Title card.
VeggieTales on TV is the TV version of VeggieTales. It has been said that it was the first time VeggieTales has been on air, despite the VeggieTales Christmas Spectacular airing in 1998 and The Star of Christmas in 2002.
This version ran from 2006 to 2009. This version aired on NBC's Qubo block. It also aired on Ion, and a Spanish dub aired on Telemundo. In parts of the country that are military bases as well as several overseas territories owned by the United States, AFN Family aired the show on Sunday mornings until 2011, alongside fellow qubo show Jane and the Dragon. In 2015, the show began airing on Cozi TV and in syndication.
Plot
Unlike the VHS and DVD series, the TV series takes place at Bob's house and not the Countertop. Like the videos and DVDs, Larry and Bob get letters, but they're given by Jimmy (as a mailman). Before the actual episode is played, sometimes another character attempts to help, like Archibald and his Big Book of Oddities, Pa Grape and one of his home movies, and Paco the Storytelling Mule (really played by Mr. Lunt). The things they do don't help with the problem and don't even make sense. After this, Larry or Bob cues the actual story.
After the show, Bob explains what to do to solve the problem. Then the episode ends with him thanking the kids for coming over to his house or that the cast will see them again next week.
The What Have We Learned song doesn't appear, nor does the bible verse from Qwerty.
Sometimes a silly song or another short will appear in the middle of the show, depending on the time.
Controversy
The main controversy of this show was when NBC removed all references to God, at the request of the NBC network's standards and practices department. However, Bible story retellings were aired. Most fans and slightly Phil Vischer (the creator of the original VeggieTales and voice of Bob) were angry about this. The "God made you special, and he loves you very much." quote at the end of the episodes were changed to "Thanks for coming to my house." However, the original quote was still available on closed captions and even the lip syncing wasn't changed. Because of this, the show was eventually removed from Qubo's schedule in September 2009, along with LarryBoy: The Cartoon Adventures and LarryBoy and the Bad Apple. 3-2-1 Penguins!, however, stayed on Qubo until 2014. The original series began airing in 2012 onwards on TBN's Smile of a Child block, while this show re-aired in 2016 on Cozi and in syndication, though.
Episodes
NOTE: The airdates are guessed, as the original ones are unknown.
Season 1
- 1: The Asparagus of LaMancha (September 9, 2006)
- 2: Sheerluck Holmes and the Golden Ruler (September 16, 2006)
- 3: Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Samson's Hairbrush (September 23, 2006)
- 4: The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill (and Came Down with All the Bananas) and Lyle the Kindly Viking (September 30, 2006)
- 5: Dr. Jiggle and Mr. Sly (October 7, 2006)
- 6: Going Up! and Bully Trouble (October 14, 2006)
- 7: Sumo of the Opera (October 21, 2006)
- 8: Babysitter in De-Nile and The Story of Flibber-o-loo (October 28, 2006)
- 9: Duke and the Great Pie War (November 4, 2006)
- 10: King George and the Ducky (November 11, 2006)
- 11: Madame Blueberry (November 18, 2006)
- 12: A Snoodle's Tale (November 25, 2006)
- 13: Dave and the Giant Pickle (December 2, 2006)
Season 2
- 14: The Ballad of Little Joe (October 6, 2007)
- 15: Rack, Shack, and Benny (October 20, 2007)
- 16: Larry-Boy! and the Fib from Outer Space! (November 3, 2007)
- 17: Esther... The Girl Who Became Queen (December 8, 2007)
- 18: The Toy That Saved Christmas (December 15, 2007)
- 19: Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed (December 29, 2007)
Season 3 (Unaired on Qubo. Aired Exclusively on the Gospel Music Channel)
- 20: Gideon: Tuba Warrior (February 9, 2008; Only episode aired on Qubo, September 6, 2008)
- 21: The Gourds Must Be Crazy (February 16, 2008)
- 22/23: Moe and the Big Exit (February 23, 2008/March 1, 2008)
- 24: Josh and the Big Wall! (March 8, 2008)
- 25/26: An Easter Carol (March 15, 2008/March 22, 2008)
Trivia
- Some episodes of the show were released on DVD in Mexico.
- In 2020, a multitude of VeggieTales content was released to those with an IMDb TV subscription, or on Amazon Prime Video free to watch with ads. This included select TV episodes, available in an on demand form for the first time in the United States: Asparagus of LaMancha, Dr. Jiggle and Mr. Sly, Bully Trouble and Babysitter in DeNile. The Gourds Must Be Crazy is also listed, however in actuality is a duplicate of Bully Trouble. These specific episodes were likely selected as they had unique titles, all other TV episodes would be confused with (and be redundant with) their home video counterparts which are available through IMDb TV/Amazon.
- At some point in 2016/2017, it was rumored that Bob's Vacation was made as a TV episode. Later on, this was confirmed to be false.
- The 7 characters in the opening are the only 7 used in the Bob's House segments, and only 3 voice actors between them needed to record new lines for the series: Phil Vischer as Bob the Tomato, Archibald Asparagus, Jimmy Gourd, Mr. Lunt and Pa Grape, Mike Nawrocki as Larry the Cucumber, and Lisa Vischer as Junior the Asparagus.
- Dr. Jiggle and Mr. Sly is the only time Junior visits Bob's house. He returned a music video of the French Peas' The Wonderful World of Auto-Tainment! song There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea, which Bob told him to play because the episode was 3 minutes short.
- Some stories are too long and need to have parts edited out to fit a 23-minute programming block with commercials. One of the most infamous examples is Esther... The Girl Who Became Queen, which got shortened from 36 minutes to 18 minutes, and cuts out a lot of vital story elements, like the introduction of Esther and Mordecai before Haman arrives, random parts of Haman's Song, a 6 minute-portion of Esther singing Tell Me Why and The Battle Is Not Ours a second time, plus Esther's first invite to dinner with Xerxes, and both scenes of The Grim Tickler. Another one is The Toy That Saved Christmas, which needed to delete portions of Bob, Larry, Junior and Buzz-Saw-Louie sneaking into the TV studio of Wally P. Nezzer's toy factory, and cut out the whole 4-minute climax of Wally P. Nezzer and the penguins sledding after Bob, Larry, Junior and Buzz-Saw-Louie to rescue them from the broken Puggslyville bridge.
- Even though the new segments of the TV series are hosted in Bob's House, the scenes on the countertop from the original videos that appear during the main stories of Dave and the Giant Pickle, Lyle the Kindly Viking and A Snoodle's Tale were kept intact in TV broadcasts.
- Paco the Storytelling Mule would later appear in Lessons from the Sock Drawer.
- The segments with Pa Grape, Archibald, and Paco are featured as bonus clips in Lessons from the Sock Drawer.
Gallery
