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Eco-friendly Captain Planet makes a comeback on Internet
Superheroes never die -- they just come back on the Internet.
So it seems, anyway, for the 1990s eco-warrior Captain Planet and his sidekicks, the Planeteers.
According to publicists, full-length, vintage episodes of the "environmental cult classic" will return -- starting today -- as a Web only series on the newly launched Mother Nature Network, billed as an "Earth-first Web site."
Today's episode is the original show, which introduced the characters and the concept of protecting the earth ecosystem in a cartoon.
Among a dozen Northeast Ohio enviros asked about the show, a handful risked exposing their geekiness.
Kevin Skerl, an ecologist for the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, said he only "checked it out" while in graduate school:
"My initial reaction was that it was an eco-centric combination of the Wonder Twins ( who touched magic rings and said "Wonder Twin powers, activate!" to shapeshift) from the 1970's Super Friends show and the 1980's Voltron (the large robot warrior which was composed of five smaller vehicles that joined together)."
"Captain Planet even had that Superman-like voice quality which exuded authority."
Bill Zawiski of the Ohio EPA's Northeast Ohio District was more succinct: "I have a Captain Planet tee shirt which I still wear to work."
The cartooon -- which some have called environmental edutainment -- was created Ted Turner and Barbara Pyle (the first member of the media to receive a United Nations Environment Prize) and slugged it out on Saturday mornings with other kids fare like "Pee Wee's Playhouse" and "Muppet Babies" -- both also still alive and well in a Youtube world, or with their own Internet site.
The original Captain Planet series ran from September 1990 until December 1992. A sequel -- The New Adventures of Captain Planet -- was back from 1993-'96.
The show had an all-star voice cast, including Martin Sheen as bad guy Sly Sludge and first Whoopi Goldberg and then Margo Kidder as Gaia (Greek earth goddess).
A typical episode summary, found on web site tv.com for the 1996 season, went like this:
Greed Is the Word Aired: Saturday February 24, 1996
Engines are revving up for a giant speedboat race through the Florida waterways. Unfortunately, the race threatens the endangered manatees who live in these backwaters. As usual, the Planeteers try putting to stop the eco-catastrophe. Only, this time they get some unlikely help from Wheeler's favorite TV stars, Danny Dazzleduff and Belinda Bubblebutt from Babe Watch, when they discover that Hoggish Greedly is behind a plan to get rid of the manatees
Some of those episodes are still being shown on TBS, but now "classic episodes" will be released every other Wednesday on the website.
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/02/captain_planet_makes_a_comebac.html
Superheroes never die -- they just come back on the Internet.
So it seems, anyway, for the 1990s eco-warrior Captain Planet and his sidekicks, the Planeteers.
According to publicists, full-length, vintage episodes of the "environmental cult classic" will return -- starting today -- as a Web only series on the newly launched Mother Nature Network, billed as an "Earth-first Web site."
Today's episode is the original show, which introduced the characters and the concept of protecting the earth ecosystem in a cartoon.
Among a dozen Northeast Ohio enviros asked about the show, a handful risked exposing their geekiness.
Kevin Skerl, an ecologist for the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, said he only "checked it out" while in graduate school:
"My initial reaction was that it was an eco-centric combination of the Wonder Twins ( who touched magic rings and said "Wonder Twin powers, activate!" to shapeshift) from the 1970's Super Friends show and the 1980's Voltron (the large robot warrior which was composed of five smaller vehicles that joined together)."
"Captain Planet even had that Superman-like voice quality which exuded authority."
Bill Zawiski of the Ohio EPA's Northeast Ohio District was more succinct: "I have a Captain Planet tee shirt which I still wear to work."
The cartooon -- which some have called environmental edutainment -- was created Ted Turner and Barbara Pyle (the first member of the media to receive a United Nations Environment Prize) and slugged it out on Saturday mornings with other kids fare like "Pee Wee's Playhouse" and "Muppet Babies" -- both also still alive and well in a Youtube world, or with their own Internet site.
The original Captain Planet series ran from September 1990 until December 1992. A sequel -- The New Adventures of Captain Planet -- was back from 1993-'96.
The show had an all-star voice cast, including Martin Sheen as bad guy Sly Sludge and first Whoopi Goldberg and then Margo Kidder as Gaia (Greek earth goddess).
A typical episode summary, found on web site tv.com for the 1996 season, went like this:
Greed Is the Word Aired: Saturday February 24, 1996
Engines are revving up for a giant speedboat race through the Florida waterways. Unfortunately, the race threatens the endangered manatees who live in these backwaters. As usual, the Planeteers try putting to stop the eco-catastrophe. Only, this time they get some unlikely help from Wheeler's favorite TV stars, Danny Dazzleduff and Belinda Bubblebutt from Babe Watch, when they discover that Hoggish Greedly is behind a plan to get rid of the manatees
Some of those episodes are still being shown on TBS, but now "classic episodes" will be released every other Wednesday on the website.
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/02/captain_planet_makes_a_comebac.html
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I used to have the action figures, the Planeteers came with their own ring that you could wear. 
