Since 2019, there has apparently been a conservative media renaissance, as more independent companies have been popping up and producing their own media to promote traditional family values. The companies design their own media after major controversies affecting mainstream shows and movies.
In summer 2017, American Family Studios created their own cartoon series, called Ryan DeFrates: Secret Agent, seemingly as a response to a live-action remake of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast that was not as family-friendly as the original movie. Ryan DeFrates, One Million Moms stated in a post from 2017, was intended to be their own “light” rather than more “darkness” to the culture. Instead of only pointing out “darkness,” they were attempting to make a difference by creating a show that promoted family values: a secret agent working with his mother and solving allegorical crimes, with story lines such as “Ryan learning honesty to stop a robotic spider spewing a Web of Lies.”
The show released new episodes from 2017 to 2019 and was heavily advertised on American Family Radio. The showrunners are a brother and sister who had a background as VBS team members performing skits. This was the time for a renaissance.
Ryan DeFrates can be viewed as a precursor to the conservative media renaissance, and Mr. Ratburn and Hallmark had accidentally become catalysts for it. In Summer 2019, the showrunners of Ryan DeFrates had an interview on American Family Radio, briefly comparing their show against Arthur and offering their series as an alternative to mainstream cartoons.
During May of that year, PBS released the controversial “Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone” episode of Arthur, in which the teacher (Mr. Ratburn) walked down the aisle with another man (Patrick). Alabama and Arkansas PBS affiliates banned that episode, swapped it out for reruns of classic episodes, and Phil Vischer (the creator of VeggieTales) called it “the shot heard ‘round the Christian parenting world.”
The infamous Ratburn episode may have been the inspiration for Vischer to design a VeggieTales reboot exclusively for Yippee, a Christian streaming platform, in 2019. As Hallmark debuted Ratburn-adjacent movies during Christmas time 2019 and 2020, actress Candace Cameron Bure left Hallmark and joined Great American Family, a formidable conservative competitor.
During 2019 and the 2020s, many conservative platforms and studios became notable, as consumers were disappointed at mainstream media being unnecessarily changed and made “woke.” These family-oriented platforms include Angel Studios (known for the Tuttle Twins series and The Sound of Freedom), Yippee (home of Mike Nawrocki’s Dead Sea Squirrels show, curated YouTube and the most VeggieTales episodes on one streaming service), Minno (which has 50 strict rules shows must follow to be included on the platform), Brave Books (including their streaming service, Brave +), Great American Family, PureFlix, and BentKey.
The Daily Wire-owned BentKey was considered a deliberate jab at woke Disney’s 100th anniversary, as its website states it is “intentionally no-agenda.” BentKey creates original content and also functions as a US distributor for international shows with “no agenda,” since American-made shows like that are often harder to find. Even Kirk Cameron has gone on to work with Brave Books and has created his own show; it’s hosted on Brave +. There has been a conservative media renaissance taking America by storm.
The culture doesn’t take a day off—and neither do we.
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