The VeggieTales Show
The VeggieTales Show (often marketed as simply VeggieTales) is an American Christian computer-animated television series created by Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki. The series served as a revival and sequel of the American Christian computer-animated franchise "VeggieTales". The series is produced through the partnerships of TBN, NBCUniversal, Big Idea Entertainment, and Trilogy Animation, and premiered on October 22, 2019. Vischer, Nawrocki, and Lisa Vischer (Phil's wife) reprise their respective roles as the voices of Bob the Tomato, Larry the Cucumber, and Junior Asparagus, with Kurt Heinecke returning to compose the show's music score . They are joined by the creative team led by show-runner Todd Waterman (who worked on such projects as the 1998 Disney film "Mulan" and ""). Premise. The show focuses on the VeggieTales characters putting on Broadway-style shows in Mr. Nezzer's theater that retell Bible stories and parody mainstream Pop-culture. Phil Vischer says the show will start with a question in the form of a letter from a kid, and then Bob and Larry will respond to that question by putting on a show. Bob the Tomato attempts to use the show to accomplish his dream of becoming  the next Mister Rogers. According to Vischer, "the thing that drives Bob crazy is when Mister Rogers does Mister Rogers, everything goes perfectly. Nothing ever goes wrong on ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.’ And Bob wants that for his show, but he can never achieve it.” Each show would never go the way that Bob had initially planned, resulting in complete and total chaos. Phil Vischer says "It's really all about Bob and Larry wanting to put on a show for kids. They want to teach things to kids. Bob wants to help kids, Larry wants to help Bob." Most of  the new episodes act out stories and lessons from the Bible. The show includes a nine-episode series about the fruit of the Spirit. There are also new adventures with LarryBoy and the League of Incredible Vegetables. According to Phil Vischer, the first season consists of 18 episodes in which Vischer would write the first ten and Nawrocki would write the last eight. The series will provide "VeggieTales" content through 2021. Characters. Phil Vischer stated in a radio interview that no new characters will be created for this television program. In addition to series regulars, characters from VeggieTales spin-offs  have appeared, including Callie Flower from "VeggieTales in the House" and Awful Alvin from "". "The VeggieTales Show" brings back Mr. Nezzer, as the owner of the theater in which the show takes place, who has been absent from the previous two television shows. Production. When DreamWorks bought Classic Media and Big Idea Entertainment in 2012, all "VeggieTales" productions produced at Big Idea were to be controlled and overseen by DreamWorks. As a result, DreamWorks launched production of the Netflix original series "VeggieTales in the House" in late 2013 and announced that it would shut down production of the original VeggieTales  direct-to-DVD series after the release of its 58th episode entitled VeggieTales: Noah's Ark in 2015. DreamWorks replaced the original creative crew that had been working at Big Idea Entertainment for nearly two decades with an entirely new team of nearly 75 artists led under the direction of Doug TenNapel. VeggieTales creators Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki were given no control over the creative content of "VeggieTales in the House" and were only allowed to provide the characters' voices. Since DreamWorks ordered 78 22-minute episodes for "VeggieTales in the House" in 2013, production of the last 13  episodes wrapped up in the summer of 2017 and DreamWorks' team left Big Idea Entertainment to work on new animated series for Netflix such as "" and "". DreamWorks then sold Big Idea Entertainment's headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee once production concluded. While the last season of "VeggieTales in the City" premiered on Netflix in the fall of 2017, marketing employees continued to work for Big Idea Entertainment. In 2016, DreamWorks’ founder Jeffrey Katzenberg sold the studio to NBCUNIVERSAL. As discussions to revise the series began to take place in 2018, NBCUNIVERSAL removed the control DreamWorks. NBCUNIVERSAL would only serve as a  distributor of the series. NBCUNIVERSAL moved Headquarters of Big Idea Entertainment moved to Tustin, California in 2019. In late 2018, Vischer received a phone call from The Trinity Broadcast Network, which was in talks to license VeggieTales from NBCUniversal in order to create a new reboot. TBN, who had been trying to buy VeggieTales for nearly a decade, asked if he would be interested in reprising the voice of Bob the Tomato for the reboot. Vischer said that he wasn't interested in being part of the new reboot unless he had a role in shaping the creative and educational  content for the show. As a result, NBCUniversal and TBN allowed him to view an early draft of the pilot. Vischer was encouraged by the fact that the early draft of the pilot reflected the heart of the classic episodes from the original series, instead of VeggieTales in the House and VeggieTales in the City. NBCUniversal and TBN then allowed Vischer to rewrite the pilot. Before long, he and Nawrocki signed on as head-writers, executive producers, and voice actors for the reboot. Although "VeggieTales in the House" was critically successful and was nominated for several Emmy Awards, fans of  the original series - most notably, YouTubers like Say Goodnight Kevin, Christian Nutrition and LarryBoy Fanatic - were disappointed by the entire "Netflix series", and a majority of the fans were disgusted and unsatisfied with the redesigns of the characters. On social media, fans complained that their favorite characters were given completely different personalities, the theological teachings were shallow, and the series as a whole was too babyish compared to the original series. With this being said, the viewership of "VeggieTales in the House" on Netflix was significantly lower than the viewership of the original series. As a result, Vischer and Nawrocki  made "The VeggieTales Show" feel much like the original series as possible, bringing back the original character designs and many members of the creative team from the original series including Big Idea Entertainment's original music director, Kurt Heinecke, and lead storyboard artists/director, Tod Carter. Lisa Vischer, the original voice of Junior Asparagus, also returned from a five-year hiatus to reprise the role. After a few years away from "VeggieTales", Vischer revealed some of his regrets of the original series. According to Vischer, he spent years making "VeggieTales" "persuade kids to behave Christianly without teaching them Christianity". With  this being said, Vischer has made "The VeggieTales Show" go more theologically in-depth than the previous few series (from the "Netflix era"). It teaches the tenets of Christianity rather than just teaching children to behave morally. Vischer also wouldn't be returning as the voice of Mr. Nezzer as it was announced in late September 2019 that David Mann of Tyler Perry fame would take over the role, though Vischer later filled in as the voice of the character in select episodes. Due to the high number of iTunes digital downloads for the pilot, “The Best Christmas Gift”, as  well as the large number of DVD's sold in the first two weeks of its release, TBN ordered an additional eight episodes for Season One on November 1, 2019, bringing the total number of episodes to 26. Distribution. In 2019, Yippee TV became the exclusive streaming service of "The VeggieTales Show", with the plan of releasing episodes monthly and through 2022. The Christmas special premiered on TBN On Christmas Day of 2019. The rest of the series did not begin to broadcast on TBN until January 2022 on Saturday mornings. In February 2022, Big Idea and NBCUniversal partnered with  Minno, a Christian kids streaming platform, to stream the series. Select episodes have been released on DVD, including the pilot episode "The Best Christmas Gift" in 2019 and three episodes within the "Fruit of the Spirit Stories Vol. 1" in 2021. Setting. The show takes place in a theater that is owned by Mr. Nezzer. The VeggieTales characters perform on a broadway-style stage. There are other veggies watching the show from the seats in the auditorium and balconies. There is also a backstage area in which the VeggieTales characters plan and practice the shows. It is inspired by the  setting of "The Muppet Show", with similarities in visual and conceptual design to the Muppet Theater and its backstage area. Episodes. Christmas Special (2019). It was released on iTunes on October 15, 2019, on DVD a week later on October 22, and later premiered on TBN on Christmas Day of 2019. The first episode of "The VeggieTales Show" (originally planned as the second episode for the show) is a Christmas special called "The Best Christmas Gift". It features the characters putting on a Christmas show, and as they struggle to know what the show should be about, they find out  the true meaning of Christmas. Bob and Larry and the rest of the VeggieTales crew are putting on a Christmas show in Mr. Nezzer's theater, but when they have trouble putting on the show, Bob begins to wonder how to celebrate Christmas when everything is going wrong. It's Pa Grape's idea to go back to the very first Christmas. It's through the eyes of a junior shepherd they all learn what the promise of Christmas is.