In the series pilot, 11-year-old Jay tries to join a tree-fort club, led by the tough Keith. As per the prearranged agreement, Jay has brought something of value to contribute to the club: a telescope that belonged to his father. However, 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, who uses a crutch and a leg brace in order to walk. Jay falls from the tree-fort, however, 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, however, 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, embarks on a journey to return home — a place he can't 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 as a secret from his mother. As Jay struggles to reorient 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.
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.
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, in France by M6 and then by France 3, and also in a number of other countries. The series also 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.
Can also be purchased digitally from vimeo. From May 25, 2018 to Jan 9, 2019 the series was uploaded to the YouTube channel Encore+ and all 39 episodes are currently fully uploaded. As of 2018 the series has been released online for free on Canada Media Fund’s Encore+ YouTube channel.
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.
