One score and one day ago, I began discussing the Adventures in Odyssey seasons of 2003 through 2008 and their connections to Novacom. This week, I’ll delve more into that topic. I will also include links to all the sagas and episodes connected to Novacom after Novacom but before the 2010 hiatus.
Smaller sets of episodes are in this period, for instance, Aubrey’s Bathrobe and All Things to All People. They follow up on Aubrey’s salvation during Album 38. She wants to evangelize to people and share with them her experience, mentioned during All Things to All People. Here Today, Gone Tomorrow, which falls under the Connie and Mitch arc, is one set that actually is a Novacom follow-up. Some would say it’s a Novacom episode itself. Along with agent Bourland, Mr. Charles comes back in this episode, and Bourlandmakes an offer for Mitch to join the FBI. After leaving at the end of the episode, he has an argument with Connie. This leads to Connie going to apologize to him in her and Joanne’s Road Trip Arc. At the end of the Connie and Mitch arc, they decide to break up and let Mitch go to Budapest, Hungary, while Connie stays in the US. The last two episodes were in 2012, the last we hear of Mitch, whose entire arc, again, is a direct result of Novacom’s plan. (Just a side note, Edith Sutton makes her first appearance in Here Today, Gone Tomorrow and appears once or twice throughout the seasons. She is last mentioned in 2013 during Life Expectancy, Part 1. She would be considered an indirect connection as well.)
The DeWhites return in this season, but Jared is not the prominent member this time. In his place is his genius brother Trent, who was once mentioned about 2 years before Novacom. He takes his place as the leading DeWhite, with Marvin acting as a Dwayne of sorts. (The Washington’s connections to Novacom were covered in the last post.) Alex, who was a Novacom season character, last appears in B-TV: Behind the Scenes. This event, however, is not related to Novacom in any way, but to Travis Tedford leaving the crew. The Strausbergs also begin as a Novacom season (2000-2002) family but end up in an arc utterly unrelated to the mini-series. This is, in fact, one of a few arcs not connected to Novacom in any way apart from one of the characters appearing in the saga.
Along with the Strausberg’s story, Grady’s Conversion, or Grady and Wooton’s arc, is another arc that has nothing to do with Novacom. Wooton himself isn’t a Novacom series character. Sure he helps out and appears a couple times, but he isn’t directly or indirectly related to Novacom. A different arc that is in no way affected by Novacom is the Best Small Town arc. Kelly’s Conversion is connected to the Washington’s, connected to Novacom… but it’s a little too distant to put in this category. (Interesting note: this episode ends the 5 years after Novacom and brings in the writer’s “break”. During the break, they decide to put off anything that has too much to do with Novacom and the Blackgaard series, giving Odyssey a “fresh start” from all these things I’ve covered.)
This is very interesting stuff to delve into. The significant arcs affect the series in way more ways than just a few Easter egg mentions here and there. The Green Ring and Ties that Bind, one and the same in my opinion, are another great example. Of course, sometimes there are “direct and indirect” setups for a saga the writers may or may not know they are making. Examples of this are…. super cool and in-depth and covered in the next post in this subseries! Anyway,
AIO Writer's Block 