VeggieTales

Submission 22,181

Part of a series on Western Animation. [View Related Entries]

About

VeggieTales is an American computer-generated animated children's television series, featuring a cast of anthropomorphic vegetables who teach moral and Biblical lessons.

History

Created by Phil Vischer and Nike Nawrocki, VeggieTales originally premiered as a direct-to-video series. The first installment, Where's God When I'm S-Scared, was released on December 21st, 1993 by Vischer and Nawrocki's Big Idea Productions. The program included two stories, including "Tales From the Crisper," which tells of Junior Asparagus, who, after being scared by a horror film, learns that God looks after them. The second story is an adaptation of the Biblical story of Daniel and the Lions' Den.^[1]

Between 1993 and 2015, more than 45 VeggieTales episodes were produced.

NBC

On August 24th, 2006, it was announced that VeggieTales would be aired on NBC and Telemundo on Saturday and Sunday mornings.^[2]

However, about week after the series September 9th, 2006 premiere date, Fox News ^[3]reported that the series had been criticized for "editing out some references to God from the children's animated show."

L. Brent Bozell, president of the Parents Television Council, said, "What struck me and continues to strike me is the inanity of ripping the heart and soul out of a successful product and not thinking that there will be consequences to it. The series is successful because of its biblical world view, not in spite of it. That's the signature to VeggieTales."

According to Fox News, Vischer said, "he didn't know until just weeks before the shows were to begin airing that non-historical references to God and the Bible would have to be removed."

He said, "I would have declined partly because I knew a lot of fans would feel like it was a sellout or it was done for money […] there weren't enough shows that could work well without those (religious) references."

NBC spokesperson Rebecca Marks said, "Our goal is to reach as broad an audience as possible with these positive messages while being careful not to advocate any one religious point of view."

Netflix Series

In November 2014, VeggieTales in the House premiered on Netflix. The series, however, only featured Mike Nawrocki and Phil Vischer from the original cast. The show was replaced by the series VeggieTales in the City in 2017.^[4]

On July 1st, 2018, Vischer confirmed that the show had been canceled on Twitter (shown below).

Film Adaptation

In 2002, a feature-length VeggieTales film was released. The movie, Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie, grossed more than $25 million at the domestic box office.^[5]

Six years later, a second VeggieTales film, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, was released. The film grossed more than $12 million at the domestic box office.^[6]

Fandom

Launched on July 9th, 2009, the official VeggieTales Facebook ^[7] account has more than 650,000 likes and more than 600,000 likes in nine years.

On October 25th, 2010, the official VeggieTales Twitter ^[8] account launched. Within eight years, the account has more than 21,000 followers.

Allow Us To Introduce Ourselves refers to an image macro featuring a screen capture from the American animated television series VeggieTales. The image, which features three anthropomorphic scallions saying the phrase, has been used as the punchline to various jokes.