Taking Care of the Earth

Taking Care of the Earth
Music Composer(s)	Kurt Heinecke
Released	November 17, 2023
Runtime	25 minutes and 35 seconds
Previous	Making Right Choices
Next	Hospitality

Taking Care of the Earth is the eighteenth episode of Very Veggie Silly Stories which teaches a lesson in taking care of the Earth.

Plot

Larry is all about reusing and recycling things that he finds. Bob notices and he decides it's a great topic for the podcast. Together Bob and Larry learn that in taking care of the earth are taking care of each other by making the world a place that is safe and healthy for all.

Characters

• Bob the Tomato
• Larry the Cucumber
• Petunia Rhubarb
• Mr. Lunt
• Dr. Flurry
• The French Peas
• Junior Asparagus
• Laura Carrot
• Jimmy and Jerry Gourd (song only)
• Pa Grape (mentioned and song only)
• Mom Carrot (mentioned)
• Dad Carrot (mentioned)

Real-Life Kid

• Emma (from Bellingham, Washington)

Mr. Lunt's Animal Friends

• Lemurs (from Tanzania)
• Herbert the Rhino (from Tanzania)
• Ostrich (from Tanzania)

Surprise Special Guest

• Alice Gordon (from Fresno, California)

Songs

• VeggieTales Theme Song (short version)
• Pants (from Sweetpea Beauty)

Sponsor

• Raccoon Headware Hats

Fun Facts

Trivia

• This is the first episode of a few things:
  • The first episode to not teach a moral-based lesson.
  • The first episode to have the surprise special guest appear before the kid caller.
  • The first episode to have the sponsor acknowledged after its commercial.
  • The first episode to feature Mr. Lunt talking to more than one animal since Faithful Friends and the first time since that episode in which some of them are not named.
    • This is also the first episode in which he translates animals in the same location as he did in another episode.
  • The first episode to feature Dr. Flurry since Faithful Friends and the first episode of Season 2 to feature him (not counting a mention in the previous episode).
  • The first episode to feature a real-life kid caller with the same name as another kid caller from another episode (see Inside References).
  • The first episode to mention Laura's parents since A Thankful Heart Is a Happy Heart.
  • The first episode to feature text messaging since Celery Night Fever.
  • The first episode where the surprise special guest's location is fully acknowledged (not counting Everyday Kindness). In this case, Alice Gordon is stated to come from Fresno, California.
  • The first non-Christmas episode to mention Christmas since Samson's Bad Hair Day.
  • The first episode of Very Veggie Silly Stories to mention a holiday (specifically Christmas).
  • The first episode to feature Pa Grape in some form since Dealing with Change, although he is only mentioned by Laura and featured in this episode’s song. This is also the first time he is acknowledged outside of a song since Forgiveness.
    • This is also the only episode of the second season to feature him in some form.
• This episode was released exactly 68 years after Mino Caprio (Pa Grape's voice actor in the Italian dub of both theatrical films) was born.

Remarks

• Pants omits the Silly Song Announcer's opening line and ends before the final part of the song, when Jimmy says "You've got some skinny legs.", followed by the final "Pants!" chorus.

Goofs

• Both descriptions of this episode each have at least one mistake in them.
  • In the shorter description, the word "together" is missing the first "t".
  • The longer description does not have the word "they" in-between the phrases "taking care of the earth" and "are taking care of each other".

Inside References

• Larry panicking over the thought of being stuck in the wastebasket forever is similar to when he panicked about being stuck in the kitchen sink in Rack, Shack and Benny.
• Emma has the same name as the real-life kid caller from the very first podcast episode, as well as another kid who wrote a letter to Bob and Larry in The Good Shepherd.
  • This makes her the first kid caller in the podcast to share her name with another kid caller (see Trivia).
• Alice Gordon, this episode's surprise special guest, shares her first name with both the computer and the kid caller from Dealing with Change. One of Emma's friends is also named Alice.
  • Alice Gordon also shares her last name with two kids from whom Bob and Larry received different messages in Duke and the Great Pie War and Veggies in Space: The Fennel Frontier, respectively.
• One of Emma's friends is named Trevor, which is also the name of Jason Conrad's best friend.
• Mr. Lunt does his animal translations in Tanzania, which is also where he called in with his laughing hyena friends in another episode.
• Before Pants plays, Larry references the lyrics to the song's chorus by stating that pants are "pants if you're short and shorts if you're tall."
• Junior and Laura being the final guests of this episode, as well as Bob saying "And now, it's time for our Silly Song", are both callbacks to Everyday Kindness.