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, 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 Big Idea had asked beforehand. The company was acquired by HiT Entertainment on February 9, 2001, shortly before Richard C. Leach died.
In 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
- Where's God When I'm S-Scared? (March 31st, 1998/March 28th, 2000)
- God Wants Me to Forgive Them!?! (February 9th, 1999/March 28th, 2000)
- Are You My Neighbor? (December 16th, 1997/March 31st, 1998/March 28th, 2000)
- Rack, Shack and Benny (August 25th, 1998/March 28th, 2000)
- Dave and the Giant Pickle (August 25th, 1998/March 28th, 2000)
- The Toy That Saved Christmas (October 6th, 1998/October 5th, 1999/October 3rd, 2000)
- Very Silly Songs! (June 8th, 1999/January 11th, 2000)
- Larry-Boy! and the Fib from Outer Space! (February 9th, 1999/January 11th, 2000)
- Josh and the Big Wall! (June 8th, 1999/January 11th, 2000)
- Madame Blueberry (October 5th, 1999)
- The End of Silliness? (May 23rd, 2000)
- Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed (March 28th, 2000)
- King George and the Ducky (August 8th, 2000)
- Esther... The Girl Who Became Queen (January 9th, 2001)
- Lyle the Kindly Viking (March 27th, 2001)
Albums
- VeggieTunes (1998 reissue)
- A Very Veggie Christmas (1998 reissue)
- VeggieTunes 2
- Larry-Boy: The Soundtrack
- A Queen, a King, and a Very Blue Berry
Compilations/Triple Features
- Bob and Larry's Favorite Stories!
- More of Bob and Larry's Favorite Stories!
- Junior's Favorite Stories
- Larry's Favorite Stories!
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.
- The 1998 release of Bob and Larry's Favorite Stories! contains trailers for Where's God When I'm S-Scared? and Are You My Neighbor?
- The 1999 reprints of Very Silly Songs! and Josh and the Big Wall! contains a trailer for the 1999 reprint of Madame Blueberry.
- The 1999 reprints of Where's God When I'm S-Scared?, The Toy That Saved Christmas, and Madame Blueberry contains the trailer for Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed.
- The 2000 reprint of The End of Silliness? contains a trailer for King George and the Ducky.
- The 2000 VHS of King George and the Ducky and The Toy That Saved Christmas contains the teaser for Esther... The Girl Who Became Queen.
- The 2001 reprint of Esther... The Girl Who Became Queen contains a teaser for Lyle the Kindly Viking and a message from Phil Vischer.
- The 2001 VHS and DVD of Lyle the Kindly Viking contains one of the teasers for Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie.
- Five VeggieTales tapes have the text "Distributed by" in white font on a black background before the Lyrick Studios logo. The first two have the 1997 "Distributed by" Lyrick logo, and in 1999, these were both averted by using the 1998 Lyrick Studios logo with "Distributed by" above the logo and later a still version of said variant.
- 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's which began their tie-ins with Big Idea on the very show where he debuted as Pasqually (Dance Party from April 1999).
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 it was Big Idea's properties Lyrick was merely promoting and distributing.
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