The Odyssey (TV series)

The Odyssey is a Canadian-produced half-hour adventure-fantasy television series for children, originally broadcast from 1992 to 1994 on CBC Television.

Plot
In the series pilot, 11-year-old Jay (Illya Woloshyn) tries to join a tree-fort club, led by the tough Keith (Tony Sampson). As per the prearranged agreement, Jay has brought something of value to contribute to the club: a telescope that belonged to his father (Robert Wisden) who has been missing for several years and is presumed dead. Keith double-crosses Jay and takes the telescope, denying him admission into the club. Jay tries to retrieve the telescope with the help of his physically disabled friend Donna  (Ashley Rogers), who uses a crutch and a leg brace in order to walk. Jay falls from the tree fort, striking his head against a rock and lapsing into a coma.

In the coma, Jay finds himself in a fantasy world called Downworld where no one reaches the age of 16. Not having heard of adults, the children here have shaped society in their own ways, forming mostly tribal clans in the form of Clubs, such as the Pool Club and the Library Club. The biggest and most powerful Club is the Tower, a brutal despotic police state run by the oldest kids, with Brad as the absolute ruler because he is 15, and "knows everything". Jay, not knowing how he has got here and aided by his friends Alpha and Flash (who are identical to Donna and Keith), embarks on a journey to return home — a place that he cannot remember. The journey becomes a quest to find his long-lost father, whose name happens to be Brad, who fell overboard from a small boat into a lake while they were on a fishing trip together and has not been seen since.

Meanwhile, Jay's mother and a coma therapist try to get Jay to regain consciousness, with the help of his friends.

A turning point is reached when Jay's father appears to him as he is regaining consciousness, which Jay is forced to keep a secret from his mother. As Jay struggles to re-orient himself in the waking world and the many changes that have occurred, he finds that he is still dealing with issues through the world from his subconscious.

Cast

 * Illya Woloshyn as Jay Ziegler
 * Ashley Rogers as Donna/Alpha
 * Tony Sampson as Keith/Flash
 * Andrea Nemeth as Medea/Sierra Jones
 * Mark Hildreth as Finger/Mic
 * Ryan Reynolds as Macro/Lee
 * Janet Hodgkinson as Val Ziegler, Jay's mother
 * Robert Wisden as Bradley "Brad" Ziegler, Jay's father
 * Dwight Koss as Dr. Max Oswald
 * Jeremy Radick as Fractal/Nathan
 * Amber Warnat as Lila/Keith's girlfriend
 * Garwin Sanford as Arthur Bourne, Val's lawyer and first boyfriend/Iceface
 * Andrew Airlie, Val's second boyfriend
 * Devon Sawa as Yudo
 * Jewel Staite as Labelia
 * Jay Brazeau as Sy, Jay's psychiatrist
 * Jorge Vargas as Savage
 * Jai West as Feelgood/Spook

Production
The series, created by Paul Vitols and Warren Easton, was produced in Vancouver by Water Street Pictures. Over the three years of production, 39 episodes were made. Due to a decreased viewership for season 3, the series was cancelled before reaching its intended conclusion, ending the last season with cliffhangers both in the Upworld and Downworld.

Season 1 (1992–93)

 * 1) The Fall
 * 2) No Fair
 * 3) Out of the Woods
 * 4) By the Book
 * 5) Checkpoint Eagle
 * 6) The Believers
 * 7) A Place Called Nowhere
 * 8) Wanted
 * 9) Galileo & the Gypsies
 * 10) In the Dark
 * 11) The Brad Exchange
 * 12) Welcome to the Tower
 * 13) The One Called Brad

Season 2 (1994)

 * 1) Lands End
 * 2) To the Lighthouse
 * 3) Some Place Like Home
 * 4) Whispers Like Thunder
 * 5) The Hall of Darkness
 * 6) The Prophecy
 * 7) The Greatest Show on Earth
 * 8) But Where is Here?
 * 9) The Big Picture
 * 10) Tick Tock
 * 11) Run for Your Life
 * 12) Who Do You Believe?
 * 13) You Decide

Season 3 (1994)

 * 1) No Way Out
 * 2) Dart to the Heart
 * 3) Learning Curve
 * 4) Night Life
 * 5) Cry Justice
 * 6) King for a Day
 * 7) The Cauldron
 * 8) Styx and Stones
 * 9) Tug of War
 * 10) Tangled Web
 * 11) No Holds Barred
 * 12) The Plague
 * 13) Time Bomb

Broadcast
The pilot episode was originally aired in Canada on March 9, 1992, as The Jellybean Odyssey.

The series was shown on Network 2 in Ireland as part of their children's strand of programming The Den in 1994. The show was broadcast in the U.S. by the Sci-Fi Channel, in the UK by Nickelodeon and Channel 4 in 1995 (repeated in 1998), in France by M6 (first season only) and then by France 3 (whole series), and in a number of other countries.

The series aired in Hong Kong on ATV World.

The first 26 episodes aired in French Canada on Radio-Canada during the 1994-95 season, under the title "L'odyssée fantastique". It re-aired in 1996 and 1998.

Home media
A special edition DVD of the complete series was made in limited quantities and is sold through Omni Film Productions.

Streaming
The Odyssey can also be purchased digitally from Vimeo. From May 25, 2018 to January 9, 2019, the series was uploaded to Canada Media Fund’s YouTube channel Encore+. However the channel was shut down in 2022.

Accolades
Awards won by the series include the Top Ten World Program at the Cologne Conference and a Canadian Gemini for Best Youth Program.

Potential reboot
In June 2016, Marblemedia and Omnifilm Entertainment announced that they had joined forces to update and reboot The Odyssey. The reboot was to be adapted by showrunners Simon Racioppa and Richard Elliott.