This is not so much a pop-culture WI as it is a general cultural/social what if.
If you were a child or teenager in the late 80s and early 90s in the United States there is almost no possible way you were not somehow aware of the giant edutainment cheeseball that was Captain Planet. Ted Turner kicked off the show with the intent of raising awareness of environmental issues and one could argue it may have had some impact but for the most part it is remembered for cartoonishly over the top villains as one would expect for a kid's Saturday morning cartoon show.
But what if Ted Turner decides to take a bigger risk on Captain Planet and his main motivation is genuinely to make a show that inspires children across the US to be more involved and interested in the environment and ecology? What if he hires a writing staff that is capable of presenting these issues in a way that kids can understand and follow in the format of a 30 minute animated show and the show is perceived, not as the somewhat cheesy over the top example of 90s animation that it is OTL, as surprisingly intelligent and thoughtful in the vein of Sesame Street (since really there's no other show in the time that fits what I have in mind that I can think of) with a run of say six seasons? What potential butterflies could you see coming from this?
And for the challenge part:
Is there a crew out there who could actually pull it off who would be well-known enough to be tapped for the project?
If you were a child or teenager in the late 80s and early 90s in the United States there is almost no possible way you were not somehow aware of the giant edutainment cheeseball that was Captain Planet. Ted Turner kicked off the show with the intent of raising awareness of environmental issues and one could argue it may have had some impact but for the most part it is remembered for cartoonishly over the top villains as one would expect for a kid's Saturday morning cartoon show.
But what if Ted Turner decides to take a bigger risk on Captain Planet and his main motivation is genuinely to make a show that inspires children across the US to be more involved and interested in the environment and ecology? What if he hires a writing staff that is capable of presenting these issues in a way that kids can understand and follow in the format of a 30 minute animated show and the show is perceived, not as the somewhat cheesy over the top example of 90s animation that it is OTL, as surprisingly intelligent and thoughtful in the vein of Sesame Street (since really there's no other show in the time that fits what I have in mind that I can think of) with a run of say six seasons? What potential butterflies could you see coming from this?
And for the challenge part:
Is there a crew out there who could actually pull it off who would be well-known enough to be tapped for the project?