Rodney Rathbone

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Rodney Rathbone
Episode appearances
Episode mentions
First episode
Last episode
First episode mention
Last episode mention
Rodney redirects here. For the character from Thank You, God, see Rodney (a).


Rodney P. Rathbone is a main character in Adventures in Odyssey, voiced by Steve Burns. He is the son of Odyssey schemer Bart Rathbone, and while the two conflict at times, the son is clearly a chip off the old block. Rodney and his father have an interesting relationship; Rodney always refers to his father as "Pop", with his father always responding with "don't call me Pop" (although in #115: “An Act of Mercy”, Rodney called Bart "Dad" instead).

Rodney's primary role is that of the mischievous local bully and head of the Bones of Rath, a gang of teenagers who cause trouble but commit few serious crimes — except for the Darkness Before Dawn segment of the Blackgaard saga, during which they commit numerous acts of vandalism and are party to an attempted murder. He was not the leader of the gang at that time, however. Rodney spent time in jail due to his participation in Blackgaard's schemes and found the experience miserable due to the lack of TV and the habit of all the other inmates calling him "sissy" (#368: “The Other Woman”). Nevertheless, he was back in charge of the Bones within the next two years (#390: “No Bones About It”).

Rodney is troublesome to most AIO protagonists but is generally received without excessive rebuke (as is his father Bart); thus, he appears routinely at Whit's End — though on occasion he's been kicked out, which was once discussed in the episode #467: “Broken Window”.

Although Rodney is clearly content with his status as the resident bully and has no desire to change, his attitude has occasionally softened enough to accept correction or admit error (#443: “Changing Rodney”, #115: “An Act of Mercy”, #189: “No, Honestly!”).


Rodney is one of four non-adult characters on AIO who clearly age more slowly than others (the others are Connie Kendall, Lucy Cunningham-Schultz and Mandy Straussberg). Rodney is a teenage bully all the way from his first appearance in #108: “Isaac the Courageous” (1990 Season) to his latest, #623: “Buddy Guard” (2007 Season), with no noticeable change in age, even while his peers clearly age faster than he does. Like most teenagers, Rodney struggles with acne (#480: “The Popsicle Kid”).


He has dared kids to walk out on ice, though he himself never did it.
He calls Bart Rathbone "Pop", even though Bart hates the nickname and asks him not to call him that.
He once broke Tom Riley's fence and stole his apples.
He hates baseball, but his dad thought he loved it.
He had a minibike which he later had his father sell in the Odyssey Times classified section.
He used to be a rock star in a band called The Bones of Rath, but they had foul language and bad ideals in their songs, so it led to rioting and the end of the band.
He once forced Jimmy Barclay to sell chocolate candy bars door-to-door to fund a "Send Rodney to Disney World" "charity."
He once tried to convince Donna Barclay to cash in dozens of savings bonds to buy his used moped which had no tires, rear axle or engine.
He once tried to sell an autographed picture of Robert "M" Lee to Sam Johnson.
He found out about a scam, but no one believed him.
He made a scam about his camera being stolen so that Denver Thor and him could take pictures of the Bible Bowl answers and get a free pass to Waterworld.
Bart taught him to always cheat when playing checkers.
He carved up the walls of the Wonderworld Treehouse with his pocket knife.
He tried to impress Donna while surfing, but hurt himself.
He broke through the Whit's End skylight twice. Once he sued, and the other time he broke in to steal a security videotape.
He once tried to set up a water balloon trap at Whit's End (how he broke the skylight, see above).
He was once trapped in an elevator by Jason Whittaker and Eugene Meltsner.
Rodney had to repeat an Algebra class three times in a row.
His middle initial is P.
Rodney is allergic to macadamia nuts. This was referenced again later.

Family and Friends

See Rathbone family.

Rodney's dad is Bart and his mother is Doris. His cousin is Scrubb Moseley, whose mother is also heard in the episode (#216: “Like Father, Like Son”), and at least one other younger cousin as revealed by Doris in #258: “Aloha, Oy!, Part 3”. Rodney also has an Uncle Louie who was a lawyer and in jail for a period of time (#467: “Broken Window”), and he also is revealed to have an Uncle Lanny who was at one time in prison (#243: “Family Values”, #528: “The Taming of the Two”). It's also mentioned that he has a grandmother who uses a cane (#214: “The Living Nativity”), and an Aunt (or possibly Great-Aunt) Agatha (#287: “Tom for Mayor, Part 2”).

While the Bones of Wrath have traditionally been Rodney's closest circle of friends, Rusty Gordon is arguably Rodney's best friend, having shown Rodney genuine loyalty that the other Bones have not (#332: “Another Chance”). The two spent time together even away from the other members of the gang (#259: “The Potential in Elliot”) and were seen as being friends by others in town (#343: “The Pretty Good Samaritan”).

Album Appearances

Rodney has appeared in the following albums:

Rodney has appeared on the front cover of the following albums:

Rodney has appeared on the back cover of the following albums:


Rodney Rathbone has appeared in 54 episodes, has been voiced by 2 actors, and has received an average user rating of 91.1%.

All (54)  · Matt Hurwitz (1992)  · Steve Burns (1990-2007)

Rodney Rathbone has been mentioned in 10 episodes.


See Rathbone quotes.

Pictures of Rodney Rathbone