The Buck Starts Here
From Adventures in Odyssey Wiki
| 426: The Buck Starts Here | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Season | 1999 |
| Album | 33: Virtual Realities |
| Aired | October 16, 1999 |
| Written by | Marshal Younger |
| Directed by | Phil Lollar |
| Produced by | Unknown |
| Sound Design by | Jonathan Crowe |
| Music by | Unknown |
| Prev: Blackgaard's Revenge, Part 2 Next: Something Cliqued Between Us | |
[edit] General information
Theme: Using our resources wisely
Scripture:Eccelsiastes 3:2-8; 11
[edit] Summary
Whit gives $25 to Nathaniel Graham, Ashley, and Jared DeWhite to use constructively. Nathaniel sells muffins, Ashley makes sock shooters, and Jared becomes paranoid.
[edit] Plot
As part of an experiment Whit is conducting, he gives Jared DeWhite, Ashley, and Nathaniel $25 to use constructively in the next two weeks. If they try to build on it, they can keep it. If they don't build on it, he will take it back. The kids immediately start to work on their big ideas.
Mandy Straussberg, the secretary for Nathaniel, gives him some delicious muffins that convince him they should go into the muffin business. After some discussion, Mandy agrees to make muffins to sell if she can be a 50-50 partner with Nathaniel.
Meanwhile, Ashley decides she will buy some tools and start a bike repair shop. Soon Roy Randy comes by and asks her to fix his bike right that very day. While Ashley works on the bike, Roy discovers a sock shooter on her bike. He is fascinated and asks if she can make some for him.
The next day, Whit makes some peanut butter banana ice cream and offers some to Jared, who gets suspicious that Whit is trying to tempt him to waste his money, so he refuses to buy any. Mandy then approaches Jared to tell him that Greenblatt's Department Store has binoculars on sale. Once again, he is suspicious that Mr. Greenblatt and Whit are scheming to get his money, so he refuses to spend a penny.
Though all the kids want to spend their money constructively, they find obstacles to overcome. Nathaniel and Mandy's muffin business has too much competition, Roy gets injured when the tire Ashley fixed comes off his bike, and Jared decides to hide his money in his lunch box because he was so suspicious everyone was out to rob him.
When Whit comes back to see how everyone is doing, both Nathaniel and Ashley offer Whit's money back and tell him their struggles to make their businesses work. Though Jared felt he had successfully defended his money, Whit felt he had done nothing constructive by hoarding it, so Whit collected his money from him. Disappointed, Jared asks if it is wrong to save money, and Whit answers that it is not, but that God wants us to use all he has given us for his glory. If we do, he will give us more, but if we waste what he gives us, he will take it all away.
[edit] Discussion Questions
- Why did Jared think he had to hide his money?
- Why did Whit collect him money at the end?
- Why did Whit allow Ashley and Nathaniel to keep their money at the end?
- Read Matthew 25:14-30. What similarities can you find to the episode?
- What do you think Whit was trying to teach the kids?
[edit] Cast
[edit] Notes
- The title of this episode is a play off of US President Harry Truman's famous slogan, "The buck stops here."
- The original title for this program was "The Parable of the Entrepreneur, The Sock Shooter, and the Ditch Digger," but it had to be changed because the full title wouldn't fit on the tape labels.
- In the mud war the kids from first street are fighting against kids from third street. This is probably a reference to the show Recess, which takes place at third street elementary school and which Blake Ewing (who plays Nathaniel Graham) acted on.
[edit] Reviews
[edit] Quotes
Jared: Oh Mr. Whittaker you're good, very good. But not good enough.
[edit] Resources
The Buck Starts Here on whitsend
The Buck Starts Here on AIO HQ
The Buck Starts Here on the Soda Fountain
