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Lyrick Studios

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Lyrick Studios, Inc.,established in 1988 as The Lyons Group, was an American video production and distribution company based in Allen, Texas, a Dallas suburb. They were known for producing and distributing shows like Barney & Friends and Wishbone, as well as videos and albums from two music artists, Joe Scruggs and The Wiggles, They also had book rights to Humongous Entertainment characters like Putt-Putt, Freddi Fish, and Pajama Sam. They paired with Big Idea for mass market distribution of prints and reprints of VeggieTales home videos from 1997 to 2001, as well as rights to VeggieTales plush toys.

According to Phil Vischer, he chose the company to release the videos since Lyrick Studios' founder and former chairman Richard C. Leach was a committed Christian, and the company let the religious tones on the shows remain intact, unlike other distributors that Big Idea had asked beforehand. The company was acquired by HiT Entertainment on February 9, 2001, shortly before Richard C. Leach died.

In June 2002, Big Idea turned to Warner Home Video to serve as their new mass market distributor; HiT responded to this by filing a lawsuit against them for $11 million, which was one of the major causes of Big Idea's 2003 bankruptcy.

Releases

All re-releases were mass market reprints of videos previously released exclusively to Christian retailers

Albums

Specials/Compilations

Fun Facts

Trivia

  • The 1997 reprint of Are You My Neighbor?, using the original 1995 version of the episode and with only the Interpol FBI warning screens at the beginning of the tape, was presumably a test to see if the VeggieTales videos were "acceptable" for a mass market release.
    • This is the only VeggieTales Lyrick Studios VHS not to have the Lyrick Studios logo anywhere on the VHS box cover nor at the beginning or end of the video, other than on the cassette ink label. However, there are some very scarce copies with the 1997 Lyrick Studios logo at the beginning and end of the tape.
  • Starting with Lyle the Kindly Viking, their logo is no longer seen on the DVD. Instead, it is still present on the back cover and disc label.
  • The Lyrick promos for Where's God When I'm S-Scared? and Are You My Neighbor? were narrated by Earl Fisher. A year later, Earl would begin to provide the voice for Pasqually from Chuck E. Cheese which began their tie-ins with Big Idea on the very show where he debuted as Pasqually (Dance Party from April 1999). Starting with the Lyrick promos for Rack, Shack and Benny and Dave and the Giant Pickle, Gail Freeman-Bock takes over with the trailer narrations.

Remarks

  • Although the Lyrick reprints of Josh and the Big Wall! and Very Silly Songs! used a custom Stay Tuned bumper, certain other reprints instead used Lyrick's bumper. While this was technically alright, the latter bumper tells viewers to stay tuned for "previews of other Lyrick™ Studios Home Videos," despite the fact that it was Big Idea's properties Lyrick was merely promoting and distributing.

Logo Evolution

Regular

Variants

External link

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