Hello, Odyssey. I'm Jesse from Focus on the Family Clubhouse magazine.

And I'm Bob, producer of the Adventures in Odyssey Club. Welcome to the official Adventures and Odyssey podcast. Today we're exploring

the latest chapters in the story of the Perkins family, which came in for a landing this month

in the club. Over the last five Perkins adventures, we've seen Ron return home, Wyatt and Carla's

lives change forever, and the family wrestle with what it means to trust God and each other.

The man behind the creation of the Perkins and this set of stories is showrunner, writer-director, Marshall Younger.

This story raised some very interesting questions and Marshall was up for answering all of them.

But before we get to that, just a quick note.

Jesse had a bit of a cold when we recorded this interview, so if he sounds like he's turning 13 again, that's why.

You know, I think I could have wrapped my way through another ode to the library with that voice.

And if you guys don't know what Jesse's referring to, we'll have a link in the show notes.

Anyway, over to our talk with Marshall.

Marshall. Marshall, welcome back to the studio.

As always, it's great.

Yeah.

So on a previous podcast, you mentioned that Ron's return to Odyssey was planned years in advance, but you waited to tell the full story.

Now that the arc is complete, what do you see as the advantages of holding off and how did that extra time shape the final narrative?

Okay, so the initial pitch included these five episodes. Actually, it was six to begin with. But we put it off because I thought we had some more mileage to get out of Ron being gone with the kids and with Carla.

And I think it ended up that the Salvation of Wyatt and Carla were more meaningful because

we waited.

First of all, because the audience knew these characters better because they were still

fairly new characters.

...