Boomerang to Celebrate Earth Day With CAPTAIN PLANET Marathon, 4/22

In observance of Earth Day, Boomerang, Turner Broadcasting System's commercial-free home of classic animation, called upon the Captain Planet Foundation - dedicated to give the next generation of environmental stewards an active understanding and love for the natural world in which they live - to hand-pick 28 episodes to be presented in a 14-hour Captain Planet marathon on Sunday, April 22. The Earth Day celebration will begin at 6 a.m. (ET), showcasing favorite episodes from each season of the series throughout the day, including the pilot episode, "A Hero for Earth," at 8 a.m. Additionally, should viewers wish to enjoy more of the original 72 half-hour episodes created for the series, Captain Planet and the Planeteers airs each day of the week, Monday-Sunday, on Boomerang at 6 a.m.

"Captain Planet is an exciting, adventure-filled series that communicates to kids how important our planet is and that we need to take care of it," says Stacy Isenhower, senior vice president of programming and scheduling for Cartoon Network and Boomerang. "Presenting a full-day marathon of Captain Planet to celebrate Earth Day is our way of supporting this worthy cause."

In an effort to inform younger viewers about serious environmental issues, legendary cable entrepreneur Ted Turner partnered with DIC Enterprises in 1990 to create the world's first animated environmental series, Captain Planet and the Planeteers. The half-hour series was about a group of young people (The Planeteers) who combine their special individual powers (given to them by Gaia, the Spirit of the Earth) to summon Captain Planet, an environmental superhero, to battle the world's worst eco-villains.

Captain Planet follows the adventures of five young Planeteers from five different continents as they fight to save our planet from a variety of polluting perpetrators. Using magic rings given to them by Gaia, the spirit of the earth, these five teenagers (Kwami, Wheeler, Linka, Gi and Ma-Ti) each possess supernatural powers - Earth, Fire, Wind, Water and Heart - that when combined summon Captain Planet to prevent environmental disasters and save the world.

Captain Planet and the Planeteers originally aired domestically and internationally in syndication and on cable networks TBS and TNT. Six full seasons of the series were produced in the original run of the series, featuring the voice talents of multiple guest celebrities, including Whoopi Goldberg (Gaia), Meg Ryan (Dr. Blight), Martin Sheen (Sly Sludge), Edward Asner (Hoggish Greedly), James Coburn (Looten Plunder), Dean Stockwell (Duke Nukem) and Sting (Zarm). Winning multiple Environmental Media Awards across its production, Captain Planet and the Planeteers also scored several Daytime Emmy nominations.

Highlights of the Captain Planet marathon include:

· "Trouble on the Half Shell" - 6 a.m.: Hoggish Greedly and Verminous Skumm are shipwrecked on one of the Galapagos Islands, where some of Skumm's mutated rats start stealing eggs from an endangered tortoise nest. The eggs soon also are contaminated by pollutants, and hatch a new breed of aggressive mutant tortoises, which threaten to wipe out the ecosystem. With the help of JASON, a robot remote-controlled by a kid at a New York museum, the Planeteers and Captain Planet must put an end to the destruction.