Jasper Dale wrote:1. you can never duplicate the "magic" of george, mary, jimmy and donna. it doesn't work when you have tried it in the past, and i don't think it works with the "washingtons". as talented as the actors are, it has never worked for me. that's not to say that i would like the "washingtons" to leave odyssey, i would just like to hear less of them. i understand the importance of having a solid Christian family featured on the show, but it seems that in the past few years, they are featured way too much.
I disagree. Sure the Washingtons aren't the Barclays but they aren't meant to be! I think introducing the Washingtons was a great idea and I love hearing them on the show.
Samitude wrote:Also, we need families with more then two children. I come from a family of four children with several families my church at least having three.
In the past I have said this too. The Washingtons do have 3 children though (and almost a 4th with Xavier and now a 5th with Kellie... and does Mandy count too?
), even if we haven't actually ever heard the oldest on the program. Since most of the AIO kids are in the middle school range, it'd be tough to regularly feature more than 2 unless they were quadruplets or something and that'd get confusing! I still think AIO could work on this idea but I also see that unless they want to go DGL route, they really don't need a larger family to make their shows work.
Jonathan wrote:My problem is that they tend to be wacky. I think they would mean much more to us if we didn't have episodes like The Business of Busyness, Bringing up Dad, and...whatever that episode was with the kids running amok in the resturaunt. Episodes like Switch and others are good.
My point is, I don't mind if they are featured as long as these two things don't happen: 1. Circus-music-and-mayhem-in-place-of-plot episodes
In general, wackiness would probably be a major issue I'd address with the writers. I love humor. People who know me would tell you that I love to make jokes (often getting raised eyebrows from people I've just met). But sometimes AIO humor is too stupid, especially with the adults. I often think Connie is less mature now than she was a few years ago. Wooton is a character that I have a hard time with when he's not doing something productive like mentoring Grady (being a fun person is okay but putting tongs up your nose isn't). I found the plotline of "A Christmas Conundrum" to be extremely unbelievable. It seemed an attempt at a "classic" feel with the 4 people it used but their actions were so immature that I found myself wishing that this show had used kids to illustrate the point instead. To be honest, I've often felt that Whit wasn't funny enough in recent years (more like the predictor of doom) but "Switch" put a smile on my face. I want the adults to be less stupid at the funny points and have fewer juvenile comments coming out of their mouths. I feared for Ed Washington when he was first introduced lest he be too wacky but I think my fears are allayed on that score. Since AIO has been trying to deal with some serious issues (the McKay family, the Washingtons taking in Kellie, the Straussberg's splitting up, etc.) I don't want people to miss the "meat" of the shows because they're stuck on the ridiculous or the impossible.
Jonathan wrote:...does it matter? Really?
My parents, particuarly my Dad, brought me and my siblings up to be 'color blind', if you will. I think they had great success there. So I can't help but be surprised this was brought up. Why does skin-color make a difference?
And if you insist on making that an issue (which it really shouldn't be), I should remind you that Odyssey seems to be a predominantly white community. So it would only logically follow that the Washington's would have plenty of white friends.
It's also worth noting that it's easier for white people to be 'color blind' if the African-American people they know act "white." (Which you'd expect from the Washingtons since they do live in a "predominantly white area" like you said.) People get a lot less comfortable when people of other races retain their culture. AIO probably isn't the place to make that point. They've done their part, imho, by introducing a central African-American family (and ensuring you can tell this from their voices) and I actually felt uncomfortable early on when they made a few comments (Xavier's comments to Ed; Marvin in "The American Revelation") to drive the point home. But, in RL, we need to be accepting of people whether or not they conform to our idea of culture (European, African, Asian, Hispanic, etc.) and that may make 'color-blindness' a little more difficult to achieve.
shasta wrote:I'd agree with Jonathan on the idea of AIO attempting to be color-blind...
Should the writers "call attention to" characters' race more? I'd tend to say no, unless it's relevant to a story. But I do think in the package illustrations, they should be as multi-racial as possible.
I basically agree with this too (I remember posting a little bit about this awhile back to, trying to figure out my view on this). I felt the AIO movies handled it in too cheesy a manner and the illustrations of the others races weren't handled too well, imho. So I'm glad the radio show is doing a better job of this.
Jonathan wrote:Particuarly the older kids. Nick and Aubrey, for example. Easily two of my favorite characters, and it's been over two years since we've heard from Nick
I think they're keeping him alive and will probably use him more once the whole Eugene Returns euphoria has worn off.
Jonathan wrote:Aubrey (I'm still really worried that Always was written to give the Shepards an exit from the show). It'd be nice if we heard from them again.
I am of the opinion that they originally had bigger plans for Aubrey's future but changed their minds (perhaps because Eugene was coming back?). Then they realized that they needed to do
something to close off her storyline and suddenly grew her up and sent her out of town. I don't have much hope of her coming back.
