The 50th anniversary of Earth Day may be a more solitary, indoor affair this year.
If so, TV will try to fill the void with lots of Earthly films. They range from gorgeous Disney films (shown here) to urgent Earth-in-crisis films. Highlights include:
BROADCAST NETWORKS
– PBS. On Earth Day (Wednesday, April 22), it debuts “Climate Change: The Facts” at 8 p.m. and “H20: The Molecule That Made Us” at 9.
– ABC. On Saturday, (April 25), it reruns “Born Wild: The Next Generation,” at 8 p.m. Hosted by Robin Roberts, that will air live Wednesday on the Disney and National Geographic channels.
CABLE (all times ET; for National Geographic, Nat Geo Wild and BBC America, it’s three hours earlier PT)
National Geographic
– “Wild Congo,” “Wild Yellowstone,” Wild Japan,” 9 a.m. to noon; they repeat at 2:03 a.m.
– “Jane” (2017), noon. Documentary about Jane Goodall.
– “Before the Flood” (2016), 2 p.m. Leonardo DiCaprio film, with a global look at climate change.
– “Photo Ark Compilation,” 4 p.m. A photographer’s project to document the world’s animals.
– “Galapagos,” 5-8 p.m.
– “Born Wild: The Next Generation” debuts, 8 p.m.
– “Jane Goodall: The Hope” debuts, 9 p.m.
– Then: “Born Wild reruns at 11:03 p.m., “Jane Goodall: The Hope” at 12:03 a.m.
Nat Geo Wild
The evening line-up is the same, from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.; earlier, however, the schedule includes:
– “The Last Lions,” noon.
– “Yellowstone Wolf Dynasty,” 2 p.m.
– “Born in Africa,” 3 p.m.
– “Rare: Creatures of the Photo Ark,” 4 p.m.
– “Elephant: King of the Kalahari,” 5 p.m.
– “Kingdom of the Blue Whale,” 6-8 p.m.
Disney Channel
In addition to nature-themed episodes of regular shows, it has two lush DisneyNature films originally shown in theaters. The evening line-up:
– “Monkey Kingdom,” 3:50 p.m. Filmed in Sri Lanka, it includes warm scenes, plus some surprising moments of tribal violence among the monkeys.
– “Penguins” (shown here), 5:15 p.m. It has some of the intriguing behavior that made the previous “March of the Penguins” a success.
– Then: “Monkey Kingdom” reruns at 6:35 p.m.; “Born Wild: The Next Generation” debuts at 8; “Penguins” reruns at 9.
BBC America
– “Planet Earth: Enchanted Kingdom,” 8-10 a.m. Idris Elba narrates a look at Africa.
– “South Pacific,” 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
– “Planet Earth II,” 3-9 p.m., repeating from 11 p.m. to 5 a,m.
– “She Walks With Apes” debut, 9-11 p.m. This focuses on three women who did pioneering studies of chimps and apes; they are English (Jane Goodall, 86), Canadian (Birute Galdikas, 73) and American (the late Dian Fossey). It also views subsequent generations of female researchers.
Discovery
– “Serengeti,” 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
– “The Story of Plastic” debut, 2-3 p.m.
– “Expedition Unknown,” 8 p.m. Josh Gates hosts an Earth Day edition.
– “The Great Global Clean Up,” 10 p.m. Zac Efron views efforts worldwide.
– Also: The “Expedition Unknown” special and “Clean Up” rerun at midnight and 2 a.m.
STREAMING
– Disney+ has all the DisneyNature films. That includes the two showing Wednesday on Disney Channel, plus 11 more.
– Smithsonian has just debuted “Last Call for the Bayou,” a five part series based in Louisiana, on www.smithsonianchannel.com and on its YouTube, Facebook and Instagram channels.
– Apple TV+ recently debuted “Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth,” a 35-minute animated film about a family on Earth Day.
– There’s more on Britbox, Acorn, Netflix, Hulu, Britbox, pbs.org and beyond.