Vegetable Soup (TV series)

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Vegetable Soup
Genre Children's television series
Written byYanna Kroyt Brandt
Terence Taylor
John L. Figueroa
Carolyn Miller
Jesús Papoleto Meléndez
Brumsic Brandon, Jr.
Lou Potter
Joan Griffiths
Lucille Clifton
Directed by George Bowers
Luis Soto
Al Brodax
Douglas Cheek
Frank S. Abbott
Ivan Cury
StarringGordon Smith
Carla Pinza
Gary Goodrow
Kingman Hui
Voices of James Earl Jones
Bette Midler
Opening themeVegetable Soup
ComposerBob Sakayama
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes78
Production
Executive producerYanna Kroyt Brandt
ProducersYanna Kroyt Brandt
Al Brodax
George Bowers
William Hetzer
EditorsPaul Evans
Joe Staton
Running time30 mins
Production company New York State Education Department, Bureau of Mass Communications
Original release
ReleaseSeptember 22, 1975 (1975-09-22) 
December 14, 1978 (1978-12-14)

Vegetable Soup is an American educational children's television program produced by the New York State Education Department that originally ran on PBS from September 22, 1975, to December 14, 1978. [1] NBC concurrently broadcast the series on Sunday mornings, with at least some affiliates showing it along with NBC's regular Saturday morning cartoon lineup; this was a rare instance of a television program seen on both commercial and public television at the same time. [2]

Contents

All 78 episodes of Vegetable Soup were digitized by the New York State Archives and made available online in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting. [3] Episodes are made up of a mix of live action, cartoon, puppetry, and mixed-media segments.

Concept

The purpose of the program was to be a television series for children to help counter the negative, destructive effects of racial prejudice and racial isolation and to reinforce and dramatize the positive, life-enhancing value of human diversity in entertaining and affective presentations that children could understand and relate to. Vegetable Soup used an interdisciplinary approach to entertain and educate elementary age children in the value of human diversity. [4]

The show combined music, animation, puppetry and live action film, on the subject of economic, racial and ethnic diversity. [5]

Regular segments

Characters

Animations

Animated segments on the show were created by Jim Simon's Wantu Studios, the musical opening plus 13 Woody the Spoon cooking spots for which Bette Midler did all the voice tracks, and also 48 thirty-second breaks. [6]

Beginning in the show's second season, many animated segments were also produced by Colossal Pictures, of which Vegetable Soup was one of its first assignments. Animators Drew Takahashi and Gary Gutierrez worked on Vegetable Soup during its first season, prior to Colossal Pictures' founding.

See also

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References

  1. Hyatt, Wesley (1997). The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television. Watson-Guptill Publications. p. 452. ISBN   978-0823083152 . Retrieved March 22, 2020.
  2. Dionne Jr., E. J. (September 22, 1977). "'Vegetable Soup' Bubbling for 2d Antibigotry TV Series". The New York Times. Retrieved July 18, 2018.
  3. "Vegetable Soup Collection". americanarchive.org. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  4. "ERIC - Vegetable Soup: Parent-Teacher Guide., 1975". Eric.ed.gov. Retrieved July 7, 2016.
  5. Woolery, George W. (1985). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part II: Live, Film, and Tape Series. The Scarecrow Press. pp. 533–534. ISBN   0-8108-1651-2.
  6. "Michael Sporn Animation – Splog » Jim Simon – 1975". Michaelspornanimation.com. Retrieved July 7, 2016.