Welcome to Whit's End

Chris's tour of Odyssey begins with an interruption: Wooton Bassett arrives in the middle of an "orange level crisis," having lost the key to the brand-new front door Red Hollard installed that morning. While Wooton heads to the Connellsville cheese factory to think, Chris retraces his steps to Whit's End, sharing the town's history along the way - from founder Horace McCalister to Detective Harlow Doyle in his coonskin cap. At Whit's End, Chris meets the regulars: Connie Kendall, who rattles off the shop's highlights between rounds of a high-stakes hide-and-seek game; John Avery Whittaker, who describes his shop as an old-fashioned discovery emporium where kids of all ages can just be kids; and Eugene Meltsner, who lures Chris into the Imagination Station only to test a new door. The key turns up nowhere, but Wooton bursts in with the answer: fearing he'd lose it, he mailed the key to himself - though the key to his post office box is locked inside his house, leaving him right back where he started. Unfazed, Wooton figures Red can break the door down since he wanted a drawbridge anyway, and the tour closes with Whit's advice to appreciate each day, because every minute is a gift from God.

Found on No Album Album NA · 11 episodes

The run See every episode

4 of 9 0649 Passages: Darien's Rise When a royal plot puts Darien's life on the line, two siblings discover their strange gifts may be the key to his destiny.

5 of 9 0650 Passages: Darien's Rise Newly outlawed and hunted by his king, Darien seeks refuge for his family while young Anna begins training a gift that shows her dangers no one else can see.

6 of 9 0651 Passages: Darien's Rise Word of a devastating attack on the convent forces Darien to hold onto hope for Anna while an occupied city tests his faith and cunning.

7 of 9 0652 Passages: Darien's Rise With King Lawrence closing in and war brewing on the border, the fugitive Darien must decide how far loyalty to a king who wants him dead can go.

8 of 9 0653 Passages: Darien's Rise As war closes in on Maris, exiled hero Darien must weigh a tempting offer of safety against his duty to a king who wants him dead - while young Kyle, desperate to matter again, slips away on a dangerous errand of his own.

9 of 9 0654 Passages: Darien's Rise Desperate to find his way home from Maris, Kyle falls into the hands of a doomed king who believes the boy is the lucky charm that will save him from the coming battle.

N/A Welcome to Whit's End A guided tour of the town of Odyssey and its beloved shop Whit's End gets an extra dose of adventure when Wooton Bassett locks himself out of his own house.

1 of 2 0655 The Inspiration Station When Whit's new invention shows people their best selves, Connie's newfound serenity and Matthew's well-meaning tinkering both spiral into trouble at Whit's End.

2 of 2 0656 The Inspiration Station When a machine at Whit's End offers instant inspiration, Whit must help a discouraged young inventor and an over-eager Connie discover what real growth actually requires.

0657 Clutter A family garage sale grinds to a halt when every Parker discovers that nothing they own is quite easy to let go.

0658 Game for a Mystery When a boy's beloved handheld game vanishes from its hiding spot, an aspiring young detective takes on her very first case.

0659 Target of the Week When Matthew becomes the school bully's designated victim for a week, he decides to stop being afraid and get even - with consequences he never saw coming.

0660 For the Birds When Camilla rescues an orphaned baby blue jay to prove she's ready for a pet of her own, she discovers responsibility demands far more than she imagined - while Eugene wages a baffling battle with the park's suddenly hostile birds.

Featured characters

Minor characters & crew 1 more roles

1 supporting role

Chris Anthony Chris Anthony

Made by

Chris Anthony Host Nathan Hoobler Writer · Director Rudy Haerr Sound Designer Bob Hoose Producer Dave Arnold Executive Producer

The story

Read the full synopsis 4 min

Chris is waiting to give a newcomer a tour of the town of Odyssey when Wooton Bassett rushes up, late and flustered. He announces he is having an "orange level crisis" - on his personal scale, that is far more serious than missing a Smiley Meal toy or forgetting to feed your sea monkeys. Red Hollard has installed a new front door on Wooton's house that morning, and now Wooton cannot find the key. He has been locked outside for an hour, and even trying to crawl up his exit slide failed because it was freshly waxed. Chris suggests retracing his steps, and since Wooton stopped at Whit's End around lunchtime for an ice cream skyscraper, Chris agrees to look for the key there while Wooton searches the cheese factory in Connellsville, one of his favorite thinking spots because the smell of cheese is so relaxing.

On the drive to Whit's End, Chris shows off the town: the brick buildings on Main Street built in the late 1800s, and Detective Harlow Doyle waving hello in his coonskin cap - he is both a private eye and president of the local Daniel Boone Fan Club. Chris explains that Horace McCalister founded the town in the mid-1800s, calling it a place everybody ought to see, and that the dictionary defines an odyssey as a long, adventurous journey - a description that fits the town well. McCalister Park is named for the founder, and Whit's End sits just across its lawn.

Crossing the park, Chris runs into Connie Kendall, who has worked at Whit's End for what feels like her whole life and loves it. Connie lists the highlights - the Little Theater, where she and Whit are preparing a play about Noah's Ark, the Kids' Radio studio where she hosts Candid Conversations with Connie, and the library - before dashing off to finish a high-stakes game of hide-and-seek with Camilla and Matthew Parker. The winner gets the first taste of Whit's new ice cream flavor, which is supposed to be a doozy.

Inside Whit's End, John Avery Whittaker - "please, call me Whit" - serves Chris a chocolate soda and joins the key hunt. He hasn't seen it, but mentions Wooton was upstairs earlier using the Room of Consequence to find out how the world would be different if pulsating shower heads had been invented a hundred years earlier. Asked what kind of business Whit's End really is, Whit calls it an old-fashioned discovery emporium - part library, part museum, part ice cream soda fountain, and a little carnival fun house, but most of all "a place where kids of all ages can just be kids."

While Whit checks the library, Chris heads upstairs, pointing out the largest train set in the state and the Bible Room with its replica of Paul's armor and a model of Noah's Ark. There Eugene Meltsner invites Chris to be the first to try something new in the Imagination Station. Chris steps in with racing heart, dreaming of ancient Rome or the Mayflower - only to learn Eugene was merely testing a new door. Eugene has not seen the key either, and when he offers Chris the chance to be the first to experience his next invention, a new seat for the control room, Chris politely declines. Whit's library search turns up nothing but Emily Jones reading mystery books - for research, she says.

Then Wooton bursts in with great news: he knows exactly where his key is. Worried about losing it while the door was being installed, he carefully boxed it up, wrapped it in brown paper, and mailed it to himself - first class. All he has to do is open his post office box, which would be easy if the key to that box weren't in his desk drawer at home. Locked out he remains, unless Whit has invented a device that teleports a person into their own house, which Whit admits he hasn't. Wooton takes it in stride, figuring Red can break the door down again since he was thinking of adding a drawbridge anyway.

Before leaving to visit the rest of the town - the Electric Palace, Odyssey Middle School, Odyssey Community Church, and the Odyssey Times - Chris checks the top item on the to-do list: getting advice from Whit. Whit offers this: enjoy and appreciate the day ahead, because "every minute is a gift from God." He tries to thank God for the time he's given, whether it's spent advising kids, making ice cream, or hearing the story of a key in a mailbox. It is just what Chris needed to hear, and the tour continues - because you never know what will happen when you have an adventure in Odyssey.