- [Shana] Hi there, I'm Shana Lloyd
and welcome to LIVEKINDLY'S new Top 10 Friday.
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don't stress, we've still got you covered.
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talking about celebrities, food, and delivering fun roundups
like this list of your favorite meat-free TV characters.
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Here are 10 vegetarian TV characters
who have helped make living a plant-based lifestyle
feel a little more familiar to mass audiences.
Number one, Angela Martin from "The Office."
Angela Martin from the award winning sitcom, "The Office"
was quite a multifaceted character.
She was a stubborn worker, uber conservative,
a stickler for rules and was probably best known
for being the office buzzkill.
- So how do you feel about the fact
that the banner says lunch?
- I feel angry, angry at you,
angry at you for doing something stupid,
angry at me for believing you could do something not stupid.
- [Shana] And although the no-nonsense
and humorless head of accounting appeared to dislike humans,
she apparently had an affinity for animals.
- I do play games.
I sing and I dangle things in front of my cats.
I play lots of games, just not at work.
- [Shana] In addition to being an avid cat lover,
Martin also abstained from eating meat.
- Number two, Chidi Anagonye "The Good Place".
NBC's "The Good Place" followed Eleanor Shellstrop,
a woman who found her way
into a heaven-like utopia, following an accident.
However, she soon realized that she was there by mistake
and tried to hide her a imperfect past
to become a better person.
- There's been a big mistake, I'm not supposed to be here.
- [Shana] Throughout the series, Chidi,
who was initially portrayed
as Eleanor's soulmate, tried to help her along.
- You're gonna have assignments and quizzes and papers.
- Remind me what I'm getting out of this again.
- You get to avoid eternal damnation.
- Oh yeah.
- [Shana] As a professor of ethics,
Chidi was extremely intelligent,
kind and passionate about moral philosophy.
So it should come as no surprise
that the good-natured dog lover was also vegetarian.
Number three, Phoebe Buffay from "Friends".
Although she was portrayed as a somewhat flaky vegetarian
in the nineties, sitcom "Friends"
if Phoebe Buffay was around today,
it's highly likely she would be vegan.
Known to break out in song, she once sang
about her disdain for milk during a power outage.
♪ New York City has no power and the milk is getting sour ♪
♪ But to me, it is not scary 'cause I stay away from dairy ♪
- [Shana] Phoebe was an avid animal lover
and an advocate for animal rights.
Once during a Thanksgiving get together,
Phoebe wished her friends
a happy needless Turkey murder day.
Phoebe even created a song
to speak out against factory farming,
and once saying to a group of children
about how animals are killed for food.
♪ Oh, the cow in the meadow goes moo ♪
♪ Then the farmer hits him on the head and grinds him up ♪
♪ And that's how we get hamburger ♪
- [Shana] Number four, Huey Freeman from "The Boondocks".
The animated adaptation of Aaron McGruder's
comic strip of the same name,
"The Boondocks" followed the lives of the Freemans,
Robert and his two grandsons, Huey and Riley,
a Black family that lived
in the white affluent suburbs of Maryland.
The show was widely known for its portrayal
of hot button issues like race and politics,
but it also gave a platform to the topic of vegetarianism.
Throughout the show it was implied
that Huey Freeman was vegetarian.
He was never seen eating meat,
and was known to enjoy a veggie burger or two.
Towards the end of the show's first season,
it was revealed Huey abstained from eating pork.
He even spoke out about how meat is a health hazard.
- Sausage and waffles and fried chicken breakfast lasagna?
- Yep.
- Bacon wrapped chitlin stuffed catfish?
Granddad, you can't serve this kind of food to people.
It'll cause death.
- [Shana] Number five, Spock from "Star Trek".
The Vulcans in the long-running television series
"Star Trek" were an extra terrestrial humanoid species
that resembled humans, with the exception
of their pointed ears and slanted eyebrows, of course.
Although earlier generations had a history of violence,
Vulcans reformed their ways
to be less emotional and more logical.
So it should come as no surprise
that the uber-enlightened species
didn't eat meat, Spock included.
- Number six, Monroe from "Grimm".
NBC's drama series "Grimm" was inspired
by the Grimm Brothers' Fairytales.
And although the shows wolf-like creature Monroe
had animalistic tendencies, eating meat wasn't one of them.
Number seven, Lisa Simpson from "The Simpsons".
Lisa Simpson from the long-running hit show "The Simpsons"
is known for being politically outspoken,
an environmentalist and a staunch feminist.
But she also extends her compassion to animals,
and is an ardent vegetarian.
- It's bad enough they're all eating meat.
They don't have to rub it in my face. (groans)
- [Shana] In an episode entitled "Lisa The Vegetarian"
that aired in 1995 during the show's seventh season,
Lisa bonds with a lamb during a trip to a petting zoo.
She subsequently stops eating meat.
- What's wrong, Lisa?
Didn't you get enough lamb chops?
- I can't eat this, I can't eat a poor a little lamb.
- Lisa, get ahold of yourself.
- This is lamb, not a lamb.
- What's the difference between this lamb
and the one that kissed me?
- This one's spent two hours in the broiler.
- [Shana] When her father host a meat-heavy barbecue party,
Lisa turns to Paul and Linda McCartney,
special guests on the show, for help.
The episode was watched by 14.6 million viewers
when it first aired, it also received critical acclaim.
The episode won an Environmental Media Award
for highlighting environmental issues,
and the Humane Society's Genesis Award
for highlighting animal welfare issues.
Number eight, Aang from "Avatar: The Last Airbender".
Nickelodeon's popular animated television series
"Avatar: The Last Airbender" followed the journey
of 12 year old Aang and his friends,
as they fought to end a war among the world's
four divided nations, the water tribes,
earth kingdom, fire nation, and the air nomads.
Although he was caught up in a war, the last
surviving airbender of his nation abstained from killing.
After spending time with air temple monks,
Aang learned not to cause unnecessary harm to others.
- [Man] Darkness thrives in the void,
but always yields to purified light.
- [Shana] He extended this philosophy
to animals, choosing not to eat meat.
Number nine, Aria Montgomery from "Pretty Little Liars".
In the teen drama mystery thriller series,
"Pretty Little Liars" Aria Montgomery,
one of the show's main characters,
who was portrayed by actor Lucy Hale,
proved she could keep a secret.
Book-smart, artsy and spunky, Aria was known
for being the compassionate one in her group of friends.
And that compassion extended to animals.
Throughout the show it was implied that Aria was vegetarian.
She drinks soy milk, frequented vegan restaurants
and dressed in vegan clothes.
When her friend Jake asked her out on a date to get steak,
she politely declined saying she doesn't eat meat.
Number 10, Shaggy, "Scooby-Doo".
Norville "Shaggy" Rogers in the mystery comedy series
"Scooby-Doo" is a major lover of food.
The character was voiced by the late vegan
and animal advocate, Casey Kasem.
- In here, zoink!
Ghost, let's get out of here.
- [Shana] Kasem later quit the show after being asked
to voice Shaggy in a Burger King commercial.
He returned to the series in 2002,
but only after the show's producers
agreed to make his character meat-free.
In 2019, "Scooby-Doo" returned to the small screen
in a new series about celebrity crossovers
called "Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?"
It featured a number of vegan and vegetarian celebrities,
such as comedian Ricky Gervais,
magician Penn Jillette, Weird Al and Sia.
The latter of which tried to turn Shaggy and Scooby vegan.
- Who wants to be on a stakeout
when we can be hanging with Sia?
- And be vegans.
- Whatever that means.
- Delicious.
- [Shana] Do any of these make-believe characters
inspire you to make a real life change in your diet?
Let's talk about it.
Leave your comments below and join me next week
right here for Top 10 Friday.