Happy 30th anniversary, VeggieTales!

Back in 1993, Mike Nawrocki and Phil Vischer wanted to use Saturday Morning Programming to teach small children Bible Lessons. But how? Using vegetables, of course! After all, they were really practical to animate, and remember, this was the early days of computer-animation, before even Pixar! (Did I mention that neither Mike nor Phil were even 30 yet when they launched the series?) Needless to say, it had a great impact on my childhood, as a young millennial girl with a big imagination that rivaled the series itself!

Shortly after my 10th birthday, my dear mother got me "Sheerluck Holmes and the Golden Ruler." Now, my mother, bless her heart, raised me on educational television, figuring that if I was going to be looking at a screen, I might as well have been learning from that screen. Thus, most of the shows and computer games I watched either taught something (Jumpstart, various PBS shows) or, in the case of VeggieTales, taught me how to be a good person. And boy, did it do so in a fun way!

The episode, which spoofed Sherlock Holmes, taught about the Golden Rule: treat people the way you want to be treated- basically, Larry-as-Sheerluck wouldn't stop taking credit for what the both of them did, which led to Bob-as-Watson deserting him. And really, isn't that the "Golden Rule" of Christianity? I must admit, I had problems with being good back then, and having favorite characters teach morals like this was good for me and my morale.

But it wasn't the morals that got me interested in the show- at least, not just the morals. The show took old stories from the Bible, and basically, created their own version of them. As an aspiring writer, I was also fascinated with how they took old stories and put things like slushies and rocket launchers! It didn't even fathom me that my interest in the series clashed with my Jewish faith- after all, most of the Bible stories (Esther, Moses) they did were technically Jewish stories anyway.

Of course, they'd occassionally throw in a movie or television spoof- "LarryBoy" of course, was clearly a homage to the iconic Batman films of the 90's. Interestingly enough, the reason most of their stories were from the Old Testament, or from pop culture in general, is because Phil Vischer's mom pointed out that portraying Jesus as a vegetable was basically blasphemy. That being said, they occasionally did New Testament stories not involving Jesus, like the story of Daniel in the Lion's Den.

The show had an amazing sense of humor as well. For starters, their spoof of "Hamlet" was called "Omelette," about a young man (er, gourd) conflicted on whether or not to share his eggs with the kingdom. And who could possibly forget turning the story of Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (and eventually, the story of Moses) and making it a western? Just because Bob and Larry couldn't decide between a Western and a Bible Story? Small wonder I got hooked from day one.

So hooked in fact, that whenever I went to the grocery store, I always asked for vegetables- even though for all I knew, I could have been eating Bob and/or Larry's family. Of course, sometimes I would fixate too much on the show, to the point where my dear mother got excited when I was watching something that wasn't VeggieTales.

This interest in storytelling eventually inspired an interest in me, an autistic girl disconnected from the world, of storytelling. I got more interested in my studies at Sunday School thanks to the series, realizing that the world is all made up of stories, just waiting to be told and adapted. I also got interested in telling my own stories as well, as even conceived of a few ideas for or inspired by the franchise, such as a Josh and the Big Wall! spoof that used a school playground as the conflicting ground. (Basically, the kids want to get across the other side of the playground, but bullies are standing in their way.)

At the end of the day, whether it was a good book, a fun film, or even just a Bible story starring talking vegetables, the world is just waiting for us to share our stories. The original Bible stories, after all, were created out of religion and to create explanations for natural phenomena. And I really can't thank Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki for sharing these amazing stories with me, and for thousands of millennial kids out there, Christian or otherwise. Here's to another 30 years of stories from talking vegetables.