Push the Red Button (Live)

Whit's End is in chaos, and it all started with one red button. Eugene's new master program links every invention in the shop, but when he accidentally presses a mystery button, the Imagination Station collides with Wooton's Kids' Radio show - and the cartoon villain Lord Foulspleen breaks loose into history with a weapon that really works. Ruined paintings, a toppled Eiffel Tower, kindness undone wherever he goes... and with truth, goodness, and beauty vanishing, Whit's End itself begins to crumble. Penny, fresh from watching Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel, must pray her way past a creative dry spell and paint something beautiful enough to lure the villain in. When Foulspleen fires his weapon at full power, Whit's reprogramming turns the blast back on him, transforming him into a beautiful man whom Captain Absolutely happily marches off to jail. Then Wooton reveals the whole disaster was his dream - just as Eugene walks in to announce his brand-new master program.

Found on The Grand Design Album 56 · 12 episodes

The run See every episode

0720 Happy Hunting Determined to engineer her own happiness, Penny throws herself into every self-help trick she can find - with painfully mixed results.

0721 The Holy Hoopster When a young basketball player's quiet courtside prayer turns him into a media sensation, he must navigate fame, team friction, and hard questions about what prayer is really for.

0722 The Lost Riddle A stuck locker yields a decades-old puzzle of riddles, hidden ink, and coded messages that leads two kids on a hunt to deliver a message meant for someone else long ago.

0723 Groundhog Jay When Jay tricks his way into a Room of Consequence program meant for someone else, he finds himself trapped reliving the same birthday party until he can figure out what the simulation is trying to teach him.

1 of 2 0724 Home Again Jason returns to Odyssey seeking secret solitude, but a well-meaning secret-keeper, a jewelry scam warning, and Eugene's uncanny resemblance to a wanted thief set everyone on a collision course.

2 of 2 0725 Home Again While Jason wrestles with an unexpected struggle back in Odyssey, a case of mistaken identity lands Eugene in dangerous company at a jewelry store.

0726 Push the Red Button (Live) When Eugene's new master computer program links every invention at Whit's End, one untested red button threatens to blur the line between imagination and reality.

1 of 2 0727 Your Servant is Listening A doubting girl travels back to ancient Israel, where a childless woman's desperate prayer teaches her what it means to hear God's voice.

2 of 2 0728 Your Servant is Listening When the Imagination Station drops Camilla into the tabernacle of ancient Israel, she befriends young Samuel and discovers what it truly means to listen for God's voice.

0729 No Chemistry Whatsoever When a demanding new professor takes over their easy chemistry class, Connie must figure out why she's really struggling while a Sunday-school memorization contest tempts Barrett to cut corners.

0730 The Friend Formula A lonely newcomer to Odyssey trades a rare Elvis record for lessons in a scheming boy's four-step formula for making friends - only to discover what friendship really costs.

0731 More Than a Feeling A new believer's overflowing excitement collides with a string of disappointments, while Connie pushes a long-married couple to prove their romance isn't dead.

0732 Repent After Me With opening night days away and his grades on the brink, a desperate student's shortcut on a science test pulls him into unmasking the anonymous scammer behind it - before the trail leads back to him.

Featured characters

Minor characters & crew 8 more roles

1 featured character

Matthew Parker Zach Callison

7 supporting roles

Captain Absolutely Jess Harnell Michelangelo Chuck Bolte Michelangelo Steve Gandy Albert Einstein Chuck Bolte Lord Gargantuan Foulspleen Townsend Coleman Lady Deluxe Haversham Chris Anthony Computer Voice Actor Unknown

Made by

Chris Anthony Host Paul McCusker Writer · Director Nathan Hoobler Director Dave Arnold Sound Designer · Executive Producer Landon Arnold Sound Designer Rob Jorgensen Sound Designer Bob Hoose Producer

The story

Read the full synopsis 2 min

Eugene completes a master computer program that can control every invention in Whit’s End. Whit warns that combining all the systems could allow one error to disrupt everything, but Eugene declares his design foolproof. Matthew arrives to study the system for a school project and immediately becomes curious about a large red button whose purpose Eugene cannot remember.

Elsewhere, Penny seeks help for a creative dry spell. Whit sends her and Connie through the Imagination Station to meet Michelangelo while he paints the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo tells Penny that his inspiration comes from God and the Bible. Because God is the source of creativity, the artist seeks to reflect His truth, goodness, and beauty. Penny asks to watch him work, though the very tall scaffold makes her nervous.

At the same time, Whit helps Wooton record a Kids’ Radio adventure about Captain Absolutely. The hero investigates a museum where anything connected with truth, goodness, and beauty has been damaged. The culprit, Lord Gargantuan Foulspleen, plans to use his Autodefiletron to ruin everything good, true, or beautiful, but his weapon seems harmless within the radio story.

While warning Matthew not to push an untested button, Eugene accidentally presses it himself. The master system merges the Imagination Station with the Kids’ Radio program. Captain Absolutely begins tumbling through dangerous moments in history, while Lord Foulspleen appears in the Sistine Chapel and discovers that his weapon now works. He damages Michelangelo’s paintings, destroys the Eiffel Tower, interrupts family devotions, and reverses acts of kindness as he travels through time.

The disappearance of truth, goodness, and beauty causes Whit’s End itself to crumble, because Whit built it around those ideals as ways of pointing young people toward God. No list can predict where Foulspleen will attack next. Matthew proposes luring him back with something beautiful, but Penny protests that she has no inspiration. Remembering Michelangelo’s advice, she prays and paints from the true source of creativity.

Whit realizes that the Autodefiletron has trapped Captain Absolutely in ugly thoughts. Since the captain comes from Wooton’s imagination, he can return by deliberately imagining Whit’s End. The plan works. Foulspleen arrives to destroy Penny’s painting, and Captain Absolutely confronts him with the truth that goodness and beauty will endure as long as God does.

When Foulspleen fires his weapon at maximum power, Whit’s new programming reverses it. Instead of erasing everyone else, the blast transforms the villain into a beautiful man. Captain Absolutely offers to explain how God’s truth and goodness can create deeper beauty as he escorts his delighted prisoner to jail.

With the system still corrupted, Matthew suggests giving the computer a hard kick. The next instant, Wooton finishes telling everyone that the entire catastrophe was his dream - including the moment when he dreamed that he was telling them about it. Then Eugene walks in and announces that he has just completed a master program for every invention in Whit’s End. Remembering the dream, everyone hurriedly leaves while Whit considers unplugging everything.