Veggie Tales controversy

by Rachel Mosteller (Subscribe to Rachel Mosteller's posts) Sep 24th 2006 9:01AM

Children watching the cartoon "Veggie Tales" on NBC are missing a bit of the God-based message and that has some groups steamed.

NBC began airing 30-minute episodes of the show on Saturday morning, minus its Biblical-based foundations. The show, which has run on home video since 1993, encourages moral behavior and Christian principles.

The creator of the show only recently found out that all non-historical God references, including the phrase "Remember kids, God made you special and he loves you very much," that ends each episode, would be removed. He said that if he had known this would have happened, he would have not signed the deal with NBC.

NBC says it does not get specific with any religious doctrine and that all shows must follow the same rules.

Personally, my kids haven't become fans of "Veggie Tales" yet. But, as a Christian, if they do, we'll be watching the "full God" version on DVD.

Comments (11)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Uly 9-24-2006 @ 12:17PM

I'm not religious. Certainly not Christian. And, frankly, I find Veggie Tales creepy. But I don't approve of censoring for public consumption, thanks very much.

marnie 9-24-2006 @ 10:42AM

Phil Vischer also said, “VeggieTales is religious, NBC is not,” he said. “I want to focus people more on ‘Isn’t it cool that Bob and Larry are on television.” I'm glad that the show will be on tv, even if they're removing the non-historically Biblical references to God. After all, who knows how many children will get excited about Bob and Larry and purchase the regular videos? I'm glad that Veggietales is getting some exposure.

jeanette kempton 9-24-2006 @ 11:57AM

this kind of reminds me of the debate about the boy scouts. they are a christian based group, but get flack because they try to hold to christian values. veggie tales is a christian show, and if you take the christian part away, all you have is a mindless cartoon. hopefully they can at least keep the part where it teaches kids to be good to others and things like that. my 3 yr old and 1 yr old love veggie tales!

thordora 9-24-2006 @ 12:06PM

My kids don't watch that show because we're atheists, but I found it kinda wrong to change the entire point of the show like that. Wouldn't that be like taking the fight out of fight club?

Uly 9-24-2006 @ 12:18PM

No, Jeannette. Boy Scouts don't get flak for trying to uphold their view of Christian values. They get flak for trying to do that *while at the same time* getting special priviliges from the government.

ann adams 9-24-2006 @ 3:09PM

Some of the non-cable networks refused to run a United Church of Christ commercial last spring countering James Dobson's much publicized attack on Sponge Bob. They received angry letter; one of them from me.

http://news.ucc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=523&Itemid=1

They (I'm not sure if it was NBC or one of the others) cited the same reasons for their refusal as NBC is using with Veggie Tales.

On the other hand, the huge Robert Schuller church service shows up faithfully on my NBC channel every Sunday morning and our local CBS affiliate broadcasts the service from 1st Baptist in Fresno at the same time. Fine with me; both churches pay for air time and we all have the choice of watching or changing the channel.

Color me dense but I don't know what NBC's problem is with Veggie Tales unless the UCC controversy made them gun shy. If they refused to air a commercial from the liberal side they must have expected complaints about Veggie Tales. Either refuse to air it (ridiculous) or air it in its entirety. I don't like censorship either unless it comes from me and is restricted to my family.

D 9-24-2006 @ 3:11PM

I am not a Christian and I don't much like Veggie Tales, but I disagree with censorship. I think the creator of the show is perfectly right to be annoyed that his message is being skewed.

That said, I think that if NBC didn't want a Christian kids' show on their channel, they...probably shouldn't have signed Veggie Tales to begin with. I mean, seriously-- did they think no one would notice?

anonny 9-24-2006 @ 4:39PM

Well put, Uly.

VL 9-24-2006 @ 5:33PM

I just don't understand why NBC would buy a show, and then edit out the Christian part. That is the whole point of the show. Now it's just talking vegetables and silly songs. I personally think the show is annoying, but it's not like I don't how to work my remote control if I don't want to watch it.

karrie 9-25-2006 @ 6:45AM

I find it hard to believe that the guy who signed the deal to run the edited version of the show was kept in the dark about the details. Sounds very suspicious to me, and I'm sure he was very well compensated.

Rena 10-22-2006 @ 1:56PM

I can respect all of the opinions of those who do not beleive in God, however if you have watched the NBC versions of VeggieTales I am sure that what the show is teaching children would be something you wish your children to learn: sharing, kindness, compassion, forgiveness, friendship, caring.
As far as the creator of VeggieTales getting rich off this deal, he actually lost conrol of Big Idea (company) a while back due to bankruptcy, so he didn't get rich from this.

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