From another 'Planet'

It looks like a spaceship full of relatively minor television stars crash landed on Planet Green, Discovery's environmentally-themed cable channel.
Former host of "Dinner and a Movie," occasional star of silver screen and geek siren Annabelle Gurwitch now presents "Wa$ted," an American recasting of a Kiwi television show, which helps households curb their environmentally damaging habits.
Highlight so far: her getting into the shower to talk about water conservation.
Aging rocker Tommy Lee mugs for the camera on the horribly conceived "Battleground Earth," in which he vies for all in his musical genre for green bragging rights with rap's Ludacris.
(One TV critic wondered if there was a reason that the show's title was reminiscent of "Battlefield Earth," that L. Ron Hubbard science fiction book starring John Travolta dramatized into easily one of the worst movies ever made.)
Genial home renovation show host Steve Thomas has made the move from PBS' "This Old House" to Planet Green's "Renovation Nation."
The title to this show doesn't scream environmental awareness to me, but the point is that Thomas travels the country dropping in on and lending a hand to projects that install different greentech systems like heat and air, water use and power generation into homes.
While it makes people aware of some green options to those who are considering doing some work on their homes, "Renovation Nation" suffers from a lack of personality.
These kinds of lifestyle show often fall into the rut of "here's the problem, here's how we're going to tackle it," commercial break, "here was the problem, here's how we are handling it," commercial break, and, finally, "this was the problem, here's how we solved it."
It's a little didactic and dry, in other words.
Emeril "Bam" Lagasse brings the cooking entry to Planet Green's lineup, of course, trying to show people how to spice up their uninspired and humdrum sustainable diet.
And then there's Ed Begley Jr., Hollywood's long-established preachy environmentalist who hasn't had a regular acting gig since the 1980s with hospital melodrama "St. Elsewhere."
Begley's show follows the travails of his long suffering wife putting up with the actor's enviro-consciousness.
Believe me, no one wants to be caught in the same room with the TV tuned to "Living with Ed."
Probably the biggest star involved in a project for the network is movie star Leonardo DiCaprio, who from behind the scenes produces the show "Greensburg."
May there never be another place like it, this Kansas city has decided to "go green" after being almost completely wiped out by a violent twister that tore through the Midwest's "tornado alley" in May 2007.
"Greensburg" concentrates on the city's struggle to tame the wind into a benefit as a source of power, encourage homes and businesses be rebuilt with efficiency and energy conservation in mind, educate the populace in green matters and replacement of public facilities in compliance with the highest Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, standards.
This show offers, for one thing, a first-class civics lesson in demonstrating how a local government operates. This is precisely the reason why my wife and fellow reporter can't stand to watch — it reminds her too much of work.
"Greensburg" also manages to be a frank discussion of environmental issues, as green doubting Thomases talk to the camera about why they don't support the city hall's agenda.
Even enthusiastic "greenies" have their concerns, like the Kansas Extension agent who committed to rebuilding with the very efficient foam block forms filled with concrete.
Sitting down after a day of doing the interior framing because the cost of materials took all their reconstruction money to go over their balance sheet, the agent admits to his wife that he thinks it will take their whole budget to accomplish, even with doing the work themselves.
Environmental buzzwords like "climate change" come up tangentially in discussions, such as the idea that climate change will probably cause more frequent and more severe tornados like the one that made Greensburg disappear in the first place.
The show is a slice of life of the people who are trying to make good decisions and get on with their lives after a devastating disaster, and trying to do so with as much stewardship of the planet's resources as possible.
"Greensburg" has something the rest of Planet Green's lineup lacks: gravitas.
Programmers no doubt had a suspicion that viewers would find environmental issues unpaletable without some entertainment value thrown in.
Don't want to turn off audiences by trying to share simple facts and/or good information, after all.
But will even the most hardcore Motley Crue fan care if Lee, say, smashes or recycles his empty vodka bottles? Probably not.
The real life drama of the Kansas folks picking themselves up after a tornado is a lot more compelling. 
Planet Green should shoot the stars back into space and make more room for some quality television.