WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:02:00.000 If Bible content couldn't compete with mainstream entertainment, then why did one of Hollywood's most commercially savvy studios spend 17 years fighting to make one TV series? And then land one of the most star-studded voice casts of the decade to bring it to life. Because Hannah Barbera knew something that gets forgotten in a world full of streaming paywalls that the greatest stories ever told belonged to everyone. So they fought for it. And that's exactly what this month is about. Today I am sharing why the greatest adventure stories from the Bible is one of the best all ages shows for family time. And why Hannah Barbera's willingness to take a stand for it is the same reason I'm building this entire month around content worth fighting for. Welcome to Wholesome TV Picks. I'm your host, Jennifer Avila, and this is the only podcast where every recommendation is backed by 35 plus years of watching wholesome TV, so you never waste another night on the wrong pick. Let's get into it. 00:02:00.000 --> 00:04:00.000 Before I start, I have some exciting news to share. As I've mentioned in previous episodes, Wholesome TV Picks has been nominated for a Women's Podcast Award in the entertainment and news category. Voting is now live, and I would really appreciate your support by going to the link provided in the show notes and vote for Wholesome TV Picks today. Your vote helps more families find content that's actually worth their time and it means the world to this little show. It will take about 10 seconds and I would be extremely grateful. In the outro of last week's episode, I stated it was actually on network TV. That is not factually correct. These went straight to VHS and I wanted to correct my mistake and let you know that this was not on network television. So what is the Greatest Adventures Stories From the Bible about? It's a very short season. It's only 13 episodes and they're around 30 minutes each. Totally bingeable. The premise of the stories is that it follows three archeologists named Derek, Margot, and Moki, who stumble across a mysterious door that takes them back in time to the actual periods of when certain Bible stories took place, and they become firsthand witnesses to the greatest stories of the Bible. Your kids will laugh. Moki is the funniest character of them all. 00:04:00.000 --> 00:06:00.000 The episodes follow the Old Testament order. The creation with Adam and Eve, Noah's Ark, followed by Moses, Joshua and the Battle of Jericho, Daniel in the Lions Den, Queen Esther, the Easter story, which is the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, The Nativity, which is obviously the Christmas story, Samson and Delilah. I wanted to share this family TV series because it does have the Easter story and I thought this would be particularly useful for those of you that may be CEO churchgoers. That's what my pastor refers to people that only go to church on Christmas and Easter only. All of the stories are very well told and they have great animation. One thing I've noticed is that the people in the background, no two people look alike, and I thought it was really interesting to see such a small detail that's been done by hand. Every time your child watches one of these cartoons, they'll hear the little backstory at the beginning of each episode. You don't have to watch these in chronological order that the stories actually happen in the Old Testament. You can jump into any episode you choose. It is very interesting how these faith-based cartoons were made back in the day and how they're able to attract top name celebrities to voice the characters. So many celebrities nowadays, you hear how they're very non-religious, atheistic and just had made their opinions known that they do not believe in God. Even if that were the case, so many top names like James Earl Jones, Helen Hunt, Helen Slater, Tim Curry. You might remember him better from Home Alone 2, he actually voices the serpent in the creation story and it's very eerie how he was perfect for that role. He just does that voice so, so well. Perry King who voices Samson in Samson and Delilah plays the dad, Brian Morgan, in The Torkelsons second season when it was rebranded as Almost Home. And I talked about that back in episode two. He did a fantastic job in that TV series, and I recommend watching it with your family. It's a great comedy. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:08:00.000 The most important episode to bring to your attention would be the Easter story. It does a really good job of explaining what the Easter story is without gore. It's very gentle and a lot of that really has to do with how Hannah Barbera decided to craft the scripts. There were different writers for different episodes. However, Hannah Barbera also had the input of a Catholic priest, a rabbi, and a Protestant minister. They took it very seriously and wanted to make sure they got it biblically accurate, but didn't go overboard in one particular denomination angle. Hannah Barbera really took a risk. It took 17 years after Joseph Barbera created this concept in his head, and it took 17 years to get the money to actually make these cartoons. Why would they continue such a fight for 17 years? Most people would've given up. This is just my opinion, but they believed in the importance and the value of having this cartoon available for so many children. I think that's something to take note of, that they took a stand for something and didn't let time or obstacles get in their way. When my children were little, a lot of times I would supplement our studies with these cartoons. A lot of times my kids would say, Mom, can we just watch one of the Bible cartoons for Bible time tonight? Back in 2003, when I was working in the visual effects department of CBS, I'd only been on the job about three months. It's very dark in this room because in the visual effects department, they needed to see every little detail on the computer monitors without having the glare from the light fixtures. Sitting at my desk in the dimmed office lobby, I hear this big heated debate going on in the office right around the corner. There are these two matte artists named George and Dean, where George was a very devout Christian man who had no qualms about sharing his faith with Dean, who was an agnostic or an atheist. 00:08:00.000 --> 00:10:00.000 Now as time went on, I learned that George and Dean got into these kinds of heated debates quite often. This was my first time hearing it for myself. I hear George explaining to Dean how you need God in your life, and he helps you through all your troubles, your heartaches, and he gives me purpose and joy to do my job the best way I can because I wanna do my job as if I'm doing it for the Lord. Dean tells him, Well, God doesn't belong in the workplace and you need to stop bringing up God! You bring him up all the time and I get sick of it. And he says, well, you know what, Dean? I love God and I'm not ashamed to talk about him. Dean would just get angrier and shout louder and louder and just finally, he slammed his hand on the desk and told George, Shut up. I am sick and tired of this. God doesn't belong in the workplace and it doesn't belong in this office. Needless to say, I felt very awkward and uncomfortable. I was frozen at my seat. Thankfully the phone rang and that was a great distraction. Five minutes after this argument, they got up, walked out and said, Hey, where are we gonna go to lunch? And they walk out as if they never had an argument. That's another lesson that you can take away from this story. To just be able to agree, disagree, and move on. I am telling you this because George took a stand for his faith. He didn't care about what others thought of him. He wanted to share his beliefs with other people and I admired him for that because here I am and I am not as strong in sharing my faith with people, especially in today's society. George reminds me to take a stand for my faith, and that's what I'm doing in this episode. To remind myself and you that we all need to take a stand for our faith or whatever belief system you may have that you hold near and dear in your heart, and to share it with other people who can benefit from that. The biggest takeaway that I want you to have from this is that The Greatest Adventures Stories From the Bible is free for you to watch on YouTube. I highly recommend starting with the Easter story this week, or maybe the story about Moses. That's a really, really good one, especially because James Earl Jones does an amazing job of bringing the Pharaoh to life. This is a wonderful animated TV series that's perfect for all ages, especially for families that are intentional on limiting their children's screen time and don't want their children watching a ton of TV. It's not overly preachy. I think it's well worth your time to sit down and watch one episode with your family. Be sure to join me next week because I've got a great family film about one homeschool family and their church co-op, that becomes the target of government overreach that tells them they're not schooling their children right and if they don't comply with public education standards, they'll lose their children and be fined. Thanks for joining me. As always, have a great rest of your week. Remember, your values matter and your TV should too. I'll catch you next week. Take care.