Vegetable Soup is an American educational family television program produced by the New York State Education Department that originally ran on PBS from September 22, 1975 to December 14, 1978.

Concept
The purpose of the program was to be a television series for all families and children to help counter the negative, destructive effects of racial prejudice and racial isolation and to reinforce and dramatize the positive, life-enhancing value of human diversity in entertaining and affective presentations that children could understand and relate to. Vegetable Soup used an interdisciplinary approach to entertain and educate elementary age children in the value of human diversity.[2]

Regular segments

• The Big Game Hunt - hosted by Gary Goodrow
• The Big Job Hunt - hosted by Susan Taylor
• Children's Questions
• How Do You Find Yourself?
• Know Yourself
• Long Ago
• Luther
• Make A New Friend
• Mr. Emeritus
• Nigel
• Outerscope 1
• Real People
• Storytelling Time
• Superlative Horse
• What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
• What Would You Do?
• Woody the Spoon Recipes
• Words Have Stories

Characters

• Long John Spoilsport (James Earl Jones) - regularly appeared on "The Big Game Hunt" and "The Big Job Hunt" segments
• Larry Hama - hosted various segments
• Kingman Hui - child actor who starred on the "Long Ago" segment
• Martin Harris (Martin Brayboy) - regularly appeared in the "Nigel" segment
• Eddie (Edward M. Beckford, Jr.) - regularly appeared in the "Nigel" segment, sang the opening theme song
• Scot Richardson (Scot Smith) - regularly appeared in the "Nigel" segment
• Bob (Daniel Stern) and Robin (Judy Noble) - regularly appeared in the "Outerscope" segment
• Woody the Spoon (Bette Midler) - regularly appeared in the "Woody the Spoon Recipes" segment

Animations
Animated segments on the show were created by Jim Simon's Wantu Studios, the musical opening plus 13 Woody the Spoon cooking spots for which Bette Midler did all the voice tracks, and also 48 thirty-second breaks.[3]