Planet Green Unveils Slate Additions

SILVER SPRING: A mix of original series, specials and high-profile acquisitions lead off Planet Green’s fall lineup, which will be complemented by short-form content on its companion site at PlanetGreen.com. 

Living with Ed, which chronicles the eco-friendly adventures of actor Ed Begley, Jr. and his wife, heads into its third season on October 21. Making its premiere on December 3 is Ultimate Power Builders, about engineering mega-structures that are environmentally friendly. In the way of acquisitions, Planet Mechanics premieres September 8. The show follows two mechanics who are using art and science to create energy efficient projects. Coolfuel, premiering September 8, follows adventurer Shaun Murphy as he travels across the U.S. in vehicles that run on anything but gasoline. The 100 Mile Challenge asks six families in British Columbia to consume only food and drinks produced within a 100-mile radius for 100 days. The show premieres October 12, while the following day sees the debut of Nature, Inc., about the ripple effect of what goes on in the global ecosystem. Rounding out the acquisitions is World’s Greenest Homes, with a January 2010 debut. The show puts the spotlight on eco-dwellings. Specials include Toxic Files, unraveling medical mysteries symptom by symptom, and Around the World in 90 Minutes (working title), which looks at what’s going on around the globe through a series of HD images. 

In a network first, Planet Green is launching four short-form series this fall on PlanetGreen.com. The episodes will vary in length from 60 seconds to 90 seconds, and are created in a variety of formats, from animation to personal interviews. Each will have subsequent airings on the linear channel.  The original series are Bea Wildered (working title), an animated project about a 30-something female who is clueless on the eco-awareness movement; City Shorts (working title), which looks at how the government of Cairo, Egypt is revolutionizing its technologies, transportation and infrastructure; Twigsy (working title), about a woman trying to be more environmentally conscious in a world that doesn’t always make it easy; and The Elementalists (working title), profiling a broad range of individuals doing their part to protect the world. 

A pilot on Planet Green’s slate is Buffalo Warriors (working title), about the issues with free roaming buffalo in the great American plains. Series in development include the tentatively titled series Eco Crime Investigators, about bringing to justice crimes against trading in illegal animal by-products; Bake & Destroy, about the owners of the nation’s first certified organic bakery; Beekman Farm, about a cosmopolitan couple who gave up life in the big city to launch their own organic lifestyle brand; and Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, following the team in the Florida Everglades as they protect the wildlife within their borders. Also in development are The Kamen Code (working title), about inventor Dean Kamen, a self-made millionaire who is dedicated to saving the world, and The Last Beekeeper (working title), looking at the human impact of the phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder. The tentatively titled Windcatchers is on the development slate as well. The series examines the wind industry and megawatt-producing turbines. 

Celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse, host of Planet Green’s Emeril Green, will be serving up 20 new half-hour episodes and three hour-long specials this season. The specials are Grillin’ with Emeril and a special from Vermont and another from California. Airing Mondays on Planet Green, Emeril Green helps real people solve cooking problems by using fresh and organic sources of food to promote a healthier lifestyle. 

For its Real Impact documentary block, Planet Green has added five titles. The two-hour block kicks off in September with the TV premieres of The Last Beekeeper and A Sea Change. The strand will also present Leonardo DiCaprio’s The 11th Hour, An Inconvenient Truth and Who Killed the Electric Car? New titles to be added are Big River Man, about a larger-than-life Slovenian who swam the entire length of the Amazon river; H2Oil, looking at Canada’s oil sands; Inheritances: A Fisherman’s Story, about a man standing against multinational corporations; Recipes for Disaster, about the consequences of the world’s dependence on oil; and Split Estate, focusing on how citizens in the Rocky Mountains are affected by the unregulated energy industry that is drilling right in their own backyards.