Show Business: The Greening of Hollywood

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Hollywood's challenge is to entertain as it informs. This fall TBS will introduce children to the cartoon villain Dr. Carbon on Captain Planet. Producer Paul Witt (Golden Girls) is developing a three-hour all-star "practical guide to saving the planet"; Witt hopes all three networks will air it simultaneously. In September a medley of pop stars will shoot Yakety Yak, a music video about recycling. Its refrain: "Yakety yak, take it back."

Two new groups will prod show people toward making environmental awareness as crucial a part of their scripts and songs as boy meets girl. The Environmental Media Association, a clearinghouse for save-the-earth societies, is fronted by such heavyweights as Disney Chairman Michael Eisner, Creative Artists Agency President Michael Ovitz, MCA President Sid Sheinberg, and Lear, who with his wife Lyn was a group founder. At the letter-stuffing level, the Earth Communications Office is targeting the few thousand actors, writers, producers and directors whose work reaches billions of people. In seminars and trips, ECO will educate creative folk on earth-shaking issues.

Skeptics note that, unlike campaigning for abortion rights or fringe political causes, environmental activism offers no career risk. "It's a nonpartisan issue," says Heal the Bay co-chair Ellen Gilbert. "What's the other side -- a dirty ocean?" Others suspect that the glamour do-gooders will lose interest or be unable to give up gas-guzzling cars and private planes. Bonnie Reiss, executive director of ECO, disagrees: "This is a people's movement, and we're beginning with the wealthy and privileged people of Hollywood."