Will Ryan Has Passed Away

[Patterson]

Thanks, Bananareader. While faith doesn't necessarily mean Alan Young was a christian, it is comforting to have a hint that he might have been. Time makes it easier when it was someone you weren't personally close to, but when an actor passes away, it's hard not to worry about the real people behind the characters we love.

[Polehaus53]

The tribute podcast has been released. Quite a few of the Odyssey cast and crew members share their memories of Will Ryan. There's also a bunch of never before released clips of Will Ryan during recording sessions. There's a lot of great stuff in it and is a good way to remember Will Ryan and all the work that he did, I'd recommend giving it a listen.

[The Old Judge]

A friend and I were sitting out on a boat talking about our respective childhoods a month back, and he mentioned how his parents weaned him on Adventures in Odyssey. I had heard the announcement of Will Ryan's death; he, however, was not the "superfan" that I was once, so I conveyed the message in a way that he would understand: "Eugene's voice actor is dead."

It overwhelms me how we humans can get so wrapped up in fiction. Adventures in Odyssey was different, though, because of the actors. They brought their characters off of the pages and breathed a vitality into the monologues and dialogues that appeared in each script that many people now cannot muster out of their own lives. Will Ryan was Eugene Meltsner to me. He was also a good friend for three decades of my life, and the Lord used him and his spiritual journey to encourage me when I felt doubt, or discouragement, or skepticism. If someone as intelligent as Eugene Meltsner can accept the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross as the only hope of salvation, I thought, then surely I have no true reason to doubt my Saviour.

Will Ryan helped a small, odd boy become a strong Christian man. His discipleship ministry, although he never knew it in this life, is something that I will always fondly remember no matter how long I live.

[Miss Friendship]

I read somewhere that the last few episodes we had of Will Ryan were actually recorded with the use of AIO and Jason's voice. Can anyone confirm or deny that?

Does anyone know if that would be something they would use in the future?

[Polehaus53]

I read somewhere that the last few episodes we had of Will Ryan were actually recorded with the use of AIO and Jason's voice. Can anyone confirm or deny that?

Does anyone know if that would be something they would use in the future?

Yep, this is correct. For the last four episodes featuring Eugene Meltsner, the AIO Team had voice of Jason, Townsend Coleman, record all of Eugene's lines. From there they used voice-matching software (The company they worked with was Respeecher, as revealed in the latest Q and a Podcast) which made all of his lines sound like Will Ryan. Before "The Best Is Yet To Come, Parts 1-4" was released, the Official Adventures in Odyssey Podcast released an episode where Dave Arnold, Marshal Younger, and Townsend Coleman discuss and explain the process and reasoning behind the decision.

In the latest Q and A Podcast with the AIO Team, they stated that it was unlikely that they would be doing this again in the future. Or at least not too often.
Personally, I highly doubt that they'll be using the technology another time. It worked very well for closure on the Meltsner family, but I do not see them doing it again.

Hope this answers your question.

[Miss Friendship]

I read somewhere that the last few episodes we had of Will Ryan were actually recorded with the use of AIO and Jason's voice. Can anyone confirm or deny that?

Does anyone know if that would be something they would use in the future?

Yep, this is correct. For the last four episodes featuring Eugene Meltsner, the AIO Team had voice of Jason, Townsend Coleman, record all of Eugene's lines. From there they used voice-matching software (The company they worked with was Respeecher, as revealed in the latest Q and a Podcast) which made all of his lines sound like Will Ryan. Before "The Best Is Yet To Come, Parts 1-4" was released, the Official Adventures in Odyssey Podcast released an episode where Dave Arnold, Marshal Younger, and Townsend Coleman discuss and explain the process and reasoning behind the decision.

In the latest Q and A Podcast with the AIO Team, they stated that it was unlikely that they would be doing this again in the future. Or at least not too often.
Personally, I highly doubt that they'll be using the technology another time. It worked very well for closure on the Meltsner family, but I do not see them doing it again.

Hope this answers your question.

Yes it does, thank you. It's a pity we can't use technology to always have Eugene with us, but by that reasoning, we might as well always have Bernard, Tom and Old Whit with us as well, and I suppose that just can't be done. So that does make sense.

Will Katrina and Buck also fade away or will Buck be returning in some way?

[djchatswithu]

Will Katrina and Buck also fade away or will Buck be returning in some way?

Yes, They said on the podcast that they will still appear occasionally and are said to both be in a 2 part episode in album 76. on the subject of the voice cloning I know that not everyone likes the idea of it but I think one occasion they should use it is if/when Buck becomes a Christian, even if it's just one scene.