Take 38 (found VeggieTales promotional short; 1992)
VeggieTales is a Christian computer-animated direct-to-video children's series. In early 1992, Phil Vischer (co-creator of VeggieTales and founder of Big Idea) made a promo called "VeggieTales Screen Test Take 38" (also known simply as "Take 38) to present to several Christian publishers in hopes of selling the series to acquire the funds for production of further episodes.
The piece starts out with Bob the Tomato in his first appearance giving what Phil describes as a “Martin Luther King Jr.-type 'I have a dream' speech” about the show. Meanwhile, Larry the Cucumber (voiced here for the very first time by VeggieTales co-creator Mike Nawrocki with a voice eerily similar to Scallion #2, Jerry Gourd, or Jean Claude Pea, more characters that he would voice) is looking for his blue plastic wind-up lobster. The music in the background during Bob's speech is “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” as hummed by Phil & Mike. The background music was originally not a part of the short, but was added by Phil to show the publishers that they could handle music.
The promo ends with the first appearances of Archibald Asparagus (at this point simply an unnamed snotty British asparagus that Phil had based off of John Cleese of Monty Python fame) and his wife (who later became Mom Asparagus while Archibald would be given another wife rumored to be named Lovey Asparagus). Archibald comments on how he thinks the idea of VeggieTales is absurd, as he believes vegetables are only meant to be cooked and not put on television. His wife however mentions that she kind of likes the idea. She also corrects him when he refers to Larry as a pickle instead of a cucumber, which later became a running gag in the series.
As of 2014, the only known commercial release of this promo was on the VHS of the very first VeggieTales episode Where’s God When I’m S-Scared? (made and released a year after Take 38) when it was reissued in February 2004 as a part of the VeggieTales Classic collection. A DVD version of the show was also released at the same time. On June 9, 2014 Jon Lopez (known on YouTube as JonMastu .Productions) confirmed on deviantART that the promo could not be accessed on any copy of the DVD from 2004 through early 2008 (this version was discontinued in mid-2008 when the 15th anniversary collector's edition was released) making it a VHS exclusive.[1] The 2004 VHS of Where's God When I'm S-Scared? went out of print in mid-2006, along with the rest of the VeggieTales shows on VHS due to all shows starting with Larry-Boy and the Bad Apple being DVD only. It can still be purchased on such sites as Amazon and occasionally shows up on eBay for relativity cheap and acceptable prices. The promo was finally uploaded to YouTube for the first time on May 30, 2014 by Nathan Buede. On July 4, 2014, a VHSrip of Take 38 was uploaded by YouTube user olivermuffinsailor. Also if you watch most of the VeggieTales videos, a character will say something with the number 38 in it, this is a reference to Take 38.
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