Episode Description:
When the Parker children forget to bring some food inside from a family picnic, David makes it his mission to teach them about initiative. The methods he uses to get the message to his kids become more and more extreme.
Episode Review:
Any episode featuring an actor’s voice change is bound to get instantly penalized by fans. Listeners become suddenly distracted by the voice change, feel a tinge of disappointment and confusion that the previous actor is gone, stop paying attention to the general story, and, by the end of the episode, feel a little less invested in what occurred than they otherwise would have. With time, this feeling of tremendous disappointment goes away as more episodes featuring the new voice actor are churned out, and they eventually forget about the change.
Not certain which character I’m referring to? How could you not? I’m speaking, of course, of David Parker, who is now played by Eddie Frierson and sounds absolutely nothing like the previous David Parker, previously played by rising-Hollywood star Marc Evan Johnson. Frierson has a much softer voice, a much more lighthearted- 90’s sitcom feel than the gravelly and wise 50’s-sitcom-and-Father-Knows-Best feel of Marc Evan Johnson. It’s a startling change – so startling that, in the first scene, I half wondered whether the episode would center on Mrs. Parker’s odd life decision to remarry someone with the exact same name, or, in a Twilight-Zone twist, a stranger had infiltrated the Parker family and impersonated Mr. Parker’s identity.
This change simply adds to the annoyance of how much this family sounds very little like the family that was first introduced. Both Matthew and Camilla have each had three actors play them, while Olivia has had two. Every character aside from Mrs. Parker has been played by more than one actor since their entrance. Each reiteration of these characters makes the show feel clunkier, and the characters feel less alive. While the Barclay and Washington families have both had voice changes, these changes mostly occurred early on in their existence, and are much easier to ignore. Shouldn’t an organization called Focus on the Family be good at keeping at least fictional families together?
What makes the change a little more infuriating is that the new voice – as well as Frierson’s performance – is, well, pretty likeable. Eddie Frierson’s performance is much more reminiscent of George Barclay – the golden standard of Odyssey fathers – and he seemed much more natural and personable in delivering his lines than the previous actor. Honestly, it seems like a lost opportunity to start fresh with a whole new family built around him. The best moments of “The Sandwich Initiative”, after all, are the scenes which involve David Parker trying to get his kids to pick up the sandwich. The final scene, in which Matthew Parker remarks upon his weird obsession with the sandwich – revealing that they knew about it the whole time – earned the episode an additional star.
And, to be honest, there are several other elements of this episode worth highlighting. The newest character, Wyatt, was humorous, and reminded me of an extra somber version of Charles Thompson. And, to its credit, the episode also felt thematically fresh – for a show that’s spent a perplexing amount of time showing the consequences of taking too much initiative, like in “The ‘No’ Factor” or “Finish what you…”, it’s about time Adventures in Odyssey teaches listeners to do more instead of less.
Though, whatever strengths the episode had, they’re hard to appreciate. I just can’t seem to forget about the elephant in the room. I truly wonder how many changes fans will be able to accept before they start skipping Parker episodes completely. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out they’ve begun already. Is the latest change to the Parker family cast the start of something fresh and new, or is it a sign that it’s time to finally say goodbye to them?
When the Parker children forget to bring some food inside from a family picnic, David makes it his mission to teach them about initiative. The methods he uses to get the message to his kids become more and more extreme.
Episode Review:
Any episode featuring an actor’s voice change is bound to get instantly penalized by fans. Listeners become suddenly distracted by the voice change, feel a tinge of disappointment and confusion that the previous actor is gone, stop paying attention to the general story, and, by the end of the episode, feel a little less invested in what occurred than they otherwise would have. With time, this feeling of tremendous disappointment goes away as more episodes featuring the new voice actor are churned out, and they eventually forget about the change.
Not certain which character I’m referring to? How could you not? I’m speaking, of course, of David Parker, who is now played by Eddie Frierson and sounds absolutely nothing like the previous David Parker, previously played by rising-Hollywood star Marc Evan Johnson. Frierson has a much softer voice, a much more lighthearted- 90’s sitcom feel than the gravelly and wise 50’s-sitcom-and-Father-Knows-Best feel of Marc Evan Johnson. It’s a startling change – so startling that, in the first scene, I half wondered whether the episode would center on Mrs. Parker’s odd life decision to remarry someone with the exact same name, or, in a Twilight-Zone twist, a stranger had infiltrated the Parker family and impersonated Mr. Parker’s identity.
This change simply adds to the annoyance of how much this family sounds very little like the family that was first introduced. Both Matthew and Camilla have each had three actors play them, while Olivia has had two. Every character aside from Mrs. Parker has been played by more than one actor since their entrance. Each reiteration of these characters makes the show feel clunkier, and the characters feel less alive. While the Barclay and Washington families have both had voice changes, these changes mostly occurred early on in their existence, and are much easier to ignore. Shouldn’t an organization called Focus on the Family be good at keeping at least fictional families together?
What makes the change a little more infuriating is that the new voice – as well as Frierson’s performance – is, well, pretty likeable. Eddie Frierson’s performance is much more reminiscent of George Barclay – the golden standard of Odyssey fathers – and he seemed much more natural and personable in delivering his lines than the previous actor. Honestly, it seems like a lost opportunity to start fresh with a whole new family built around him. The best moments of “The Sandwich Initiative”, after all, are the scenes which involve David Parker trying to get his kids to pick up the sandwich. The final scene, in which Matthew Parker remarks upon his weird obsession with the sandwich – revealing that they knew about it the whole time – earned the episode an additional star.
And, to be honest, there are several other elements of this episode worth highlighting. The newest character, Wyatt, was humorous, and reminded me of an extra somber version of Charles Thompson. And, to its credit, the episode also felt thematically fresh – for a show that’s spent a perplexing amount of time showing the consequences of taking too much initiative, like in “The ‘No’ Factor” or “Finish what you…”, it’s about time Adventures in Odyssey teaches listeners to do more instead of less.
Though, whatever strengths the episode had, they’re hard to appreciate. I just can’t seem to forget about the elephant in the room. I truly wonder how many changes fans will be able to accept before they start skipping Parker episodes completely. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out they’ve begun already. Is the latest change to the Parker family cast the start of something fresh and new, or is it a sign that it’s time to finally say goodbye to them?
Writer: Marshall Younger
Director: Kathy Buchanan
Producer: Dave Arnold
Music: John Campbell
Theme: Initiative
Original Air-date: 10.20.18
Date Reviewed: 09.30.18