On November 21, 1987, a cheerful voice first announced over the airwaves: “Hi, this is Chris — Welcome to Adventures in Odyssey!” In a mix of drama and comedy, we meet an eccentric, wise inventor who runs a soda shop in a small Midwestern town. Kids come by to tinker with imaginative creations and for help solving problems with friends. Sound effects, music and multiple actors bring the story to life.

Christian media ministry Focus on the Family produced the half-hour show as an experiment. In an era of fast-paced music videos, would families respond to audio drama? With 850 episodes and counting, Adventures in Odyssey continues to strike a chord. Still on the radio, now tens of thousands of families in 40 countries tune in using a mobile app.

Actress Katie Leigh has played “Connie” on Adventures in Odyssey since it began. Introduced in 1987, she’s been on more than 400 episodes. Writer Paul McCusker helped develop her character from the start. He gradually became producer, a champion for the power of story as Focus expanded beyond family advice.

As the ministry has changed leadership, a new generation has also taken the lead with Odyssey. Growing up in Pennsylvania, Nathan Hoobler was eight years old when he first heard the radio show. He ran an extensive Odyssey fan website as a teen, then wrote his first script in 2001. Today, he serves as producer — eager to steward a legacy while exploring new ways to reach today’s wired kids.

Leigh spoke in an interview from her home near Los Angeles. The two writer-producers share their insights from Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs. 

How many people are involved in producing a single episode? 

Nathan Hoobler: Each episode involves 30 to 40 people — maybe more depending on how far out you want to extend the circle. It begins with the writer of a script. He or she works with about five other writers, including the producer and executive producer.

We give input on the script in terms of plot, character development and whether it lines up with Christian values. With some scripts, we ask, Is this really saying what we want it to say, or is it teaching a different lesson? We spend a lot of time working on that.

When we record in California, we have the director, engineer and actors together. A single episode often has eight to 10 actors. If you hear Whit, Connie, Eugene and Wooton at the same time, the actors who play them were in the studio at the same time. We love how the actors play off each other. But it means for a recording session we’re often working around the schedules of about 25 people, which can be difficult. We think it’s worth it for the performances and the family feeling.

Most of the production team is in Colorado Springs. We have our sound designer, music composer and a couple foley artists who create the movement and sound effects. There are other people involved, like our coordinator, marketing team, satellite delivery team and the engineers who maintain the equipment. It’s a collaborative, team-oriented process. 

Tell us about the recording sessions, when the actors and producers record Adventures in Odyssey in Hollywood.

Paul McCusker: For some actors, they might come in because it’s a job. Others will join us because they resonate with what we’re doing. When they come in for one episode, most of the time they want to work with us again. It’s because they like the show, how we handle the characters and the environment in the studio we’ve created. It’s like a family.

We’ve heard from many actors over the years. Even though some didn’t necessarily share the same faith, they loved Odyssey because it was wholesome and good. They could be proud they worked on it. They actually saw the value of it and wanted to engage in it.

Katie Leigh: It’s similar to other shows in some ways. The cast and crew of Adventures in Odyssey are professionals. It’s also different. As a Christian show, everything is bathed in prayer.

Most of us are believers, so we can share with each other about our lives in a more intimate way. But people come into our show with many different résumés. There’s a lot of stuff out there that isn’t uplifting. So we may have some guest actors who aren’t familiar with our history.

Voice actors are very supportive of each other anyway, and especially on Odyssey. When we express our concerns, thoughts and feelings to each other, they are received on a different level — a spiritual level that is not experienced in another setting.

We also have a lot of fun! You’ll hear actors ad-lib some scenes, which sometimes make it into episodes. Jess [Harnell] is always ad-libbing as Wooton.

What have been your other favorite roles in voice acting? And who are some other notable actors on the show?

Katie Leigh: I like the ones I do and nobody knows it’s me. That’s fun, and it makes me feel I’m doing a good job. I really loved being “Baby Rowlf” on Muppet Babies. That was a dream come true because I’m a huge Muppets fan. To meet and work with Jim Henson was pretty awesome.

Being on Totally Spies is how I met Jess Harnell. He now plays “Wooton” on Adventures in Odyssey after I encouraged him to audition.

Nathan Hoobler: That’s a tough one, because no matter what you do, you inadvertently leave someone off the list. Among the actors likely to be recognized would include Katie. She also starred on Disney’s Gummi Bears and Darkwing Duck.

Another actor familiar to many people is Will Ryan, who plays “Eugene” on our show. He was the seahorse on The Little Mermaid, “Petrie” on The Land Before Time and the role of “Tigger” on various Winnie the Pooh shows.

I think the only Odyssey actor with a star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood would be Alan Young, who played “Jack Allen.” He got famous in radio, then he was on the show Mister Ed. He was the voice of “Scrooge McDuck” on the original DuckTales.

Currently one of our busiest actors is Jess Harnell. Many recognize him as “Wakko” on Animaniacs. If you watch the closing credits to most animated TV shows of the past 10 years, you’ll often see his name.

How have you seen Adventures in Odyssey change over the decades? 

Paul McCusker: Because of the rise of mobile devices, it’s given a whole new renaissance to audio. And the ideas that drove us at the start worked in our favor.

People today are listening to episodes produced decades ago, yet feeling like it’s still current. I’m sure some people will listen to some episodes and cringe where we were a little too preachy or things were resolved a little too easily.

We have the occasional “sonic bellbottoms,” as we say. You’ll hear the whistles of a modem or something from the 90’s. But we tried to avoid anything that would date the shows. The town of Odyssey is still real to families 30 years later.

Nathan Hoobler: As years have gone by, many people have said, This in the era of cable TV, of video games, of YouTube — that’s what we should be doing with Adventures in Odyssey! But I think the show creators and Dr. Dobson were right in believing that family audio drama is perennial.

There are always new ways to address the core evangelism and discipleship themes that we’re putting forward. We want episodes to be timeless, but there’s also an aspect of being timely. An episode about cyberbullying, which didn’t exist 30 years ago, will touch current listeners a different way.

It’s interesting to see the impact of episodes from the 80s. When it’s not right on the cutting edge of current culture, it can sometimes cut through defense mechanisms. Those stories can affect kids in a way a newer show couldn’t. I think there’s great value in producing new programs and in releasing shows from years ago.

What moments make you realize the impact of Adventures in Odyssey?

Katie Leigh: When you ask stuff like that, I just start crying. I get so many letters. This one lady just sent me a letter yesterday. She said:

Dear Katie, I just wanted to thank you for the huge role you’ve played in my life. To this day, my favorite cartoon is the Gummi Bears and I grew up listening to Odyssey. Listening again with my kids, I’m reminded of all the incredible seeds those episodes planted. I’m now able to share with the high school girls I work with as well as my own kids. 

My family lost my cousin suddenly about a year and a half ago, and a friend I’m mentoring just lost her dad two weeks ago. I had never heard the episodes about Connie’s mom dying until last night. So Connie is still teaching me and helping me grapple with the concept of grief. I greatly appreciate the work God has called you to. It is a huge blessing to my family and me.

That’s only the tip of the iceberg, because it’s just the people who take the time to write. I met a local family who is Seventh Day Adventist — you know, the ones who go to church on Saturday? The dad is a youth pastor and they have these great kids. They recited a whole entire scene from an episode! Those kids and their dad acted it out from memory.

When you see that, it makes you think: I cannot take this lightly. This is so meaningful to people. It needs to be meaningful to me. The stories we get from listeners confirm that God is in it.

 

Adventures in Odyssey can be heard on more than 2,000 radio outlets nationwide. Episodes are available on CD and via a mobile app. Watch a special video podcast celebrating 30 years of the show: