Christianity: Too Risky for TV
By Simisola Komolafe, 10.11.06

The humble beginnings of popular cartoon " VeggieTales" involved talking tomatoes crossed with classic Bible stories.

Recently, the popular Judeo-Christian cartoon made its television debut on NBC : without any mention of God.

“Veggie Tales was initially very good and Bible based, but recent tapes are more entertaining and of less value for Christian instruction,” said Ashley Harrell, director of Rock Christian Day School in Virginia Beach.

Harrell is disappointed to see the focus on biblical stories disappear. Instead of Jonah and the whale, newer episodes are about universal values.

“If they change the message, it’s no better than regular cartoons like Sesame Street and Winnie the Pooh,” Harrel said.

Removing the Christian message from Veggie Tales upset Heather Hobden, a mother of a two young children.

“It makes me angry,” Hobden said. “To me that was the whole point of having Veggie Tales. I feel like they compromised. They should have just walked away.”

In actuality, the creators of “VeggieTales” were forced to walk away from the company in 2003 when Big Idea went bankrupt. Classic Media, a secular media company, bought “VeggieTales” out of bankruptcy and created a new team to make more “VeggieTales” videos.

Creator of the cartoon series, Paul Visher, released a statement on his website reflecting his thoughts about the controversy.

“Ever since buying “VeggieTales”, Classic Media has been looking for a way to get the shows on television, to increase awareness and, ultimately, sell more videos. Classic approached me and asked if I could help reshape the shows for NBC. ”

Vischer was hired to reshape the show for NBC and admits NBC demanded the removal of the ending line "God made you special and he loves you very much,” because it was too Christian.

“Four days before the first three episodes were due to be delivered to NBC, we got an email from NBC's standards and practices department with a list of lines that needed to be removed from one of those shows,” Vischer wrote on his website.  “It became perfectly clear: NBC didn't want a religious children's show.  They wanted a values-based children's show.”

Although Vischer is disappointed that Biblical messages have been removed from Veggie Tales, he still has hope that good will come out of it all.

“For now, we're hoping a new cross section of kids will fall in love with Bob & Larry, go deeper into VeggieTales and eventually fall in love with the God who made them.” Vischer said.

In light of the controversy, executive producer of M2 Pictures Mike Sinclair shared his thoughts about networks airing faith based programs.

“I think networks are open to well meaning shows that will garner an audience,” Sinclair said. “It is all about the numbers for executives. After six months if you don’t rate, you die.”

Sinclair was not surprised to hear NBC removed the Christian content from “VeggieTales.

“The creators of Veggie Tales didn’t have the money so they lost creative control,” Sinclair said.

Classic Media had the rights to "VeggieTales" characters and partnered with NBC to create a Saturday morning show.

“I'ts their money, their rules. They are not Christian people so we shouldn’t expect them to think like Christian people,” Sinclair said.