Adventures in Odyssey
Created | Updated Apr 19, 2002
When you have a conversation with me, either this or computers will pop up sooner or later in all proability so it's probably appropriate for me to write an article for the Guide. "Adventures in Odyssey", or AIO, is a Christian radio series primarely (how on earth do you spell that?! ;) for the eight to twelve age range, but the plots are usually intelligent enough for most people to enjoy. It's made by Focus on the Family, a Christian organisation (www.family.org). There are over 400 episodes with new ones being made all the time. The series centres around an "ice cream parlour and discovery emporium" called "Whit's End". The name needs to be explained a little. "Whit's End" is run by John Avery Whittaker, although most people call him Whit. He's a "grandfatherly inventor", a strong Christian, founded a successful publishing company (the Universal Press Foundation), he's a fountain of good advice. It some ways he can be a little too good, with not enough faults/failings. As well as ice cream at Whit's End mini-pizzas, lemonade and milkshake are served, and there is a library, "the biggest [homemade] train set in the county", which the kids can control, a Bible room full of interactive displays including Whit's greatest invention "the Imagination Station" (I.S.), which is a kind of virtual reality machine that works be "enhancing" the imagination to the point it seems real. Other main characters are Eugene Meltsner, who's got "the I.Q. of a planet, but can't even tie his own sandles!" to quote Connie Kendall, another employee at Whit's End. She's a bubbly, lively, teenager (she was 15 when the show started back in 1987!). She moved to Odyssey with her mother when her parents split up. There are too may characters to list here that have been on AIO, some briefly, some for years. I'll probably update this sometime. In the meanwhile try checking out www.aiohq.com, http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/adventuresinodysseyclub, http://www.broadcast.com/lightsource/family/Focus/odyssey/index.asp, http://surf.to/AdventuresinOdyssey/, http://home.unicomp.net/~follett/, http://home.inreach.com/subicboy/ODYSSEY/aio.html and http://www.welcome.to/AdventuresInOdyssey.com .
