The series was produced by Turner Program Services and DIC Enterprises and broadcast on TBS and in syndication from September 15, 1990, to December 5, 1992.

[2] A sequel series, The New Adventures of Captain Planet, was produced by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc., distributed by Turner Program Services and broadcast from September 11, 1993, to May 11, 1996.

[6][7] It spawned a franchise consisting of eco-friendly toys, comic books, video games, and a public charity to further promote its work.

The power is yours!Each episode is followed by at least one "Planeteer Alert" clip, often connected to the plot, which discusses environmental-political and social-political issues and how the viewer can contribute and be part of "the solution" rather than "the pollution".

Gaia claims to have been asleep throughout the 20th century and to have awakened to a more polluted world than when she was last awake; however, this is contradicted by a flashback episode set in the 1920s in which people receive guidance from her.

In situations that the Planeteers cannot resolve alone, they can combine their planetary powers to summon the titular Captain Planet (voiced by David Coburn[9]), who is Ma-Ti's magnified heart power in the form of a male superhero avatar with blue skin and green hair.

For example, in the episode "Greenhouse Planet", he is summoned while Kwame and Ma-Ti are in space, preventing the energy from their rings from returning to its source and depowering him to a human level.

They endanger the planet through pollution, deforestation, poaching, and other activities that harm the environment in order to gain wealth, land, or power.

[14] In a September 2012 interview with Barbara Pyle and co-developer Nicholas Boxer, it was stated that Hope Island was located near the Bahamas.

In 1993, the show saw a production company switch, changing the title to The New Adventures of Captain Planet (produced by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, which was acquired by Turner in 1991).

During this time, it aired as part of TBS' Sunday Morning in Front Of The TV block, alongside fellow H-B toons SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron and 2 Stupid Dogs.

The opening narration was spoken by David Coburn (Captain Planet) rather than LeVar Burton (Kwame) and, in the final season, was replaced by a rap by Fred Schneider of The B-52's.

The Captain Planet Foundation (CPF) was founded in 1991, when series producer Barbara Pyle negotiated a percentage of the show's merchandising revenue to empower young people.

The concept allowed schools and organizations around the world to present their environmental projects to the Foundation and receive seed money to grow their ideas.

"[21] Diane Holloway from Austin American-Statesman wrote, "The animation is crude and jerky, but the messages are important and clear enough for a 4-year old to understand",[23] while Rebecca Coudret from Evansville Courier & Press said she "wondered if [children] were simply responding to the basic good vs. evil clash.

[25] Reviewing season one in 2012, IGN gave the show a rating of 5 out of 10, describing the animation as "pretty weak" and the stories as "too hokey".

"Population Bomb" (1991) continued the trend of tackling controversial subject matter atypical for a children's cartoon, in this instance the problem with overpopulation.

[29] In the episode, Skumm and one of his rat henchmen brainwashes a local community into thinking the virus can be spread through casual contact and thus causing people to hate and fear a young man, infected with HIV, named Todd Andrews (voiced by Neil Patrick Harris, with his mother voiced by Elizabeth Taylor).

Captain Planet tells the truth about AIDS to the entire basketball team with help from Todd's coach.

Released by Tiger Toys in 1990, the line ran for several years, long enough to tie into the New Adventures series.

A video game based on the series was developed for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Mindscape called Captain Planet.

[30] David Perry and Nick Bruty developed a ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC game using the license, a 3-level shoot 'em up.

Captain Planet appears as a playable character in the fighting game Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion for Nintendo 3DS, Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360.

Turner Home Entertainment originally released VHS tapes of the series, which contained a single episode on each.

[32] This promotional DVD contained the episodes "A River Ran Through It", "A Perfect World", "Gorillas Will Be Missed", and "The Big Clam Up".

Factory under license from Turner and Warner Home Video released a DVD set of the complete first season in the U.S. on April 19, 2011.

Discovery Home Entertainment (through Studio Distribution Services) has released the complete series on a DVD box set, featuring all 113 episodes from both the DIC and Hanna-Barbera seasons.