- He moonlights as Bob the Tomato.

Creator of "VeggieTales",Phil Vischer joins us

to discuss the veggie's return

and his latest book, "The Laughand Learn Bible for Kids".

Plus, Efrem Graham is here

with this week's look atthe entertainment world.

All on today's 700 Club Interactive.

Well welcome to the show.

We've got the latest

in faith-based entertainmentnews for you today.

- And here's Efrem Graham

with this week's top five from Studio 5.

- [Efrem] At number five.

- We are excited we finally getto share some news with you.

- [Efrem] Big news from thealready busy home renovators

Chip and Joanna Gaines.

- So, here we are toannounce, drum roll please.

(mouth vibrating)

Y'all, we're gonna have ahotel in downtown Waco, Texas.

- What?

- Just a few short blocks from the silos.

- [Efrem] Perhaps thisheadline says it best.

"They're building a hotelso you can feel like

"you're sleeping in arerun of "Fixer Upper"."

- We're actually standingin the old ballroom

which will be the newballroom in the hotel

and it will be ready in 2021.

♪ Strangers in the night ♪

- So we've got some work to do,

and re-do, and we'll keep you posted.

- [Efrem] Turning this onehundred year old building

into a boutique hotel

comes as they also launcha television network

and run a giant market and cafe.

At number four.

- I work for the Catholic church.

I want to hire you

to help investigate unexplained phenomena.

- You don't care that I don't believe?

- I do not.

- [Efrem] It's a sneak peakat "Evil", the new CBS series

with storylines exploring the intersection

of faith and science.

With a priest in trainingand a skeptical psychologist

investigating thingsthat can't be explained.

- You've got an assignment, a miracle.

- I was dead, now I'm not.

Everything's changed for me.

- Starting to sound like a ghost story.

[Efrem] The CBS seriesstarts in two weeks.

At number three.

♪ You say I am loved whenI can't feel a thing ♪

- [Efrem] Big news for Lauren Daigle

ahead of next week's Dove Awards.

"You Say" is now thebiggest Christian song ever.

- So when writing "You Say",I just remember feeling

for the first time pretty conflicted.

- [Efrem] It's been number one

on Billboard's Hot Christiansongs chart for 62 weeks.

- I know that we've allfaced moments in life

where we can feel a crossroads happen.

Where we can see the pastand also see the future

and realize how we are supposedto exist in the present.

- [Efrem] "You Say" now surpasses

Hillsong United's "Oceans".

At number two.

- You realize that thepoint of maximum danger

is the point of minimum fear.

- [Efrem] After skydiving in Dubai

and bungee jumping from ahelicopter over the Grand Canyon.

- Look how good I look.

Ain't this just a perfectspecimen of a man right here?

- I want to be your motivator.

- [Efrem] Actor Will Smith

is taking on the fightagainst homelessness

around the world.

He's partnering with TheWorld's Big Sleep Out.

The "Gemini Man" star

is reading bedtime storieslater this year, December 7th,

to raise 50 million dollars.

- To deliver this in a timelyand financially expedient way.

- [Efrem] At number one.

- For today's Walk of Fame ceremony,

Hollywood honors Tyler Perry.

(cheers and applause)

- [Efrem] Just daysafter unveiling his star

on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

- This is it (laughs).

- [Efrem] Stars walkedthe red carpet in Atlanta

for the grand celebration ofthe new Tyler Perry Studios.

A sprawling 330 acres,with a dozen sound stages

and bigger than Warner Brothers, Disney,

and Paramount combined.

On land that once servedas a Confederate army base.

- God is using him, not only in Atlanta,

not only in the state of Georgia,

but in all of the UnitedStates and the world.

God is using him.

His life is a legacy and it isshowing these other young men

that it is no secret what God can do.

- [Efrem] It's a history making move

for the man Hollywood has often ignored.

- I want it to feel like inspiration

for everybody that's here.

There are a lot of people here

that I feel have incredible dreams

and are movers and shakers in life.

And I feel like if they can leave here

the way I left Oprah's Legends Ball,

it's gonna be incredible.

- Alright, Efrem joins us now,

we gotta talk about Lauren Daigle, how?

62 weeks, number one.

- 62 weeks, number one,beating out "Oceans".

- [Ashley] Beating out "Oceans"?

- All time, right now, yes.

- [Gordon] Better than "Amazing Grace"?

- Well, you know, sinceBillboard's been charting

and you know, that category, yes.

But yeah, beating out Hillsong,

Hillsong was 61 weeks,Lauren Daigle's 62 weeks.

And we are literally less than a week now

from the Dove Awards

and I would venture to say,

I bet ya Lauren Daigle takes home

every category she's nominated in.

- Isn't that, of course?

- Yeah, it seems to be agiven for her (laughs).

- What part of 62 weeksdon't you understand?

Are you going to the Dove Awards?

- I am not going to the Dove Awards.

- You're not?

- No, I have a whole bunch ofother stories unfortunately,

but I've been invited a few times

and the schedule justdoesn't work out this time.

- If Lauren Daigle saidthat she would sit down

with an interview with you, would you go?

- We'd be canceling a few things (laughs).

- And can I come with you, please?

- On national television Lauren.

- (laughs) Give us a call.

I've begged, trying, we're still trying.

- Seriously?

- Yes, please, I'd love to sit down.

I've met her, taken pictures with her,

but no we haven't sat down

for a televised conversation anyway.

- [Ashley] One day.

- One day, it's coming.

- One day, yeah, it's coming, it's coming.

Let's talk about Tyler Perry.

It's been like all overmy Instagram news feed,

different people posting about it,

Beyonce, Jay-Z, allthese different people.

I mean, what's going on?

- I mean, a massive, sprawling new studio.

I forgot the numbers,

I know it's like Disney,Warner Brothers, Universal,

if you combined all of those,they're still not as large

as Tyler Perry's 330 acresprawling studio in Atlanta.

This is a lot for a man who's often said

that he's been ignored by Hollywood,

not really taking him seriously.

But he opened that, that is aformer Confederate army base,

it is now Tyler Perry Studios.

12 sound stages, all named after people

who were big influencesin his life in Hollywood.

And he says that thewhole entire thing for him

is really just to inspire other people.

And the next phase of this,

is he wants to open up a compound

where he can house womenwho are trafficked.

People who've beenessentially thrown away,

much like he was, sleeping in his car,

and to train them on howto do television and film

so that they can then get lives

and give back, to pay it forward.

That's his next project.

- What's he doing onthose 12 sound stages?

- Yeah.

(laughter)

How do you fill that with production?

- Lots of work.

Atlanta is often calledthe Hollywood of the south,

but then there areother people, of course,

coming out, renting and using the space.

What people may not realize,

he's owned the facilitynow for a few years

and has been working on renovating it,

so now it's fully open.

But parts of "Black Panther" were shot

at a Tyler Perry sound stage.

Yeah, it just wasn't made public

because it wasn't opento the public to see.

But yes, and films havealready been shot there.

So he's already been opening the doors

and allowing people to use it,

so now he can sit back, doother things, rent the space.

- [Gordon] So we shouldsend drones overtop,

figure out what's being shot?

- [Efrem] What's playing where,yes you got it, you got it.

- I've heard that there's evena replica of The White House?

- There's a full replicaof The White House.

If you've seen themovie "The Color Purple"

there's a church scene,

well, he built a replica of that church

and then had a Sunday worshipservice over the weekend

for the opening as well.

So it's pretty much said

that anything that he seesthat he wants to build,

he can build it on thelot, so you'll see that.

- Tyler Perry's taken on homelessness,

Will Smith is now taking on homelessness.

- Indeed (laughs).

- Why do you think, the epidemic today,

it just seems to be everywhere.

- It does seem to, I knowthat just over the years

in traveling to cover stories,

when I land in some of my favorite cities,

I've really known that the downtown areas

are much more heavilypopulated with homeless people

than I realized in the past.

And I'm told, it's a number of things.

Of course, financial difficulty,

but it's a number of things

that have precipitated this unfortunately.

And the stories of peoplefalling on hard times.

We saw, I didn't include this,

we saw a woman in Californiawho was an opera singer.

- Yes, I saw that recently, yes.

- A police officer shoots a video of her

and now she's gotten homelessness,but she's gotten out,

but said that it was justa matter of health issues,

financial issues,

and in the end, it forcedher to live on the streets.

Here she is, so talented,with a voice that's amazing.

But it's good to see people stepping up.

Will Smith--

- [Gordon] So, what's he doing?

- What he's doing, on December7th, he's participating

in what's called The WorldwideSleep Out, if you will.

They encourage people to sleep outside.

He'll be readying a children'sstory in Times Square.

Dame Helen Mirren will bereading a children's story

in Trafalgar Square in England.

And the goal is for us tohost sleep outs like this

around the country inhopes of raising money.

The goal is 50 milliondollars in one night

and he's participating in this.

It's something that I've seenschools do and children do

in order to sort of get a feel

for what is life on the outside,

to be more sympathetic to people.

So now this is a worldwide effort.

And this is just one thing,

of course we need a wholelot more in order to end it.

- Well good for Will Smith.

- Indeed, indeed, proud of him.

- Well, CBS, they have anew series called "Evil"?

- I tell ya this is--

- I don't know, Gordon what's--

- Are you gonna watch?

- Uh, probably not.

(laughter)

- I have not seen a fullepisode, I've seen clips

and what makes me want to watch

is that there are on boardtheologians and people of faith

who are contributing to this series.

So because they've gone thatroute to make that effort,

I want to see what they do with it.

So that's why I've included it.

It's actually gonna air forthe first time next Thursday.

For people I know who haveseen it, they like it.

And these are believersI know who've seen it,

'cause I haven't personallyseen it, I've only seen clips.

But they've been positive about it,

so I'm very curious to see this.

'Cause I told them, I said,

"Just with the name 'Evil' alone,

"I had no intentions ofpaying much attention to it."

(laughter)

- But they went, "No, youreally should give it a shot."

- You give people ideas

and they start to pursue those ideas.

I know when I was growing up it was,

"Wait a minute, I readthe end of the book,

"I know what happens,

"so no way I'm going into that kind of thing."

But people were fascinatedby it and drawn to it.

- I can see the concern,

but it seems to me, atleast from what I've read

and those that I've talked to thus far,

in the series, goodnesstriumphs, light triumphs.

And I think when I eventhink of horror films

that includes things likeexorcism, the storyline is always,

the only solution is Christ,the only solution is Christ.

- I've actually heard that horror films

are sorta the lastbashing of Christianity.

- That's a good take, okay (laughs).

- You'll have a successful,quote, secular film,

but it will be theologically correct.

- Yeah, I like that.

- Alright, Chip and Joanna.

- Chip and Joanna, love them.

- A television show, a televisionnetwork, and now a hotel.

(laughs) And now a hotel.

A sprawling hotel in downtown Waco.

They're calling it a boutique hotel,

but I'm looking at a ballroom like that,

I think it's a little toobig to be a boutique hotel.

But they've partnered with--

- [Gordon] It's a Texas boutique hotel.

- (laughs) Everything'sbigger in Texas, there you go.

'Cause I kept trying toreconcile, I thought,

that's a little big for a boutique.

But that's the facilitythey are renovating it,

I think they said it will be open in 2021.

And you'll be able to go

and sleep in work that they have done.

And if you're fans of them,

and their show, and theirwork, like many of us are.

- [Gordon] They're gonnamake Waco a destination.

- They really are.

- You go there, you go to the silos.

I have friends who visited

and they were like literally--

- [Gordon] The silos?

- The only thing, yeahthat's where their business

and shopping, the silos.

- Gordon you gotta go, yougotta go, you have to go.

- I'm just not a home decorator.

- I'm a home decorator watcher,

I'm not necessarily thebest home decorator,

I dream watching them, they do great work.

- Yeah, they really do, that's awesome.

- Okay, well, for all thelatest in entertainment news,

check out Efrem's weekly show, Studio 5.

You can watch it on the CBN News channel

or online at cbn.com/studio5.

Up next, he's thecreator of "VeggieTales".

Phil Vischer is here with anexciting new children's Bible

and he'll tell us

about the return ofhis talking vegetables.

You don't want to miss hisinterview, it's right after this.

(light music)

- We all know that mostchildren in the U.S.

are flooded with entertainment options,

but how many kids are spendingtheir time reading books

or watching shows thatactually feed their souls?

Our next guest has beencreating kid friendly content

for nearly 30 years,

and you'll be glad to knowthat more is on the way.

- [Reporter] Phil Vischer is the creator

of the groundbreakingchildren's series "VeggieTales",

which has sold over 65 million copies.

He's releasing 18 new episodes this fall,

starting with "The Best Christmas Gift".

- God is with us, here in the tough times

and here to end the tough times.

(upbeat music)

- [Reporter] Phil has also written

"The Laugh and Learn Bible for Kids",

teaching them God's plan,

and helping them findtheir own place in it.

- Well "VeggieTales" creatorPhil Vischer joins us now.

Phil it's so good to have you here.

- Thank you, thank you,glad I could be here.

- Yes, okay, so, forthose who may not know,

you are actually Bob the Tomato.

- Hi kids I'm Bob the Tomato.

- Yes, I love it.

Okay, so tell us how"VeggieTales" all started.

- Well, I was a computeranimator in Chicago

in the late 1980's.

So this is like, it was sixyears before "Toy Story",

the first computer animated movie.

And I was trying to figure out,'cause I grew up in church,

I grew up with missionaries in my family

and pastors in my family,

and I wanted to make likeSaturday morning cartoons,

but I wanted them to have

the stuff I learned in Sunday School.

I wanted Sunday morning valuesin Saturday morning fun,

which became the slogan early on.

So I decided I neededreally simple characters,

'cause the computers were too,

weren't advanced enough back then.

Characters couldn't havearms, legs, hair, or clothes.

So I needed characters naked,bald, limbless characters

that I could sell inChristian book stores.

That's what I needed

and I started playing aroundwith a candy bar character.

I thought, oh, he's kinda cute,candy bar, that could work.

And then I just got married,

my wife walked by and sawthe candy bar on the computer

and said, "You know,Mom's are gonna be mad

"if you make their kids fallin love with candy bars."

And I thought, "Oh, that'sa really good point,

"what wouldn't Mom's be mad about

"their kids falling in love with?"

And the next thing that poppedin my head was a cucumber

and that's where "VeggieTales" came from.

- Wow, I love that.

Well, I mean, huge success,

it's been on mainstreamplatforms, it's on Netflix,

it was on NBC forSaturday morning cartoons,

but did you ever face any backlash

from mainstream executivessaying make it less Christian?

- There were always people who would say,

"You could probably sell twice as many

"if you'd just cut out, you know,

"this, this, this, and this."

And the answer was always,

"Well that's not what I'm trying to do."

"I'm not trying to seehow many I can sell,

"I'm trying to see howmany kids we can reach

"with biblical values."

And I don't wanna tell kids, you know,

be more forgiving just because.

I wanna tell them, be more forgiving

because God is alwaysready to forgive you.

So it was always prettyeasy, (shivers) easy

even when we were broke, to say,

"No, that's not what this is about."

"If it won't work beingtrue to what it is,

"then I'll find something else to do,

"but I'm not gonna change it."

- Yeah, well, new episodes are coming out,

but before we talk aboutthat, there was a time frame

where no new content was being produced,

what was kinda happeningbehind the scenes?

- I got very excited when"VeggieTales" took off,

I was very young, 25 when I started it.

And so, when it took off I kinda thought,

"I think God wants me tobe the next Walt Disney."

And that was such a fun thought

and I thought, "Well thenI want to hire more people

"and I wanna build a theme park some day

"and I wanna do all this stuff."

So I launched all sorts of projects,

started doing all sorts of work,

ended up spending so much money

in launching so many projects

that I drove right off a cliff

and put the company into bankruptcy.

And there was a lawsuitwith a former distributor

that really kinda killed it entirely.

So since then, that was in 2003,

so I lost everythingin bankruptcy in 2003.

In the 16 years since then,

"VeggieTales" has been ownedby four different companies,

and each one had kinda had their idea of,

"We think this is what'VeggieTales' should be."

The latest one is NBC Universal.

And when it was announced thatNBC Universal had bought it,

the Trinity BroadcastNetwork reached out and said,

"Hey, can we do somethingwith "VeggieTales"

"to bring it back to life asa Christian kids show again?"

And then they reached out to me and said,

"Phil, would you help making 'VeggieTales'

"what it was in the very beginning?"

More focused on short,simple Bible stories

and biblical content.

And I said, "Yeah, Iwould love to do that."

"The voices inside mewould love to do that too."

"They're all telling me right now."

So we spent the last year

writing 18 new episodes of "VeggieTales".

- [Ashley] So cool.

- [Phil] Yeah, very cool.

- [Ashley] When does it launch?

- [Phil] The first one wedid is a Christmas episode

and that comes out October 22nd on DVD.

Then the whole serieslaunches sometime next year.

- Awesome, and inaddition to "VeggieTales"

you also have a kidsBible, tell us about that.

- Yeah, so after "Veggies"

I did a series called"What's In the Bible?"

which walks kids all theway through the Bible

from Genesis to Revelation.

And that was so much fun

and I learned so much going through that.

What if we took all of that

and actually packed it into a kids Bible

so kids could carry it around,sit down with their parents

and their grandparentsbefore bed and read a story.

So it's 52 Bible storiesstarting with creation

and going all the way to the new creation,

new heaven, new earth atthe end of Revelation.

And answering kidsquestions about the Bible,

but also giving them thebig picture of the Bible.

'Cause sometimes they get Bible stories,

but they never learn the Bible story,

the whole arc of scripture,

and kids wanna be apart of a big story.

They wanna be apart ofsomething bigger than they are

and if we don't give itto them from the Bible,

then they'll go find it in "Harry Potter",

"Lord of the Rings", "Star Wars",

they'll find a big storyto invest their hearts in.

So when we don't present the Bible

as the big story that it is,

we lose their hearts from the gospel.

And that's what I'm trying to do.

This is a big story,by the way, it's true.

It's actually true, there issomeone behind the curtain.

There is, we do live ina world that's enchanted

as G.K. Chesterton used to say.

It's an enchanted worldwhere things happen

that we can't explain with science.

Things happen that are moreamazing then you can imagine,

and guess what kid?

You can be apart of it.

You can play a role in this.

- Well one last question before you go.

So many people

have learned amazing biblicalstories from "VeggieTales",

but what have you learnedthrough "VeggieTales"?

- I learned to hold onmuch more tightly to God

than to the work that I'm doing for him.

I realized that I had make my work for God

more important than myrelationship with God

and that is settingyourself up for disaster

because anything that becomesmore important to you than God

is an idol.

And it will let you down,and it will break your heart.

- You're preaching, you're preaching.

Well that's awesome, it's goodinformation for all of us,

good advice.

Phil's new book is called"Laugh and Learn Bible for Kids"

and it's available nowwherever books are sold.

And don't forget, new episodesof "VeggieTales" are starting

with "The Best Christmas Gift" on DVD,

available October 22nd.

Phil, thank you so much for being here

and thank you for "VeggieTales"

and all that you're continuing to do.

- You're welcome, I'm glad I get to do it.

- Amen, alright, Gordon, over to you.

- Coming up, see how a dog named Buzz

taught this man a valuablelesson about following God.

That's next.

(light instrumental music)

How do we follow Jesuswhen we can't see him?

Pastor Ken Graves of CalvaryChapel in Bangor, Maine

uses his dog Buzz to teach usa simple yet profound truth.

Take a look.

- In Matthew chapter four

we have the record of JesusChrist calling Peter and Andrew.

And his invitation to them was

"Follow me and I will make you."

Of course the rest of the sentence is

"I'll make you fishers of men."

But the focus of the callfrom Christ was to follow him

and let him do the making.

Interestingly there was anexpression among the Jews

that you would learn in dust of you Rabbi.

You go where he goes andyou watch, you learn.

I got this dog Buzz and he's a great dog.

And he has so committed to following.

He's so committed thatwhere I go he will go

that it is hard to shake him.

It doesn't matter even if I climb a ladder

or do something else

that someone with an opposing grip can do,

that dog will find a way to do it.

Because he believes that's his place.

It is so with us, our placeis following our master.

For us, he's not physically with us,

we don't have his body to look at

or his feet to see andstep where he steps,

but for you and me, we findhim and we look upon him

as he is revealed in the scripture.

We have his mind and hisheart recorded for us.

God has showed us all what he is like.

God has texted humanitydown through the ages,

has delivered writtentext revealing who he is

and how he is.

And it is our duty to read it

and find there the very heart of God.

To know him in order to follow,

and to follow in orderthat he could make us

what he wants us to be.

- Often wonder, what does it mean

to really follow hard after Jesus?

He says follow me,

but he gives us the explanation of how.

And he says, "My sheep hearmy voice and they know me

"and they follow me."

That really came togetherfor me on a trip one time.

I was in Turkey

and I was just lookingat some old Greek ruins,

the very place where theApostle John had written about,

one of the cities in Revelation.

And along came a shepard

and what he was doing, hehad this sing-song voice

and he was constantly in song.

And as he walked through the ruins

and he was singing that song,all the sheep followed him.

And if the sheep started getting away,

he started singing a little bit louder

and soon they'd figure out where he was

and then they'd go follow him.

And that was a beautifulpicture of what Jesus,

our shepard, meant by they know me.

They hear my voice and they know me.

When you spend time in the word,

when you spend time in prayer,

and then more importantly,when you spend time listening,

"God, what do you have for me today?"

"What do you want toshare with me for today?"

That is the key and in thatyou're able to follow him.

Don't do life on your own,do it always with him.

He's in his word, he is hisword, and he still speaks today.

Here's a scripture for you

from first Corinthians chapter 11,

"Imitate me, just as Ialso imitate Christ."

Let that be a watch word for your life.

God bless you, we'll see ya again.

(light music)