Captain Planet

Captain Planet’s 20th Anniversary

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Can you believe it’s been 20 years since Captain Planet debuted in 1990? Way to make me feel old.

Well, it’s time to start gearing up for September 15, 2010, or “National Captain Planet Day” as I like to call it. There is a website and everything, so you know it is official. You’re going to especially want to check out the retro videos from the original Captain Planet launch, including Mayim Bialik from Blossom and Jodie Sweetin from Full House talking about how excited they are about the show.

You know, I guess i was on the older side for Captain Planet. I remember even at the time thinking, “This is kind of heavy handed in the lessons department for me.” But I still watched it and I still liked it. And I can still sing the song, these 20 years later.

“EARTH!”
“FIRE!”
“WIND!”
“WATER!”
“HEART!”

“Go Planet!”

“By your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!”

Captain Planet, he’s our hero
Gonna take pollution down to zero

He’s our powers magnified
And he’s fighting on the planet’s side

Captain Planet, he’s our hero
Gonna take pollution down to zero

Gonna help him put asunder
Bad guys who like to loot and plunder

“You’ll pay for this Captain Planet!”

We’re the Planeteers
You can be one too
‘Cause saving our planet is the thing to do!

Looting and polluting is not the way
Hear what Captain Planet has to say!

“The Power is Yours!”

Link via Sara.

LeVar Burton

/ Shane / 5 Comments

Now, it goes without saying that everybody loves LeVar Burton.

I haven’t spent much time contemplating LeVar Burton, that is, until this weekend.  Now when you mention LeVar Burton, certain characters come to mind.  For me it is Reading Rainbow (side note, did you know that was still on until 2005?) but I couldn’t fault you of thinking of Roots or Geordi La Forge from Star Trek: The Next Generation, in which he was best known for wearing a hair clip on his face:

Think about that, three different genres, three different iconic characters (well Reading Rainbow wasn’t a character, but still).  Most actors work their whole lives and never have one iconic show or character they are identified with.  But, did you also know he was on Captain Planet?  He was one of the planeteers!  Who knew?  (Incidentally, he was Kwame, a.k.a. Earth) Sure that is not as famous as the other three, but it is another different genre and certainly recongizeable to people of my generation.

This reminds me of something I’ve said about Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger.  5 Mr. Universe titles and 7 Mr. Olympia titles, the definitive action star, and governer of the most populous state.  He has reached the pinacle of three totally different careers!  In any one of those careers, people toil their entire lifes and never get to the top.

Now, I haven’t seen LeVar in anything else recently.  If you look at the timeframes, he was doing Star Trek, Reading Rainbow and Captain Planet simultaneously, so maybe he is taking a well earned break. Or maybe you jerks in Hollywood are ignoring this wonderful actor, this master of his craft, and stereotyping him into one of his many successful characters.  You want to talk about range?  Come on!  He’s not just one thing, living on the characters of his past!

That being said, here is the reason I was thinking about him.  It is a video of him singing the Reading Rainbow theme song at Diggnation in L.A.

And, what the heck, just for completion’s sake:

EDIT: I watched an episode of The Soup which aired before I wrote this, and who should randomly turn up but LeVar Burton?  I guess his publicist must be pushing him to get out there more and it must be working, since I wrote a blog post on it…