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Anybody remember that one day, AIOWiki posted that Focus on the Family was going to release an adventures in odyssey series geared for teens and young adults? I was so kerfuzzled (confused, I love that word ) because the next day, they removed the post all together. Just checking to see if i was just seeing things cause that would be awesome if they did make another series.

yeah, I noticed that post. I think a teen AIO would be awesome. Ever since album 51 I think AIO's been tuned down for younger listeners. I think it would be great to o one for teens and cover more mature topics.

Yeah, the stuff that kids don't understand but teens do and also having more serious conversations like characters that are questioning their faith and stuff like that.

I haven't heard about that but it would be awesome to have!

I didn't hear about this, but I think I would really enjoy it! Some more episodes geared specifically towards teens would be nice.
How long ago was this posted on AiOWiki?

Yeah same as Suzy I didnt hear about it either.

It was posted a few months ago.
And I personally would enjoy it. I'm not exactly a teen, but by the time they would have made this, I will be. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it's gonna happen.
I think AIO needs a story-arc about a character questioning their faith and going through tough times.
Or perhaps once every 3 or 4 seasons, they could release a special album for older kids instead of doing an entire different series. Maybe one that's still pretty appropriate for younger kids, but deal with issues teens might be having, with specific episodes having parental warnings?

Though I think it would be awesome to have this happen, realistically, I don't think it's going to happen. Most likely, they couldn't use the same characters for the older one, so they'd have to find all new actors, the writers would have to make twice as many scripts, and Katie Leigh, Will Ryan, and the other actors for main characters would have to spend twice as long recording...Over all, it would be a ton of work, that might not pay off.

Oh, it's very possible, Seasie. There are a number of ways it could work easily:
http://aio-thechangingtimes.blogspot.co ... mours.html

However, all rumoring and hoping surrounding the teen-spinoff is all but vanished. If AIO is still considering the project, it would seem it's disappeared into the box of possibilities, rather than something that's at all certain. In fact, who knows, maybe the whole thing was just a mistake to begin with. (After all, we fans jump too fast about things, we can't help ourselves. It wasn't so long ago we insisted the Meltsners would adopt Buck, and now there's a lot of conversation on The ToO revolving around the idea Connie will get pregnant in 57.)
I teenage spinoff would be fascinating. I am especially allured by it because... romance! The teenage setting is made for it.
While this was an excellent topic idea, Emuman, you are mistaken in saying the new series could tackle ideas that "children couldn't understand." I've said in a post for JAAIOB... there's no such thing as things children can't understand. Only things we older people aren't intelligent enough to put into simple, compact kid-terms.
Thus, more appropriately, the teenage spin-off could tackle complex/adult issues with more depth than regular AIO (and without that slight inconvenience of an angry parental mail flood that is so often the fruit of AIO's pioneering.)
But it looks like any spin-offs, for now, is just a fan-dream.

Sorry, let me rephrase this,"stuff that kids don't understand" into, "the stuff that causes parents to half to answer some questions that the person is not ready for." Sry, that came out to harsh

I would really enjoy a series for older kids! It would good, challenge us more

I think that would be cool too. I've always wanted to hear AIO do something geared for more of an older
audience.

Well, if I could cut in for a minute, there are several things that might turn their faces from the idea.

1). Getting a new radio drama started is hard. And as the time goes on and we move farther and farther into the Technological Age, radio drama- in the eyes of the general public -becomes more and more obsolete. You need a good base to get anything off the ground, and if there's not a base, it won't work.

2). Remember, it's "teenage" Odyssey. In today's acting world, most actors are child actors or adults. Adult actors (Kelly Stables, Whit Hertford) can imitate kids/pre-teens, it would be hard to imitate teens due to the changes going on at that time.

3). If you could get teenage actors, (because they do exist), does Focus necessarily want them? Think about the famous teenaged actors now, and then proceed to think of their morals and ethics. Ehhh....... To put it nicely, if I was the director of a nationally famous Christian organization, I wouldn't go that route.

I think they could do something like they did with The Truth Chronicles: a whole album on a specific idea/theme that isn't part of the Odyssey cannon.

While I see your point as far as a radio drama being a tough project idea, OJ, that after all is a lot of Focus' business. They still are recognized for and make profits from their famous Radio Theater dramas and, needless to say, Odyssey. But it would be a big risk monetarily, and that certainly would be the most likely road block (if the idea ever was indeed seriously considered at all, which isn't strictly proven.)
But as to teenage actors... I don't know. As far big names in teenage acting, sure, it's hard to imagine a lot of them being in Odyssey. But Odyssey has never been about big names. Sure, being a big operation, they have names like Kimmy Robertson now, but most likely, AIO would just go for unknowns, as they did with Katie Leigh.
And there are plenty of unknown teen actors, and most of them would consider getting even a small role in such a project a big break. It's near impossible to make money in the acting market.
And so, while your main point, that it's highly unlikely there's any plans for a teen spinoff, is correct, there's lots of teen talent out there. And why not? One of the greatest desires of a teenager is to be someone. And acting is perfect for that. For, odd though it may sound to say it, there's few better ways to be yourself than to give life to someone else, to create someone else... to be someone else.

I once sent a letter to FOTF about doing something like this

This was actually an idea Phil Lollar had, but it didn't work out. It still might come to be a thing, but it'll have to be decided by the people that are actually on the AIO team right now.

Finally, someone actually knows what's going on. Where'd you find that out? The Facebook page?

I just... Know people...
I've talked to Phil about it, and Kevin, who talked to Nathan. I also talked to Jacob.

The problem was that it hadn't really been approved by Focus yet, and people had already started sharing info about it while it was still nothing but an idea. Focus contacted AIO wiki and the scoop to tell them to take down the info, because they actually weren't planning on doing a series based on that idea at that time. Who knows if they will eventually though. I think it'd be an awesome idea, but I don't know if it'd make enough money to keep itself afloat. Odyssey right now has an audience that (surprisingly) is comprised majoritively of those 12 and under, which is their target audience age. it might be hard to market for older audiences because contrary to what it seems like on the internet, not that many teenagers are interested in radio drama.

Aaron Wiley wrote:I just... Know people...
I've talked to Phil about it, and Kevin, who talked to Nathan. I also talked to Jacob.

The problem was that it hadn't really been approved by Focus yet, and people had already started sharing info about it while it was still nothing but an idea. Focus contacted AIO wiki and the scoop to tell them to take down the info, because they actually weren't planning on doing a series based on that idea at that time. Who knows if they will eventually though. I think it'd be an awesome idea, but I don't know if it'd make enough money to keep itself afloat. Odyssey right now has an audience that (surprisingly) is comprised majoritively of those 12 and under, which is their target audience age. it might be hard to market for older audiences because contrary to what it seems like on the internet, not that many teenagers are interested in radio drama.

You're almost like the Whittakers, you know everyone.

While I think that it might be a really cool thing if they did it right, I also agree with Garrett, I know a lot of teens probably think that AIO is just kid stuff now, and wouldn't really be interested in a series just for them.