Picture: Big Idea Entertainment, LLC
VeggieTales was amongst the first wave of shows to come through Netflix’s foray into children’s programming, with VeggieTales in the House being the second-ever Netflix Original animated kids series. In recent years, the shows have been departing Netflix; here’s why.
As a bit of background, VeggieTales wasn’t brand new when it first came to Netflix. The long-running series that began in the early 1990s is an American Christian animated series created by Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki. The series features anthropomorphic vegetables telling moral (and often biblical-inspired stories) in a light-hearted and humorous way.
The characters often tackle important life lessons and values, making the content both entertaining and educational for children.
Vischer and Nawrocki weren’t involved in the Netflix productions beyond providing voices.
Two exclusive shows were produced for Netflix in total (Netflix also licensed some of the earlier shows in the US in the early 2010s) with those being VeggieTales in the House and the follow-up VeggieTales in the City. Both are now starting to leave Netflix around the globe, however.
VeggieTales in the House was removed from Netflix in 2022
First added to Netflix in 2014 (just under a year after Netflix’s first kids’ animated series, Turbo FAST, which has also left the service), we got four seasons of VeggieTales in the House through to 2016.
However, exactly six years after the final season was added, every season departed Netflix in most regions like the United States on September 23rd, 2022.
Although the series departed in most major Netflix regions, Unogs reports the original series remains on around 19 Netflix countries, including India and other Asian territories, Israel, South Africa, and some European countries.
VeggieTales in the City is leaving Netflix in September 2023
Two seasons of VeggieTales in the City were released the following year after VeggieTales in the House was added to Netflix.
26 episodes were released in total, with the final batch dropping on September 16th, 2017. Now, just like the aforementioned title, six years is coming up, and its removal is now planned for September 16th, 2023, with your last day to watch being September 15th.
Removal date for VeggieTales in the City on Netflix
Please note if you’re wanting to watch this series before it departs, you’ll need a premium Netflix tier, as it’s one of the few Netflix Originals unavailable on Netflix’s advertising tier.
Clips of the series remain on Netflix’s Junior YouTube channel at the time of publishing but may go down following the main shows removal from Netflix.
Why is VeggieTales leaving Netflix?
As we’ve covered before, just because something is a Netflix Original doesn’t mean Netflix has the rights to a title in perpetuity.
In this case, the two series were produced and released exclusively by Netflix for a fixed period of time, and now the rights head back to the actual owners.
Of course, Netflix could choose to renew these titles, but it doesn’t seem likely.
VeggieTales joins a growing list of dozens of Netflix Originals that have been removed from the service over the years.
Whether you’ll ever be able to watch these after their removal from Netflix is unclear. The VeggieTales website does sell numerous DVDs of prior episodes, but the Netflix series remain unavailable. This could result in both series becoming lost media.
Will you miss VeggieTales once the second series leaves? Let us know in the comments.