38. The Last Episodes of Eugene Meltsner
What to do next after the loss of Will Ryan.
By David Hilder | January 7, 2022
What to do next after the loss of Will Ryan.
By David Hilder | January 7, 2022
Greetings and salutations! And welcome to 2022. As we look ahead to what this new year will bring, Adventures in Odyssey fans have something particular on our minds: Eugene Meltsner. As you may know, late last year actor Will Ryan, the voice of Eugene, passed away. I recently posted an editorial as a tribute and farewell to Will Ryan entitled A Most Extraordinary Character. As I said in that editorial, I don’t envy the position the AIO writers and producers are in at the moment as they grieve and make plans for moving forward.
Understandably, there’s a lot of uncertainty and even anxiety in the AIO community about what will happen next. What is Eugene’s future going to look like? What will happen to his character now? There are different paths the AIO team could take. So, in this editorial I wanted to process things for myself and take some time to consider all the options.
Option 1) Eugene Fades Away
When an actor is no longer available, one option is just to stop writing episodes with that character. They might continue to be mentioned by other characters, but they would not appear themselves. Think of characters like Bernard Walton or Rodney Rathbone. One day they were here; the next day they weren’t. And no one seemed to notice.
But as you’re probably already thinking, this option is not going to work for someone like Eugene. It may be all right for more minor characters, but not for a major character who has such a large presence on the show. Only Mr. Whittaker and Connie have been in more episodes than Eugene. People are going to notice if Eugene just suddenly disappears. And Katrina would probably fade away with him. This option, while the easiest to implement, would be the least satisfactory solution for Eugene. We would need some kind of closure, some kind of explanation for his absence.
Option 2) Eugene Dies
Another option is to have the character pass away. Now, I’m not necessarily talking about a death like Tom Riley's. Tom originally faded away after Album 50, and then it was mentioned in Album 62 that the character had passed away. But someone like Eugene would require a clearer send-off. If he does die, it would be a major plot point in the show.
One big limitation is that no new dialogue with Will Ryan can be recorded. So it’s unlikely that Eugene’s death would be a drawn-out process, like the death of Karen or Connie’s grandmother. Eugene’s death may need to happen suddenly. If he does pass away, it could happen without warning near the beginning of an episode, like the passing of Connie’s mother June. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be sudden. Another way to do it would be to have Eugene go into a coma, allowing characters to visit him in the hospital before he passes away. Neither would require any new Eugene lines to be recorded.
The major advantage of this option is that it would allow the characters of Odyssey to grieve with us the listeners as we remember Eugene and reminisce about all the great times we experienced with him. That would be something really special—to create some kind of a tribute to Eugene within an AIO episode. Another advantage of this option is that it allows Katrina to stick around for future episodes. In my opinion Katrina is underutilized, and it would be nice to hear from her more.
On a side note, while it’s true no new Will Ryan audio can be recorded, that doesn’t mean there isn’t any audio out there the AIO team could use. The video series would be a help in this case. The sound engineers could possibly repurpose the audio from the half-hour video The Last Days of Eugene Meltsner, for example. That story has two major plot points: Eugene discovers he has a life-threatening condition, and later he risks his life to diffuse a ticking time bomb. Either plot point, or both, could be adapted and fit into an Adventures in Odyssey episode. The ending would simply need to be changed to have Eugene ultimately pass away.
Option 3) Eugene Gets a New Voice
The option that I’ve been avoiding is the obvious possibility of bringing in a new actor to voice Eugene. This would allow the writers to continue the storylines with Eugene that are already in full swing. Eugene’s voice would change, but none of our Odyssey characters would notice. Their lives would continue as if nothing happened. Eugene could continue interacting with all our friends in Odyssey. We would get more Eugene bickering with Connie, more working on inventions with Mr. Whittaker, more touching moments with Buck and Katrina. Life would go on as normal.
Or almost normal. The downside of course is that fans would bristle at the thought of another actor replacing Will Ryan. The thought of someone else acting as Buck’s adopted father or singing Eugene’s ukulele tunes is hard to imagine. This would be an unprecedented event after all. The first actor for Whit, Hal Smith, played the role for seven years. He was later replaced by Paul Herlinger, who played Whit for twelve years. But Will Ryan has played Eugene for nearly thirty-five years. Never have we had such a long-running AIO actor been replaced with a new voice.
One could say that Eugene needs to stay because his relationship with Buck is just beginning. On the other hand, it could be argued that the Buck and Eugene story arc has come to a major waypoint, or natural stopping place, in As Buck Would Have It (Album 72). The AIO team will need to evaluate whether the Buck and Eugene story arc has come to a natural conclusion, which could potentially continue with just Buck and Katrina, or if more Buck and Eugene episodes are warranted. But to be honest, the Buck story arc has always been more of a Buck and Katrina storyline. It was Katrina who first befriended Buck and saw his potential, even as he was working for Mr. Skint in Album 53. I could imagine a world where the Meltsner family experiences a tragedy, Eugene’s passing, and Buck and Katrina are there to help each other through it. A child experiencing the death of a parent, though not a regular AIO topic, is something a number of listeners would be able to relate to. I know the AIO team would approach the subject with the proper tone it deserves.
It really comes down to AIO’s philosophy moving forward. Will major characters like Eugene, Connie, and Wooton eventually get replaced? Or will the characters be respectfully retired, as Bernard and Tom were? Whit has been replaced twice so far. Are there plans to continue that? And for how long? The Young Whit book series recently pegged down Whit’s birth year. He’s ten years old in the 1930s and he’s clearly mortal. So does it make sense to prologue his character forever? But that’s a subject for another editorial.
I would just say that there are only so many story arcs that we can expect a character to live through. Once we’ve experienced a character grow to their potential, there’s wisdom in drawing that character’s story to an end, however bittersweet. But that doesn’t mean the show has to end. The time eventually comes for new characters with their own fresh story arcs.
Option 4) Eugene Moves Away
The fourth option is to send Eugene away. And this does have a precedent. Multiple precedents in fact. Not only have major characters moved away in the past, like the Barclays, Aubrey Shepherd, and Jack and Joanne Allen, but even Eugene himself has. He skipped town for five years as a result of the Novacom saga. That’s because actor Will Ryan was unavailable. So Eugene was sent on a wild world tour as he and Katrina were pursued by the forces of Novacom.
But can Eugene be given a proper send-off if new Will Ryan lines cannot be recorded? Any Eugene dialogue would need to be patched together from past recordings. This happened during the Novacom saga with Eugene’s wedding to Katrina at her father’s bedside, which was put together entirely using previous Eugene dialogue. But can we find any Eugene audio that would fit a departure?
There is in fact an unreleased two-part episode that was recorded around 2007 where Eugene and Katrina decide to leave Odyssey with Eugene’s father. It was recorded because the AIO team thought they were going to lose actor Will Ryan again. But as it turned out, Will Ryan was able to stay and the episode was scrapped and replaced with A New Era (Album 49) where Eugene stays in Odyssey and Leonard leaves. It might be possible to go mining for some dialogue from the unreleased departure episode in order to put together a satisfying ending for Eugene. But whether there is enough audio to be found is unknown. The downside to Eugene leaving town of course is that Katrina would go with him, and potentially Buck as well. Losing Buck would be a dealbreaker for many fans. Unless the AIO team can find a way around that, this option seems unlikely.
So, I think it comes down to options 2 and 3. Either Eugene passes away or he gets a new voice actor. If he does pass away, preferably it’s after the people of Odyssey get to visit him in the hospital. But it’s possible the consensus will be against letting a major character die. Again, we’re back to AIO’s philosophy. We can either go the route of continually recasting major characters, or allow characters to retire from the show. I don’t know which philosophy will prevail in the case of Eugene.
Can Adventures in Odyssey survive without Eugene? Certainly the answer has to be yes. We survived during the Novacom saga. And the team was prepared to lose Eugene after Album 49, rather than recasting him. As fans we’re torn between the thought of losing the character of Eugene and the thought of someone else playing his character. We might be tempted to keep Eugene because we can’t imagine the show without him. We can’t imagine new characters coming in to fill the void he leaves behind.
But Adventures in Odyssey has always moved forward by innovating. Instead of having Connie and Eugene end up together, the AIO team brought in a new character, Katrina. Instead of bringing back Blackgaard again and again, they created Novacom, and then resisted the urge to make Green Ring’s Mr. Grote the same person as Novacom’s chairman. They created new, distinct characters. This is how the AIO universe expands and thrives.
We already have a character in place who can help fill the void left behind by Eugene. Renee Carter is similar enough to match Eugene’s intellect, though different enough to not act as an obvious replacement. Only members of the AIO Club have heard Renee so far, but the time has definitely come for the rest of the fandom to hear from her as well. Like I’ve been saying since my first editorial, having more adult characters is helpful to plan for the future. And AIO has been doing a better job of that lately, with characters like Renee Carter, Wilson Knox, Jillian Marshall, Penny Bassett, and the return of Jason and Katrina as regulars. Eugene Meltsner will always hold a special place in our hearts. As fans we don’t want our characters to leave us. That’s why we keep asking for people like Mitch and Richard Maxwell to come back. We know we love these characters, and it’s easier to think of these people coming back than imagine brand-new characters appearing.
As fans we should keep praying for the AIO team as they think through the various options. We can pray for the right actor to replace Will Ryan if that's the direction we go, and we can pray for Eugene's passing to be handled well if that ultimately takes place on the show. No matter what happens, we’ll always have a multitude of Will Ryan episodes to listen to. And if you’re not yet in the AIO club, I have some good news. There are over twenty club-exclusive episodes featuring Eugene that you have yet to listen to, from wild adventures in the Middle East (When One Door Closes, Season 3) to a sea fishing expedition off the Florida Keys (Out to Sea, Season 5). I know we’ll be enjoying Will Ryan’s portrayal of Eugene for years and years to come.
What do you think is the best option for Eugene’s future? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Understandably, there’s a lot of uncertainty and even anxiety in the AIO community about what will happen next. What is Eugene’s future going to look like? What will happen to his character now? There are different paths the AIO team could take. So, in this editorial I wanted to process things for myself and take some time to consider all the options.
Option 1) Eugene Fades Away
When an actor is no longer available, one option is just to stop writing episodes with that character. They might continue to be mentioned by other characters, but they would not appear themselves. Think of characters like Bernard Walton or Rodney Rathbone. One day they were here; the next day they weren’t. And no one seemed to notice.
But as you’re probably already thinking, this option is not going to work for someone like Eugene. It may be all right for more minor characters, but not for a major character who has such a large presence on the show. Only Mr. Whittaker and Connie have been in more episodes than Eugene. People are going to notice if Eugene just suddenly disappears. And Katrina would probably fade away with him. This option, while the easiest to implement, would be the least satisfactory solution for Eugene. We would need some kind of closure, some kind of explanation for his absence.
Option 2) Eugene Dies
Another option is to have the character pass away. Now, I’m not necessarily talking about a death like Tom Riley's. Tom originally faded away after Album 50, and then it was mentioned in Album 62 that the character had passed away. But someone like Eugene would require a clearer send-off. If he does die, it would be a major plot point in the show.
One big limitation is that no new dialogue with Will Ryan can be recorded. So it’s unlikely that Eugene’s death would be a drawn-out process, like the death of Karen or Connie’s grandmother. Eugene’s death may need to happen suddenly. If he does pass away, it could happen without warning near the beginning of an episode, like the passing of Connie’s mother June. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be sudden. Another way to do it would be to have Eugene go into a coma, allowing characters to visit him in the hospital before he passes away. Neither would require any new Eugene lines to be recorded.
The major advantage of this option is that it would allow the characters of Odyssey to grieve with us the listeners as we remember Eugene and reminisce about all the great times we experienced with him. That would be something really special—to create some kind of a tribute to Eugene within an AIO episode. Another advantage of this option is that it allows Katrina to stick around for future episodes. In my opinion Katrina is underutilized, and it would be nice to hear from her more.
On a side note, while it’s true no new Will Ryan audio can be recorded, that doesn’t mean there isn’t any audio out there the AIO team could use. The video series would be a help in this case. The sound engineers could possibly repurpose the audio from the half-hour video The Last Days of Eugene Meltsner, for example. That story has two major plot points: Eugene discovers he has a life-threatening condition, and later he risks his life to diffuse a ticking time bomb. Either plot point, or both, could be adapted and fit into an Adventures in Odyssey episode. The ending would simply need to be changed to have Eugene ultimately pass away.
Option 3) Eugene Gets a New Voice
The option that I’ve been avoiding is the obvious possibility of bringing in a new actor to voice Eugene. This would allow the writers to continue the storylines with Eugene that are already in full swing. Eugene’s voice would change, but none of our Odyssey characters would notice. Their lives would continue as if nothing happened. Eugene could continue interacting with all our friends in Odyssey. We would get more Eugene bickering with Connie, more working on inventions with Mr. Whittaker, more touching moments with Buck and Katrina. Life would go on as normal.
Or almost normal. The downside of course is that fans would bristle at the thought of another actor replacing Will Ryan. The thought of someone else acting as Buck’s adopted father or singing Eugene’s ukulele tunes is hard to imagine. This would be an unprecedented event after all. The first actor for Whit, Hal Smith, played the role for seven years. He was later replaced by Paul Herlinger, who played Whit for twelve years. But Will Ryan has played Eugene for nearly thirty-five years. Never have we had such a long-running AIO actor been replaced with a new voice.
One could say that Eugene needs to stay because his relationship with Buck is just beginning. On the other hand, it could be argued that the Buck and Eugene story arc has come to a major waypoint, or natural stopping place, in As Buck Would Have It (Album 72). The AIO team will need to evaluate whether the Buck and Eugene story arc has come to a natural conclusion, which could potentially continue with just Buck and Katrina, or if more Buck and Eugene episodes are warranted. But to be honest, the Buck story arc has always been more of a Buck and Katrina storyline. It was Katrina who first befriended Buck and saw his potential, even as he was working for Mr. Skint in Album 53. I could imagine a world where the Meltsner family experiences a tragedy, Eugene’s passing, and Buck and Katrina are there to help each other through it. A child experiencing the death of a parent, though not a regular AIO topic, is something a number of listeners would be able to relate to. I know the AIO team would approach the subject with the proper tone it deserves.
It really comes down to AIO’s philosophy moving forward. Will major characters like Eugene, Connie, and Wooton eventually get replaced? Or will the characters be respectfully retired, as Bernard and Tom were? Whit has been replaced twice so far. Are there plans to continue that? And for how long? The Young Whit book series recently pegged down Whit’s birth year. He’s ten years old in the 1930s and he’s clearly mortal. So does it make sense to prologue his character forever? But that’s a subject for another editorial.
I would just say that there are only so many story arcs that we can expect a character to live through. Once we’ve experienced a character grow to their potential, there’s wisdom in drawing that character’s story to an end, however bittersweet. But that doesn’t mean the show has to end. The time eventually comes for new characters with their own fresh story arcs.
Option 4) Eugene Moves Away
The fourth option is to send Eugene away. And this does have a precedent. Multiple precedents in fact. Not only have major characters moved away in the past, like the Barclays, Aubrey Shepherd, and Jack and Joanne Allen, but even Eugene himself has. He skipped town for five years as a result of the Novacom saga. That’s because actor Will Ryan was unavailable. So Eugene was sent on a wild world tour as he and Katrina were pursued by the forces of Novacom.
But can Eugene be given a proper send-off if new Will Ryan lines cannot be recorded? Any Eugene dialogue would need to be patched together from past recordings. This happened during the Novacom saga with Eugene’s wedding to Katrina at her father’s bedside, which was put together entirely using previous Eugene dialogue. But can we find any Eugene audio that would fit a departure?
There is in fact an unreleased two-part episode that was recorded around 2007 where Eugene and Katrina decide to leave Odyssey with Eugene’s father. It was recorded because the AIO team thought they were going to lose actor Will Ryan again. But as it turned out, Will Ryan was able to stay and the episode was scrapped and replaced with A New Era (Album 49) where Eugene stays in Odyssey and Leonard leaves. It might be possible to go mining for some dialogue from the unreleased departure episode in order to put together a satisfying ending for Eugene. But whether there is enough audio to be found is unknown. The downside to Eugene leaving town of course is that Katrina would go with him, and potentially Buck as well. Losing Buck would be a dealbreaker for many fans. Unless the AIO team can find a way around that, this option seems unlikely.
So, I think it comes down to options 2 and 3. Either Eugene passes away or he gets a new voice actor. If he does pass away, preferably it’s after the people of Odyssey get to visit him in the hospital. But it’s possible the consensus will be against letting a major character die. Again, we’re back to AIO’s philosophy. We can either go the route of continually recasting major characters, or allow characters to retire from the show. I don’t know which philosophy will prevail in the case of Eugene.
Can Adventures in Odyssey survive without Eugene? Certainly the answer has to be yes. We survived during the Novacom saga. And the team was prepared to lose Eugene after Album 49, rather than recasting him. As fans we’re torn between the thought of losing the character of Eugene and the thought of someone else playing his character. We might be tempted to keep Eugene because we can’t imagine the show without him. We can’t imagine new characters coming in to fill the void he leaves behind.
But Adventures in Odyssey has always moved forward by innovating. Instead of having Connie and Eugene end up together, the AIO team brought in a new character, Katrina. Instead of bringing back Blackgaard again and again, they created Novacom, and then resisted the urge to make Green Ring’s Mr. Grote the same person as Novacom’s chairman. They created new, distinct characters. This is how the AIO universe expands and thrives.
We already have a character in place who can help fill the void left behind by Eugene. Renee Carter is similar enough to match Eugene’s intellect, though different enough to not act as an obvious replacement. Only members of the AIO Club have heard Renee so far, but the time has definitely come for the rest of the fandom to hear from her as well. Like I’ve been saying since my first editorial, having more adult characters is helpful to plan for the future. And AIO has been doing a better job of that lately, with characters like Renee Carter, Wilson Knox, Jillian Marshall, Penny Bassett, and the return of Jason and Katrina as regulars. Eugene Meltsner will always hold a special place in our hearts. As fans we don’t want our characters to leave us. That’s why we keep asking for people like Mitch and Richard Maxwell to come back. We know we love these characters, and it’s easier to think of these people coming back than imagine brand-new characters appearing.
As fans we should keep praying for the AIO team as they think through the various options. We can pray for the right actor to replace Will Ryan if that's the direction we go, and we can pray for Eugene's passing to be handled well if that ultimately takes place on the show. No matter what happens, we’ll always have a multitude of Will Ryan episodes to listen to. And if you’re not yet in the AIO club, I have some good news. There are over twenty club-exclusive episodes featuring Eugene that you have yet to listen to, from wild adventures in the Middle East (When One Door Closes, Season 3) to a sea fishing expedition off the Florida Keys (Out to Sea, Season 5). I know we’ll be enjoying Will Ryan’s portrayal of Eugene for years and years to come.
What do you think is the best option for Eugene’s future? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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