894: A Simple Reminder

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Peachey Keen
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894: A Simple Reminder

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What did you all think of this month's Club episode?
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ASmouseInTheHouse
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Overall, I liked it. I thought the references to 'technology' were pretty funny, and in my mind, my favorite parts of the episode. I do wish the Veggietales references were more evident, but what they did was pretty good.
(Coronavirus is in Odyssey! :mad: )
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ASmouseInTheHouse wrote:
Fri Sep 04, 2020 6:39 pm
Overall, I liked it. I thought the references to 'technology' were pretty funny, and in my mind, my favorite parts of the episode. I do wish the Veggietales references were more evident, but what they did was pretty good.
(Coronavirus is in Odyssey! :mad: )
On the one hand, I'm glad they addressed the whole virus thing, but on the other hand, I think many people at the moment would be listening to Odyssey to take a break from what's been happening. the plot was okay (yet more great voice work from Katie) but in my opinion it was a bit too similar to other episodes like 'over the airwaves'. I'd love to see them do an episode similar to 'the coolest dog" only with video calls rather than a video camera.
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Monica Stone
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This is kinda lazy, but I'll just copy what I wrote on the ToO:

I really liked it!

It was simple. It wasn't complex, nor was it trying to be. After all of the intricate multi-dimensional morals that have been delivered recently (I'm lookin' at you, "Millstones" and "The Rydell Revelations"), this episode was just a nice breather. I like complex morals and meditating upon them, but this one was a nice break for my brain.
Wilson Knox wrote:And you may be wondering if this little tale has a moral. The answer is...no. It doesn't. Except to say, as I did at the beginning, that sometimes, we need a simple reminder about the basics — what is truly important.
I liked the message Wilson delivered above. I think I'm becoming better at telling which writer writes which episodes before even knowing because I could feel Phil Lollar's writing showing through at this part. It kinda felt like "The Toy" at this part, which might be why. I'm not complaining; this was a good episode!

I finished listening to this episode for the first time at 12:44am. :anxious: That explains why I didn't catch that "Lou Sipher" was supposed to be a clever way of saying "Lucifer" until it was pointed out. And this morning I realized "secure-original-nutrient" stood for Son and the "synthetic-inverse-nutrient" stood for sin. Clever, clever.

Can we take a moment to appreciate the not-so-subtle references to Wilson getting "the bug that's going around"? And how he self-quarantined? And all the technical problems he faced with his livestream? I really laughed. :lol:
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Polehaus53
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Here's what I wrote on the ToO:

I liked this episode! I couldn't even tell it had been remotely recorded!
My favorite part was the Veggietales parody. I do wish that they had made more Veggietales references, though, and was slightly disappointed that the vegetables didn't sing more songs. But I really liked what they did sing. I played the song at least ten times :anxious: and got it stuck in my head.
I enjoyed the references to "the bug that's going around" in the episode. I'm hoping we hear more of these references in other remotely recorded episodes as they release.
Monica Stone wrote:
Sat Sep 05, 2020 8:42 pm
I didn't catch that "Lou Sipher" was supposed to be a clever way of saying "Lucifer" until it was pointed out. And this morning I realized "secure-original-nutrient" stood for Son and the "synthetic-inverse-nutrient" stood for sin.
I also did not notice the "Lou Sipher" thing, nor did I notice the acronyms, "S.I.N" and "S.O.N" until they pointed it out.
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Peachey Keen
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I really enjoyed this episode. There was a lot of great humor in it. It was a masterful script by Phil Lollar. The only problem? I've heard this story before.

For those that don't know, Phil Lollar was a writer and creative consultant in another audio drama called Kids Corner. It was a show that all featured lizards as the main characters. It had a lot of similarities with AIO and Paws & Tales. Several years ago, in their first season, there was an episode called Everything New (you can hear that free on their website https://kidscorner.reframemedia.com/ter ... ything-new) In that episode, Liz, Lucille, and Grandpa Anole put on a play with an almost identical story and jokes to A Simple Reminder. When I heard about some of the things that were to happen in A Simple Reminder, I thought it sounded like that episode. My suspicions were confirmed when I heard it.

There are also 2 old episodes of Kids Corner called Bible News: Esther (https://kidscorner.reframemedia.com/sea ... %3A+Esther) that are almost word-for-word the same as the AIO episode Bernard and Esther. Phil Lollar wrote the AIO version and, I think, the Kids Corner version as well.

I can understand having a good story and wanting another shot at tweaking it or reusing it. For those that never heard Kids Corner, A Simple Reminder is amazing and fresh. For those like me that listened to both shows, it's not as enjoyable because of the deja vu factor.
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Bob
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Thanks so much for commenting on that, Peachey Keen. I had wanted and intended to talk about this, but didn't.

The lessons I took away from this are that something where all the parts are made to go together is better than something cobbled together from different pieces, and that now is a good time to jump from the AIO ship.

In the original KC story, the skit was clearly tied into the rest of the episode, while in this one, it is just a random skit Wilson decides to tell over a Zoom call. Removing this context removes with it a substantial amount of the power of the story. What's worse, though, and almost inexcusable, is that they then stripped the moral: it is clearly expressed in the KC version, but here that section is replaced with Wilson's line that there 'isn't' a moral, a line that would be odd to begin with, but is all the more so when the KC version already told us what it was.

In spite of bigger-name talent, AIO gets the worse of the casting matchup. Kris Jousma's sweet delivery as Priscilla (Lucille) makes a better protagonist than Katie Leigh's 'Western kid' stock character. Bill Davis (Grandpa Anole) also plays a much more compelling and powerful "Eli" than Andre Stojka (Whit), and Steve Eastin (Red Hollard) sounded a little too nice for Lou through most of the episode, compared to the original actor.

That said, although I think I'd prefer the KC crew anyway, the problem isn't that the AIO cast is inherently bad, but that they received weak direction. The AIO version is played up and directed here as a straight comedy, and largely loses the sober and serious aspects of the plot in the process.

I feel the changes to the skit's script were for the worse. They did attempt to clarify one or two points that were a little ambiguous in the original (for instance, by mentioning that Priscilla leaves before the Wolves talk to Lou), but I think most people would pick up on what was going on in those cases, and these additions do not make up for what was removed, especially the parts of the story that clarified the moral. Some other things: they overdid the lines where Priscilla merges two words to make one: one permutation was enough; it didn't add anything to have her use both possible variants each time. The change from Christmas to "her birthday" seems unnecessary. The expanded ending certainly does make Lou creepier, but this is one case where less detail was better, as the AIO version comes off essentially as an attempted sexual assault scene.

There's a difference between reusing and adapting old material and self-plagarism, and this episode is too close to the latter for comfort. What's worse is that it isn't even a good copy. In spite of the bulk of the script being verbatim the same, my analysis is that they managed to turn a great KC episode into a mediocre AIO one, and the original KC version being free adds injury to the insult.

From me, "Everything New" gets an A, but "A Simple Reminder" no more than a D.
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Carl
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Peachey Keen wrote:
Wed Sep 30, 2020 1:02 pm
I really enjoyed this episode. There was a lot of great humor in it. It was a masterful script by Phil Lollar. The only problem? I've heard this story before.

For those that don't know, Phil Lollar was a writer and creative consultant in another audio drama called Kids Corner. It was a show that all featured lizards as the main characters. It had a lot of similarities with AIO and Paws & Tales. Several years ago, in their first season, there was an episode called Everything New (you can hear that free on their website https://kidscorner.reframemedia.com/ter ... ything-new) In that episode, Liz, Lucille, and Grandpa Anole put on a play with an almost identical story and jokes to A Simple Reminder. When I heard about some of the things that were to happen in A Simple Reminder, I thought it sounded like that episode. My suspicions were confirmed when I heard it.

There are also 2 old episodes of Kids Corner called Bible News: Esther (https://kidscorner.reframemedia.com/sea ... %3A+Esther) that are almost word-for-word the same as the AIO episode Bernard and Esther. Phil Lollar wrote the AIO version and, I think, the Kids Corner version as well.

I can understand having a good story and wanting another shot at tweaking it or reusing it. For those that never heard Kids Corner, A Simple Reminder is amazing and fresh. For those like me that listened to both shows, it's not as enjoyable because of the deja vu factor.
I never heard of that series. WOW, it is almost the exact same, change a few names from the "Kid's Corner" show, and you get "A Simple Reminder". I'll bet Phil just copied the original script to make the new one, there are soooo many pieces of dialogue that are the same as "A Simple Reminder". He even used one of Bernard Walton's "catchphrases".
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Peachey Keen
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Phil Lollar was recently on the Official Podcast. He discussed the writing of A Simple Reminder, Millstones, and The Martyr and the Rooster. He gave some good insights on how he went about writing them. https://www.adventuresinodyssey.com/pod ... e-rooster/
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