By the numbers
17 days, 19 hr
Time in Odyssey
Projected from 1,072 timed episodes averaging 23.7 min
40 yrs
On the air
1987 to 2026, without a gap
10.0
Cast per episode
Average across 1,077 logged episodes
1988
Busiest year
49 episodes aired
2,813
One-episode wonders
Characters who appeared exactly once
10,776
Total roles cast
Every character-in-episode credit on file
New faces per year
How many characters turned up for the very first time.
’87
’91
’95
’99
’03
’07
’11
’15
’19
’23
When every episode aired
One tick per broadcast, placed on the day it went out.Most-heard characters
Episodes each character appears in.
John Whittaker 699 Connie Kendall 476 Eugene Meltsner 324 Tom Riley 140 Wooton Bassett 135 Jason Whittaker 131 Bernard Walton 92 Jack Allen 90 Katrina Meltsner 87 Penny Bassett 76Hardest-working actors
Episodes recorded, any role.
Katie Leigh 488 Will Ryan 396 Hal Smith 263 Andre Stojka 230 Paul Herlinger 221 Phil Lollar 217 Walker Edmiston 208 Jess Harnell 154 Bob Luttrell 148 Townsend Coleman 141Most prolific crew
Every job but acting, pooled into one total.
Dave Arnold 737 Paul McCusker 512 Phil Lollar 403 Nathan Hoobler 374 Chuck Bolte 368 Marshal Younger 331 Bob Hoose 314 Bob Luttrell 275 Jonathan Crowe 153 Kathy Buchanan 145Most prolific writers
Episodes credited as writer.
Paul McCusker 296 Phil Lollar 258 Marshal Younger 189 Kathy Buchanan 139 Nathan Hoobler 69 John Fornof 45 Bob Hoose 44 Dave Arnold 36 Abigail Geiger 30 Sam Suksiri 12Most prolific directors
Episodes credited as director.
Phil Lollar 394 Paul McCusker 232 Marshal Younger 161 Kathy Buchanan 85 Nathan Hoobler 68 Dave Arnold 53 Bob Hoose 51 Steve Harris 34 John Fornof 22 Abigail Geiger 16Most prolific producers
Episodes credited as producer.
Nathan Hoobler 305 Bob Hoose 292 Bob Luttrell 267 Dave Arnold 241 Marshal Younger 195 Paul McCusker 174 Phil Lollar 88 Mark Drury 65 Steve Harris 65 Jonathan Crowe 47Sound design
Episodes credited for sound.
Bob Luttrell 240 Jonathan Crowe 153 Dave Arnold 149 Nathan Jones 129 Christopher Diehl 120 Luke Guenot 57 Mark Drury 50 Rob Jorgensen 50 Zach Schneider 43 GAP Digital 37Episodes by decade
Where the archive actually sits in time.
1980s
112
1990s
340
2000s
234
2010s
227
2020s
168
The long stories
Episodes in each, and the years it ran. Every row opens the list filtered to it.Longest serving
Separate years with a credit — not the gap between the first and the last.
Chris Anthony
1,053 episodes,
from 1987
40 yrs
Katie Leigh
488 episodes,
from 1987
40 yrs
Dave Arnold
764 episodes,
from 1988
37 yrs
Will Ryan
396 episodes,
from 1987
37 yrs
Phil Lollar
456 episodes,
from 1987
35 yrs
Marshal Younger
349 episodes,
from 1992
34 yrs
Townsend Coleman
141 episodes,
from 1994
31 yrs
Paul McCusker
520 episodes,
from 1987
30 yrs
Bob Hoose
333 episodes,
from 1989
29 yrs
Jess Harnell
154 episodes,
from 2001
26 yrs
Kathy Buchanan
148 episodes,
from 1999
26 yrs
Nathan Hoobler
374 episodes,
from 2001
25 yrs
Odd corners
Things the archive only admits once you count it up.85%
Aired on a Saturday
914 episodes — a Saturday-morning show, and the calendar agrees
7
Jobs held by one person
Dave Arnold is credited in every role the archive records
9
Actors have played John Whittaker
More than any other named part, across 699 episodes
273 days
The longest silence
Between 2008 and 2009, the longest gap between two broadcasts
29%
Part of a longer story
315 episodes are one instalment of a serial
51
Biggest cast
Speaking parts in one episode, in episode 500
209
Parts played by one actor
Phil Lollar, more than anyone else in the cast
81%
Appear on one album only
3,156 characters turn up for a single release and are never heard again
October
Busiest month
149 episodes have gone out in October, more than any other month
45 min
Longest episode
In My Image, against a 24-minute average
9 min
Shortest episode
A Matter of Manners, barely a third of the usual
14 parts
The longest story
The Ties That Bind, told across 14 episodes
394
Directed by one person
Phil Lollar, who also wrote 258
30
New faces in one episode
All of them first heard in Fairy Tal-e-vision
11
Names for one character
Bryan Dern — aliases, covers and titles, all the same person
47
Albums on cassette
Where the archive started; 103 are on streaming now
17
Episodes on one album
In Your Wildest Dreams, the longest release on the shelf
12
Never broadcast
Live shows and audio books that went straight to release
Most heard
Time speaking on air, estimated.
John Whittaker
699 episodes
30 h 11 min
Connie Kendall
476 episodes
18 h
Eugene Meltsner
324 episodes
13 h 12 min
Wooton Bassett
135 episodes
5 h 53 min
Bernard Walton
92 episodes
4 h 51 min
Jason Whittaker
131 episodes
4 h 30 min
Penny Bassett
76 episodes
3 h 57 min
Olivia Parker
68 episodes
3 h 41 min
Tom Riley
140 episodes
3 h 39 min
Jay Smouse
71 episodes
3 h 38 min
Emily Jones
54 episodes
3 h 5 min
Jack Allen
90 episodes
2 h 41 min