Ed Begley's NYC Visit Was A Pedicab Ride From Perfect
by Kent Gibbons -- Multichannel News, 10/19/2009 2:00:00 AM
You know you're a star and in New York City when you see a pedicab with an ad for your show on the back of it — and yet you still can't hail it for a ride.
Ed Begley Jr. and his wife, Rachelle Carson, were in Manhattan last week doing media appearances for their show, Living With Ed, which has shifted to Discovery-owned Planet Green from Scripps-owned HGTV. Season three debuts on Planet Green Oct. 21; Webisodes are on the channel's Web site now.
Begley told The Wire at a dinner (part of the tour) in NoHo last Monday that he and Rachelle loved the ads the network had placed on buses and the bicycle-powered conveyances, and that the couple tried to take a ride in one of the festooned pedicabs. The driver declined, saying another pedicab was ahead in the queue. Begley tried to explain he and Rachelle were on his cab: No use.
So they continued in Begley's favorite transport mode: Walking.
The series is about the actor's recycling, composting, short-showering lifestyle and Carson's less-obsessive adherence to that lifestyle — occasionally she'll drive to a store less than a mile from their Los Angeles home, and suffer a scolding afterward.
Begley said he enjoyed being on HGTV, but the show has more flexibility now to address topics not directly related to the home or garden — a trip to the recycling center, for example. He also said he wasn't that familiar with Planet Green until general manager Laura Michalchyshyn picked up Living With Ed, but since then has become a fan of many of its shows, including Renovation Nation.
Begley and Carson also brought their 10-year-old daughter, Hayden, on the trip, and she pitched Michalchyshyn an idea at dinner: basically, a show about the environment aimed at children. Keep an eye out for that one.
What new wrinkles are in store this season, The Wire inquired? “I offer to take Rachelle to wine country,” Begley said. “She's thinking Napa, Sonoma —wouldn't you? I take her to Lodi.” That's in the San Joaquin Valley, a bit less scenic than the better-known wine regions in Northern California. It offered the chance, though, to visit both a vineyard and a nearby power plant that runs on methane generated from cow manure. Romantic!
Living With Ed is on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. (ET).
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HGTV. 90M homes. 1M viewers every night. Planet Green. 50M homes. ? viewers.
Randy - 10/19/2009 8:35:22 AM EDT
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