1: The Top Four
Why Adventures in Odyssey needs more adult characters.
By David Hilder | November 1, 2011
Why Adventures in Odyssey needs more adult characters.
By David Hilder | November 1, 2011
Since the reboot with Album 51, it feels like the town of Odyssey has gotten smaller. And with only 24 episodes coming out per year, even less of it can be explored. While we have gained quite a few new characters, we’ve also lost a large number of old and well-loved people. And more importantly, we’ve lost adult characters that made the show what it is today. A well acted and developed project with relatable lessons woven everywhere that were perfectly communicated. Those recent losses include Tom Riley, Bernard Walton, Edwin Blackgaard, Bart Rathbone, Margaret Faye, Walter Shakespeare and Robert Mitchell. And we haven’t heard from Jack and Joanne for sometime either. The show clearly needs people to fill those gaps by expanding its tightly knit group of main characters.
After the latest purge of Odyssey’s adults, it seems only four main characters have emerged as the constants. I call them the "Top Four." They are Whit, Connie, Eugene and Wooton. As I am not always such a huge fan of Wooton, this trend of having him return in the episodes so often alarms me. But having such a small pool of main characters in the first place is also troubling. Because of the few adults around, these top four characters seem to always be surrounded by kids, instead of engaging in any adult interactions. They need more friends who are deeply involved in their lives. They need people going through similar experiences who can empathize with how they’re feeling.
With Tom and Jack gone, Whit needs a new best friend who can talk with him like other people can’t. Tom and Jack could understand and challenge Whit. He needs someone like that again. Otherwise who’s going to set him straight the next time he starts feeling sorry for himself like in The W.E.? Who’s going to tell him to take a moment to listen to the quietness and reflect on the gift of Jesus instead of all the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season like in Peace on Earth? A kid would be unlikely to do that, and if they did it could come across as impolite. Whit’s friends used to be there, but now that they’ve gone he’s become this all-powerful figure that no one can confront. Whit isn’t perfect. But without anyone like a best friend to be there, it sure seems like he is.
Penny Wise and Red Hollard are welcome additions. But at this point I can’t see them becoming part of the main group of characters. They are both too much like Wooton. Penny’s likes and dislikes mimic Wooton’s and Red emulates his goofiness, to the point of throwing out equally strange phrases and oddly placed punch lines. If Red and Wooton had a conversation together it would be a full scale competition, maybe war is a better term, to see who could say the most bizarre things. The adult characters need to be unique enough that their personalities can be differentiated by kids and I think the area of goofiness has already been adequately filled.
The last time I can recall we heard Eugene meet someone who he became close friends with was his wife, Katrina. He met Jason afterwards, but since he's always away saving the world it's hard to talk to him. The last time Connie went on a date was Album 41 in 2003. And Whit has no one to admit feelings of frustration or anger to because apparently he doesn’t feel those things anymore. It’s been a long time. And it doesn’t seem very realistic for the Whit’s End crew not to hang out with people their own age once in a while. We need more adults for these interactions to occur.
Yes, I’ll admit Adventures in Odyssey is geared towards kids. They need to hear other kids in these stories. But that doesn’t mean the adults they hear need always be selected from the same top four. After all, the Odyssey kids are renowned for being temporary. They’re always coming and going as they grow up. Adult characters are more long-term and bring more consistency and continuity to the show. They keep the overarching story moving somewhere. Without them, different Odyssey eras would feel completely disconnected from each other. It wouldn’t matter what order you listened to the episodes and the desire to hear new episodes would be decreased as the narrative would not be continuing along in a meaningful way.
Mr. Whittaker is the only World War II veteran who keeps getting younger. It’ll be awkward when the 100th anniversary of the war comes and goes and he’s still somewhere in his 70’s or 80’s. And although it seems at this point the Odyssey team is determined to keep Whit on the show indefinitely, people like Connie, Eugene and Wooton most likely will not be here forever. Just like Zapazoids, the Timothy Center and Whit’s End Connellsville, they will disappear. Hopefully they’ll get better sendoffs than the Washingtons. And they’ll need to be replaced by new characters. But their replacements can’t simply arrive at the same time that they leave. That would be too much of a change all at once. The switch to Andre Stojka as the voice of Whit was made easier because we still had Will, Katie and Jess. They were familiar to us. That’s why they need to bring in other adults so that the inevitable absence of Connie or Eugene or Wooton will not suddenly be met by a brand new character who we can’t relate to yet. Instead we will have enough familiar characters to bring us through the transition. And it takes time for a person to become familiar to an audience. So it would make sense to start adding them sooner rather than later, at a slow and steady pace.
Hopefully Connie, Eugene, Wooton and the current Whit will still be around for many years to come. But in the long run the introduction of new adult main characters can only help keep Adventures in Odyssey strong with relevant and recognizable people. Kids come and go. The adults hold the show up and have a bigger impact on how it progresses over time.
After the latest purge of Odyssey’s adults, it seems only four main characters have emerged as the constants. I call them the "Top Four." They are Whit, Connie, Eugene and Wooton. As I am not always such a huge fan of Wooton, this trend of having him return in the episodes so often alarms me. But having such a small pool of main characters in the first place is also troubling. Because of the few adults around, these top four characters seem to always be surrounded by kids, instead of engaging in any adult interactions. They need more friends who are deeply involved in their lives. They need people going through similar experiences who can empathize with how they’re feeling.
With Tom and Jack gone, Whit needs a new best friend who can talk with him like other people can’t. Tom and Jack could understand and challenge Whit. He needs someone like that again. Otherwise who’s going to set him straight the next time he starts feeling sorry for himself like in The W.E.? Who’s going to tell him to take a moment to listen to the quietness and reflect on the gift of Jesus instead of all the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season like in Peace on Earth? A kid would be unlikely to do that, and if they did it could come across as impolite. Whit’s friends used to be there, but now that they’ve gone he’s become this all-powerful figure that no one can confront. Whit isn’t perfect. But without anyone like a best friend to be there, it sure seems like he is.
Penny Wise and Red Hollard are welcome additions. But at this point I can’t see them becoming part of the main group of characters. They are both too much like Wooton. Penny’s likes and dislikes mimic Wooton’s and Red emulates his goofiness, to the point of throwing out equally strange phrases and oddly placed punch lines. If Red and Wooton had a conversation together it would be a full scale competition, maybe war is a better term, to see who could say the most bizarre things. The adult characters need to be unique enough that their personalities can be differentiated by kids and I think the area of goofiness has already been adequately filled.
The last time I can recall we heard Eugene meet someone who he became close friends with was his wife, Katrina. He met Jason afterwards, but since he's always away saving the world it's hard to talk to him. The last time Connie went on a date was Album 41 in 2003. And Whit has no one to admit feelings of frustration or anger to because apparently he doesn’t feel those things anymore. It’s been a long time. And it doesn’t seem very realistic for the Whit’s End crew not to hang out with people their own age once in a while. We need more adults for these interactions to occur.
Yes, I’ll admit Adventures in Odyssey is geared towards kids. They need to hear other kids in these stories. But that doesn’t mean the adults they hear need always be selected from the same top four. After all, the Odyssey kids are renowned for being temporary. They’re always coming and going as they grow up. Adult characters are more long-term and bring more consistency and continuity to the show. They keep the overarching story moving somewhere. Without them, different Odyssey eras would feel completely disconnected from each other. It wouldn’t matter what order you listened to the episodes and the desire to hear new episodes would be decreased as the narrative would not be continuing along in a meaningful way.
Mr. Whittaker is the only World War II veteran who keeps getting younger. It’ll be awkward when the 100th anniversary of the war comes and goes and he’s still somewhere in his 70’s or 80’s. And although it seems at this point the Odyssey team is determined to keep Whit on the show indefinitely, people like Connie, Eugene and Wooton most likely will not be here forever. Just like Zapazoids, the Timothy Center and Whit’s End Connellsville, they will disappear. Hopefully they’ll get better sendoffs than the Washingtons. And they’ll need to be replaced by new characters. But their replacements can’t simply arrive at the same time that they leave. That would be too much of a change all at once. The switch to Andre Stojka as the voice of Whit was made easier because we still had Will, Katie and Jess. They were familiar to us. That’s why they need to bring in other adults so that the inevitable absence of Connie or Eugene or Wooton will not suddenly be met by a brand new character who we can’t relate to yet. Instead we will have enough familiar characters to bring us through the transition. And it takes time for a person to become familiar to an audience. So it would make sense to start adding them sooner rather than later, at a slow and steady pace.
Hopefully Connie, Eugene, Wooton and the current Whit will still be around for many years to come. But in the long run the introduction of new adult main characters can only help keep Adventures in Odyssey strong with relevant and recognizable people. Kids come and go. The adults hold the show up and have a bigger impact on how it progresses over time.
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