VeggieTales Christmas Spectacular!

VeggieTales Christmas Spectacular!
Music by	Kurt Heinecke
Released	December 19, 1998
Runtime	46 minutes

VeggieTales Christmas Spectacular! was a VeggieTales television special. It originally aired on Ion Television (formerly Pax TV) in 1998, 1999, and 2000.

Plot

The special took place on a big stage where the Veggies have ostensibly booked time with a major network to air a special film as part for the VeggieTales Christmas Spectacular! However, one big problem becomes almost immediately clear - Larry the Cucumber can't find the film. Given this discouraging news, the Veggies attempt to fill the time with a variety of musical performances.

First up is Junior Asparagus who is being uplinked by satellite live from the Holy Lands. He sings the song "While By My Sheep" surrounded by a flock of sheep that bleat along with the melody. When the satellite uplink is lost, the Veggies continue to scramble while Pa Grape attempts to buy time with the network, which is threatening to pull the plug on the production.

Next up is "Silly Songs With Larry" where Larry sings "Oh Santa".

The third musical number features Archibald Asparagus singing a German folk song, "Ring, Little Bells", while ringing some bells. Larry joins in, but as the song ends the Veggies learn that the network is about to pull the plug. Fortunately, the film reel is found by Jimmy and the feature The Toy That Saved Christmas is shown.

As Bob and Larry begin to wrap up, they get news from Pa Grape that the network loves the film. While Bob and Larry are initially excited, it's eventually revealed that the network wasn't watching the right channel, and that they missed the entire show. While initially disappointed, Bob and Larry still wish the people watching a Merry Christmas!

Characters

• Bob the Tomato
• Larry the Cucumber
• Junior Asparagus
• Archibald Asparagus
• Pa Grape
• Jimmy and Jerry Gourd
• Sheep
• Mr. Nezzer (voice only)

Production

Around 1998, Phil Vischer began talking with PAX TV about the possibility of taking over their Saturday morning block, with Bob and Larry introducing each show alongside VeggieTales. Although initially interested, they decided to give them an hour-long prime time Christmas special instead.

This posed a problem, since their only Christmas special at the time was only a half-hour long. They eventually decided to include the VeggieTales Theme Song and Junior's satellite uplink from the 1997 Young Messiah tour to fill up time. However, this meant they still had to create around 14 minutes worth of brand new animation to introduce/conclude the special, which they began making shortly after The End of Silliness? finished production.

Because of this unexpected project, production on Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed was delayed for a few weeks.

Fun Facts

Trivia

• This is the final VeggieTales-related project to have Bob, Jerry Gourd, Grandpa George, and Pa Grape animated in Softimage.
• This is included on the DVD releases of The Toy That Saved Christmas and both the VHS and DVD releases of Holiday Double Feature.
• This is the first Big Idea production that Marc Vulcano worked on.
• The clips that were included in the introduction for each of the character were:
  • Bob (Madame Blueberry)
  • Larry (His Cheeseburger)
  • Junior (Dave & the Giant Pickle)
  • Jimmy and Jerry (Josh & the Big Wall)
  • The French Peas (Josh & the Big Wall)
  • Archibald (The End of Silliness?)
  • Pa Grape (The Yodeling Veteranarian of the Alps )
  • Laura (Larry-Boy! & the Fib from Outer Space!)
  • The Peach (Oh Santa!)
  • Mr. Nezzer (Rack, Shack & Benny)
• According to an online post dating back to 1997, about one year prior to the release of this special, British television channel ITV had set to broadcast a special titled "A VeggieTales Christmas", which may or may not have been the working title for this special. It is unknown whether it did air on that channel.

Remarks

• The intro states that the French Peas are in the special, but they never appear in any of the segments.
  • On a similar note, Mr. Lunt is strangely absent, despite the fact he was involved with the main story.
• The credits were missing during the original airings and on the DVD releases of The Toy That Saved Christmas. However, Holiday Double Feature has the special with the credits.
• Despite the network saying they'll change the program in five minutes, they never actually did. When taking into account that they were watching the wrong channel the entire time, it's possible they changed the program on said channel.
• The scream that Bob lets out when Larry states that he can't find the film subliminaly says "yeah".
  • The same scream clip is also played after when Pa Grape asks why isn't the film being played in response.
• This is the first time VeggieTales was on TV. However, it is just a special and not the actual show. The actual show will be seen eight years later on TV when Qubo launched.
• Laura Carrot’s name is mistakenly mentioned as Laura The Carrot.

Goofs

• On the DVD release of The Toy That Saved Christmas, Bob's line "This is network television" is glitched. This was not the case for said DVD's "The Toy That Changed a Company" bonus feature and when the special was re-released as part of the Holiday Double Feature.
• When Pa turns in some shots, you can see a bit of the special's logo on the side of his hat.

Real-World References

• Vanna White is the hostess of Wheel of Fortune.
• Bonanza was a Western-themed television series that ran from 1959 to 1973
• In the end, it turns out the network saw the classic Christmas special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, based on the carol of the same name, instead of this show.

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