NBC Puts Sliced 'Veggies' on Saturday Morning Kids' TV Menu
by Jenni Parker
September 15, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The popular Christian-themed VeggieTales cartoons, which feature loveable talking vegetables Larry the Cucumber, Bob the Tomato, and other "veggies," are now being broadcast on Saturday mornings on NBC. Fans will notice some changes, however, as the network has insisted any biblical or evangelical messages in the animated shows be edited out. According to an Associated Press report, VeggieTales creator and consultant Phil Vischer is, at NBC's insistence, retooling the popular cartoons for network television. The cartoon still presents Bible stories, he notes, but the network has said they cannot preach to kids or show Scriptures at the end of each episode, so "we have had to make some edits."
The major TV networks have "some sensitivities," Vischer explains, "about 'preaching to kids' when you have an audience that's going to have atheist kids and, you know, Hindu kids," and so on. "And so we can tell Bible stories," he says, but "what we can't do is really turn to the audience and preach at them. What we can't do at the end is go to the computer and show a Bible verse, which clearly doesn't pass network standards."
For example, Vischer recalls, in one VeggieTales episode a character states, "The Bible says God gave Samson his strength," and NBC "didn't have a problem with that. But then the character kind of turns to the camera and says, 'And God can give us strength, too.' And that's kind of where [NBC] said, 'Okay, now you're preaching.'"
The animator notes that there was some initial miscommunication about what NBC would allow and what was off limits. "Some of it came as a surprise to us, what we needed to cut," he says. Nevertheless, he does not believe the end result of the editing has compromised the Christian integrity of the programs' basic messages.
"There is the kind of compromise that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to do," Vischer says. "But there's also the kind of compromise that [the apostle] Paul did when he said, 'I will be all things to all people' -- where he wanted to kind of adopt the culture of the people he was trying to reach; not offend them, but find a way to get the gospel in front of them. And I think that's a little more what we're trying to do here."
It remains clear, even in the edited episodes, "that we're telling a Bible story and we're communicating something from the Bible," Vischer contends; but "what we haven't been able to do is really turn to the audience and apply it to them." He acknowledges that he and his associates are "not thrilled" about all the cuts, but says "we're doing the best we can. If someone invites you to a dinner party and you get to talk there, you kind of have to live by the rules of the host."
But even though the Veggies' creator admits he wishes he did not have to make the cuts, he says he believes the cartoon's broadcasts will still teach kids good lessons that are based on biblical values. Meanwhile, he hopes the NBC broadcasts of the cartoon will help attract a new audience to the unedited VeggieTales videos.
So the Veggies will be a little bit chopped before being served up for Saturday morning network TV; but Vischer asserts, "we still think it's a good thing because kids can meet Bob [the Tomato] and Larry [the Cucumber] through this broadcast."
And then, the cartoon's creator adds, when young viewers who have been introduced to the characters through the NBC broadcast "go into Wal-Mart or Target, they'll bump into these VeggieTales videos, and they'll discover the whole story."
