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Remembering Ted Turner through Captain Planet
The media mogul and co-creator of Captain Planet will be dearly missed. He was 87 years old.
Ted Turner passed away on May 6, 2026, at the age of 87. He was the founder of Cartoon Network, CNN, TBS, and much more, but despite his legacy as a high-achieving media mogul, Ted Turner wanted to be remembered as an environmentalist.
A huge achievement in Turner's environmental activism was Captain Planet and the Planeteers, a show he created with the hope of educating and inspiring young people to help save the environment.
In an interview with the LA Times, Turner said: "If watching the series inspires even one viewer to begin reversing this process (of environmental destruction), then we are that much closer to environmental preservation for future generations.”
In 1989, Turner began his environmental efforts with The Turner Tomorrow Fellowship, a literary contest for unpublished authors to write fiction offering positive solutions to environmental problems. The prize was $500,000, and at the time was the largest cash award for a single work of fiction. Turner hoped that literature could engage the public on environmental issues and solutions. Around this time, he also created an environmental unit for CNN and TBS to focus on environmental news stories and documentaries, which is how he met Captain Planet co-creator, Barbara Pyle.
Turner chose Pyle to be the vice president of environmental policy at TBS. She then hired Nick Boxer, who would later serve as Captain Planet's co-producer. They nicknamed their department the Turner Environmental Division, or TED. Other executives at Turner were reportedly confused by the department's existence; green corporate initiatives were not common in the '80s.
TED did not bring in money or ratings, but Ted Turner saw the potential in making a difference through television and, eventually, cartoons.
In an interview with Slate's Decoder Ring podcast, Boxer recalled, "Ted said at one point, you know, today's children are the ones who are going to inherit the problems. They're the ones who are going to have to save the planet."
In his autobiography, Call Me Ted, Turner wrote about his mindset when he created Captain Planet, "Kids were attracted to cartoons, and I got the idea that we should make one that would teach them about the environment. I thought it would make a lot of sense to reach children early and help them understand their role in taking care of our planet."
He wanted to create an environmental cartoon, a superhero for Earth who could save the day while also encouraging kids to make a difference in their communities. Thinking of Superman, Batman, and other beloved superheroes, Turner finally reached a name for his hero for Earth: Captain Planet.
Turner met with Pyle and gave her the assignment: create an environmental show for kids and call it "Captain Planet". There had never been an environmental children's television show before, ever. Despite having only a two-word pitch from Turner, Pyle and Boxer were excited to develop a show focused on empowering children to save the planet.
Once Pyle and Boxer had a script and storyboards, Turner turned to Marcia Goodman, senior vice president of talent at the animation company, for casting and made it clear: this cartoon is a priority, and it needs star power. Suddenly, the cast of Captain Planet included certified A-listers like Meg Ryan, Rita Moreno, Whoopi Goldberg, Jeff Goldblum, Elizabeth Taylor, and many others. Even Tom Cruise was jonesing to play Captain Planet, but couldn't due to scheduling conflicts.
The cartoon came together, and at the premiere, Turner gave a speech imparting his high hopes for the impact of the series, saying, "Hopefully, this program will make a big difference...Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope that Captain Planet and the Planeteers can save the planet."
The impact of Captain Planet is still felt today, years later. Turner wrote in his autobiography, "The show did well on our networks, but most importantly, it really did teach kids a lot of valuable lessons. Today, when I speak to younger, college-age audiences, I ask them to raise their hands if they ever watched Captain Planet, and I'm amazed that so many hands go up. It was gratifying to make a series that kids enjoyed while also learning valuable lessons. Captain Planet made me much more interested in being a bigger player in children's programming."
Outside of Captain Planet's impact on the world at large, producing the show left an impact on Ted Turner himself, who now saw the power of the world of animation. He purchased Hanna-Barbera Studios in part to help continue producing Captain Planet, and the Hanna-Barbera library is what really made Turner's next big project possible: Cartoon Network. Ted Turner's work with Cartoon Network empowered a new age of television animation, but he also saw this new network as having an important role in preserving the iconic pre-1950s cartoons from Hanna-Barbera, MGM, and Warner Bros.
Turner's passing was announced by Turner Enterprises and a family spokesperson on May 6. He will be missed and remembered fondly for his tireless environmental activism.
