Having been running for three decades, it's not surprising that there are many things that ultimately didn't make it into episodes of Adventures in Odyssey.
- A lot relating to the "Darkness Before Dawn" Story Arc, as detailed in the various guide books released over the years. Among other things, the arc was meant to be the Grand Finale of the series, and would have featured some plot elements involving Dr. Regis Blackgaard possibly making a Heel–Face Turn, Richard Maxwell dying, and Whit's End burning to the ground. When the writers realized that they had introduced other questions along with the ones they had intended to wrap up, however,note they felt that they needed to address these, and the series continues to this day.
- The album had a 13th episode that was entitled "Betrayed", which would have showed what happened as the Israelites stormed the Bones of Wrath hideout. Due to there not being enough room on the album, the episode had to be scrapped.
- In the Novacom saga, the writers wanted to bring back Richard Maxwell to be the man behind AREM (a phonetic spelling of the initials "R.M."), but Maxwell's voice actor Nathan Carlson was unavailable, so Robert Mitchell was created for the role instead.
- Also in the Novacom saga, writer Marshal Younger wanted to have a scene where a farmer under the influence of the proto-Novabox goes out and shoots all of his cows; it was shot down when a sound designer protested and Paul McCusker in particular was concerned about the saga's body count, and to this day Younger considers having suggested it to be an Old Shame.
- The team considered having the Straussbergs move to Chicago after Rachel and Stephen reconciled in "Life, in the Third Person, Part 2"; ultimately, they were kept in Odyssey and Mandy had two more on-air appearances before she, like the rest of the cast sans the original trio and Wooton, were phased out of the show for the relaunch.
- Early episode "Our Best Vacation Ever", which involves the Barclays having a "vacation" without leaving Odyssey, originally had the Barclays kicking off their stay-cation with a food fight instead of the water-fight they have in the final episode. This was changed as the writers felt that wasting food, even if it was all in good fun, didn't seem to set a good example, so instead the Barclays chased each other with a water hose.
- According to supplemental material, one of the The Twilight Zone spoof episodes, namely "The Twilife Zone" which involves a boy named Simon being manipulated by a sentient toy chicken named Henny, was originally going to end in a Downer Ending rather than the happier ending where Simon gets rid of Henny when he realizes it is talking him into doing terrible things he wouldn't normally do like steal money from a school fundraiser and hurt Lucy when she catches him in the act. (What the Downer Ending exactly entailed is unknown, but it's presumed that Simon would have jumped off the slippery slope after successfully stealing the money and hurting Lucy, perhaps with a flash-forward to Simon's adulthood where he's a criminal continuing to commit crimes at the behest of the toy chicken.)
- The original draft of said episode didn't even have the toy chicken in the first place. Instead, the main character of the episode was a girl named Courtney who was at the mercy of a Creepy Doll named Mary Jane, who, like Henny, was slowly taking over Courtney's life. The writers became concerned that this draft would make kids scared of their dolls/action figures, so this draft was scrapped in favor of the one featuring Simon and Henny the toy chicken.
- Another Twilife Zone spoof example titled "My Girl, Hallie" (involving a kid named Joey Patrick who is given a computer named "Hallie"note only for the computer to take over Joey's life to the extent where he starts talking more like the computer while Hallie starts sounding more human). When writers Bob Hoose and Nathan Hoobler got to the end; they decided the original ending (in which Hallie becomes the kid and Joey turns into the computer) was too spooky (coming just over a year after the conclusion of the Darker and Edgier Novacom saga) and rewrote the ending to have Joey unplug Hallie and go play with his friends that had been abandoned by his spending all his free time on Hallie; with the ending being put up to a fan vote. The lighter ending won, but both the official radio and original endings appear on the album version.
- The original draft of "The Tangled Web" had the main character of Whit's eponymous story, Jeremy, finally confess to his lie as he is about to receive his bravery award for standing up to the (imaginary) bully, instead of the twist ending where he still accepts the award and continues to hold on to his lie; the same one that will haunt him for the rest of his days. Tropes Are Not Bad, as the Downer Ending makes the lesson that you can never truly get away with a lie stronger.
- The Leonard Meltsner saga was originally going to conclude with Eugene and Katrina leaving to go to Africa and leaving the show as a result, this time for good, due to concerns that Will Ryan would be unable to continue voicing Eugene. The episode detailing Eugene and Katrina's final departure from Odyssey would have (appropriately) been called "The End of an Era", and was produced in case Will Ryan did have to leave the show. However, Will Ryan was ultimately able to continue voicing Eugene, so production on "The End of an Era" was cancelled and retooled into "A New Era".
- The main antagonist of "The Case of the Secret Room" was originally going to threaten Whit and several others with a real gun instead of blow-darts laced in tranquilizers during the climax, however, the writers became concerned that this would be too intense or violent for the target demographic and changed the villain's weapon of choice. Ironically, future episodes (such as "Hold Up") would actually feature characters being threatened by real guns.
- During "Blackgaard's Revenge", Regis Blackgaard was originally going to go through with torturing a sleeping Aubrey with electric shocks instead of merely threatening to like he does in the final episode. This was scrapped because it would have been too violent for an episode that was already Darker and Edgier than usual.
- Lighter example: Per the Official Guide to Odyssey; the show's fourth episode "Connie Comes to Town" was originally intended to be the series premiere in 1987, but due to Connie Kendall's voice actress, Katie Leigh, having recently given birth at the time, the episode was pushed to number 4 while "Whit's Flop" became the series premiere.
- "The Y.A.K. Problem" was originally meant to have Jared DeWhite (natch) being the one leading the kids of Odyssey to believe that a new school councilwoman is planning to purge all fun and games across Odyssey in an event called "The Year of Anti-Kids" (but of course she isn't), though by this point, Jared's voice-actor Brandon Gilberstadt had left the show to star in The Hundred Deeds Of Eddie McDowd and was unavailable to voice Jared. It's fairly obvious that it was meant to star Jared as well, as it seems a mite uncharacteristic for the generally more level-headed kids to be the ones jumping to these conclusions about the Y.A.K. Problem and spreading the rumors about it. The writers got around this by having Jared's tendency to go on ridiculous tirades about adults pulling similar anti-kid measures be brought up and made relevant ahead of time and the kids simply concluding that Jared was right all along once they (incorrectly) put the pieces together.
- "The Big Deal: Parts 1 and 2"; the 2000 season opener where Aubrey Shepard finds herself in the time of John the Baptist, was originally written to have Aubrey joined by the character of Nick Mulligan. Due to Nick's voice actor, Christopher Castile, being unavailable, the script was changed to have Aubrey as the only character going on this particular Imagination Station adventure.
- Album 57 (A Call to Something More) would have featured an episode with a script based on one written by the winner of a contest, entitled "A Jay in the Life". Unfortunately, the show's writer's were unable to reconcile the episode's plotline with either the current or upcoming storylines and did not produce it. A runner-up from the same contest, "Big Trouble Under the Big Top", would end up being produced instead. Little is known about the originally chosen episode other than the title suggesting that it would have been A Day in the Limelight for Jay Smouse.
- An episode, "One-in-Ten," dealing with the topic of homosexuality was written in the 90s, but was never finished. The plot would've involved a gay teenage boy being set to give a speech at Odyssey Elementary to the young kids about being gay. Jimmy Barclay's parents protest this to the principal, who then informs them that the decision was made at a PTA meeting that they chose not to attend, and the Barclay parents learn a lesson about how they need to be more involved with their children's school. Aspects of this unproduced episode were later retooled into "The Ties That Bind."
- A couple of examples from the B-TV series of episodesnote
- The AIOHQ sitenote had a statement noting that around 2002 that a "B-TV: Bible" episode had been discussed as possibly being in the works
. Between Bernard Walton being one of a multitude of characters not named Whit, Eugene, Connie or Wooton being retired following the series' retooling and Dave Madden passing away in January 2014, it's unlikely that episode would be made at least as originally planned (a handful of B-TV episodes have been produced in more recent seasons; but with Connie hosting and no mention of Bernard). - One specific example involves 2007's "B-TV: Temptation" episode. Originally; the plan was to have the Heckleberry Bush in the "Storytime with Connie" segment voiced by Walker Edmiston, with the tree presumably portrayed in the show's universe by Edmiston's Bart Rathbone character - complete with lines such as "You can't chop me down! I'm too strong! Almost as strong as the duct tape they have on sale at the Electric Palace." Sadly, Edmiston was in failing health and died soon afterwards; resulting in that character being voiced by Jess Harnellnote
- The AIOHQ sitenote had a statement noting that around 2002 that a "B-TV: Bible" episode had been discussed as possibly being in the works
