OCEAN — A new Chedd-Angier-Lewis broadcast series

OCEAN is a new series about the world’s oceans, in development for PBS — and it’s not just another doom-and-gloom TV show; it’s about people solving problems.

Each episode will feature gorgeous locations, fabulous wildlife, and some of the most interesting, innovative people you’ve ever met.

Two thirds of the globe is ocean. And while most people are just starting to hear about problems with overfishing, pollution, coral reef troubles, and the like, a far-flung group of unsung heroes—marine biologists, fisheries scientists, and conservationists worldwide—are already hard at work inventing, devising, and implementing solutions.

By focusing on those solutions, we’ll help our viewers understand both what the problems are and the vision forward.  Viewers will come away informed and inspired.  And the OCEAN Web site will let them transform inspiration into positive steps of involvement.

The series is composed of half-hour episodes, tailored to the weekend and early evening broadcast slots in which public TV stations customarily schedule “how-to” or cooking or travel shows.  By aiming at these relatively plentiful slots, our intention is to build OCEAN into a long-running, frequently-scheduled strand that programmers will come to depend on.  We’re looking for all the air-time we can get for the world’s oceans.

Marine biologist and acclaimed author Carl Safina of the Blue Ocean Institute is on-camera host for OCEAN.

As of the end of 2007 the pilot episode is funded and in production, with filming scheduled for Belize in Central America and Zanzibar in East Africa.