anyone in real life having such poor control over their kids.
I completely have to commend you for this post. You put words to my thoughts. The trouble that the kids get into is ridiculously over-the-top, with such minor consequences. Even in "An Agreeable Nanny" those kids should have been in big trouble for all they did! But the only consequence was that they couldn't stay at home alone yet. The new kids don't do "normal kid stuff", and the consequences to their actions seem so minimal compared to the old kids, where there would be serious moments and not all giggles. I admit I mainly like the Washingtons, and aside from them getting kind of lenient at the end, they seemed to be a responsible and normal family like the classic Odyssey. But they weren't even on the show for that long, all things considered.
Another thing I notice is that "bad days" don't seem to happen so much now. the episodes are pretty cheery throughout, and nothing hard happens in life. The worst part of life that we get now is "we don't get dessert for dinner". What happened to kids doing something wrong, talking to whit, then confessing to their parents? Or tough times like Mr. Barclay losing his job, Mandy's parents getting divorced, etc? Is life so perfect that the biggest issues deal with no one getting to eat the malted milk balls? Seems the show is made for kids 6-10, rather than 8-12 now. Things have to be very silly or it's not interesting. Pretty much how a lot of kids' TV shows have gotten too. Wish Odyssey would be different from pop culture and teach the lessons AND consequences AND address tough issues, while still throwing some humor in there.
And what happened to the old characters? Whit being the wise and clever advice-giver, Eugene being the too-intelligent for his own good who needs an interpreter to talk to the kid, etc?
I agree 100%.
(I love seeing a fellow vintage, classic original member 
)
It seems like Odyssey doesn't seem like Odyssey anymore... Album 51 was a joke. Not to be mean or anything, it just wasn't good. The worst so far was probably When You're right, you're right. 
That was so... uncharacteristic of normal Odyssey? If the kids had done that in early Odyssey, it would've been better.
