STARS

STARS (Students Taking a Right Stand) is a non-profit American organization, based in Nashville, Tennessee.

At one point, the organization had collaborated with Big Idea to release edited versions of VeggieTales episodes (omitting every Christian reference mentioned and replacing them with secularized dialogue) for public schools, which were released on VHS in 1998 and on DVD on January 1, 2006.^[1]

Releases

The Grapes of Wrath (1998 Classroom Edition Reprint)
Are You My Neighbor? (1998 Classroom Edition Reprint)
The Story of Flibber-o-loo (1998 Classroom Edition Reprint)
Larry-Boy! and the Fib from Outer Space! (1998 Classroom Edition Reprint)

Edits

The Silly Song segments from the first five episodes were placed at the end of each episode and include:
- The Water Buffalo Song at the end of The Grapes of Wrath.
- The Hairbrush Song at the end of The Gourds Must Be Crazy ("Are You My Neighbor?" on their releases).
- Dance of the Cucumber at the end of The Story of Flibber-o-Loo.
- Love My Lips at the end of Larry-Boy and the Fib from Outer Space.
These releases of the episodes have removed religious references, and replaced them with secular dialogue. The following religious references being removed are as follows:
- The Grapes of Wrath: Bob and Larry explaining to Junior what the Bible says about forgiveness is removed.
  - Also, Qwerty's first verse has the "Jesus answered" and "Matthew 18:22" parts removed. (The verse is displayed on a textless element shot of Qwerty taken from Larry-Boy and the Fib from Outer Space.)
- The Story of Flibber-o-Loo: Junior's line "But God made him special, just like he made me" is changed to "But everyone's special, he's special like me."
  - Also, during the song Love Your Neighbor, a part of Junior's verse, being "God made us special, and now I can see if you're special to Him, then you're special to me" was changed to "We are all special, and now I can see that I'm special to you, and you're special to me".
- The Gourds Must Be Crazy: Dad Asparagus's line "God wants us to love everybody, not just the people that are like us" is changed to "We should love everybody, not just the people that are like us."
  - Also, during the song I Can Be Your Friend, Jimmy Gourd's third verse is entirely re-recorded, being changed from "God makes lots of people in all colors, shapes and sizes. He loves them very much and what we need to realize is that calling people names because they're different is wrong" to "There are lots of people in all colors, shapes and sizes. All of us are loved and what we need to realize is that calling people names because they're different is wrong."

Fun Facts

These episodes were compressed in audio and footage quality for these classroom editions.
As of June 2018, The Story of Flibber-o-Loo was discontinued from NCYI.org's catalog due to low sales. As of 2023, Are You My Neighbor? was discontinued, too from the site's catalog for said reason.
- It is likely that the other videos will be discontinued in the near future, considering that as of July 2021, they have been removed from NCYI's catalog and the remaining videos are on clearance sale.
The classroom editions also came with study guides and coloring pages, which can be found below as listed:
In the end credits of Larry-Boy and the Fib from Outer Space, the Larry-Boy Theme Song is listed in the credits, even though it doesn't appear in this version of the episode. Also, a piece of the credits from Dave and the Giant Pickle where Larry-Boy's plunger lets go of the camera and Larry-Boy falls is added in order to add the credits for the Love My Lips song.
In the end credits for each episode, the credit for the VeggieTales Theme Song from Where's God When I'm S-Scared? was added at the start of the credits for each episode (end of the credits for Larry-Boy and the Fib from Outer Space).
The VHS and DVD covers for these releases of the episodes reuse the original 1993 VeggieTales logo along with the original VHS cover designs from the actual episodes. However, these versions of the episodes use the 1998 intro, and the 1998 logo is on the VHS sticker labels.
- Also, The Story of Flibber-o-loo VHS cover looks identical to the one from the Read-Along book.