The next episode of the Official Podcast from Adventures in Odyssey has been released. This time hosts Bob and Jesse do an interview with 93-year-old actor Alan Young, the voice of Jack Allen. Alan Young became the voice of Jack in 1994 in Album 21: Wish You Were Here! Since then, Jack has married Joanne Allen and become the owner of J & J Antiques. He recently appeared during a phone call in the episode Home Again in Album 56: The Grand Design. In this interview, Alan talks about growing up with radio dramas, working on The Alan Young Show, how the show Mister Ed started and more. He also talks about how his personality is similar to Jack Allen, how he admires voice actor Frank Welker, and mentions why he appreciates the show Adventures in Odyssey so much. Listen to the podcast.
Today the AIO Update's 8th poll has ended and the final numbers are in. According to the poll, the fans' clear favorite of the four villains Captain Absolutely has had to fight over the years on Adventures in Odyssey is Lord Gargantuan Foulspleen from the newest AIO episode, Push the Red Button, which had both a live version and an album version. Townsend Coleman, the voice of Jason Whittaker, also voiced Lord Foulspleen. You can hear from both Dr. Relative and the Unifier on The Truth Chronicles and Thug Clockripper is featured on Album 52: Cause and Effect. We only included the four Captain Absolutely villains from the Adventures in Odyssey radio drama in our poll and not the villains from the Clubhouse Magazine comics because we thought these four would be the most recognizable among all the Odyssey fans. We would like to thank everyone who took time to participate in this latest AIO poll. We will have a new poll question up very soon. In the meantime, you can send in your poll question suggestions here. We've got good news for fans of the AIO Update's unique content. Today our 11th editorial has been published online. You can read "Passages Has a Problem" at this link and then give us your instant feedback by rating the piece out of 10 in the poll at the bottom. In this newest editorial we discuss the dramatization of the first Passages novel, Darien's Rise, and the possibility of future Passages audio dramas. You can check out more of our editorials about Adventures in Odyssey in our convenient Editorials section. You can also always submit ideas for new editorials on our contact page. We love to receive your comments and ideas for improving the AIO Update. Last March we reported to you that the newest CD sampler from Adventures in Odyssey called "Bothersome Bullies" would feature the three episodes Target of the Week (Album 51), Another Man's Shoes (Album 33), and Mike Makes Right (Album 3) and would be released in October. Well now the AIO Update is proud to be the first to show you this CD sampler's current cover, drawn by Gary Locke. Click on the image to see it at a higher resolution. Interestingly, the cover features the bully Rodney Rathbone, even though he doesn't appear in any of the episodes on this CD. This may or may not be the sampler's final cover. Stay tuned for more Adventures in Odyssey news on the AIO Update. As many of you know, Phil Lollar and Steve Harris were the ones to create the radio show Adventures in Odyssey over 25 years ago. Besides returning to voice Dale Jacobs on recent AIO episodes, Phil Lollar is also now actively pursuing a new project. He is developing a brand new audio drama called Iliad House. You can hear a first glimpse of this upcoming series on their Facebook page. If you listen closely you'll recognize the voices of a few actors on the Odyssey team, including Katie Leigh and Aria Curzon. According to the preview, this show will deal with strange, odd, inexplicable and supernatural things. It follows the character of Jesse Davidson as he moves into his uncle's home, the Iliad house. Listen to the audio promo and get the latest updates on this exciting series here. Actor Jess Harnell, who voices Wooton Bassett on Adventures in Odyssey, was at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo last month and spent a few minutes giving a video interview. In the video Jess talks about how he created a band called Rock Sugar that melds rock and pop music into one genre. He does some quick voice impressions and talks about what it's like living next to William Shatner. When asked which characters he has played that he identifies with the most, Jess mentions playing the character of Wooton on AIO. He says, "He's never really grown up and he's just got a very innocent worldview and he's very kind to people, but people kind of don't know what to make of him because he's kind of weird, but he's cool." You can watch the video interview below. Brock Eastman and Evan Reedall are back with another Social Shout Out video. In this edition Brock dresses up as a founding father and Evan talks about how the Get in the Show contest last summer was a great foundation for this year's A Call to Serve contest. Brock also declares a "Declaration of Dependence" and explains how the AIO team is depending on the fans to make this latest contest bigger than ever. They hope Adventures in Odyssey fans worldwide will come together to do 50,000 hours of service this summer. Watch the video below. As you may know, the AIO writers do more than just Adventures in Odyssey. The screenplay for the upcoming film Beyond the Mask was penned by Odyssey writer Paul McCusker and is expected to be released sometime later this year. And according to an update on their official website, after four months of editing the first rough-cut of the movie has been completed. Burns Family Studios is financing the project and they and director Chad Burns and producer Aaron Burns had a chance to sit down and review the film's first edit with Stephen Kendrick, the producer of Fireproof and Courageous. Kendrick "shared ideas for trimming or stretching each scene to insure the audience can engage with the story threads as they converge towards the film’s climax." Beyond the Mask tells the story of an East India Company assassin who has buried his past in a quiet English village and assumed the mantle of an Anglican priest. But this disguise won’t last for long when a woman he loves and a war he no longer wants force him to confront the question of who he really is. In the face of a looming global conflict, he discovers for himself the meaning and source of true justification and freedom. The film stars Andrew Cheney, Kara Killmer, John Rhys-Davies, Ade M'Cormack, Samrat Chakrabarti and Tom Mahard. And don't forget to like the film and follow its progress on Facebook. For those of you who are thinking of entering, the official rules for the A Call to Serve contest have been posted on whitsend.org. The rules say that participants must be legal residents of the United States and between 8 and 15 years of age. Video entries of two minutes or less can be submitted from June 1 to August 16. Videos will be judged based on creativity, poise and articulation. And according to the rules, the one hundred third place winners will, in addition to receiving a copy of Album 57: A Call to Something More, be given a free one-year subscription to the Odyssey Adventure Club valued at approximately $180. Keep in mind that the cost for a yearly subscription will likely be significantly lower than this value. Also, the AIO Facebook page has hinted that the mission trip grand prize location is where Spanish is the spoken language. That exact location will be revealed on May 22. For more vital information about the contest, see the official rules. Update: According to an advertisement with Shona on whitsend.org's online radio player, the Good Goers mission trip will be to Costa Rica. More insights into this new official AIO club are slowly being released. The 24/7 online player that was shut down due to financial constraints is evidently being replaced by the new Adventures in Odyssey club this upcoming fall. According to producer Brock Eastman, the new Odyssey Adventure club that is being created will be a place where club members can access certain audio content on demand, get twelve exclusive episodes per year, interact with each other, learn about other cultures and experience them through live action documentaries. What exactly this exclusive content will be is unclear at this point in time. And unlike the previous 24/7 player, which was free, membership in this exclusive club will have a price. We'll let you know as more details are finalized in the future. |