The Soda Shop Message Boards

What episodes do you enjoy, but they're not talked about all the time? Sometimes it seems while episodes like Aloha Oy, Somebody to Watch Over Me and Do or Diet are talked of repeatedly, others just aren't noted.

One favorite I've never seen addressed: When Bad Isn't So Good. I see why it's not talked of much, mind you. It's nothing mindblowingly special. It's kind of the opposite really, fairly standard. But it's not just what happens it's who you do it with. And this episode is spent with Edwin Blackgaard paired, surprisingly, with Crying Bryan Dern. Yes! And unexpected appearances by Bernard. Even Sam Johnson is more interesting than usual and less Sam Johnson-y.

Are there any episodes you don't see talked of you'd like to talk up?

The Mystery of the Clock Tower parts 1 & 2!! They are like, never, mentioned, but are SO good!

I love The Buck Starts Here, Mandy's Debut, and A Christmas Conundrum, but no one really talks about them.

I really enjoy "The Nudge", "Best of Enemies", "Chip Off the Shoulder", and "License to Deprive" (all of which are Washington episodes, funnily enough). "The Nudge" has a really great lesson about the power of prayer, "Best of Enemies" and "Chip Off the Shoulder" are fun character-developing episodes dealing with Kelly's adjustment to her new town, and "License to Deprive" is an episode about historical accuracy that I, as a history fangirl, find incredibly entertaining and relatable.

I really like Broken Leg and The Reluctant Rival. Broken leg is funny in a sense, because Edwin has to survive having "lost [his] right arm!", but when a character or even a person in real life who is usually overlooked and behind-the-scenes is recognized or acknowledged it just seems right to me. Reluctant rival is another forgotten gem.

I really like "The Invisible Dog". Or anything with Lester really. "Silent Night" is great too.

On a slightly different note, two episodes that kind of annoyed me as a kid that I've gained a lot of appreciation for are "Happy Smilers" and "The Great Wishy Woz". Both actually have some pretty good lessons behind them and some powerful lines.

I totally agree with you Dallas R.!

I really love the music in The Impossible. And Blood, Sweat and Fears has always made me laugh.

Life in the Third Person, definitely. I'm still amazed at how well such a serious topic was handled, and without pretension or preachiness. It went a long way in making the characters and situations seem real.

Re: Dallas R

Yeah, Happy Smilers is a beautiful one (and not just because I liked the Shepherds). It was interesting how Aubrey was used by God to lead someone to Christ even before she became a Christian.

By Faith, Noah and Our Best Vacation Ever. Two hilarious and awesome episodes .

Baron von Odyssey wrote:By Faith, Noah and Our Best Vacation Ever. Two hilarious and awesome episodes .

I love both those episodes! They're probably my favourite oldies.
Hidden in My Heart is a treasure in my opinion because the parodies were comedy gold and it was brilliant.

Hear Me, Hear Me and Mum's the Word are two of my favorite episodes (that are not particularly anything, except maybe perfectly, delightfully normal). I really love the interaction between Trent, Mandy, and Liz. Plus, that scene in the recording both with Connie, Max, and the aforementioned three yelling at each other is simply priceless.

Helios, you are a treasure. I could listen to "Mum's the Word" forever and not get tired.

As a matter of fact, I think that all of Album 47 is really underrated. Themes of family, love, and trust really tied Albums 47-49 together for me, and I really think that it's kind of an unsung Renaissance Age for the series. Like, 75% of the ToOers could be found complaining about the "circus music" and what they thought were exaggerated characters (someone even blamed Whit having trouble explaining his fear of giving blood in "Blood Sweat and Fears" on Paul Herlinger's voice acting, as if it was a) a problem at all and b) not the fault of the script or the voice directors). But the music didn't bother me in the slightest, and I thought that the characters were taken through a lot of development during these albums—I mean, the first two episodes, "Cover of Darkness" and "Out of Our Hands", are entirely about developing characters and story arcs, and they're great for it.

But Album 47 is my favorite out of all of them because there are some episodes that, even as they relate to those arcs, are simply slice-of-life. "Blood, Sweat, and Fears" and "Mum's the Word" contain tangential references to Mandy's arc, but still function on their own and are solid character-developing breather episodes in their own right. (Especially with Whit having a fear of giving blood—it works for his character, there's nothing in the canon to contradict it, it makes our usually imperturbable mentor character more three-dimensional, and it's given the respect that a trauma-induced fear deserves while still stating that fears should be faced rather than allowed to paralyze a person.) "The Family Next Door" directly ties into Mandy's parents' separation, but it also develops the Washingtons' relationship with the Straussbergs and has some solid character growth for both Tamika and Mandy. "The Nudge" contains some frank portrayals of Grady's home life and the difficulties of a single parent in a working-class family, but it also functions on its own as a really underrated episode about the power of prayer and the importance of communicating with and listening to God. Add the somewhat-flanderized-but-overall-harmless "My Favorite Things", the Imagination Station episode about Jeremiah and perseverance in the face of adversity, further development of Grady's relationship with Wooton, the introduction of Kelly, and the gradual softening of Leonard's heart to Eugene's work, sauté until golden, and you have my favorite album of Adventures in Odyssey.

Album 47 has a really solid balance between slice-of-life and story arc episodes, and what I like about it is that it's pretty clearly a typical day in Odyssey—there's this really nice, idyllic, Saturday-morning-cartoon-set-in-the-suburbs feel to it, even though there are clearly some dramatic things going on. The humor and the ways in which characters bounce off of each other are spot-on and entertaining no matter how many times I listen to it, and it's always going to hold a special place in the AIO corner of my heart.

Fifteen Minutes was an amazing episode, but not a single person cares about it. At least that I know.

Alex Jefferson wrote:Fifteen Minutes was an amazing episode, but not a single person cares about it. At least that I know.

See, I like this episode...but..

Chick-fil-A used to give out AIO on tapes, and when tapes went out of style, they put them on CDs. I wasn't an AIO fan, but we liked Chick-fil-a, so I gained a whole stack of AIO episodes on CD. This was one of them.

Now, I didn't have many CDs, the other ones I can remember is a Point of Grace CD and Lion King Soundtrack CD. So I listened to the same ones over and over and over again.

That being said, this is one of those episodes that I cringe /every/ time I hear it, because I've listened to it like 200 times.

I also like Easy Money, because the message is amazing.

"Memories of Jerry"
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Didi wrote:"Memories of Jerry"
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That is praised a lot. I think that Another Man's Shoes is amazing. Another forgotten episode is The Forgotten Deed, because it is never praised.

I actually love the whole album of The Search for Whit and I was so surprised when I found out that was the one album I had never heard. Or at least forgot I heard them.

I actually think Album 49 is underrated. I mean come on, Life, in The Third Person, A New Era and The Highest Stakes, they're all underrated by a ton.