After 13 years of home video stardom, Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber have discovered another way onto TV: NBC and Telemundo have picked up VeggieTales for Saturday mornings.
The hit series did not reach network TV unscathed. Critics like the Media Research Center's Brent Bozell claim that NBC has "sliced and diced" God right out of the shows.
Most notably, the NBC broadcasts do not end with VeggieTales' trademark line, "God made you special, and he loves you very much." VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer says that line summed up his original vision for the series, which was "to reintroduce the idea of a personal, loving God into pop culture."
"We couldn't quite bring all of the Sunday morning values to Saturday morning," Vischer said of the move to NBC, "but we tried."
The editing process with NBC was a two-way street, said Terry Pefanis, chief operating officer of Big Idea, which produces the show. Big Idea submitted programs to the network's standards and practice board. The network responded with notes for suggested changes. Both sides compromised and worked together until they had a program they could live with.
Had NBC asked for all or most of the God references to be cut, Pefanis said, "we could never have agreed." But Big Idea decided the opportunity to be on television and compete with other shows seemed worth the edits.
Vischer, who said he hopes the broadcasts will "grow the VeggieTales family," expressed reservation about how the process turned out.
"If I had known from the beginning how restrictive NBC would be, I probably would have declined to participate in the project," he admitted.
Vischer has questions about the consistency of the edits. Episodes of 3-2-1 Penguins, another Big Idea show broadcast by NBC, end as they do on video—with the two main characters praying. "No one is quite sure why that is okay with NBC," Vischer said.
In its first two weeks on NBC, VeggieTales drew an average of more than 1 million viewers, Pefanis said. He noted that the ratings were a "substantial increase" over programs shown in that time slot in recent years.
Networks have less interest in children's programming due to stiff competition from the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and the Cartoon Network, according to Vischer. So networks have increasingly outsourced time slots to fulfill a government requirement to run educational programming for children.
"Since VeggieTales was designed to teach 'Sunday morning values,' it's no surprise that it's been picked up as a great show to satisfy the [Children's Television Act of 1990]—after the references to God have been reduced," said Heather Hendershot, author of Shaking the World for Jesus, a study of Christian pop culture.
Big Idea also announced plans for a new VeggieTales feature film called The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. The film will be produced by Universal, which, Vischer said, ironically wants to pump up the movie's Christian content.
Talking veggies stir controversy at NBC | Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber always had a moral message in their long-running "VeggieTales" video series. But 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 (Associated Press, Sept. 22)
NBC draws protests from conservatives | In a Madonna concert that includes a crucifixion scene and the exclusion of religious references from "VeggieTales," critics see a double standard (The New York Times, Sept. 23)
NBC issues new explanation for 'VeggieTales' cuts | After first blaming time constraints, the network says some references to God were edited out of the kids' series to avoid advocating any religion (Los Angeles Times, Sept. 23)
Earlier: Steamed over 'VeggieTales' cuts | A watchdog group slams NBC for editing out some references to God in the children's series (Los Angeles Times, Sept. 22)
NBC chops 'Veggies' but reveres Madonna | If NBC does allow Madonna's Jesus imitation to be aired while justifying the removal of faith references from "VeggieTales," the tragic message the network will be sending is that it is fine to make reference to God on TV — but only as long as you're making fun of him (James Hirsen, Los Angeles Daily News, Sept. 30)
Previous CT coverage of VeggieTales and Big Idea includes:
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