Do your children watch the “VeggieTales?” For all of you who aren’t familiar with the animated talking vegetables, “VeggieTales” is a collection of home videos for children that encourage moral behavior based on Christian and biblical principles. They have been a smash hit since hitting the market in 1993 and to date have sold more than 50 million copies. My 2-year-old daughter was addicted to the videos for about a month before losing interest. (She went from being in love with talking veggies to being obsessed with talking animals—she is a currently a die-hard “Wonder Pets” fan). But I digress.
Two weeks ago, the Veggies went mainstream when NBC began airing 30-minute episodes of “VeggieTales” on Saturday mornings. And, while Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber always had the freedom to openly speak out about “moral messages” in their long-running video series, according to trade publications, now that the vegetable stars have hit network television, they can’t speak as freely as they once did, and that’s got the Parents Television Council steamed. A few days ago the conservative media-watchdog group issued a statement to the media blasting NBC for editing out some references to God from the show.
“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,” said the president of the Parents Television Council. “The series is successful because of its biblical world view, not in spite of it. That’s the signature to ‘VeggieTales.'”
NBC responded by saying the show was edited to comply with the network’s broadcast standards. “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,” said NBC executives.
Basically, NBC made the show’s creator edit out non-historical references to God and the Bible- including Bob and Larry’s tagline, “Remember kids, God made you special and he loves you very much,” that concludes each episode.
NBC maintains that “VeggieTales” is not being picked on: “There’s a fine line of universally accepted religious values,” network executives told reporters. “We don’t get too specific with any particular religious doctrine or any particular religious denomination.”
The show’s creator Phil Vischer said while he may not agree with NBC’s decision, he understands the network’s position.
“‘VeggieTales is religious, NBC is not,” Vischer said. “I want to focus people more on ‘Isn’t it cool that Bob and Larry are on television.'”
But the members of the Parents Television Council aren’t satisfied.
“If NBC is so concerned about that four-letter-word God, then they shouldn’t have taken ‘VeggieTales’. This just documents the disconnect between Hollywood and the real world.”
Frankly, I was a bit surprised to see “VeggieTales” on NBC. Having watched many unedited episodes myself I did notice that certain phrases were cut out of the network’s version, but I thought it was done because of time constraints. Now I know better.
Are you “VeggieTales” fans? What do you make of the latest controversy?