Isaac the Procrastinator

Isaac Morton is one of the smartest kids in Mr. Ligner's class, so why is his history report nothing but a title page? Instead of working, Isaac is flipping through rocket books at the mall and running off to an arcade tournament, while his geometry partner Lucy fumes and Dale Jacobs waits on space drawings for the newspaper that are due in a week. When a late report earns him a C and everyone is ready to give up on him, Whit steps in with a startling diagnosis: chronic procrastinitis. Luckily, there's a treatment... a secret formula from Whit's desk drawer, one teaspoon before starting any project. One dose later, Isaac dashes off a shuttle launch, Saturn, and the Voyager probe in a single afternoon - and then Whit reveals the formula is plain powdered lemonade. The real cure for putting things off, Isaac discovers, is simply sitting down and doing the work, and a humbled bonehead wins back his partner and a second chance.

Found on Other Times, Other Places Album 10 · 12 episodes

The run See every episode

0142 Train Ride A weary Whit and Eugene board a train home to Odyssey, only to find the ride crowded with old grudges, curious strangers, and trouble that refuses to stay quiet.

0143 Muckraker A young school-paper reporter goes hunting for her first big consumer exposé and learns that chasing an important story can be far trickier than it looks.

0144 Someone to Watch over Me When a boy is thrust from his bedroom into a series of increasingly strange adventures - always aboard a ship called the Wonder, always pursued by the same relentless enemy - he must figure out why he can't wake up.

0145 The Second Coming A young girl becomes convinced a TV preacher's formula has revealed the exact day of Jesus' return - and she intends to be ready.

0146 Emotional Baggage When an unwelcome relative's visit forces Connie out of her room and into old memories, Whit devises an unusual game to show her the true weight of what she's been carrying.

0147 Where There's a Will... When a big job offer threatens to uproot the Barclay family from Odyssey, each family member tries their own method of figuring out what God wants them to do.

0148 Isaac the Procrastinator When a bright student's habit of putting things off starts costing him grades, friendships, and opportunities, Whit offers him an unusual remedy.

0149 By Dawn's Early Light A school assignment about flag burning sends two kids tumbling through the Imagination Station into the War of 1812, where the question of what a symbol is worth stops being homework.

0150 Home is Where the Hurt Is A scheme to score a teacher's edition math book unravels when it forces Curt Stevens to face the one thing he's spent his whole life hiding - what's waiting behind his front door.

0151 ...The Last Shall Be First When Connie can't convince her stubborn great-uncle that it's never too late to come back to church, an ordinary cleanup job at Whit's End turns into a living lesson from an old parable.

0152 The Meaning of Sacrifice When the Barclay family gives up television for a month as an act of sacrifice to God, everyone discovers that keeping a promise is harder than making one.

0153 Mayor For a Day When young Curt Stevens enters Odyssey's Mayor for a Day contest convinced the job is all cushy offices and celebrity handshakes, his imagination shows him just how wrong he might be.

0154 Coming of Age Aspiring young actor Jimmy Barclay starts keeping a journal again just as a string of strange changes - in his family, his body, and his heart - begins turning his world upside down.

Featured characters

Minor characters & crew 4 more roles

4 supporting roles

Artie Powell Kyle Fisk Bob Luttrell Bob Luttrell Mr. Ligner Dave Arnold Mr. Phillips Bob Luttrell

Made by

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

The story

Read the full synopsis 4 min

Friday afternoon in history class, Artie Powell finishes a report on Lewis and Clark while Isaac Morton slides down in his seat and prays as hard as he can that Mr. Ligner will call on somebody else. Lucy Cunningham-Schultz, whispering beside him, has already given her report, so when the teacher decides that one of the two talkers should go next, the bell rings and rescues Isaac just in time. Mr. Ligner asks him to stay behind. He has noticed the squirming, and he has noticed something else, too: Isaac is an excellent student in every subject except the matter of turning work in when it is due. Isaac explains that he simply ran out of time. Mr. Ligner gently mentions that he saw Isaac standing in line at the mall theaters the previous Saturday. Relaxing is fine, the teacher says, but it belongs after the work is finished. Isaac promises the report on Monday.

Saturday morning finds Isaac at a bookstore in the mall instead of at a desk, admiring the illustrations in a book about rockets and astronauts with Mr. Phillips, who knows exactly how much Isaac loves outer space. Lucy walks in, spots him, and cannot believe her eyes. Under questioning, Isaac admits that his report is not finished. The only part he has written is the title page, and the class has had weeks. Worse, Lucy reminds him about their geometry project, a geodesic dome greenhouse due a week from Monday. Isaac was supposed to gather the figures. He insists he has been gathering them and keeps them in his head, which was fine for Mozart, Lucy points out, but Isaac is not Mozart. She tells him she does not mind if he wrecks his own grade, only that he not wreck hers along with it. Isaac huffs off toward the library.

At Whit's End, Lucy tells John Whittaker the whole story, and Dale Jacobs arrives looking for Isaac as well. Three weeks earlier, on Lucy's recommendation, Dale asked Isaac to draw artwork for an upcoming outer space edition of the newspaper's young people's page, and he has not received so much as a stick figure. The edition comes out in a week. Dale decides not to interrupt the boy's schoolwork and to catch him at church instead. Whit hopes out loud that Isaac may surprise them all, since he is at the library.

He is not at the library for long. Artie coasts up on his bicycle, appalled that anyone would go inside a library on a Saturday, and announces a tournament at the arcade where somebody has a whole bag of tokens and is taking on all challengers. Isaac wavers, tells himself the weekend is meant for relaxing, decides he will do his work later, and runs after his friend.

By Sunday the news has caught up with him. Isaac is out of town, because his family conducts the services once a month for a little church in Connellsville, but Lucy has overheard the boys bragging about the arcade tournament, and she can guess who won. Dale has run out of patience and plans to phone Isaac and tell him the drawings are off. Lucy plans to ask her teacher for a new geometry partner. Whit asks them both to wait one more day. He has an idea, and if it does not work he will deliver the bad news to Isaac himself.

Monday after school, Isaac arrives at Whit's End in a foul mood over a C on a history report that Mr. Ligner called one of the best he had ever done. The grade was low only because the work was late. Whit walks him through it, then delivers a diagnosis: Isaac is suffering from chronic procrastinitis. The symptoms fit alarmingly well. A project is exciting at first, then dull, then a burden, and putting it off leaves a person edgy, snappish, and full of headaches and stomach aches. There is no cure, Whit says, but there is a treatment - a special formula he mixes himself and keeps in his desk. A teaspoon in a glass of water before starting a project sees a person right through it. Isaac drinks it down, tastes something lemony, feels the change coming on, and calls for his sketch pad.

Two hours later the drawings are done: a shuttle launch, Saturn and its rings, the Voyager deep space probe. Dale, brought in by Whit, calls them terrific and hurries off to hand them to the art department, with a friendly word about turning them in earlier next time. Then Whit lets Isaac in on the secret. The miracle formula is powdered lemonade, the best in the county. The drawings got done because Isaac sat down and did them. Chronic procrastinitis, Whit explains, is a fancy word for plain old laziness, and its only cure is doing the work now, not next week or two hours from now. Afterward comes the real rest and the satisfaction of a job well done.

Lucy comes in having seen the drawings on their way out the door. Isaac apologizes, admits he has been a bonehead, and asks for another chance as her partner. Since Mr. Jacobs gave him one, she figures she can too. She wants to head for the library that instant. Isaac agrees wholeheartedly, right after supper.

Around the story

The host segments that opened and closed the broadcast.

Opening

Before the story begins, Chris finds a strange piece of paper on her chair. It is a circle with the letters T-U-I-T written inside. Bob explains the joke: it is a "round to it," because whenever he asks Chris when she will get her work done, she always says "when I get around to it" - so now she finally has one. Chris admits she is not the only person who talks that way, because Isaac Morton has been using the same phrase a lot lately. Bob offers to make a "round to it" for Isaac too, but Chris says Whit has something better in mind, and the listeners will find out what it is as the story unfolds.