American TV series or program
Planet Earth
Genre
Nature documentary Narrated by
Richard Kiley Composers Jack Tillar and
William Loose Country of origin United States Original language English
No. of episodes 7 Executive producer Thomas Skinner Producer Debbie Glovin Running time 57 minutes (Total 399 minutes approx.) Production company
WQED Pittsburgh Network
PBS Release January 22 (1986-01-22 ) – March 5, 1986 (1986-03-05 )
The cover of Planet Earth , the companion book to the series by
Jonathan Weiner published in 1986.
Planet Earth is a seven-episode 1986
PBS television documentary series focusing on the
Earth , narrated by
Richard Kiley .
Planet Earth explores
geoscience and how discoveries of the early and mid-1980s were revolutionizing mankind's understanding of the Earth's past, present, and future. It also highlights scientific discoveries not yet fully understood and still under study in the mid-1980s. The series explores the Earth's origins, history, and structure; the forces that operate continually to alter its surface; its oceans; its climate; its
natural resources ; its
biosphere and the effects of life on the physical world; its relationship to the
Sun and other bodies in the
Solar System ; and its possible future in the face of pressures the growing human population places on the natural world.
[1]
The
BBC used the same title for its
2006 series , but the two series are completely unrelated and quite different in focus and content.
Production
Produced by
WQED in
Pittsburgh ,
Pennsylvania , in association with the
National Academy of Sciences as the centerpiece for a college-credit telecourse,
[1] Planet Earth was filmed over a period of four years on all seven continents and from the ocean bottom to earth orbit.
[1] The
Annenberg/CPB Project and
IBM funded production of the series.
[2] It enjoyed success in its original run, airing weekly on Thursday evenings on PBS from January 22 to March 5, 1986.
[3]
A companion book to the series written by
Jonathan Weiner , also entitled Planet Earth , was published in 1986 by
Bantam Books . Both the series and the companion book sometimes are marketed as Our Planet Earth in an attempt to avoid confusion with the 2006
BBC series
Planet Earth .
Some footage shot for Planet Earth later also was used in the 1992 PBS series
Earth Revealed .
Critical reception and awards
In January 1986,
Los Angeles Times critic Lee Margulies praised Planet Earth as "serious, but not dry" and credited it for its vivid filming of natural scenery, use of computer graphics, and achievement of depicting ongoing scientific research of the early and mid-1980s as "challenging, interesting, and worthwhile."
[1]
Planet Earth was the co-winner of the 1985-1986
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series or Special, sharing it with Laurence Olivier - A Life , a multi-part biography of
Laurence Olivier that aired on the PBS series
Great Performances that season.
[3]
Episode list
"The Living Machine" (aired January 22, 1986 ) – The episode discusses
plate tectonics and
geologic time , highlighting the work of
James Hutton ,
Alfred Wegener ,
Harry Hess ,
Allan V. Cox ,
Brent Dalrymple ,
Frederick Vine , and
Drummond Matthews , and discussing how
geologists study layers of rock to read billions of years of the Earth's history. Topics covered include
radiometric dating ,
seafloor spreading ,
magnetic field reversals ,
earthquakes ,
volcanism ,
subduction , and
hotspots , how
continents grow through
accretion , how
geophysicists study the interior of the Earth and what they have discovered, the theory of "microplate tectonics," how computer simulations have recreated the effects of
continental drift on the world's
geography over time from the prehistoric supercontinent
Pangaea to the world of today, and how plate tectonics may have shaped the
migratory behaviors of some animals. In addition to showing scientists studying the
Kilauea
volcano in
Hawaii and using the research
submarine
Alvin to explore the
Atlantic Ocean 's
Mid-Atlantic Ridge , the episode visits the
Grand Canyon ;
Scotland 's
Arthur's Seat ,
Salisbury Crags , and
Siccar Point ;
California 's
Owens Valley and
San Andreas Fault ;
New Madrid ,
Missouri ; and
Ascension Island .
"The Blue Planet" (aired January 29, 1986 ) – The episode discusses major new revelations about the
oceans . Topics covered include the movement of water in the ocean, such as
ocean currents and
eddy fields , and the effect of newly discovered ocean water dynamics on human activities such as
yacht racing ; the causes and effects of
upwellings ; the use of
satellites to track
plankton growth from space and the use of plankton maps created from such information to advise the crews of
commercial fishing vessels on the best places to fish; the effect of the
El Niño phenomenon on the world's weather; the discovery by scientists employing deep-sea research submersibles of previously unknown life forms living in the ocean's midwater zone; the use of
sonar to make
hydrographic surveys of the ocean bottom's
topography ; the study of cores of ocean bottom sediment to study the
chemistry of, temperature of, and array of life present in the ocean in the past; and
hydrothermal vents and the life that depends on them. The episode follows the first
oceanographer in space,
Paul Scully-Power , as he makes the first oceanographic reports ever made from space while aboard the
Space Shuttle
Challenger ; visits the
Gulf Stream , the
National Center for Atmospheric Research in
Boulder ,
Colorado , the waters of the
Southern Ocean off
Antarctica and the
Antarctic Circumpolar Current , the
Goddard Space Flight Center in
Maryland , the
National Marine Fisheries Service 's Southwest Fisheries Center in
San Diego , California, the
Exxon Production Research Company in
Houston ,
Texas , and
Baffin Bay ; and makes dives in a
bathysphere into the ocean's midwater zone and with the
United States Navy research submersible
Sea Cliff to the bottom of the
Pacific Ocean .
"The Climate Puzzle" (aired February 5, 1986 ) – The episode examines the complexities of the Earth's
climate . It explains how life adapts to extremes in climate and how changes in the climate have doomed past civilizations; the use of lake sediments,
stalagmites , and cores of the ocean bottom and of
polar ice to detect and track ancient changes in the Earth's climate; the
Little Ice Age and
Louis Agassiz 's work in discovering the
ice ages ;
Milutin Milanković 's ideas about how the
Earth's motions can trigger changes in climate; the contrast between the climates of
Venus , Earth, and
Mars and the possibility of Earth's climate one day becoming like that of Venus or Mars; modern civilization's release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, carbon dioxide's role as a
greenhouse gas , and the possible effects of
global warming on
sea levels ,
storm surges ,
droughts and
desertification ,
famine , temperatures, and
green plant growth;
plate tectonics ,
seafloor spreading ,
subduction ,
continental drift , and the role of
volcanism in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels;
methane 's role as a greenhouse gas and the influence of
termites on
atmospheric methane levels; computer modeling of the prehistoric atmosphere and the climates resulting from it as it changed over time; and the possibilities for Earth's future climate. The episode visits the
dry valleys and
ice rivers of
Antarctica ; the site of the
Harappan Civilization in the
Rajasthan Desert on the
Indian subcontinent ; northern
New Zealand ;
Switzerland ;
Barbados ;
Columbia University in
New York City ; the
Hudson Valley in
New York ;
Vostok Station ; the Institute of Glaciology in
Grenoble ,
France ; the
Mauna Loa Observatory in
Hawaii ;
Venice ,
Italy ; the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado; and Colorado's
Lake Pueblo State Park .
"Tales from Other Worlds" (aired February 12, 1986 ) – Using
special effects and actual footage from space to illustrate other worlds in the
Solar System , the episode discusses the connections between the Earth and the
cosmos . Topics include the formation of the Solar System, the Earth, and the
Moon ; the formation of
impact craters and how study of the Moon's surface helps us understand the early history of the Earth; the surface of
Venus as it appears beneath the planet's
acid rain clouds and what it tells us about the early Earth before the beginning of
plate tectonics ; the surface features of
Mars , evidence that water once flowed there, and the possibility that life once existed there; how the planet
Jupiter is actually a failed
star and the features of its atmosphere; Jupiter's moons
Callisto ,
Ganymede , and
Europa , and the volcanoes of Jupiter's moon
Io ;
Saturn ,
Uranus ,
Neptune , and the
Oort Cloud ; the theory that a large impact on the Earth caused the extinction of the dinosaurs; and the hypothesis that a hypothetical star dubbed "
Nemesis " is responsible for a 26-million-year cycle of
mass extinctions on Earth. The episode visits the
Allan Hills of Antarctica;
Meteor Crater in
Arizona ; the
NASA Ames Research Center in
San Francisco ,
California ; the
Arecibo Observatory in
Arecibo ,
Puerto Rico ; the
Lowell Observatory in
Flagstaff , Arizona; the
Scablands of eastern
Washington ;
stromatolites in
Western Australia ; a
quarry in
Utah ; and the town of
Gubbio ,
Italy ; and discusses the work of
Gene Shoemaker ,
Peter H. Schultz ,
Percival Lowell ,
Walter Alvarez , and
Jack Sepkoski .
"Gifts from the Earth" (aired February 19, 1986 ) – The episode focuses on the Earth's
natural resources , including
minerals such as
copper ,
gold ,
silver , and
platinum ;
fossil fuels such as
petroleum ,
coal , and
peat ; and
soil . It examines how deposits of minerals and fossil fuels form; how soil forms, is
eroded , and is distributed by the
wind ;
river deltas ;
oil exploration and
oil drilling ; the development of an airborne
imaging spectrometer aboard a
C-130 Hercules aircraft; how scientists use studies of the Earth's mineral and energy sources to analyze the history of
plate tectonic movement and
continental drift , and how our understanding of plate tectonics has revolutionized the search for natural resources. The episode visits the
Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems at the
Carnegie Museum of Natural History in
Pittsburgh ,
Pennsylvania ; ancient
copper mining sites on
Cyprus ; the kuroko mines of
Japan ; deep-sea
black smokers off the coast of
Mexico in a dive aboard the research
submersible
Alvin ; the
Kid Creek Mine in northern
Canada ; the
Bushveld Complex in
South Africa ; the
University of Toronto in
Toronto ,
Ontario , Canada;
Hawaii ; western
Tennessee ;
Benares , the
River Ganges , and the
Ganges Delta in
India ; the
Mississippi Delta in
Louisiana ; a
cedar
swamp in the process of forming a
peat bog in
Maine ;
offshore oil platforms in the
Atlantic Ocean off the coast of
Newfoundland ;
Sudan ; the
NASA Ames Research Center in
San Francisco ,
California ; the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena , California; and the
Cuprite Hills of
Nevada .
"The Solar Sea" (aired February 26, 1986 ) – The episode explores the Earth's relationship with the
Sun . It discusses ancient religious beliefs involving
Sun worship ; the disappearance of the
Anasazi culture in what is now the
Four Corners region of the western
United States ; the influence of the Sun on
climate ,
weather , and
ocean currents ;
sunspots , their causes and cycles, and the
Maunder Minimum ; how the use of
carbon dating in the study of
tree rings reveals the history of solar activity; a possible correlation between solar activity and
droughts ; how an investigation by
geologists into a 700-million-to-800-million-year-old rock record of sun activity in an ancient lake bed demonstrates the consistency of solar activity patterns over time; early instruments for calculating the movements of the Sun and stars, such as
sundials ; early and modern
telescopes ;
spectrums and the
spectrograph ;
Fraunhofer lines ; solar telescopes aboard
Skylab ;
solar oscillations ; the
solar wind and its effect on the Earth's
magnetosphere and
magnetic field ; the
aurora borealis ;
solar flares and
solar proton events ; and the
ozone layer and its importance in blocking the Sun's
ultraviolet radiation . The episode visits
Benares and the
River Ganges in
India ; the
pyramids of
Egypt ; the
Mayan temple at
Chichen Itza on
Mexico 's
Yucatán Peninsula ;
Mesa Verde National Park in
Colorado ; the
Hale Library in
Pasadena ,
California ; the
University of Arizona in
Tucson ,
Arizona ;
South Australia ;
Jaipur ,
India ;
Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona;
South Pole Station in
Antarctica ;
Sacramento Peak Observatory in
New Mexico ; the
Poker Flat Research Range in
Alaska ; and the Space Environment Service Center in
Boulder , Colorado; and highlights the work of
George Ellery Hale ,
Jack Eddy ,
Walter Maunder ,
Christopher Scheiner ,
Murray Mitchell ,
Galileo Galilei , and
Isaac Newton .
"The Fate of the Earth" (aired March 5, 1986 ) – The episode explores the role of life in shaping the Earth and discusses the planet's possible future. It discusses the first
hydrogen bomb test and the recovery of the environment from its effects; the
Gaia hypothesis ; the beginning of life on Earth and the possibility that it began in
tide pools ; the way the first
cells may have formed; the discovery of the earliest fossil
bacterium ;
stromatolites ; the
carbon cycle ; how
chitons can chew away entire islands while feeding; the destruction of
rain forests , their
pharmaceutical value, and a study of how much of a rain forest must be preserved to protect its species; the
atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan , during
World War II ; how the aftereffects of a
nuclear war could create a "
nuclear winter ;" the
Lucky Dragon incident and the
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ; the pressure human population increases are placing on the Earth; work to improve
agricultural outputs to feed the growing human population; the use of
satellite imagery to study world
vegetation patterns and the expansion of the
Sahara Desert ; and humanity's future challenge of managing the world's resources both to meet civilization's increasing demand for energy and feed the growing world population while living in harmony with the Earth. The episode visits
Eniwetok Atoll ;
Dedham ,
England ;
North Pole and
Shark Bay in
Western Australia ;
Kilauea in
Hawaii ;
Palau ; the
Amazon Basin ; the
National Center for Atmospheric Research in
Boulder ,
Colorado ;
India ; the
International Rice Research Institute in the
Philippines ; and the
Goddard Space Flight Center in
Maryland , and highlights the work of
James Lovelock ,
Stanley Awramik ,
Michael McElroy ,
Thomas Lovejoy ,
Brian Toon , and
Stephen Schneider .
References
External links
Awards for Planet Earth
Informational Series (1978, 1981–1997) Informational Special (1978, 1981–1997) Informational Program (1979–1980) Informational Series or Special (2013–2019) Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special (2020–present)
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