New Blog Feature

I added a new blog feature today. I've been working on it for a couple of days now, but I worked really hard this afternoon to get it finished so I could put it out here for you guys. There is now a "Reviews" page which you can go to to get a concise archive of all of the episode and character reviews I've ever done. This will be useful to me, so I hope it will be useful and fun to you as well.

In other news, guess who's coming to my house on Friday? Josh from The AIO Fan's Life!!! He and his family are coming to America for the first time in three years, and they're making a stop at my house from Friday to Monday! I'm very excited. Maybe he'll let me post a picture or two of our meeting. :)

P.S. This is my 150th post! And I forgot to post on the blog's anniversary last month, so let's make this the belated anniversary post too. My blog has now been around for two years! I'm so thankful to God for the opportunity to have had this for as long as He's let me had it.

The Green Ring Conspiracy Is...NOT Out Today

I had thought for sure that the new season was starting today. I mentioned last week that I'd be reviewing Part I of The Green Ring Conspiracy this week, but I went to Whitsend.org this morning, and that wasn't today's episode! I then went to the Odyssey Scoop and looked at the schedule for March, and saw that even though every single other year a new album has been aired in March, it started on the first Saturday, this year's season doesn't start until next week. :(

So it looks like maybe I'll have to do that review on Mitch that I told Brittini I'd do. Mind you, I haven't prepared for this in my brain at all, so if it isn't very good, don't blame me, blame the Odyssey people who changed the schedule!

The first thing ever said about Mitch, chronologically, is in the special letter included in the Novacom Saga from the Chairman of Andromeda to Mr. Charles. The chairman mentions that Arthur Dent has suggested "a young man he knew from Boston [who] might be perfect for the job and, in fact, has asked to be relocated to Odyssey." The job the Chairman refers to is the task of monitoring Mr. Whittaker at all times in order to gain his trust, so that it will be easier to steal the Imagination Station from him.

But the Chairman didn't take into consideration the fact that Mitch might develop relationships with people at Whit's End. Not only does he take a real liking to Mr. Whittaker, and therefore doesn't want to go along with Andromeda's evil plot, but he also falls in love with Connie. When we first meet him in Green Eyes and Yellow Tulips, we can tell that he and Connie are attracted to each other. Connie stumbles over her words whenever he asks her a question, and Mitch tells her that the sweater she's wearing looks good on her. But then, further into the same scene, she finds out he works for Novacom, and she isn't sure about him anymore. Later in the episode, she turns down Mitch's request to help him with a Sunday School class, thinking he's going to ask her out on a date. But the misunderstanding is quickly cleared up, and soon Mitch is sending her flowers.

Throughout the first half of the Novacom Saga, their relationship grows, and they start going out frequently to places like the bowling alley and Trickle Lake. We learn that Mitch can't cook to save his life, he enjoys horseback riding, he used to live in Maine and had a girlfriend named Justine, he doesn't like honey-roasted peanuts or water landings, and he loves macaroni and cheese. But then things start to get complicated. Connie starts to notice how many secrets Mitch has, and when she tries to ask him about them, he pretty much clams up. Then she finds a picture of a very attractive woman in his briefcase. But later in the same episode, as Connie peppers him with hard questions on Candid Conversations with Connie, Mitch blurts out that he thinks he's falling in love with her. That silences her, and she ends the show.

But then, a couple of episodes later, Mitch is suddenly taken by the Federal Witness Protection Program, and Connie is told that he's dead. And worse, she finds out that he was AREM--the computer hacker that seemed to be causing so many problems. She has a very hard time dealing with her grief, and after the funeral, she goes to Massachusetts to visit his sister, Rachel. While there, she mentions that she finally feels like she's finally getting used to Mitch being gone. But then she catches Rachel on the computer, and she hears "the AREM sound." She is dumbfounded when Rachel tells her that she needs to keep this a secret because it is very dangerous, but Mitch is alive.

So now Connie has to get used to him being alive. Mitch is now on the case with the FBI, trying to figure out what Novacom and Andromeda are up to. He ultimately helps to determine the "Launch Date" when the mind control will go global, and he also devises a plan with Nick to catch Mr. Charles. Ultimately, Novacom and Andromeda are put out of business, and all the villains except the Chairman are put in prison.

Since Novacom is shut down, Mitch looks for work for some time, but because he was involved with the company, he has a bad reputation, and he isn't hired anywhere. He eventually starts his own business fixing computer problems, but that isn't enough for him. He tries co-hosting a radio show with Connie as "Dr. Wise," but that doesn't satisfy him either. Next he gets caught up in a big mystery involving identity theft from Whit, and eventually the escape of Mr. Charles from prison. He starts out being a suspect in the theft, so the FBI doesn't allow him to help with the case, but he starts his own investigation with Whit. He ends up getting kidnapped by Mr. Charles, but he gets out of it. All this helps him to realize that he has a love for mysteries and crime-fighting. This seals his decision to go to Washington and train to join the FBI.

After about an album, Connie travels with Joanne Allen to visit him. While she's there, Mitch is accepted into a branch of the FBI that is going to take him to Budapest. He wants Connie to go with him, so he proposes to her, and she accepts! Connie's mom, Whit, and even George Barclay come into town for the wedding. After the rehearsal, Connie witnesses Mitch being "kidnapped," and she is terrified. She follows the kidnappers, but only to find out that it was just a few of Mitch's FBI friends giving him a unique bachelors' party. She realizes that she really isn't cut out for this kind of life, in constant fear for the life of her husband, and so she tells Mitch that she can't marry him. He "un-proposes" to her ("Connie, will you not marry me?" "I won't"), and they part ways.

That's the last we hear from Mitch, and it's always made me very sad. I always thought that he and Connie were really good for each other, and I'm always hoping that he'll get to come back someday. But as Odyssey writer Kathy Buchanan, the one who created Mitch's character, said in a 2007 Official Podcast, in order for Mitch to come back, "Ronald McDonald must become a vegetarian, cats need to become extinct, and Nathan Hoobler has to paint his toenails." According to Marshal Younger, the latter of those three has occured, but other than that, unfortunately, it's not going to happen. :(

But Mitch was a very well-loved character, and Steve Burns always did an amazing job voicing him, as well as Rodney Rathbone. He is definitely missed, and I never want anyone else, even Jason, to marry Connie. :)

Thank you for reading! Be sure to come back next week, when I, Lordwilling, will review Part I of The Green Ring Conspiracy. Please comment!

Mr., Mrs., Ms., Master, and Jr. Barclay (The Barclays)--Part III

Sorry that I haven't written in a while, and that I haven't written a review in a few weeks. I've been kind of busy and distracted the last few weeks with a lot of school and cleaning around the house. But now I'm going to try to get to that third and last part of the review on the Barclays. And after this, I think I'm going to stop the character reviews for good. Not just because the new season starts next week, but because it takes a lot of time and thought to write these, and I just don't really have that time. Although I guess I can, after the season's over, try to write one about Mitch upon constant request of Brittini. Who knows? Maybe after writing that one I'll want to keep writing more. I guess you guys'll just have to keep coming back and reading. :)

Alright, we left the Barclays last time just before they were going to take a trip to Hawaii. Aloha, Oy! has been a fan favorite ever since it aired on the radio in 1994, and for good reason. It combines two of the most popular families in Odyssey's history in an unusual setting, making for a hilarious episode. There's the storyline of Rodney trying to impress Donna (which I think is handled very well for a kids show, and in a funny way), Jimmy, Lawrence, and Mr. Iowa (ee-O-way) searching for Lawrence's dad, whom he hasn't seen in six months, all while the parents of the families go out on a boat ride, only to get trapped in the middle of the ocean with a holey ship that threatens to take them down with no one else around. In the end, the parents are saved by the U.S. Marines (at least that's who I think it was), Donna finally convinces Rodney to stop trying to win her over because it couldn't ever work for them, and Lawrence finds his dad, making for one of the most touching scenes in Odyssey's history, which is probably one of the reasons this is such a fan favorite. And it all ends with Mr. Iowa teaching everybody how to sing "Aloha, Oy" as they sit around a campfire.

The next big chapter in the Barclays' lives is when George loses his job, and thinks that God may be calling him into the ministry. In Our Daily Bread, he is laid off from his job, and the family decides to take up part-time jobs to help pay the bills. In A Prayer for George Barclay, an episode similar to Where There's a Will..., Jimmy and Donna come together and pray earnestly for George to get the job he's interviewing for. He ends up turning down the offer because he feels like he's being called into the ministry. I never had any specific feelings about these episodes and the ones to come, because one of my early albums was Darkness Before Dawn, where George is already a pastor, so there wasn't really anything for me to get used to. Anyway, in George Under Pressure, we learn that George did follow the calling, and he is swamped in "schoolwork" for his classes at seminary. The Barclays have to learn to grow closer and support their husband and father in this episode, since George is really feeling beaten down because he still hasn't been offered any preaching or teaching jobs. So the family comes together in prayer, and almost immediately, he is offered an interim pastorate at the local church. (Also in this episode, we find out that Mary is pregnant.)

So throughout the next few Barclay episodes, there are stories about Jimmy and Donna's lives as "preacher's kids." Jimmy starts feeling pressured by people at church to follow in his father's footsteps as a pastor, but after trying to teach Lawrence's Sunday School class, and obviously failing, he decides that he should probably wait for a while before trying to do anything of that sort again. In the same episode, A Call for Reverend Jimmy, Donna is distressed because of all the times George keeps telling embarrassing stories about her in his sermons. And one of them ends up being a story about her and her boyfriend (who is fairly unaware of her admiration), Jack Davis, which she treats as the last straw. Things are eventually settled when George tells Donna that he'll ask her permission before sharing any more stories, and the episode ends with a very loud sound covering over Mary telling the gender of the upcoming baby.

By the second-to-next Barclay show, Stuart/Stewart Reed has been born (he was named by popular opinion in letters from fans who suggested the name), and his first word is "carrot", according to Jimmy. :) In this episode, there's again a problem with Donna about being a "preacher's kid", which is the title of the episode. This is the episode after which I think the Odyssey writers decided that the Barclay kids were getting too old to be on a kids' show anymore. Donna has boys who want to go out with her, and she gets into trouble when she is involved in the burning down of a house in Gower's Field. The episode ends similar to The Barclay Family Ski Vacation with George explains to Donna that he still loves her, and that being a pastor's daughter doesn't mean you have to be perfect.

Then comes the episodes that were very sad for fans who were around at the time: Pokenberry Falls, R.F.D. I still honestly have no clue what "R.F.D." stands for. It might even say in the episode, but I wouldn't know, because I don't own it, so I don't know much about it. All I really know is that Pokenberry Falls was in need of a pastor, and so the Barclays reluctantly moved there, and that it still makes older fans sad to this day that they aren't in Odyssey, and every new family is compared to the Barclays. The only episode with the whole Barclay family in it after this one is It's a Pokenberry Christmas a few years later, which is one of my all-time favorite episodes because of all of its parallels to the movie It's a Wonderful Life. (If you want to see what I'm talking about go here.)

After that episode, the Barclays disappear off the face of the earth, except for the appearance of George and Jimmy around the time and after Connie almost got married. And then Jimmy appeared in The Triangled Web, another one of my all-time favorite episodes, in Album 50, along with a lot of other old characters.

I can't say that I was sad to see the Barclays go because they left in 1996, the year I was born. I really enjoy almost all of the episodes they're in, but I was okay when I was introduced to new families like the Straussbergs, Washingtons, and DeWhites. In fact, I would almost say that the Washingtons are like the Barclays to me, because when I started hearing new seasons as they aired on the radio for the first time, the Washingtons were the main family. I was very sad to hear that they wouldn't be on the show anymore when that was announced before Album 51. I especially liked Marvin, and I also thought that it was weird that they'd drop them off the show so soon after Kelly became a part of their family. But that's all in the past now and there's nothing I can do about it.

Thank you for reading my review! Be sure to check back next week when I review the first part of The Green Ring Conspiracy! Please comment!

Mr., Mrs., Ms., Master, and Jr. Barclay (The Barclays)--Part II

Picking up where I left off last week, the next popular Barclay show after Castles and Cauldrons was Wishful Thinking. This episode plays out what probably a lot of children wish on their siblings, but after hearing this episode would think twice before saying--"I wish you'd never been born!" I know at least I've thought that once or twice before, but after hearing this episode numerous times (as it was also in my first collection), I usually repent of thinking that after considering the implications. But this has always been a very enjoyable episode, kind of in the style of It's a Wonderful Life, the movie after which the Barclays were patterned.

The next few episodes are also interesting ones: Thanksgiving at Home being when Donna and Jimmy have to make Thanksgiving dinner for themselves because George and Mary are sick with the flu, and The Vow, when Donna is sure that George is considering a divorce with Mary. Now this episode, I think, handles the issue of divorce better than any other Odyssey episode so far, because, although it does have a lot of humor, it ends in a beautiful way with the kids witnessing their parents renew their wedding vows. But that's not to say that the AIO team didn't also do a great job with the Mandy saga; I just think this one was a little better.

Then comes Someone to Watch Over Me, one of Odyssey's most popular shows, and definitely on my Top 10 list. I could probably listen to this episode many times in a row without getting tired of it. It has amazing performances by Dave Griffin, Hal Smith, Chuck Bolte, and Chuck Robinson as Nagle. It is always a moving episode, and I remember absolutely loving it the first time I heard it. And it even gets deep and intense when Nagle tells Jimmy that Death has been chasing him. That line usually gives me the chills. So in a touching and surprising conclusion, Jimmy learns that there is a spiritual realm at work beyond his imagination and that his life is, and always has been, in the hands of God.

Over the next few shows, Jimmy and Donna learn lessons like: how to seek God's will, when they might have to move to Washington D.C.; the message behind Jesus' parable of the servants the hard way; and the meaning of sacrifice when they respectively choose to give up Zapazoids and soap operas (their "sacrifices" don't last very long).

And then there's that famous episode, Coming of Age, where Jimmy loses his voice and begins to enter adolescence. This is another episode that I think the Odyssey team handled very well, and I think this is one of the episodes that makes the Barclays such a favorite of older fans. We teenagers can almost all relate to how Jimmy feels in this episode as his body seems to be falling apart, his chest hurts, his bones ache, he starts having real crushes on girls, and his voice sounds like a "cross between a frog with laryngitis and a country-western singer." He is finally growing up, and he doesn't like it. He starts having to shave, he can't seem to talk to his dad anymore, and he even blows up at Whit about losing a part in a play. He writes in a journal that he doesn't like having to deal with these changes and feelings. I think this is about the closest Odyssey ever got to dealing with the issues and problems that teenagers face as they grow up. Many people have complained as they got older that AIO continued to get more and more irrelevant to them, and that they wanted more shows that they could relate to. I think it's quite obvious why the Odyssey team never really decided to do that: there are continually new young listener who wouldn't be able to themselves relate to episodes featuring older kids. So I'm glad that the show has stayed at the right age level, but I'm also glad that we got to have this episode.

In the next Barclay episode, Moses: the Passover, the theme of George trying to communicate with his son continues when the two of them are whisked away on an Imagination Station adventure to Egypt on Jimmy's birthday. I think this is one of the most touching and entertaining Imagination Station adventures, but that's probably because I don't think we own it, so I don't hear it very often. This episode handles the subject of the atonement very well for a children's show. Jimmy, although a firstborn, is not killed by the Angel of Death, even though he's not in a house with blood on it, because he is already covered by the blood of Jesus. This kind of episode is one of the reasons my family sticks with Odyssey even when we have bad seasons like 51 and 52. Although Odyssey can get too modernized and worldly at times, they still have stuck to the old time Christian values, and don't seem to be moving too far away from them yet.

As Jimmy gets older, he becomes pretty much the central character in the Barclay family. During this period, he does things such as: ask to get his ears pierced (pretty much as a joke; I don't think the writers really meant for him to be serious), start a slightly coarse and vulgar talk show on Kids' Radio, and almost he almost uses all his money on a pair of tennis shes that "blow up!" But then comes Lawrence. In shows like Wonderworld and Terror from the Skies, Jimmy learns responsibility as he has to babysit a young boy named Lawrence Hodges with an enormous imagination. Together they go to places in Lawrence's imagination such as a prisoners-of-war camp, Nottingham Forest, the African veldt, and Destructo headquarters. Lawrence has such an influence on Jimmy that in Terror from the Skies, he (along with the help of Edwin Blackgaard's radio program) gets Jimmy to believe that aliens have landed in Odyssey and they are attacking Whit's End and Lawrence's mom! Lawrence's character comes to more importance when the Barclays get to go on vacation to Hawaii.

Well, that about gets through the next third of the Barclays' lives in Odyssey. I don't want to be making posts much longer than this anymore, so I'm going to stop it right here. Next week I'll get into the parts of the show when George is seeking to be a pastor, and how the family ultimately moves to Pokenberry Falls.

If you haven't checked it out yet, go listen to the clips from Album 53 that you can find here. They don't reveal too much about the new season, but they definitely got me excited.

Thanks for reading! Please comment!

Mr., Mrs., Ms., Master, and Jr. Barclay (The Barclays)--Part I

I was a little scared to do a post on the Barclays, because I was afraid I'd either make it way too long or way too short, and since the Barclays are the most popular family in Odyssey, I figured I should do it right if at all. But I think I got it figured out. I think I'm going to go through some of their biggest family events, and then go through character by character.

We first meet the Barclays in Family Vacation where we are immediately introduced to each one of the characters' personalities which remain almost exactly the same throughout the entire show. We learn that Jimmy and Donna love to argue, and aren't exactly best friends, we learn that George Barclay is the king of sarcasm, and that Mary Barclay is as pleasant and submissive and motherly as any man would want his wife to be. In this episode however, the parents were played by different actors than they would be for the rest of the show, but apparently due to their unpopularity, they were changed by the next show. Chuck Bolte, producer of Odyssey for a long time, has ever since been Mr. Barclay, and has been one of the best actors on the show. I don't know what it its about Mrs. Barclay though, because in the next show, she was played by an actress who was only around for the next four shows, and then she was changed again to an actress who played her for eleven shows. And finally, after those episodes, Carol Bilger came along who continued to play Mary until the Barclays went off the show on her eighteenth episode. I think this last Mrs. Barclay was my favorite one, but probably just because she's in the most episodes that I own.

Anyway, in the next few episodes, Jimmy and Donna play minor parts in episodes, usually hanging out at Whit's End, helping with a play or asking Whit or Connie for advice. Also, Jimmy goes to camp where he is seen hanging out with the friends that he seems to have for this period in time. But the next big Barclay episode is one of most fans' all-time favorite episodes--Our Best Vacation Ever. In this episode, because the family doesn't have enough money, and all of the kids' friends are going somewhere, Whit suggests that they have a vacation at home. This results in a massive water fight, camping in the living room, a trip to the zoo and then Trickle Lake, and then helping out at Tom Riley's barn-raising party. I personally am not a huge fan of this episode, but that's just because I've listened to it countless times as a result of it being in my first Odyssey collection ever. However, I am fairly entertained every time I hear it, and it's a favorite of my younger siblings. We've even gone on local vacations of our own a few times, as I'm sure other listeners have.

Over the next couple episodes, Jimmy goes to Nicaragua and helps Dan Isidro, one of Whit's missionary friends (oh yeah, did I mention it's a dream? ;D), and Donna is forced to host the Fall Festival, which she is hesitant to do because of bad memories about her deceased friend Karen. The next Barclay family episode features them shuffling off a homeless family to Whit at Christmastime. But they are reminded of the bad Christmas they had the year before, and realize that they don't want that family to suffer the same way. Then, continuing the winter theme, in the next show, the Barclays go on yet another vacation to a ski resort, where the main concept of the story is a crush Donna has on her ski instructor, later leading to heartbreak when she realizes he already has a girlfriend. It kind of makes sense that the writer of this episode never wrote any others. :) Nevertheless, the escapade leads to a bonding between Donna and George, and George realizes that his daughter really is growing up.

Throughout the next section of the Barclays' lives in Odyssey, Jimmy goes on an Imagination Station adventure and meets Abraham Lincoln, the Barclay house almost burns down (not really, but according to the kids. ;D), Jimmy gets bad advice from Connie, has some Trouble with Girls, and then, in one of Odyssey's most intense shows, his cousin pulls him into a "fantasy, role-playing game" called Castles & Cauldrons. This is the only AIO episode that features a parental warning from Dr. James Dobson at the beginning of the show, telling parents about the danger of such games and how they often lead to contact with the spirit world. This episode scared me when I was younger, but now I think that it was one of the most well-done episodes Odyssey has ever produced. It really accomplishes its goal in getting kids concerned enough about these types of games, which were apparently popular back then, that they wouldn't want to follow other kids into these foolish activities. Whit ends up destroying the game, the Barclay family goes back to normal, and the game and the topic of spirits and demons, aren't really ever mentioned in Odyssey again.

Well, this gets us about one-third of the way through the Barclays' time in Odyssey, and I don't have any more time to write, and this'll probably get too long if I go any longer, so I'm going to save the rest for next week, and maybe even into the week after that.

I hope you enjoyed this first part of the review on the Barclay family, and Lordwilling, there will be more to come! Please comment!

_________

P.S. The Odyssey Scoop has reported that there is a new Odyssey collection that has been released on the FOTF store's website called The Adoption Collection that features the three Odyssey episodes about adoption: Clara, and The Chosen One Parts I and II. I'm pretty confident that it is legitimate, but I don't think it looks all that great, and it's weird that we haven't heard about it until now. But here it is if you're interested.

Also, on the latest Official Podcast, we were told that we should go back to the podcast page on February 1st for a big surprise. I'll post about it as soon as possible.

Thank you for reading!

Mr. Walton

For most of the week I was planning to do a post on Tom Riley, but I changed my mind yesterday because I realized I didn't have much to say about him. I also don't have that much to say about Bernard, but I think he'll be a bit more interesting than Tom would have been. I do think this will be quite a bit shorter of a post than other one's though because Bernard hasn't had all that many twists to his life since we've met him.

Well, we first met this window washer in By Any Other Name, but unfortunately I don't own that episode, and I haven't heard it in a long, long time, so I won't be able to say much about it. I do know that he wasn't the star of the episode, and he wasn't introduced with fanfares or an episode with his name. And that really suits him because that's exactly how he is. Whenever he's washed windows he's always behind the scenes, and he doesn't like to seek recognition. He's a good example of how we Christians should be in all of our good works.

One thing that I always remember Bernard for is his Bernard and... episodes. He's the best storyteller. He tells stories to kids with all kinds of problems, even though they often come and ask for help while he's working on windows. He tells the biblical stories of Joseph, Esther, Job, Saul, and Jeremiah, and so many others when he gets on BTV. He always keeps the stories very close to the Bible, adding a little humor here and there, and then always applies it directly to the life of the kid(s) who asked him for help. Some have said that he's even better at giving advice than Whit!

Throughout the first few years of Odyssey, Bernard isn't involved very much. He usually makes appearances washing windows in the background of Whit's End, throwing his two cents into whoever's having a conversation's conversation. He had a few episodes centered around him, but I think the first big event that I can remember with Bernard was his trip with Eugene to California. They've recently learned that they're cousins, so Bernard's pride still hurts, and he doesn't want to bring Eugene. But after Eugene gives up his bus ticket, Bernard reluctantly gives him a ride, and they spend the rest of the trip together. They go on five different adventures, each of them with a differently numbered title--First-Hand Experience, Second Thoughts, Third Degree, It Happened at Four Corners, and Fifth House on the Left. Over these few episodes, Bernard gets thrown in jail, handcuffed to a rock miles into a cave, and goes through an earthquake while being a babysitter for the daughter of a Hollywood movie producer! Finally, he gets his new truck and drives back to Odyssey (Ohio).

But he and Eugene meet a big surprise when they return home. Whit has left Odyssey for the Middle East, and no one knows when he'll be back! Bernard sticks around for the next episode or two when Jack Allen is introduced, and Jason Whittaker comes back to town, but then he disappears. From then on he again isn't that involved, and then during the Darkness Before Dawn saga, he seems to disappear, and we only see him two or three times.

And then comes BTV, a TV show named after him that was created to fill up a spot on Mr. Feldstein's channel. It became wildly popular, and the Odyssey writers seem to use the idea whenever they're an episode short on an album. Bernard is always the host, and he always has a great old story that ties into the theme of the episode. He's done episodes on compassion, grace, thanks, envy, Christmas, and temptation, and all of them are very entertaining. But other than these shows, sometimes it seems like Bernard doesn't exist anymore. For a long time, these were the only episodes he was in. And even during the Novacom saga, Bernard is only in one episode when he hands BTV over to Novacom Broadcasting, but then, after much encouragement from Whit, takes it back.

So for a long time, Bernard appeared to have gone off the show. But then came Wooton. And he and Bernard became as good of friends as Eugene and Bernard were at one time. From Do or Diet to Basset Hounds to The Other Side of the Glass, Wooton and Bernard go on many adventures together, and those episodes are always very funny. They either work together to lose weight, go on a trip to Alaska for a family reunion, or solve a big mystery.

The last time we see him, Bernard is giving romantic advice to Kurt Stevens. You'll have to hear the episode to see how that goes. ;) And then he disappears. It makes you wonder who washes the windows at Whit's End now. With all the new families in Odyssey, you'd think that they'd be getting a lot more dirty. Oh, but that's right, we have Red Hollard now, who seems to be doing maintanence work at Whit's End as a replacement for Bernard. Or at least that's how it seems in The Jubilee Singers.

I think most people are sad to have seen Bernard go. At least I am. He was a great, unique addition to the show, and Dave Madden did a phenominal job as his voice over the years. It'd be great if he was the old character who's going to return in Album 53. I'd be so happy you'd have to "stuff me with feathers and call me a pillow!" : D

Well, that's it for this week's review. Come back next week for the review of...hmmm.... I don't really know whom I'm going to review next week, so you'll just have to come back!

P.S. Since news is slow, I decided to start a new page called Special Videos to put mostly Odyssey fan videos on. I've gotten most of them from the Odyssey Scoop, but at least one of them so far is one you won't find on any other Odyssey sites.

Mr. Bassett

Wooton, from what I've seen and heard, is by far Odyssey's most popular character, kid or adult (since he's kind of a mix). And I think, even though he's only been around for nine years, he has the most episodes with his name in it. I could be wrong though. I wish I could have listened to all of his episodes before writing this review so I could be better prepared. But we have this policy at our house that each night a different child picks the CD for the night, and because there are seven children in the house, usually I only pick once a week. So I've only been able to listen to Welcoming Wooton and Tuesday's with Wooton. Hopefully I can review from the rest from memory.

Well, from his very first episode that I listened to last night, Wooton is introduced to be a "neat freak", "toy geek", Whit's End's regular mailman, and a quirky, odd man who all the kids love. We also learn that he loves fresh licorice, he had an childhood that he doesn't like talking about, he's lived in Alaska, he's obsessed with Powerboy, and he's a Christian who isn't afraid of it. He even applies things in Powerboy to the Christian life. I think that's the first hint about his true connections to Powerboy. And another hint comes later in the show when he tells Whit that he doesn't really need the money his mailman job was getting him. Anyway, in Welcoming Wooton, within the first ten minutes, Wooton has lost his job, and Whit tries to help him get it back and then find a new one. Wooton ends up resigning from the job Whit gave him after the first day because he can't be as "speedy" as he'd need to be for Speedy Package Express because he loves people too much. It's part of his personality that he has to stop and talk to everyone he comes in contact with. I love that about him, and it's a quality that Christians need to work on in today's world--caring enough about people we know or meet to be willing to stop what we're doing and help them. In fact, Wooton cares so much that he even goes to fulfill a commitment to the man who fired him, and fixes his car! This changes Mr. Rose's heart, and he works it out so Wooton gets his job back.

And so from since that first episode, Wooton is Odyssey's favorite mailman. And he's always been played by Jess Harnell, a man with amazing talent. I can't really express how much talent this guy has with just words; you'd have to hear it for yourself. If you weren't around to hear it back then, the Official Podcast did an interview with him a long while back. You can go here to listen to it. It's amazing all the voices that man can do!

After the Novacom saga is over, Wooton appears in quite a few episodes here and there at Whit's End or at the BTV studio or on his mail route. But there are a couple episodes like For the Fun of It and Bassett Hounds where the whole episode is centered on Wooton and members of his family. Both of those episodes are some of my favorites probably just because of all of Wooton's hilarious dialogue. And then there's Do or Diet that almost every Odyssey fan loves because of the hilarious place it puts Whit, Wooton, and Bernard in--being trained by Connie to lose ten pounds in a small amount of time. Throughout all these episodes, Wooton's character is developed a lot, and he begins to win a place in the hearts of most Odyssey fans.

The next episode we see Wooton in is Tuesdays with Wooton. Album 44 was either my second or third album ever, so this is one of the first episodes I ever heard after that Special 10 CD Set. This is also the second episode Grady McKay was ever in. This story has a really great plot, and it's one of my favorites, but in it, we see a few problems with Wooton. Even after he learns that Grady has been stealing mail, he keeps rewarding him with more comic books, and doesn't discipline him any more than a small threat (if you can call it that) that stealing mail is a federal offense. And even when he learns that Grady still kept all of the issues he stole from the Hamptons, he doesn't get mad at him. And while there is some good to his not losing his temper, and being patient and merciful to Grady, I think he still needed to be punished at least a little bit. On a lighter note, we also see a little more into Wooton's connections with Powerboy in this show. He's able to get Grady some comics before they hit stores, he can get double issues, he can pinpoint exact issue numbers when certain events happen, and he has an amazing knowledge of the characters. Hmm...

From here on, until Album 50, a big chunk of Wooton's episodes are with the McKays, where he acts as a father to Grady and Samantha. The relationship seems to go a little too far in Like Father, Like Wooton (yet another episode with his name in it), where Grady brings Wooton to the carnival, and tells everyone that Wooton's his dad. Wooton is slow to catch on, but when he does, he becomes the fatherly mentor again, like Whit, to Grady, and tells him that he feels honored that he'd want him to be his dad, but that he needs to make it right. And Wooton continues to be a mentor to Grady throughout many shows that they're in together, and they become really good friends.

But that friendship nearly comes to an end in Wooing Wooton when Grady throws his Bible in the trash because of Wooton's Christianity. In this episode we see how grounded Wooton is in his principles when his dad tries to get him to marry an unbelieving woman who is just like him, as a business arrangment. Wooton badly disappoints his father when he refuses to go back on what he believes to marry Victoria. Grady sees how hostile Wooton's dad is to him and Christianity, and he decides that that's not going to happen with him and his mom.

But finally, in The Highest Stakes, after a lot of action with his real father, Grady decides that he's ready to become a Christian. He asks Wooton to help him, and he "prays the prayer" and gets saved. Many have said that it seemed like Wooton did a poor job of giving the Gospel to Grady in this particular episode. They say that he didn't put much, if any, emphasis on sin, but rather what Jesus was going to do for Grady. But I think a fair arguement to that is that Grady had gone to Sunday School and church for weeks and months before this time, and had probably heard it many times with Mr. Whittaker as his teacher. But I do think that Odyssey needs to do a better job with explaining salvation, especially since there are youngish children listening who may get the wrong impression if they're not told the right things.

In Album 50, Wooton almost leaves town for a year when his authorship of Powerboy is discovered, and it is going to disqualify the town of Odyssey from the Best Small Town in America contest. But Odyssey shows its great love for Wooton when Connie gathers hundreds of people to file a petition that Wooton needs to stay in Odyssey, even if it means that Odyssey would be disqualified from the contest. Wooton is thrilled that he doesn't have to leave, and that's the last place we see him in before the hiatus.

So far in the new seasons, we haven't seen Wooton in his mailman office much at all, except in Fast As I Can. He's mostly been tagging along with the other characters like in Target of the Week, For the Birds, and Opposite Day. But he did get his own episode with Wooton's Broken Pencil Show, which I loved! He was back to his usual, quirky self and was making me laugh again.

I hope he gets to play a part in the new season, which is building up to be an awesome, very intriguing album. Thank you for reading! Please comment!

P.S. Marvin has informed us that an Odyssey fan named Manfred thinks he has found Odyssey! This is what he says:

In The Perfect Witness a specific road number is mentioned. Based on this I started searching for that road. I then began looking for other things that would fit with the area of Odyssey.

Road: Route 29

Other options: We need a former swamp near by that was cleaned up with cannals.

This is what I discovered. There is lake named Grand Lake St. Mary's. I did some research on this lake and discovered that at one time this was a marsh land! Also, it was drained with canals, but then someone got an idea to make a lake there!

There is a route 29 that runs nearby. Which, by the way, runs through a town named St. Mary's and incidentally intersects with another large road at the outskirts of St. Mary's,

Route 33, one number off of the road number 32 mentioned in The Perfect Witness. Route 33 runs directly to a town with an Indian name! This town is named Wapakoneta.

Now here is what becomes even more interesting, Near the town of Wapakoneta is a small township called.... Duchouqet. It rhymes. Duchouqet was a guy who lived with the Indians when no other whites lived in the area.

Now if you go another 10 miles to the east you find a small town called Uniopolis. At this point I believe that either Duchouqet or Uniopolis are the most likely candidates for the town of Odyssey.

Yay! Odyssey has been found! I always knew it was in Ohio! Whit says so in Whit's Visitor. I'm glad that's finally been cleared up. Maybe Uniopolis is where Ethan and Phil from the Ceiling Fan will end up in their search for Odyssey. Or is that done? I don't know, I haven't been following that podcast recently. Anyway, thanks for reading!

Mr. Meltsner (Jr.)

Eugene Meltsner--probably Odyssey's most popular character next to Wooton Bassett. Probably because he is so extremely unique. We'd never seen anyone like him before, and haven't seen anyone else like him yet (unless you include Katrina and/or the "Room Full of Eugenes".) He is a know-it-all who can be arrogant, but he has a big heart, and has gone through some big changes throughout the years. Although I wish I could, I won't be able to cover all of the many adventures he has with Bernard and Whit and Connie, but I'll try to hit the biggest highlights.

We first meet Eugene in Connie, Part I, when he is looking for a job for credits at Campbell College. And he shows us his geekiness when one of the first things he does after getting the job is to computerize everything in the shop, even things Whit didn't know could be computerized. He soon gets everything back to normal, but that episode introduced us to aspects of his character that are still going strong after over 20 years.

As the years go by, one of the biggest parts of Eugene's character was his argumentative nature, especially around Connie. That received two kinds of feedback from fans of the show. Most people really liked those parts of the show, when he and Connie would go on and on about ridiculous things, and have to be stopped by Whit. But some people, like I mentioned in Connie's review, didn't like it that Connie, a brand-new Christian, got into so many disputes with Eugene that ended up coming to nothing; and they never seemed to learn! I don't really mind the arguing. I'm often very entertained by it, and it reflects a lot of how my younger brother and I argue some of the time, so I don't think it's necessarily un-Christian.

The first big event in Eugene's life as we know him comes in Truth, Trivia, and 'Trina, when he meets Katrina Shanks at the college library. They immediately hit it off when they realized that they both had heads full of knowledge about the same nerdy things. However, later in the episode, Katrina is annoyed with Eugene's trying to impress her with all his knowledge. And she continues to work on him for the many years to come as their relationship develops. Katrina cuts off the relationship when she becomes a Christian, and realizes that she cannot continue with Eugene as long as he isn't a believer. These events along with many other things said by Whit and Connie lead to Eugene's conversion during the dark Album 25, Darkness Before Dawn. And slowly, he and Katrina get back together. But in Album 28, after Eugene comes back from his trip to the Middle East, they have a big misunderstanding, and Katrina starts seeing a different guy. By the end of the two-part episode, Katrina is going back home to Chicago, and she has said that her heart wants her to be with Eugene, but her head wants her to be with Brandon, but she tells them both that she will not marry them. But by the end of the next album, she is back with Eugene, and they get engaged after she has an accident with a football and a German toddler.

Their marriage takes place under very suspicious circumstances when Katrina's father is on his deathbed after a very sudden struggle with a mystery virus. Eugene believes that his father-in-law's death was a result of his support of Eugene's work at Campbell County Community College. He was working on a top-secret project that involved experimenting with turning brain waves to radio waves. But Eugene, through Armitage, discovers a plot to reverse the process with the ultimate goal to take over the world with mind control. So the night of Mr. Shanks's death, he goes back to the college, steals all the research and puts it on a disc. Then he mails it to Jason Whittaker in Alaska and goes into hiding. The rest of the Novacom saga goes on without him, but later we learn that while the gang at Whit's End is solving that dilemma, Andromeda seeks him out, and tries to give him the same virus as killed Armitage Shanks. It results in Eugene developing amnesia, and he has to return to Odyssey under the cover of darkness, looking for help from Mr. Whittaker. After three very moving episodes that are some of my personal favorites, Eugene's memory is restored, and he and Katrina stay in Odyssey.

Very soon after that escapade, the writers introduce the first few episodes in a fairly long series about Eugene's father, Leonard, called Prisoners of Fear. In these episodes we learn many things about Eugene that were only touched upon in past episodes. His father and mother were archaeologists near the Ashanti tribe in Africa, but were then kidnapped and forced to be slaves to Dalton Kearn, a rival archaeologist. While at the site, both Everett, Eugene's younger brother, and his mother are said to have died in captivity. But Leonard devised an escape plan and has gotten away just three months before Eugene and Katrina's visit. This saga continues for five albums, and we learn that Leonard believes both his sons to be dead, leaving him alone in the world, so he retires to be a homeless man in Connelsville where his father recently died (Last of a Long Line). Throughout Album 47, Leonard is living in hiding from Dalton, and he and Eugene find each other, eventually leading to Leonard's moving in with Eugene and Katrina. In Album 48, Eugene's relationship with his father deepens as they go on an adventure with Whit and Jason to New York to retrieve a crucial video recording from Dalton's house. Throughout these episodes, Leonard confronts Eugene about his religious beliefs, and tries to convince him to trust science, rather than a "mythological God". And Eugene tries to witness to his father and show him that Christianity is not just a superstition. Also in this episode, we find out that Everett did not actually die in Africa, and the family is reunited after Dalton Kearn is convicted and sent to prison. Then at the beginnning of Album 49, we learn a lot more about Leonard and his struggles between archaeology and family. In fact, this struggle was so strong that he almost made his wife abort the child that was to be Eugene. This fact rocks Eugene's world, but when his father falls very ill because of a bad kidney, he decides to undergo the operation to donate his own kidney to his father. This act of sacrifice, especially in light of what has just been revealed about his early intentions, changes Leonard's heart, and he surrenders his life to Christ. And he decides to use his life for the Lord as a missionary to the Ashani tribe.

After this saga was over, the Best Small Town album aired, and Eugene was very involved with getting the town ready for the judges and convincing Mayor Faye that Mr. Whittaker owned the land where Whit's End sits. But in the newest albums, the writers seem to have nothing for Eugene to do. Especially in Album 51, he appears in only a few episodes, and doesn't seem to be doing much of anything anymore. At the beginning of Album 52, in The Mystery of the Clock Tower, he is the main character in a very engaging mystery, but after that, he is not present, or a very small character. I'm hoping that he gets to play a big part in The Green Ring Conspiracy.

So, in summary, Mr. Meltsner Jr. is an amazing character who has grown greatly as he's been on the show, and I look forward to seeing him grow more in the future. Please comment!

Ms. Kendall

Marvin already took "Connie" in his post yesterday, so I was forced to pattern my character review today after my first one. Maybe it'll end up being this way for all the rest of them. (e.g. Mr. Meltsner, Mr. Bassett)

I've been meaning to write about Connie for a week or so now, especially after listening to quite a few Connie-centered episodes at night recently, but I've had a post every other day for a few days, and I didn't want to do it too soon, but here it is.

I'm going to try to go as in depth as I did with the Mr. Whittaker review, but I didn't put nearly as much thought into this one as that one. So, here goes.

The first episode I ever heard Connie in was Connie Comes to Town, because it was the first story on the first CD in the first album I ever had. So, other than the single-story tapes we would sometimes get from Chick-Fil-A, that was actually the first Adventures in Odyssey episode I ever heard. I've always pictured Connie at more of a college-student type age rather than the high-school age she's depicted as in her first episode. I still can't imagine Connie any younger than 16/17 years old.

Besides Whit, I think she was the first long-term character to ever appear on the show (if you don't count Tom in Whit's Visitor). In this episode she is a rebellious teenager who just wants to make her own way in life, and doesn't really want anyone to get in her way. She appears on the show as a young-ish girl seeking a job so that she can make enough money for bus fares to Los Angeles so she can see her dad and her old friends. (How or why she thinks she's going to get there without her mom's knowledge I have no idea.) "Excuse me, could you tell me how to get to Front Street?" was her first line on the show. She was trying to get to an interview for a job at a fashion center. But then Whit offers her a job almost immediately after meeting her, and she takes it...as long as he's willing to pay as much as she was going to be paid at the fashion store. ; D

So Connie decides to stay, and throughout the first two albums, she learns a lot about Mr. Whittaker and his faith, and, especially in episodes like A Tangled Web, he acts as a spiritual mentor to her, but isn't really on her case about her being converted to Christianity. She is pretty hostile to the idea until she meets Pamela on her way to Los Angeles (a short trip, not permanent like before), a girl not too much older than her who witnesses to her. This happens in Connie, Part I, and in Connie, Part II, Connie makes the decision to repent, and surrenders her life to Jesus Christ.

Katie Leigh has done a phenominal job as Connie over the years, and Connie is often teased, on and off of Odyssey, for being the everlasting teenager. She (Connie, not Katie) doesn't graduate high school for 400 episodes, which is eleven real-life years! And when she does graduate, we see how much she really has changed, because she is willing to stand up against her principal when he told her that she couldn't use the name of Jesus at the end of her prayer.

Throughout the years, Connie stands up for her faith in numerous ways, including breaking up with a heathen boyfriend, trusting God through the times that Whit was gone in the Middle East, and seeking His will with her relationship with Mitch and his relationship to Novacom and the F.B.I. My favorite era with Connie has been the saga with Mitch and Novacom and the F.B.I. Probably my favorite album is Album 41 where she and Joann go on the trip to Washington D.C., and then she almost gets married (yes, I, like most people badly wanted her to get married). I agree with the writers' decision to have her decide to stay in Odyssey rather than to move to Budapest with Mitch though, because it would have changed the show. But I do think it would have been a solution to what else they would do with Connie, because she would be gone.

One problem that many fans have had with her throughout the years was that she almost always seemed to be bickering, mostly with Eugene. They did that for years and years, but, probably due to all of the complaining, their quarrels stopped right around the time that Eugene became a Christian. I have always really liked the quarreling because it makes me laugh, and I do the same kind of thing with my brother a lot, so I didn't mind when the arguing was brought back soon after Eugene's return and recovery from amnesia. But I've heard many people say that just as they thought that Connie had finally matured enough to stop all the bickering, it came back! And it seems like Connie has nothing else to do but argue with Eugene.

But after Mitch left, the writers have said that they didn't know what to do with Connie, so she was pretty much just in every other episode, tagging along, or being there to argue or give a woman's point of view. Thankfully, more recently, she started to write a book in response to Rusty Gordon's criticism of Odyssey. That gave her a solid thing to be doing amidst all the other storylines, so she didn't always have to be just tagging along. But I was really frustrated when The Chosen One aired, and Kelly destroyed Connie's book. I felt almost the same way Connie did for awhile, before I really thought about how much Odyssey might be changed if Connie got a book out to the public. During the next couple albums after that incident, we see a side of Connie I don't think we'd ever seen before--the unforgiving, grudge-holding person that came out only in little spurts whenever she was frustrated before. The situation is finally resolved in Chip Off the Shoulder when Connie tries to prove her forgiveness to Kelly by helping her find something that Kelly accused her of stealing.

After that episode, everything's well again, and the next thing we see Connie doing is helping with preparations for the judges who will come to discern whether or not Odyssey is the best small town in America. But after that escapade was over, in Albums 51 and 52 she's back to the guinea pig in The Inspiration Station, the arguer (and hair-cutter) in For the Birds, and the tag-alonger in The Mystery of the Clock Tower. I don't really have a problem with that, as, apart from the Novacom Saga, I've always liked Connie to be a side-story character rather than a main-story character. Maybe she'll play a big part in The Green Ring Conspiracy, but, although I know many Connie-fans would like her to do something big again, I would rather she didn't.

So that's my view on Connie. Despite all the criticisms, I really do like her character, and though she's not as well-loved (at least by me) as Whit, I would be sad if she ever left Odyssey, and the show would be a lot different without her.

Thank you for reading! Be looking out for a character review on "Mr. Meltsner" in the near future. Please comment!

P.S. I put some more special pictures up on the Special Pictures page. Enjoy! : )

Mr. Whittaker

As I lay in my bed last night, listening to The Mortal Coil for the first time in what feels like years (and probably is), I was inspired to do a post today about Whit. Plus I figured you guys might appreciate a non-review post. I haven't really talked too much about my thoughts about how Mr. J. A. Whit has changed over the years, so I've decided to do it now.

My first Odyssey album ever was a now out-of-print collection called AIO 10-CD Collector's Edition. Apparently it's so rare that even Jacob hasn't heard about it, because it's not at the Odyssey Scoop in the Quarantine Merchandise section. I don't think I had ever listened to Odyssey before my mom got that for me and my siblings when I was six or seven. Mr. Whittaker was my favorite character from the beginning, and still to this day remains at least in the top three.

Hal Smith did an excellent job as Whit from the very start. I obviously haven't been around since the beginning, but I remember loving Whit, and being very surprised when I first heard Paul Herlinger introduce The Great Wishy Woz on the tenth disc of my first collection. I wondered for awhile who that guy was since he wasn't Whit, but he was introducing a Kids Radio program. A couple years later, after I had listened to the CDs we owned over and over again, we stumbled upon The Children's Radio Funhouse on our local Moody Radio station, where Odyssey continues to be played every Saturday morning at nine. And later we found out that AIO was also played every weekday at 4:30. I don't remember how I learned it, but eventually I found out that somewhere along the road, the original actor for Mr. Whittaker had died, and he was replaced by someone with a slightly deeper, gruffer voice.

It was soon after this that I started getting albums for birthdays and Christmas. I'm pretty sure that my first album was Gold Audio Series #9: Just in Time. I continued to like what I called (and still call sometimes) "the old Mr. Whittaker" better than "the new Mr. Whittaker". As I continued to get more albums, I got more and more used to Paul Herlinger as Whit, and eventually made him my favorite. While Hal Smith has a more bubbly voice, and is better for the wise, advice-giving Whit, Paul Herlinger is better for the computer-savvy and adventurous Whit. Action/Adventure episodes tend to be my favorite, so that's probably why "the new Mr. Whittaker" eventually won my heart.

But Paul Herlinger is also very good as the Whit who sits behind the counter giving out ice cream and advice. I wish I had been an avid listener when the switch of the actors was made so that I could be used to it at least a little bit, because I really don't like the newest Whit very much. While both of the other Mr. Whittakers were great at giving Biblical advice and counsel (especially Hal Smith), Andre Stojka as Whit seems to have nearly totally lost that aspect to his character. I understand that it's mostly due to not-as-good writing, but I also from the beginning haven't really liked his voice.

Listening to The Mortal Coil last night and hearing Whit almost die, and listening to all of the spiritual lessons he learned from that experience, it's almost like now he's completely forgotten all of that, or that he's been replaced by a different, laid-back and relaxed fake. This new Whit doesn't seem to be nearly as passionate about the kids, helping them to learn valuable life lessons and teaching them the things of God, but rather a good teacher, dragging out of the kids what they learned after they stumble, rather than catching them before they get into trouble like he used to.

So I guess I'm not complaining so much about the voice that Andre Stojka gives Whit, but the writing that he's been giving more recently. I hope that episodes will continue to get better as the seasons come and go, and I am getting more used to the new voice, but they haven't sold me yet for sure.

I'd love to hear what you think about all that I've said. Please comment!

P.S. Be sure to listen to the newest Official Podcast which features an interview with Whit (ha!) Hertford, the voice of bully Jay Smouse, and a preview of this weekend's episode Grandma's Christmas Visit. I was surprised to learn that Jay is played by an adult, but I guess I shouldn't have been since Rodney, Vance, Nelson, Ryan, Pete, Jill, Valorie, Emily, and Olivia are also played by adults. ; )