Hold Up!

It's closing time at Whit's End when the last customer at the counter pulls out a gun and orders Connie and Eugene to empty the register. Eugene trips the silent alarm, but the robber - a small-time crook named Hank Murray - marches them upstairs to Whit's safe, which holds nothing but papers and an autographed picture of Andy Griffith, and ties them up with telephone cord. What Hank doesn't know is that Whit is already outside, slipping through a secret tunnel into his hidden control room with a plan: let Whit's End itself do the fighting. The lights go out, Goliath booms, the walls of Jericho tumble, and Noah's animals roar until the panicked gunman fires wildly into the dark. His last bullet shatters a life-size television image of Whit, and the police lead him away in handcuffs. Whit's End gives back whatever you bring to it, Whit explains... but those spooky footsteps and that crazy laugh in the dark? They weren't his.

Found on At Home and Abroad Album 12 · 12 episodes

The run See every episode

0163 A Model Child An eleven-year-old girl's envy of a glamorous young model fades as she discovers the painful cost of growing up too fast.

0164 Sixties-Something When a sixties nostalgia craze sweeps Odyssey, Connie goes searching for the decade's most inspiring writer - and finds far more than she bargained for.

1 of 2 0165 Bernard and Esther With the Imagination Station broken, Bernard proves a well-told story beats any machine by spinning the biblical tale of a brave young queen whose people's fate rests in her hands.

2 of 2 0166 Bernard and Esther At Whit's End, Bernard finishes his cliffhanger tale of Queen Esther, who must risk her life before the king to save her people from the scheming Haman.

0167 Dobson Comes to Town A bewildered stranger walks into Whit's End with no idea how he got there - and he turns out to be someone the whole town of Odyssey knows by name.

0168 The Curse A mysterious medicine man walks into Whit's End and pronounces an ancient curse on the building's owner - and one by one, the impossible signs start coming true.

0169 Hold Up! When a nervous stranger pulls a gun at closing time, Whit's End becomes the stage for a battle of wits - and a debate about whether people are really good at heart.

0170 A Test for Robyn A shortcut-loving Robyn learns the hard way that "cramming Thursday night" is no match for a big history test - or for her own conscience.

1 of 2 0171 The Cross of Cortes When a mysterious map from an old missionary friend draws Whit and Eugene to Mexico, their fact-finding trip turns into a treasure hunt shadowed by a dangerous rival.

2 of 2 0172 The Cross of Cortes A hunt for a legendary golden cross deep in a cave-riddled Mexican mountain turns treacherous when Whit, Eugene, and Dan discover they can't be sure who's really on their side.

0173 A Thanksgiving Carol When Eugene claims God has nothing to do with modern Thanksgiving, Whit and the gang set out to prove what the "thanks" is really about - by staging their own classic holiday tale on Kids Radio.

0174 Where's Your Daddy? A struggling mother and her two children, new to Odyssey and hiding a painful secret, find unexpected kindness at Whit's End as Christmas approaches.

0175 East, Winds Raining On Pearl Harbor Day, old Joe Finneman finally tells his great-niece what he saw in Honolulu on December 7, 1941 - and why his best friend, a Japanese American codebreaker, is the reason he can't hate anyone for that day.

Featured characters

Minor characters & crew 6 more roles

6 supporting roles

Officer Patrick O'Ryan Will Ryan Hank Murray Charles Knox Robinson Hildy (a) Lynn Luttrell Officer Gillespie Dave Arnold Officer Dan Kern Bob Luttrell Professor Ronan Chuck Bolte

Made by

Chris Anthony Host Paul McCusker Writer Phil Lollar Director · Producer Bob Luttrell Sound Designer · Producer Chuck Bolte Executive Producer

The story

Read the full synopsis 2 min

It is closing time at Whit's End, and Connie Kendall and Eugene Meltsner are locking up while John Whittaker is away giving a speech at the college. The psychology department has asked Whit to share his view on a big question: is man basically good or basically evil? Connie and Eugene fall into the same debate themselves. Connie says the Bible teaches that people's hearts are sinful, while Eugene argues that people are basically good and only do bad things because of hard circumstances.

One last customer is still lingering over a banana split, and he chimes in to agree with Eugene. He explains that he is a good man passing through town who has simply run short of cash - and then he pulls out a gun and orders them to empty the register into a bag. Connie can hardly believe anyone would rob Whit's End. Eugene manages to press the silent alarm, and Officer Dan Kern soon knocks at the door. Forced to pretend everything is fine, Connie sends him away with a coded excuse about coffee, and Kern quietly calls for backup and sends for Whit.

The robber marches Connie and Eugene upstairs to Whit's safe, spinning a sad story about a sick grandmother in Utah. Eugene sympathizes, but Connie insists that robbery is wrong no matter what someone's circumstances have been. The safe holds no money at all - just papers and an autographed picture of Andy Griffith - so the frustrated crook ties the two of them up with telephone cord. He even admits his grandmother story was a lie; she is actually in prison for armed robbery herself.

Meanwhile Whit arrives outside, where Captain Patrick O'Ryan tells him the man is Hank Murray, a petty criminal fresh out of jail. Whit leads the captain through a secret tunnel into his hidden control room, planning to use Whit's End itself to rattle Hank and get him to use up his six bullets. The lights go out, strange sounds echo through the shop, and a panicking Hank flees into the Bible Room, where a talking mirror, a booming Goliath, tumbling walls of Jericho, and the noisy animals of the Noah's Ark display frighten him into firing shot after shot. Down to his last bullet, he reaches the exit and finds Whit calmly telling him to give up. Hank fires - and shatters a life-size television image. Out of bullets, he is arrested by Captain O'Ryan and Officer Kern.

Whit explains that Whit's End gives back whatever people bring to it: children bring innocence and find fun, but Hank brought fear and suspicion, and that is exactly what he got back. It all depends on the state of a person's heart. Connie laughs about the spooky footsteps and the crazy laugh Whit used to scare Hank - but Whit says that wasn't him at all.