"Seasons" of AIO

Whit's wiping down the counter, Connie's mopping the floor, and the kids are sipping on their milkshakes. If you want to talk about Adventures in Odyssey the radio drama, this is the spot to do just that!
Post Reply
User avatar
Bob
Catspaw Rocks!
Posts: 705
Joined: September 2006
Location: The Metroplex
Gender:
Contact:

"Seasons" of AIO

Post by Bob »

This occurred to me while I was writing the other topic, and I decided to split it off into its own.

If AIO were a planet, it would take about two and a half years for its revolution around the sun to be complete, possibly 830+ days.

It's difficult to get an exact count quickly, because of discontinued and Club episodes, but a quick and dirty count, assuming no Club episodes:
* Spring would begin in episode #1, Whit's Flop, and could continue up to around "The Mortal Coil".
* Summer may commence around "The Mortal Coil" and continues up until around "Opening Day".
* Fall starts after and continues until around "Life, in the Third Person".
* Winter starts after that, and 'ends*' in "The Lost One".

* By definition, because we're saying the Odyssey year is the length of the broadcast schedule. If there were fewer or more radio episodes, everything would be slightly different.

I know a lot of people have tried different ways of categorizing AIO 'eras'; how do you think this quick take compares to those?
User avatar
Jonathan
Dungeon Master
Posts: 11352
Joined: April 2005
Location: Twin Cities, Minnesota

Post by Jonathan »

Thanks to the advanced search function I found a thread from 15 years ago (oof) where a similar question was posed. Here were my "seasons" at the time:
Finding the Niche
1987-October 1988
FP1-45
During this time AIO was getting on it's feet. The episodes were fine, but we also had the Harley trouble. While there are some gems in there (ep 5, for example), a good chunk of these eps are below the standard that Odyssey wound up setting for itself.

Classic Era
Late October 1988-April 1994
46-262
By now Odyssey had found it's niche. We had episodes we could relate to (so much that I think Odyssey spied on me as a child from time to time ;) ), the Barclay's, the beginning of Blackgaard's story, kid's that everyone enjoyed (Lucy, Sam, Curt, etc), and just overall goodness.

Brief Rut
April 1994-June 1994
263-271
For whatever reason, these two months were kinda blah. The stories and overall quality took a bit of a dip, with some good ones now and then (266-267, for example, as well as 270).

Golden Era
June 1994-June 1996
272-357
With Whit gone, the show was consistently good (a pleasent surprise, I'm sure). We had DBD, the start of BTV, and somehow every episode didn't seem to be out of place or lacking. We also got some terrific stories in here: ANNAN, The Perfect Witness, etc. We were also introduced to Jason and Jack and saw some great character development here.

Return to Normal--Mostly
September 1996-September 1999
358-423
The next few years were somewhat like the classic era, but with different kids. We got new characters, Whit was re-established at Whit's End, and we saw more storylines crop up. Hardly anything to dislike here.

Whoops
October 1999-May 2000
424-448 (plus Bethany's Flood)
Easily the darkest period in AIO's history. Blackgaard's revenge, split episodes, no character development, poor characterizations--there wasn't much to like in this season. Thankfully AIO did an about face with the next season.

Getting Back Into the Niche
September 2000-Feburary 2005
449-563
With the 1999-2000 season behind them, the AIO team got back into the niche. We once again saw character development, adventure (Novacom, anyone?) and slice of life eps again. There were a few hiccups (like 550), but they were far and few between. The team also had to write the series without Eugene.

New Directions
April 2005-Present
564-present
The return of everyone's favorite geek brought more changes. The overall quality of the show improved some, and we saw new storylines. We've also had plenty of action (The Top Floor, Prisoners of Fear, Something Big), but at the same time, a slight decrease in slice of life eps.
Obviously I would have some to add from spring 2007 until about 2014. Post 2014 I'm not as familiar with the show and others would have to weigh in.
Post Reply