Lucy's Last Name goof
From Adventures in Odyssey Wiki
The Lucy Who? goof -- It's Lucy Cunningham, er, Lucy Shultz, er...Lucy Cunningham-Schultz. The Lucy Who? debate is probably the second biggest Odyssey goof. So what is Lucy's last name and how does it match up with her history? Find out below.
- 68: Choices -- Lucy talks to her dad. (This must be Hal Cunningham.)
- 79: Our Best Vacation Ever -- Mary Barclay says that Lucy's father "Hal Cunningham" (Lucy's father) works with George Barclay.
- 83: The Battle I -- Doc Morton asks if Whit, Eugene, and Connie are here to see "the Cunningham girl."
- 114: The Big Broadcast -- Tom says that Lucy's last name is Schultz. Lucy confirms this.
For episodes after this, Lucy was alternatively referred to as Lucy Schultz or Lucy Cunningham-Schultz. In fact in 233: Thy Will Be Done, Lucy tells Mr. Ginnsmore "Lucy Schultz" is fine. "What's with the Cunningham?" he asks. "It's a long story," she says. You're telling me!
- 234: Our Daily Bread -- George Barclay tries to get a job at the Odyssey Times after he loses his job elsewhere, but he's turned down.
- 299: The Truth About Zachary -- This is the episode where the writers tried to clear up this whole debate, but they actually made it an even bigger mess. Here are the goofs within the goof:
Lucy says her father (Hal Cunningham) was killed in a car accident when she was nine. It's possible that she was about nine in "Choices" and "Our Best Vacation Ever." In fact, it's more than possible: it's likely: In Cousin Albert, Lucy said she was in Odyssey Middle School for another two years-making her somewhere around twelve, which would've put her somewhere around nine in album 5-just after "Choices".
She also says that her mom married a man named Schultz, but that doesn't explain why she used Schultz and Cunningham-Schultz alternatively.
Finally, Lucy says that her father worked for the Odyssey Times. But if he worked for the Times, that means that George Barclay worked for newspaper, since Mary said he worked with Hal in "Our Best Vacation Ever." And if George worked for the Times, he wouldn't go looking for a job there just after her lost his job in "Our Daily Bread."
The writers did try to fix this goof and were only somewhat successful. (Her strange attraction to Richard Maxwell around the time of "The Battle" could have been nicely explained if her dad had just died. It also might have explained how depressed Lucy was around that period in Odyssey.) However, the Odyssey Times reference is still a goof. But I suppose it's just water under the proverbial bridge now.
