A New Age Odyssey?

The talk of an Odyssey Series focused for an older age group has been mentioned before. This idea intrigues me. However, while a spin off series would be wonderful, I almost think a separate series would be just as wonderful.

If I were to design a "new age" Odyssey here's some of the things I would go for.

New characters. It would be with totally new characters, so new backgrounds and everything.
New town: If it had anything to do with Odyssey at all, it would be by reference only. Maybe have connections to Jason or John Whittaker since they know everyone.

Possible themes that would be covered:
Doubt in faith
Trust in God
Handling death
The seriousness of suicide and self harm
and maybe other themes too.

Story line: Small town young man begins to make adult decisions. He's grown up in the church his whole life but until now never really thought much into it. Being a small town church some things weren't as emphasized as they should. He begins seeing things in the church that make him wonder what he truly believes as a Christian. He begins college and meets wonderful friends, and also ones that make him even more confused in the area of faith. While in college he gets the feeling that ministry might be where he should go, but has little encouragement to do so. He also has a past that he struggles with. While in college he struggles with finding his major, keeping his grades up and the distractions of trying to find the right friends/girlfriend. (I realize this is a huge jumbled mess. If I were to ever do anything real with this, it would be much more organized...)

The idea would be a show that better depicts reality. At times (specifically in recent episodes) Odyssey seems too perfect. And maybe that just comes with kids shows, but the idea would be to tackle themes in ways that invoke thinking, and perhaps it'd be more of an ongoing story throughout seasons instead of individual stories.

While I love Odyssey and how they approach the themes, I do think they tone thing down for kids. And in some episodes make things too...kidish? It's like lately they have to slip in excitement or that extra bit of comedy just for the sake of it. And I really think that it works or the target age group, however they might start losing the older listeners. Therefore topics like these would need to be covered in a more serious show.

Anything that comes to mind from reading all of this is open for discussion. What would you want to see in a "New Age Odyssey"?

I think a "New Age Odyssey" would be awesome. I rarely have spare time to listen to AIO (capital offence, I know ), but I would make more time if a new spinoff was created just for dealing with difficult topics. It would make things a little more interesting, whether the series was set in Odyssey, or elsewhere.

I agree that a new series really should have some connection to Odyssey, or at least John Whittaker, otherwise it's really just another show made by the same guys. I'm not saying that wouldn't be awesome, it just wouldn't really be Odyssey.

Sko wrote:I think a "New Age Odyssey" would be awesome. I rarely have spare time to listen to AIO (capital offence, I know ), but I would make more time if a new spinoff was created just for dealing with difficult topics. It would make things a little more interesting, whether the series was set in Odyssey, or elsewhere.

I agree that a new series really should have some connection to Odyssey, or at least John Whittaker, otherwise it's really just another show made by the same guys. I'm not saying that wouldn't be awesome, it just wouldn't really be Odyssey.

The idea would be that it wouldn't be Odyssey. It would maybe reference Odyssey every now and then though. Even if it was a simple call to Whit for advice, or something like "I think Whit would say this." That kind of thing.

OR, the series starts something like this:

No opening narration. Just rain pelting off the windshield of a car. Inside is a troubled man. He groans to himself, flips through the radio stations, gets angry, then screams and slams his fist against the dashboard. Obviously, he is a man with some very serious issues.

When throwing his temper tantrum, however, he loses control of the car. You can hear skidding and spinning of tires, followed by a crash and another scream caught in mid-yell. Silence.

All of a sudden, you hear a kind, gentle voice saying, "You're gonna be all right now. You're car's being fixed, but it kinda got banged up a bit. You got more lucky. Doc came by, said all you got was a small fracture in your left arm."

"Wh-who are you?"

"Well,I'm Buck Shethar, I'm the pastor of this town."

"Okay, Mister Praise-Jesus Love-God, I'm not necessarily into this church thing."

"I'm sorry. You ain't gettin' back on the road for three weeks, at least. Just stay here and relax. You've had quite an adventure."

"Oh no, buddy. If I'm stuck here, for three weeks, that's going to be an adventure."

The Old Judge wrote:OR, the series starts something like this:

No opening narration. Just rain pelting off the windshield of a car. Inside is a troubled man. He groans to himself, flips through the radio stations, gets angry, then screams and slams his fist against the dashboard. Obviously, he is a man with some very serious issues.

When throwing his temper tantrum, however, he loses control of the car. You can hear skidding and spinning of tires, followed by a crash and another scream caught in mid-yell. Silence.

All of a sudden, you hear a kind, gentle voice saying, "You're gonna be all right now. You're car's being fixed, but it kinda got banged up a bit. You got more lucky. Doc came by, said all you got was a small fracture in your left arm."

"Wh-who are you?"

"Well,I'm Buck Shethar, I'm the pastor of this town."

"Okay, Mister Praise-Jesus Love-God, I'm not necessarily into this church thing."

"I'm sorry. You ain't gettin' back on the road for three weeks, at least. Just stay here and relax. You've had quite an adventure."

"Oh no, buddy. If I'm stuck here, for three weeks, that's going to be an adventure."

Sounds intriguing, however you didn't really specify what you where you would like it to go from there. I mean, what sort of themes are tackled and things like that?

Well, see, Mister Car Crash's dad was a pastor, and they had a falling out when our main character fell in with the wrong friends. As a result, he (the son) literally denounced God and Christianity in its entirety. Living with Reverend Shethar, our "hero" has to come to grips through lessons learned and experiences had in this town that possibly, just possibly, that Daddy was right.

But, will God forgive him?

The Old Judge wrote:Well, see, Mister Car Crash's dad was a pastor, and they had a falling out when our main character fell in with the wrong friends. As a result, he (the son) literally denounced God and Christianity in its entirety. Living with Reverend Shethar, our "hero" has to come to grips through lessons learned and experiences had in this town that possibly, just possibly, that Daddy was right.

But, will God forgive him?

Whoa! I would listen to that episode!

I would listen although. I could even voice it.

i just wish they would bring the old characters back and get rid of those new ones even though I know they can't...=[

Did you read what this topic is about. This is about creating a new series similar to AIO.

yup I did, Jake. and you can stop being to rude to me now.

 or wait maybe i didn't look at the whole thing hehe sorry. but seriously, Jake, did I do something to make you mad at me?

If they did an older one, I think it would be cool if it were placed somewhere sorta near, like pokenbarry falls...  OOOH! I have an idea, Chicago!