MNN - Mother Nature Network

In 1990, Ted Turner created the world's first eco-hero and named him Captain Planet. Learn how the series came to be.

 

Ted Turner: We started the Cartoon Network or were in the process of doing it and I said, you know, there ought to be a cartoon series that has some meat on the bones. And I said, "We need a super hero for the Earth." And I came up with a kind of Superman-type, Superman-, Batman-type character who was green and really, we decided at that point, I got a woman named Barbara Pyle, who worked with me in the environmental area, and I got her involved and she and a fellow named Nick Boxer really produced the show. They took it to the next steps. But I came up for the idea of Captain Planet. We had to have a name for him, and Superman wouldn't do it — it was already taken. So Captain Planet was a good name. There is a lesson and message as well as great entertainment in every episode. I was an environmentalist when I was a little kid — the natural world fascinated me. I was reading books before I could read, looking at the pictures of animals and flowers.