Odd Job Jack (Partially Lost TV Series 2003-2007)

Odd Job Jack is a Canadian adult animated TV series that originally aired on Comedy Network, now known as CTV Comedy Channel, from March 5, 2003, to October 7, 2007. It was originally created as a web series by Adrian Carter, Denny Silverthorne, and Jeremy Diamond. But, it was quickly aired to cable television. It is also produced by Smiley Guy Studios in Toronto, Ontario. It also originally started off as a project by said creators by the name of The Seen: A night in the life of Blake Dinken.

Plot

Odd Job Jack is about Jack Ryder, a slacker who also has a college diploma with a degree in sociology, which hasn't gotten him anywhere. So, he relies on working at Odd Jobs Temp Agency, where his career counselor, Betty Styles, gives him a new job every day. Which is usually extremely difficult and/or abnormal, and he typically fails miserably. Jack would also usually try to build a romantic relationship with Betty by attempting to flirt, etc. but Betty would pretty much get agitated most of the time. In Jack's free time, He usually hangs out with his friends, Bobby Lee, A "Club Hopping, DJ-ing, Crime Fighter" Works in his family's store partially, But at night, Is a DJ. However, after season 1, they get rid of Bobby's superhero alter ego and don't really mention him DJ-ing as much. Aside from that, his other best friend is Leopold "Leo" Trench, Jacks best friend, An agoraphobic computer hacker who rarely comes out of his apartment on which they call "The Trench".

Status

The only official release the show ever got after airing was a DVD for season 2, and seasons 2-4 being available on Hulu from 2011-2015. After the show was removed from Hulu, the last 2 seasons became significantly harder to find. On June 6th 2024, seasons 3-4 were uploaded as screencasts to Internet Archive, albeit with several flaws. They were later uploaded to Internet Archive again by a different user as torrent rips from MySpleen. Season 1 was never present on Hulu however, so it remains lost in its original English language version aside from episode 13: American Wiener, with it being available from the show’s official website. 7/12 of the missing episodes are found in Russian from the channel 2x2, while 11/12 are found in Spanish from Adult Swim Latin America. Otherwise, they can only be watched as 30 second to 1 minute recap videos from the official website.

The 6th episode of season 1 "Go West Young Ryder" is lost in its full form, all that exists of it is the opening, and a deleted scene found on an older version of the website. However, the episode may be available for viewing at Library and Archives Canada.

A lot of the website has broken with time, as it was entirely made in Flash and has become outdated. Some of the links, like the games and interactive thought-reading scenes, can be played with a flash extension/emulator. Some of the games can also be played on Newgrounds.

Some of the staff behind the show are aware that season 1 is lost, yet they can't release it themselves due to unspecified legal reasons. Some theories are that it's something to do with Leopold's original voice actor (Enoch Savage) because after episode 6, he's voiced by Jeremy Diamond. Another theory can be due to copyright because of songs, etc. used.

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