The Town of Odyssey

first, i gotta say up front that AIO has been a major blessing these many years. there are so many great things about Odyssey that are too numerous to mention.

i'm sure that we have all at one time or another wished we could be in on the writing process, etc, so i thought it would be neat if we all pretend we have been asked by the writers to tell them three things we would do if we were writing the show. since we all love the show, even if some of our comments are "negative", they would all be said out of our deep love and affection for Odyssey.

here's my three:

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.

2. odyssey needs a villian. since you can't or won't bring regis back, i think you should introduce a character that we can love to hate, and who will stick around for a long while. novacom sagas are great, but we need a "dark" person in odyssey who sticks around for a long time, and who will keep us on the edge of our seats.

3. connie needs to fall in love, get married, and adopt a child. it would create the perfect Christian odyssey family. especially if connie and husband to be adopted a couple of kids who were eight or ten years old, and let connie be a mom. imagine all the possibilities.

anyway, those are my ideas. anyone have other suggestions?

I think some of the original characters need to come back. Jessie, Donna, Jared, Sam, Jimmy, Harlow Doyle, and all those others who were in the beginning of Odyssey. I miss them!

I like the Washington parents, but am not sure about the kids. Do most children act like they do? The parents don't seem to have any control of the children. I can't believe their behaviour in public sometimes. I do agree that they are way overused.

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.

I would love to hear more from that girl who said that poem at that Odyssey talent show. I don't remember her name right now, but I really liked her. I think she's been on one other episode.

Now, I'm not meaning to be racial, but hear me out. Is it usual for a black family like the Washingtons to not have any black friends? I think I would like to hear about their family more if there were other black people for them to hang out with. To me it seems more usual. Am I way off base?

I agree that Connie needs to marry, but she needs to marry Billy McPherson. Here's my thoughts on future Odyssey episodes.

http://thetoo.com/viewtopic.php?p=249827#249827

I think we should hear from people's families who we haven't heard from in a long time, if ever. Example: we should hear from Liz's family and maybe the Mulligens.

*hollers across the board to Nathan*

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 have objections to this.

First off, I don't think the Odyssey team is trying to duplicate the 'magic'. It's just not possible. In light of that, they do need Christian families. So why are you objecting?

Featured too much? Check aiohq. They haven't had many episodes.

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 and 2. They don't try to make them to be carbon copies of the Barclays. If they don't do that, this family has a lot of potential.

Samitude wrote:Now, I'm not meaning to be racial, but hear me out. Is it usual for a black family like the Washingtons to not have any black friends? I think I would like to hear about their family more if there were other black people for them to hang out with. To me it seems more usual. Am I way off base?

...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.

But I really don't think that matters, so this whole part of my post should be moot (because it really shouldn't make a difference anyway).

As for what I would like, Nick works at Whit's End! Therefore, we need to hear from the boy. He's another character with great potential. And the Shepards. I'm downright scared that Always was intended to write them out of the show. I really do think they need to stick around. They have become some of my favorite characters. I really hope we hear from them again.

I'd agree with Jonathan on the idea of AIO attempting to be color-blind...

One interesting point is the character of Curt Stevens; the actor was African-American, but he didn't necessarily "sound black". When visualizing is left to listeners (a requirement of audio drama), two people may have very different pictures of the racial, economic, (etc) make-up of Odyssey.

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.

peace!
-king shasta

Um. Make Nick the King of the World.

This may be applicable to the race issue; I'm listening to The Toy Man at the moment, where the following dialogue takes place:

The Toy man said, not wrote:Xavier: Even if you do get fired, why wouldn't you look for another good job?

Ed: I think Whit's End would be a good job.

Xavier: You're throwing away your life's work for an ice cream shop?

Ed: I don't see it that way Xavier.

Xavier: You're so much better off than my mother. And that's because you worked your way to the top. And now you're going to let that go? Do you know how many black executives there are in this county? It's pitiful.

Marvin: Yeah, he's right Dad.

Ed: My life is not a political statement. It's a statement about the faithfulness of God.

The point being that it really doesn't matter what skin color you are.

I really don't think Connie should get married...I think Jason should get married first! I'd rather have Connie stay the way she is and not get hung up over some guy. I'd like to have Jason fall in love and get married to someone...maybe Monica Stone?

Jason should get married to Monica Stone and she should become a christan.

We need another good schoolyard bully, Rodney has just gotten too old for the role, (we don't even know if he will stay in town after Bart leaves) and we need some sort of antagonist for the school kids to deal with.

I'd love for the Twilife Zone to have its own series. And I'm serious about this. I love Twilife Zone episodes, and, with five so far, the program really could work. (The five episodes that I was referring to were "Better Late than Never", "The Twilife Zone", "The Time of Our Lives", "Two Roads", and "My Girl, Hallie".)

My reccomendations would be...


1. It seems like the story are too fast paced and unrealistic, and have a lesson thrown in at the end.

2. I think they should put more Bible stories in, even if it they have to retell the same ones. The Bible story ones are still some of my favorites. (whoops I just read about the Bernard and Jeremiah episode on Whitsend.org)

3. Right now I can't think of anything else.

BTW Just a question, in the "Impossible" if their invention could be cranked by hand, how would it be affected by a power surge?

Meo wrote:Jason should get married to Monica Stone and she should become a christan.

for some reason, i never liked monica stone. ideally, june kendall should consider dating a younger man, marry jason, then he would be connie's step dad.

Jasper Dale wrote:

Meo wrote:Jason should get married to Monica Stone and she should become a christan.

for some reason, i never liked monica stone. ideally, june kendall should consider dating a younger man, marry jason, then he would be connie's step dad.

Uhhhh...that would be extremely weird and awkward and strange...

Waluigi Freak 99 wrote:I'd love for the Twilife Zone to have its own series. And I'm serious about this. I love Twilife Zone episodes, and, with five so far, the program really could work. (The five episodes that I was referring to were "Better Late than Never", "The Twilife Zone", "The Time of Our Lives", "Two Roads", and "My Girl, Hallie".)

And don't forget about Missed It By That Much (which is really just the same as Better Late Then Never)

1. I think that Walker Edmiston's death should be made into a storyline. Lines from Bart and Tom could be used to have them on a bus. Then, suddenly, it crashes. (Lines like, "Oh, dear Lord!" (said by Tom in "The Nemesis") and, "So, where you going?" (said by Bart in "Gone . . .") could work.)

Then, Whit and Connie are just watching television. They hear about a crash on the news and express a few lines of concern - but become immediately extremely concerned when they hear that Bart and Tom died in the crash. (Same effect for Rodney and Dorris, but with less initial concern.)

This would pave the way for many storylines, including (possibly) . . .

- Dorris's conversion, but Rodney's insistance to persist in rebellion,
- The introduction of somone to run the Timothy Center (I was thinking maybe Petey Barnes)
- A funeral service for Tom, complete with flashbacks from the most notable moments in Tom's history ("Greater Love . . .", "The Homecoming", and the like).
- A very powerful episode about death and salvation.

That's my take on what should be done, anyway.

Well, I'll be the first to admit I have no idea what I think should happen to Tom and Bart (death, moving away, new voice actors, etc.); I could see advantages and disadvantages to all of the possibilities. But I do know the Rathbones need to get saved. All of them. And if it's too late for Bart....well, that's really sad. But maybe it'll bring Doris and Rodney to the Lord.

I think I would like more new kids. Seems like a lot of old kids have left or we have not been paying attention to them.