Byzantium's Shores: chronicling the misadventures of an overalls-clad hippie

There are some "product pitch" meetings at which I would dearly love to have been a fly in the wall:

PRODUCER: "So, what have you guys got?"

CREATOR #1: "Well, it's an animated show for kids."

PRODUCER: "Who are your characters?"

CREATOR #2: "Vegetables."

PRODUCER: "What?"

CREATOR #1: "Vegetables! We've got an animated tomato, a stalk of celery, a couple of squashes, maybe a blueberry and some others...."

PRODUCER: "Talking vegetables."

CREATOR #2: "Sure!"

PRODUCER: "And what do these vegetables do? Have battles? Fight off evil fruits from outer space?"

CREATOR #1: "Nope. Our veggies will actually perform little skits and stories, some of which will be based on Bible stories, but all of which will teach constructive values to the kids!"

PRODUCER: "Vegetables."

CREATOR #2: "Yup."

PRODUCER: "Teaching values."

CREATOR #1: "Yup."

PRODUCER: "Veggies teaching values."

BOTH CREATORS: "Yes!!"

PRODUCER: "Are we calling it The Righteous Produce?"

CREATOR #1: "Uhhh....no. VeggieTales."

PRODUCER: "VeggieTales." [thinks a minute] "OK, here's your development money. How wacky can it be?"

[Exeunt CREATORS.]

PRODUCER: "Those guys are gonna lost their shirts...."

[Six months later....]

CREATOR #1: "Hey, the PRODUCER just sent us a Christmas card. Guess we're a hit!"

CREATOR #2: "Of course we're a hit! Who couldn't like Veggies?"

CREATOR #1: "There's a postscript here....he wants us to think about adding an evil lima bean colony from Mars."

CREATOR #2: "No."

(VeggieTales is one of the cleverest things I've ever seen in a kid's show. Seriously. Sometimes the goofiest concepts are the best.)