The Decline of Adventures in Odyssey

[Marvin D.]

Please do

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

If you mean Vocaroo, sure!

[Graces4you]

here it is
http://vocaroo.com/?media=vitUiXGPyNjZNAbMw
Enjoy!
Also, all of the songs except for one is the full length so it does get sort of long. Tell me what you think of it! My voice is not the greatest, not to keep you from listening or anything....

[Peachey Keen]

Umm...hello guys! This is the same thing that happened after the last hiatus. Let's give Odyssey a chance.

[Bren]

Umm...hello guys! This is the same thing that happened after the last hiatus. Let's give Odyssey a chance.

QFT. Thanks Austin. Now I don't have to go rant about it somewhere.

[Knight Fisher]

Umm...hello guys! This is the same thing that happened after the last hiatus. Let's give Odyssey a chance.

QFT. Thanks Austin. Now I don't have to go rant about it somewhere.

The main difference is that they were slightly controversial. When was the last time they said anything that could offend someone? If everybody agrees there is something wrong.

[Taps]

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.

Good explanation AE!

I am just starting to Yawn now. I mean seriously have we seriously been yakking about Odyssey not being as good as it was before for almost a year and a half? Come on. Gripe for a month then be done with it. I think they are hitting THEIR TARGET AGE just right

Red did NOT replace Bernard. Just saying. I don't remember who said that but it was somebody working with focus.

[Marvin D.]

We begin one of the worst albums of the history of AIO with the Mystery of the Clock Tower, an episode in which Connie pushes her way into the mystery, along with Eugene and his tag, Matthew, who obviously has decided that Emily’s mysteries aren’t quite as interesting (though he gets involved in them later). AIO carefully goes around the subject about Andrew stalking Alicia by calling it an “unhealthy crush” (seriously, who says that?), and the mystery ends with a plot twist which really was quite...lame, as in I kind of expected that. But all’s well that ends well.

Wooton’s Broken Pencil Show. The first word tells it all. Wooton. If it were Connie’s Broken Pencil Show, it might have been better. But when we hear it’s Wooton, we know we’re in for a terrible adventure. And in the half hour that follows, we hear of underarm deodorant, Captain Absolutely, squirrels, and car alarms. The moral? Never steal something made in the late 1800s or something like that. Sure, entertainment should have a point, but was that REALLY the best way to bring that across? And...with Wooton? *le sigh*

Moving away from that, we land in the middle of a school production, a nice change from the Phantom of the Opera. Make that, the Phantom of the Taft-Hartley. Barrett’s voice has nicely changed from the squealing Verminoids addict, yet his scream is quite annoying. With Emily dragging poor Matthew everywhere, it’s easy to see who’s in control as they go in on another mystery with Mr. Whatcha-Call-Him (whose accent, by the way, is the fakest) and Jay and everyone else. And at the very end when Emily tries to yell a moral, everyone goes to be on TV. Figures.

The next four episodes are normal ones, but...well...very bad? Fast as I Can. We learn how to fast. How? By praying ridicoulous prayers when we think of food, by taking cheesy Imagination Station adventures (which, I really think wouldn’t help Matthew because not a lot of time passes in there), by being happy when you’re called ugly, and by making sure that you don’t use words that have more than three syl-er...units of speech. Whate-Something like that. Crikey. Then there’s Opposite Day, probably one of the worst episodes in all history. Olivia, the sniveling, melodramatic teenager, with Amber, the girl with the worst laugh ever. And then Whit tells Olivia it’s pretty much okay to have yelled at Amber, just as long as her point was made? We do get another point of view with some other characters in the Owlnapping, and we get to hear of Vance and Coach Fang, but that too falls short for much interest. Once again we hear of Emily in Square One, as she comes of at some of her most manipulativeness and nastiness...or stuff like that. And even though she says she’s learned her lesson, she’s obviously not. Refer to the Green Ring Conspiracy.

Then we have a holiday episode, a Thankstaking Story. Bring in Eugene, Connie, Whit, and Wooton, along with Wally and Jay, for a wacky tale which seems rather...elaborate for not much planning. With unbelievable voices, but okay music, the episode brings across some of the feel for Thanksgiving, but not that much. And as usual, there’s a happy ending. Sigh.

An Agreeable Nanny—unrealistic, really. I mean, who would go out of their way to get a nanny who uses a fake accent and words like “spit-spot” just to come off as Mary Poppins? Really? REALLY? That was...weird for the Parkers to do in the least, and I dun quite remember what I learned, except not to leave them banana stuff cooking without watching them. Then in the Case of the Chocolately Malt Ball Goodness Pinanta—shortened down still—Emily is off to investigate once again, taking things to another extreme. Whit plays the sneaky role (a little bit like Broken Window), and Jay actually stays out of trouble (and keeps his record in GRC for the most part too).

We end with a Christmas episode which is still not as Christmassy as one might expect, with all of Connie’s screaming and the elaborateness of it, and Mama Lucia causing a big ruckus, even if she does know what it means to have peace. The album ends with a peaceful scene with Whit and Lucia—a possible couple? Never.

And so, Album 52 comes off as one of the worst albums in all history with all its cheesy plots. How far up does AIO go next time in GRC? That’s next time, too.

[Leonard Meltsner]

Marvin, as is said so consistently throughout this site, and this thread, Odyssey is a children's show. It is a show with shows that have always been sometimes good, sometimes not-so-good, but complaining will do nothing. You have already overly expressed your hatred for the New Era of Odyssey, so it is now a moot point to continue on the subject.

As a side note, all of the "weak teaching points" in Fast As I Can which you berated, were said in the episode to be weak teaching points. The entire point of the episode was that mind-altered IS adventures, being vain about being un-primped, and trying to constantly use words with less than 3 units of sound AREN'T ways to learn about fasting. You, in fact, reiterated their point.

[Marvin D.]

Marvin, as is said so consistently throughout this site, and this thread, Odyssey is a children's show. It is a show with shows that have always been sometimes good, sometimes not-so-good, but complaining will do nothing. You have already overly expressed your hatred for the New Era of Odyssey, so it is now a moot point to continue on the subject.

As a side note, all of the "weak teaching points" in Fast As I Can which you berated, were said in the episode to be weak teaching points. The entire point of the episode was that mind-altered IS adventures, being vain about being un-primped, and trying to constantly use words with less than 3 units of sound AREN'T ways to learn about fasting. You, in fact, reiterated their point.

*is continuing until he reaches Album 53*

No, not just that, but it felt totally incomplete in explaining what to do then if you really wanted to fast--it tried, but didn't bring it off well.

[Bob]

We begin one of the worst albums of the history of AIO

Objective much?

Once again we hear of Emily in Square One, as she comes of at some of her most manipulativeness and nastiness...or stuff like that.

The point of the episode is to show that the way Emily is acting is a bad thing. Of course she isn't going to be especially likable.

At one point, I believe I might have sympathized with some of the negative reviews about her, but now they all strike me as being overblown. So people don't like her personality -- my answer is, So what? In life, some people are going to be harder to like than others. That is how it is. In the end, there isn't much that anyone but God can do about it. I don't think that accurately portraying reality is a sign of an "awful" show... Emily is like the "Goofus" character in AIO. It takes all kinds.

And even though she says she’s learned her lesson, she’s obviously not.

If that lesson was, "Stop believing that the ends justify the means and that blackmail is an acceptable tool," I think the odds are that she did learn it, or at least tried to learn it.

That doesn't mean she's instantly going to become a perfect person, or that she won't suffer some occasional relapses. Obviously it would be preferable if she did, but if she doesn't, that's life. It happens sometimes.

And as usual, there’s a happy ending. Sigh.

I actually happen to agree with you on this episode, that is, that I don't like it very much, but if I may ask, what kind of an ending would you want to see, if not a happy one? I can just see the possibilities now:

CONNIE (in character): ... so we're thankful for your oppressing the town, too!
JAY (in character): Uh... really? Er... OK, there's only one more way to fix this! BRING OUT THE FIRING SQUAD!
<awkward five-minute silence>
EUGENE: Well, I hoped I could get the power back on, but unfortunately, it seems that such is not forthcoming. Oh, and, er, Connie...
CONNIE: Yes?
EUGENE: I found your phone... or what's left of it.
CONNIE: What's LEFT of it?!?
EUGENE: It seems you accidentally dropped it into my new high-performance garbage disposal...
(cue SHRIEK, fade out)

Then in the Case of the Chocolately Malt Ball Goodness Pinanta

Using that name in your review strikes me as beating a dead horse -- since it's only used once in the entire episode, and not even the characters preferred to use it, instead going with "The Case of the Malted Milkball Falcon" (which is the proper name of the episode).

And so, Album 52 comes off as one of the worst albums in all history with all its cheesy plots.

I admit that it isn't going to be entering my Odyssey Album Hall of Fame anytime soon, but the fact is that these reviews of it -- and post-#50 Odyssey in general -- almost strike me as though people are searching for reasons to dislike it.

And I still can't understand why -- while I recognize this is probably flogging a deceased quadruped as well -- in my mind #50 is just as bad as, or worse than, #51-52. If people were saying, "Odyssey got bad after album #49", yeah, I might could buy into that. If it was, "The series really collapsed after album #38", maybe so. If it was, "Odyssey might as well have died after album #32", well, I suppose you can make some good arguments for it.

But #50? That people seem to love what I believe to be one of the worst albums ever, and herald it as the "last good Odyssey album" (in opposition to #51 and #52, which are allegedly only good feeding the fireplace), is what really baffles me about all of this, especially when there's an outstanding album that's better than all three of them put together right before them. Surely our reviewing standards couldn't be that different... could they?

[Knight Fisher]

Uh they never exactly said what Emily did in Square One was wrong. She tells Matthew to flatter, bribe, bribe, make a really dumb flattering speech, and then blackmail. And Whit never tells Emily it is wrong.

[Bob]

Uh they never exactly said what Emily did in Square One was wrong. She tells Matthew to flatter, bribe, bribe, make a really dumb flattering speech, and then blackmail.

They might not have had a monologue where someone said, "Matthew, every single one of the things that Emily told you to do is evil", but I think everyone who listened to the episode could have reasonably gathered that her suggestions were a bad thing -- if not from the failed attempts themselves, then from the scene where Matthew actually confronts her about her wrongdoings.

And Whit never tells Emily it is wrong.

From what I remember of it, she finally got the clue herself after Matthew told her, so there's no need to bring a third party into it. What would Whit do that wasn't done in the original episode?

[Marvin D.]

I don't expect Emily to become world's perfect saint (I never do after learning a lesson), but couldn't she have changed just a bit for GRC?

Maybe not that kind of happy ending, but...several hours later Harlow comes in when it's too late to get the most out of their Thanksgiving could be something to think about.

I'm pointing out Emily's naming skills, though I'll bring up the point that even that was still kind of long :/

Nooo, it didn't go quite downhill after Album 50, though 51's totally new characters helped. It would have changed anyways. 49 was when it really started, and the rest was history.

[Musical Shutterbug]

Wooton’s Broken Pencil Show. The first word tells it all. Wooton. If it were Connie’s Broken Pencil Show, it might have been better. But when we hear it’s Wooton, we know we’re in for a terrible adventure. And in the half hour that follows, we hear of underarm deodorant, Captain Absolutely, squirrels, and car alarms. The moral? Never steal something made in the late 1800s or something like that. Sure, entertainment should have a point, but was that REALLY the best way to bring that across? And...with Wooton? *le sigh*

Why they had to put such an annoying little man in AIO is beyond me. "Wooton’s Broken Pencil Show" was probably one of the worst episodes that I have ever heard.

Wooton is really just plain annoying. I've said this many times before, but it's really true: he always behaves in such an immature way that when he tries to influence kids, or do something responsible, you never can take it seriously.

Maybe I am being harsh, (I apologize to all Wooton lovers out there) but why did Wooton have to replace Harlow? Harlow was funny all of the time. He did not have mixed behaviors, such as Wooton does.

[SoccerLOTR]

I admit, there have definitely been some pretty lousy episodes in the past--but typically never an ENTIRE album that I didn't like--and definitely never multiple albums in a row that I thought were bad. And typically, when they introduced a bad character (for example, danny), they only had a few episodes with the character then they were done and you can forget they ever existed. The only exception to this rule is Wooton, though that debate will last 'til the end of time. Though about Wooton, he typically only completely ruins a few episodes--most he can be ignored and occasionally he has a good moment or two.
Also, in previous seasons, they never let down on the morals and lessons. Whit NEVER condoned inappropriate actions or tried to make them sound not so bad, unless they were his own--in which case, one of his friends (Tom, Jack, Bernard) would come in and correct him. It's almost like now we have the Whit from I Slap Floor...not the full-of-wisdom-and-reliable-Whit.

I do disagree with all those who believe album 50 was the worst--while I certainly don't think it was one of the best, it still had a few good eps in it--unlike 51 & 52. And I also disagree with those that say Odyssey got lousy after the last hiatus as well...maybe a few more weaker episodes, but certainly not ALL horrible episodes.

[TigerintheShadows]

To be honest, I don't really like the new kid characters. There's such an amount of charm about the ones I grew up with--that is, the ones who premiered both before and directly after hiatus #1. In fact, now that I think about it, the only character who ever came across to me as unlikeable was Liz pre-character development (or derailment, whichever you prefer), and after said development/derailment, I liked her as much as I did the others.

Now...I don't know if it's because I'm growing up or if it's because Odyssey is growing down, so to speak, but I just don't like these new kids. I'm leaning toward the latter, because I may be growing up, but the old child characters are some of my favorites and remain as such and I can listen to those episodes without:

a) fearing that people halfway across the neighborhood can hear me,

b) wanting to jerk out half my hair, or

c) recall "The Chipmunk Song" when I hear one particular character's voice.

Nowadays, it's just not like that. I realize that they're trying to appeal to their target demographic, but I think that the staff--old, new, whatever--needs to remember their periphary demographic when writing kid characters.

To be honest, I'm in the middle about all of this. I think we're in a bit of a rut, but it was the same way before and there isn't anything saying that we can't get back to prime. My main problem is the child characters, who get on my nerves quite a bit--and I know I'm not the only person who is sick and tired of adults failing epically at sounding like kids (Olivia and Emily much?). Just cast a kid and be done with it.

[Shennifer]

I definitely agree about adults playing kids; that simply shouldn't happen in most cases. And Olivia and Emily should be played by kids because, as my sister says, the actors can better relate to each other AND to the audience because they'll grow up together, to borrow the phrase. I don't mind Emily's character as much as I did at first, but I do wish she was played by a real kid.

As far as Odyssey in general, I was previously of the opinion that everything after album 50 was not to be tolerated. I felt the same way about some of the sillier albums and episodes in the 30s albums, but I eventually did listen to and end up liking them a lot. The same goes here; I did listen to the last few albums, and didn't like them at first, but they've grown on me. I liked the GRC, though I think there were way too many details and that made it a bit confusing. I think they should've made it simpler, yet exciting instead of trying to cram all these characters and details in.

But back to Odyssey. If we'll all remember, like has been repeated in this thread, Odyssey is a kid show. Has been from the start. HOWEVER, it became clear that they weren't just appealing to kids as the show continued to air, what with episodes like The Mortal Coil, and sagas like DBD and Novacom, that appealed to all ages, like teens and college kids, and not just grade school children. I'm in favor of making more 'ordinary' episodes, or 'original' if you will, like they tried to do after the hiatus after album 50, but I also appreciate more serious episodes as well as ordinary ones about realistic people and problems.

I think the writers need to remember that, while Odyssey began as, and still is, a kid show, it is ALSO is for teens and college kids and even adults I think. And I miss the days where the actors didn't have to be 'perfect' and even if they weren't that great, people still liked it. Of course, we all like good actors, but also convincing actors as well as convincing stories that we can relate to.

Thank you.

[SoccerLOTR]

Now...I don't know if it's because I'm growing up or if it's because Odyssey is growing down, so to speak, but I just don't like these new kids. I'm leaning toward the latter, because I may be growing up, but the old child characters are some of my favorites and remain as such and I can listen to those episodes without:

a) fearing that people halfway across the neighborhood can hear me,

HAHA--I know the feeling...i listen to new eps at work and panic while scrambling to turn the volume down if a co-worker comes in! But as for your first statement...I've considered the question as well, and can't get beyond the fact that MANY characters have been introduced while I've been both a teen and adult, and this is the first time I've hated so many so much.

I think the writers need to remember that, while Odyssey began as, and still is, a kid show, it is ALSO is for teens and college kids and even adults I think. And I miss the days where the actors didn't have to be 'perfect' and even if they weren't that great, people still liked it. Of course, we all like good actors, but also convincing actors as well as convincing stories that we can relate to.

agreed.

[American Eagle]

Maybe I am being harsh, (I apologize to all Wooton lovers out there) but why did Wooton have to replace Harlow? Harlow was funny all of the time. He did not have mixed behaviors, such as Wooton does.

Strongly, STRONGLY disagree. Harlow is heartless and never helps anyone. He brings nothing to the show. Wooton, on the other hand, has a loving heart and care for others, despite his corny jokes. I agree that Wooton’s Broken Pencil Show was terrible.

Forgive me for this rabbit trail. How's that for harsh, IDJ?

[Musical Shutterbug]

Maybe I am being harsh, (I apologize to all Wooton lovers out there) but why did Wooton have to replace Harlow? Harlow was funny all of the time. He did not have mixed behaviors, such as Wooton does.

Strongly, STRONGLY disagree. Harlow is heartless and never helps anyone. He brings nothing to the show. Wooton, on the other hand, has a loving heart and care for others, despite his corny jokes. I agree that Wooton’s Broken Pencil Show was terrible.

Forgive me for this rabbit trail. How's that for harsh, IDJ?

It is useless to resist the truth. *pats*

Harlow wasn't exactly "heartless". It just wasn't his job to reach out to others. His job was to be a funny detective who never could solve any cases Wooton, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be able to make up his mind. "Am I going to be mature and serious about life or not?"

Don't worry, I can handle harshness