Ted Turner Was Captain Planet

He may not have had the sweet green flattop/mullet combo haircut, but make no mistake about it: Ted Turner was Captain Planet.

This morning, following the maverick mogul’s passing, Turner is being most-remembered for launching CNN, a 24/7 cable news channel that undeniably changed the media landscape forever. But his contributions go much further and are not limited to the stations that bear his name, like the first “Superstation” TBS and later TNT.

A decade after founding CNN, Turner created the Turner Foundation, which provides grants to support environmental causes. More specifically, the Turner Foundation was established “to protect and restore the natural systems — air, land and water — on which all life depends,” its mission statement reads. The same year, Turner co-created (with Barbara Pyle) the environmental superhero Captain Planet and the animated TV series Captain Planet and the Planeteers; he repurposed that innate trio of Earthly systems into powers wielded by a group of teenagers who really liked recycling.

Captain Planet and the Planeteers was a coproduction between Ted’s Turner Program Services and DiC Enterprises, which ’90s kids will recognize by logo alone (and probably hear the “deek” sound in their heads as they read that sentence). The series, which aired 113 episodes overall from 1990-1996 (if you count The New Adventures of Captain Planet and the Planeteers), sees Gaia (first voiced by Whoopi Goldberg, then Margot Kidder), the spirit of the Earth, totally bail on us because of pollution and overdevelopment and the like. Thanks, Gaia.

Before she leaves us to completely burn, Gaia distributes five powerful rings to four teens (I think) and one child (probably). Kwame (LeVar Burton) from Africa has the power of earth; Wheeler from Brooklyn has the power of fire; Linka from the Soviet Union (later “Eastern Europe) has the power of wind; Gi from Asia has the power of water; and young Ma-Ti from Brazil has the mostly useless power of heart. He also has a monkey. (With “heart,” Ma-Ti can speak to animals, so that’s fun.)

With their powers combined, Captain Planet (David Coburn) shows up to stop the evildoer of the week mid-deforestation, or something like that. That dastardly group loved pollution. Captain Planet may not have been the greatest cartoon of all time — the theme song was a banger — but it meant well and it did good. And that was Ted Turner.

Turner was known to put his substantial money where his substantial mouth was. “The Mouth of the South” (not pro-wrestling manager Jimmy Hart) was a serious land conservationist and the best friend a bison ever had (until they were slaughtered — responsibly I’m sure — and served at a Ted’s Montana Grill). But seriously he did really like those bison.

In 1991 — peak Captain Planet and the Planeteers — Turner won the Audubon medal from the National Audubon Society, a conservation group that really likes birds. In 1997, Turner (with Mike Phillips) established the Endangered Species Fund and Turner Biodiversity Divisions. Turner won the Albert Schweitzer Gold Medal for Humanitarianism in 2001.

Through his Turner Foundation, to-date, Turner has awarded more than $400 million in grants to help us mere mortals do Gaia’s work. With Ted having now passed, the board of directors is comprised of his five children and each of his grandchildren (once they reach the age of 25). By their powers combined, maybe we’re not so doomed.

Turner also famously donated $1 billion to the United Nations. You may know the U.N. as the international organization founded to maintain peace and security across the global that President Donald Trump has unilaterally decided is basically useless.

This is not the future that Turner wanted for us — though he did famously prepare for it. Turner commissioned an infamous “Doomsday Video” for CNN to play when the end of the world comes. In the (very real) footage, a marching band solemnly plays “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” the song that probably doubled as Turner’s Heavenly entrance music on Wednesday.

Hopefully, the rest of us will never have to watch that video for real — and not just because of its low definition and aspect ratio. It is times like these that Turner would want to remind us of Captain Planet’s catchphrase and weekly sign off: “The Power Is Yours!”