NBC Green Week

So, NBC has completed its "Green Week" in which many of their shows offered tips on how to become more conservative in our energy usage and help preserve our environment. Before I go any further, let me give a quick disclaimer: I consider myself to be just as green as the next guy (yay Prius!), but I am far from a "tree hugger". With that being said, from what I saw on NBC, the whole green-thing seemed to be more of a mockery than a movement. Perhaps this is due to my choice in shows (Chuck, Heroes, and the Thursday night line up) being mainly comedies. A few examples for you:

Chuck - Casey, the wise-cracking, gruff NSA agent, is confronted by a Stanford student with a plant a tree flyer. His response is to rip the flyer from the student's hand, crumple it up and retort with something along the lines of "Take a shower, you dirty hippie!". Hilarious? Yes. Promoting a green mindset? Not exactly.

30 Rock - David Schwimmer plays an actor that becomes a bit obsessed with the eco-friendly character, Greenzo, that he is hired to portray as a corporate shill for GE appliances. The result is him going off the deep end and ultimately talking about composting his own feces (ew). The show ended with a cameo by Al Gore claiming to hear a whale crying out for help while in the background a crazed Greenzo accidentally sets ablaze a smiling globe. Global warming brought about by a crazed environmentalist? That's interesting...

My Name is Earl - Earl is asked to do a scared straight program and incorporate green ideas into it because that's the popular thing to do nowadays. Alright...

Scrubs - JD attempts to destroy a hybrid with a trashcan (aahh eco-irony). Later in the show he and his brother get in the car and cannot figure out how to turn it on, obviously because a hybrid vehicle is too complicated for the ordinary American ::rolls eyes::

Then there were shows that I did not watch but caught mention of either in previews or elsewhere. For instance all of the models on Deal or No Deal wearing green (because that is the color of money?) and riding bikes from their trailers to the studio or some soap opera having all of their actors don "Save the Earth" slogan t-shirts.

All in all, I'd have to say that while the shows were funny, the whole Green Week thing came off mostly as a farce. So next time NBC, when you promote something over and over for weeks prior and try to make a statement, just make sure you are making the intended one.