This one I'll have a bit better for you. Now I know RiffTrax doesn't riff TV shows per se, but this one you might love to riff at least one of the episodes for this one made shows from Sid Marty & Krofft look positively normal. In fact if Mike, Bill and Kevin view this first episode I've linked to, they'll probably think 'Fun in Balloonland' is a cake walk compared to this.

So what is 'Vegetable Soup?' Possibly a show designed by Andy Warhol to compliment his art? You wish.

Once upon a riff, Kevin lamented that 'Free to Be, You and Me,' was responsible for an aci short.. not sure if it was 'At Your Fingertips: Grass,' or 'Cylinders.' But what 'Free to Be' did inspire was this plan on educating our kids to be tolerant of others of gender, race and cultures. Thus, in the Seventies, PBS and Syndicated series started producing a plethora of shows to do just that.

However, when you see, Vegetable Soup, you might feel the same way as you did with 'Read On!' Especially since the intro has disturbing animation with them singing the theme song about the world being like a bowl of vegetable soup.

Basically the show itself is broken up into vignettes: The first one is called 'Outerscope One.' This one hearkens back to the days of the marionette shows, 'Thunderbirds' and 'Stingray,' so no, you haven't lost your mind.

Essentially the plot goes something like this, some kids decide on constructing a spaceship (or skylab, as they call it), which looks like something the Little Rascals had engineered (then again, I think they could've come up with something better), and they launch themselves up into space with a kettle that spews forth (get this) a solution of baking soda and vinegar (or something to that effect), and can safely pierce the atmosphere without burning up, or worry about asphyxiation for the fact their window is a bicycle tire (wasn't 70s world wonderful). Anyway, as with the Robinson Family, the kids end up getting lost, but travel to worlds where each have some underlying message about accepting others.

After this segment ends, you'll scream GAH! Mainly because remember the animated singers in the intro? To segue you to the next segment, they show one band member sing about the next segment.

Usually the following short will deal with kids round the world doing stuff. But one short vignette I remember most was 'Nigel.'

Who's 'Nigel,' you ask? He's a pet boa constrictor which a little boy owns and has bizarre adventures, such as having him lose Nigel in a library, getting a fellow student to blame Nigel for biting him, and things like that. And, no, Bill, it doesn't have Nigel strangling and eating the kid, though for the most part there were times you'd like to see that.

But the most bizarre segment of the series happen to be 'Woody the Spoon.' Voiced by the Miss Divine herself, Bette Midler, Woody would appear with his disturbing floating face and dole out a cooking lesson in rhyme upon foods from around the world. Personally, I used to endure the other crap just to see these segments, just for the fact the tune was actually soothing, just to offset the disturbing animation.

Usually at the end we'd see the face (which was probably the ghost of Cookie Monster's ancestors) gobble up the food, then lick Woody.

Overall, the reasons I feel RiffTrax should take a stab at an episode of this are as follows:

(1) Outerscope One: If the stories aren't thinly-disguised, the marionettes are hilarious, as well as some of the plots. And as I aforementioned you really have to suspend disbelief with this one.

(2) Woody the Spoon: The fact Bette Midler does the voice for this is a bit mind-blowing, since this was done probably before she became famous. Though she does an excellent job with the character, the animation does make this a bit off-putting. But it's fun to see how out-there you can make cooking something like Japanese rice for kids.

(3) Nigel segments/live segments - Usually nothing special with the other live segments (think the .. and Families series which were previously riffed). But the Nigel segments stand out mainly not due to the antics which occur, yet, the odd fact Nigel's owner's family allows him to actually own a boa constrictor. (Interesting fact: a lot of families hated this segment because kids who did watch this show usually wanted a pet snake as well)

I've submitted some links here for you to see the show. I recommend only selecting an episode from the series' First Season, since they were more riffable than the Second, which they did tone down on the animation, but did have Outerscope Two have an adventure on Earth, and combined the marionettes with live-action this time. Then had a strange game show called, 'The Big Job.' But the rest sort of lacked the bizarre atmosphere of the First Season.

With that, I submit to you, Vegetable Soup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwktFmbBg2c (Full Ep. 1)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKOPVjpMZ4g (Woody)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRcNIqrZ6KI (Outerscope One)