Rip Off Episodes

[Mark Prescott]

Is it just me? Or have most of the episodes this season been rip-offs? I can make a list of episodes this year that sounded a lot like previous episodes.

Clutter- This episode seemed to me to be a lot like "Treasures of the Heart", album 16. But, I have to say, that even thought I don't enjoy "Treasures of the Heart", I liked it better than Clutter. I mean, Clutter is just David Parker walking around their house telling the kids what to keep and throw away. At least "Treasures of the Heart" had a good plot and sub-plot to it.

Finish What You...- I thought that this one sounded a lot like "The 'No' Factor", Album 15, except for the fact that Connie truly was over committed; Olivia Parker was just a procrastinating baby.

Stage Fright- This may just be me, but after I thought about it, I found it was very much like "Terror From the Skies", Album 18. They both deal with irrational fear. But once again, I thought that the latter (Terror From th Skies) was better. There's just a sense of Gold Audio in that one. I also don't care for the Jones and Parker detective agency. And, really? A parrot? Seriously?

A Thankstaking Story- This one reminds me of "A Thanksgiving Carol", but only because FOTF took a Christmas story in each one and adapted it. I do have to say, though, I don't care much for Odyssey Musicals, and this is no exception.

An Agreeable Nanny- This one reminds me of "Two Sides to Every Story" , Album 9. I don't know why, because they both have different themes, but They just seem to point to each other. Because they both have that Responsibility theme to them, even though "Two Sides to Every Story" is about perspective.

Grandma's Christmas Visit This one reminds me, broadly, of "Peace on earth", Album 3, because they both are about peace at Christmas time. But, for the first time in my post, I have to say that I like "Grandma's Christmas Visit" better, because it seems to me that that one is a bit more eventful.

Well, have any comments? Care to add anything?

[Aaron Wiley]

I don't think certain episodes are "rip off's" just because they deal with some of the same issues as others, or perhaps have the same premiss. I can agree with some of these, but to be honest, if every new AIO ep was based on something different than what's been done in the past, it would be so freakin ridiculous that I wouldn't be able to listen to it.

[Bob]

Some of these episodes are similar, but if you asked me to choose an episode that really "ripped off" an old one, it would be from before album 51.

I'm specifically thinking of episode #632, "Suspicious Finds"...which is nearly a carbon copy of episode #379, "Best Face Forward", except that it was done better (and made sense) the first time.

Best Face Forward taught two lessons, Suspicious Finds taught only one. Best Face Forward was the first time this happened, which presumably means the characters would have learned from it; Suspicious Finds only proves they really didn't learn anything the first time around. Best Face Forward involves mostly kids (meaning that their bad decisions are understandable), Suspicious Finds involves mostly adults (meaning that they look like idiots).

The part that really hits the "ripoff" bit home, though, in Suspicious Finds, is when Connie starts reciting her speech about behavior at Whit's End to the kids...it's almost word-for-word what she says in Best Face Forward. In fact, it's very nearly the same scene, except that it's worse, because Connie sounds less sophisticated and keeps repeating "even if you don't like them".

Some of these recent episodes may have vague similarities to older ones, but Odyssey's most blatant attempt to copy their older works happened before album #51.

As far as the individual episodes, "An Agreeable Nanny" seems to be more in line with Slumber Party...they both have children that do stupid things when their parents are away (or unavailable), and that's made into the main theme of the show. "Two Sides to Every Story" is focused more on the perspective angle (by necessity, because of the three different narrators), and besides that, it's too plausible.

I think the problem with "Stage Fright" is that the only character who's effective is Emily. Everyone else is irrationally scared out of their wits, and stay that way for the entire episode, but she's portrayed as this all-knowing Sherlock Holmes, and patronizes the audience and all of her friends throughout the course of the episode. Terror From the Skies, at least, has a really effective main duo (Jimmy and Lawrence), and they're *both* driven, by an interesting set of coincidences, to do stupid things.

Grandma's Christmas Visit...I guess it does have a vague "peace" theme, but it's so understated that it becomes ineffective. In fact, the entire episode doesn't really have a clear point, because of all the distractions and stuff that's going on. It's too busy to give us a point...which, I guess, might be a subtle way of telling us not to do too much around Christmas time, or it'll turn out as tangled as the episode. The main two scenes that stick out to me are Mrs. Parker, in those scenes, being overwhelmed by all the activities that other people volunteered her into, and the end scenes where Mr. Whittaker decides to give the kids good gifts after all (much to Obnoxious Connie's despair and dismay). That last scene could be taken as being about the value of the gift God gave us on Christmas.

"Clutter" and "Finish What You..." really are both obviously clones of older episodes, and they're not as good as the old ones either...but they're still basically decent episodes (except for Obnoxious Connie's total lack of sympathy in Finish, considering that she did a very similar thing ten years ago). Still, I wouldn't rank them as badly as I would Suspicious Finds, which is a ripoff in virtually every definition -- it rips off an old episode's plot, it rips off an old episode's name, and it rips off the fans by being a bad episode.

[Leonard Meltsner]

For "Clutter", as being the first real episode focused on the Parkers, I was quite enraged that they copied another episode in premise and story line, lesson, even the verse, except that they took out all the best parts about it.

[Mark Prescott]

I didn't mean rip off, just that a lot of the episodes are pretty much the same.

[Bennett]

I'm on a bus right now so I can't really reply to everything. But, Bob, you do realize that the similarities between best face forward and suspicious finds were intentional, right? Album 50 was supposed to be a play off of those older shows...sortve a salute to the classics...hence the mashup of episode titles. There are dozens more examples throughout the album.

[Bob]

I'm aware of that, but the fact is that most of those episodes don't just rip off the plot, wholesale, or even as much as an entire scene, the same way that that episode did...and the stuff they do copy isn't generally as poorly done either. There's a right way to make a homage and a wrong way, and Suspicious Finds is a sterling example of the latter...for all the reasons I mentioned above.

(That said, the fact that the rest of the episodes in that album don't generally rip off the old ones as much doesn't mean that it's a great album...maybe five of them are good, by my measure. Two of those might even be great, but those two are "The Imagination Station, Revisited"... and it'd be hard to mess up a reprise of "The Imagination Station"... so I'm not sure how many bonus points the Odyssey team should get for that.)

[Dallas R.]

I've been thinking a lot about this too and trying to decide whether I like it or not. I'd prefer that could come up with new ideas, but in a show with over 600 episodes, you're going to start running into repetition. At least the way they are using repetition, in my opinion, is different enough from other episodes that it doesn't bother me.

If we wanted to add to the list we should add the Malted Milkball Falcon being similar to Broken Window. You can see my review of that episode to see all of the other similarities that I've found between the two.

Also though they aren't that much alike, The Mystery of the Clock Tower" has a few similarities to "The Case of the Secret Room"/it kind of reminded me of "The Other Side of the Glass"

Further, "As Fast as I Can" has some similarities to "Do or Diet".

[Mark Prescott]

Oh, I also forgot, "Mystery of the Clock Tower" reminds me of Adventures in Mysteries: Book 1 The Secret Letter or something like that.

[jennifertwt]

Clutter did remind me of an episode with the Barclays, but I haven't been able to pull it out of my memory bank yet. I must admit, I enjoy listening to my old favorites more than the new season. At least album 51 had a fantastic finish with The Jubliee Singers 3-parter. While Grandma's Christmas Visit was an 'instant classic' for me, it was a long time waiting for it. I did not like A Thankstaking Story at all. I think they tried to do too much. A Thanksgiving Carol is one of my all time favoriites, so this was a disappointment. I also wish they had kept the working title of White Elephant Christmas for Grandma's Christmas Visit, but the game show aspect was too much. White Elephant parties are crazy enough.

I am afraid the series might have actually run it's course. I hope The Green Ring Conspiracy brings back the old magic.

merry Christmas and God Jul!

[Steve]

To bring back the old magic, they should bring back the old crummy microphones and '80s style synth music.

[Leonard Meltsner]

Oh, the nostalgia of the 80's synth music. Those were the days...

[TigerintheShadows]

I don't know, I think the 90s music had quite a bit of flair to it as well.

It's hard to come up with a plotline every episode that differs from 600 others. If they could at least have some mild yet hilarious and original catastrophe once every few eps, then that might be quite memorable.