Interview - Marshal Younger

How did you end up working for "Adventures in Odyssey"?
I was in graduate school at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and I wrote a radio drama called "Making the Rain Stop". The producer for the show sent it to Chuck Bolte, who listened to it, didn't like the production as a whole, but liked the writing behind it. He gave it to Paul McCusker with the instructions to check out the writer, and Paul contacted me. This was 1992. I proceeded to write "The Living Nativity", and then "This is Chad Pearson". In 1993 after five freelance scripts, I came on board as a staff writer.

What is your favorite show that you have written?
"A Lesson From Mike". It's not the most entertaining, and probably not even the best written show, but I consider it the most important show I've written.

Out of all of the episodes, which one is your favorite?
Of shows that I didn't write, I still cry every time I listen to "The Time Has Come". What a great show! I also like "A Class Act".

As Producer, I set the overall tone and direction of the show. I work very closely with everyone on the writing team, and ultimately, I am responsible for whatever the final product is. I don't get to do as much writing as I did before, which is disappointing, but I'm doing things that are a part of the craft of writing even more, since I'm critiquing other people's scripts, I'm deciding what works and what doesn't, and I have to keep an eye on the big picture (i.e., making sure we have a good variety of shows, making sure characters are well-represented, etc.)

What is your favorite part about being on the "Adventures in Odyssey" team?
The teamwork. The team that's in place right now is a phenomenal group of people. It's a talented, well-rounded group that gets along very well. We genuinely care about the well-being of everyone around us. The number two thing I enjoy about AIO is directing scripts. I love interacting with our incredibly talented group of actors.

Could you tell us a little bit about the new "Adventures in Odyssey" video games?
They're called "The Treasure of the Incas" and "The Sword of the Spirit". The games are very different in style in that "Treasure" is more of a full-fledged mystery, while "Sword" is very game-oriented. In "Treasure", Connie, Whit and Eugene try to find clues in a mystery involving Eugene's father. In "Sword" a bit of Odyssey history is resurrected, and the gang at Whit's End has to survive a series of challenges in order to find the sword. My kids have played both, and there are some hard parts to it. They can't win "Sword" because of this puzzle thing that's like a Rubik's Cube. They get mad at me because I can't help them, saying, "Didn't you write these things?" Well, yes, I wrote "Treasure", but I had nothing to do with coming up with the games. All in all, they're pretty cool.

What do you think about the changes that have been made in the show since you first started writing for it, and about the overall direction the show is going?
With 550 shows, a program has to reinvent itself or it will die. Odyssey has gone through so many changes, and I believe every one of them was beneficial. Even the much-maligned split shows had some value to the history of the program. In the upcoming season, I believe it will be important to shake things up again, maybe not so radically as to change the format, but mess with the tone, characterization, etc., in order to again breath new life into a show that's now 17 years old. The key is to stay true to what Odyssey is and create new and exciting ideas from there.

What is one thing you wish you could change in the show’s history (if anything)?
I wish there weren't so many characters. I think that was the result of new people coming in (that includes me, in 1993) and not being comfortable writing for the existing characters, so new characters were brought in. And now, we have 8 million characters, and it's impossible to address all of their situations.

How did you and the other team members create the idea for the Blackgaard saga?
Phil Lollar, Paul McCusker and I outlined the entire thing together on a white board, then Paul took that bare bones of ideas, and created an outline. Then Paul, Phil and I wrote the scripts based on that outline. It's the only time I know of that we figured out the whole thing ahead of time. For Novacom, we knew the general direction, but not the specific episodes.

What was your role in the creation of the Blackgaard saga?
I only wrote one of the episodes (it really wasn't my genre), so the other guys really drove it more than I did.

How were you involved in the creation of the Novacom saga?
Paul McCusker was really the engine that drove Novacom, even though I became producer halfway through the middle of it. It was his initial idea and he outlined a good portion of it. I wrote a lot of the scripts, but even a lot of those were his ideas.

Which episodes this season did you write?
I wrote "A Lamb's Tale" and "The Coolest Dog" and I co-wrote "Potential Possibilities", "Stars in Their Eyes" and "Sunday Morning Scramble".

Can you give us any hints about the upcoming episodes?
Dec. 4: "And That's the Truth". Nathan Hoobler wrote this one, and it features Jack Allen. Alan Young was fantastic in having trouble being firm and firing an employee at the Antiques store (not Joanne).