Planet Earth

About

Planet Earth is a 2006 British nature documentary TV series produced by the BBC and starring English broadcaster and naturalist David Attenborough as the narrator. Upon its premiere in March 2006, the series was met with critical acclaims for the quality and size of its production value, particularly its use of cutting-edge digital photographic and filmmaking technologies to capture a wide range of habitats on Earth, including the Antarctic and Arctic regions, mountains, caves, deserts, jungles and deep ocean, among others.

History

The Blue Planet

The concept for the episodic nature documentary TV series was largely inspired by the successful reception of The Blue Planet, BBC's universally acclaimed 2001 TV series on the natural history of the world's oceans, which was directed by British nature documentary producer Alastair Fothergill and narrated by British broadcaster Sir David Attenborough. Upon its premiere, The Blue Planet was hailed as "the first ever comprehensive series on the natural history of the world's oceans," featuring rare footage of creatures that had never been filmed before. The series would later be followed up by 2017's Blue Planet II.

Production

In January 2002, Alastair Fothergill and BBC One formally agreed to produce a similar TV series based on The Blue Planet formula, only with a larger scope looking at the entire planet. Over the next five years, the production crew travelled around the world to explore and document some of the most mesmerizing footage of wildlife creatures and ecosystems. Overall, the production of the series cost $25 million.

Broadcast

The series, which consisted of eleven one-hour long episodes, premiered on BBC One on March 5th, 2006 and ran for nine months before the airing of its finale on December 10th, 2006. Five years in the making, it was the most expensive nature documentary series ever commissioned by the BBC and also the first to be filmed in high definition.

Planet Earth II

In 2013, BBC announced the production of a sequel series under the working title One Planet, which was later changed to Planet Earth II. The show made use of several cutting-edge technologies in wildlife photography, including ultra-high definition (4K), digital image stabilisation, remote recording and aerial drone technology. The series aired from November 6th to December 11th, 2016.

Reception

UK Viewership

Coupled with its placement in the Sunday primetime slot and a successful marketing campaign, the series was met with a record-setting viewership in the UK; the first five episodes drew an average audience of 11.4 million viewers, with the pilot episode being watched by more people than any natural history TV series since The Blue Planet. According to the BBC's 2007 Annual Report, the series "received the highest audience appreciation score of any British programme on TV" for that year.

International Viewership

Upon its U.S. premiere on The Discovery Channel in March 2007, Planet Earth enjoyed equally impressive ratings, popularity and critical acclaims, ultimately reaching more than 100 million viewers in total and becoming "the most watched cable event of all time." In addition, the series was sold to and syndicated by over 150 channels around the world.

Online Presence

Planet Earth maintains numerous official websites run by major broadcasters of the series, including BBC One^[16], BBC Earth^[17], The Discovery Channel^[15] and PBS Nova^[18], as well as BBC Earth-branded social media accounts on Twitter^[20] and Facebook.^[21] In addition, the original series in its entirety is available for instant watch on a wide range of premium video streaming services, including Hulu^[23], Amazon Prime^[24] and YouTube.^[19]

Fandom

GIFs

Following its online syndication via streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu, the critically acclaimed cinematography of the series has been often celebrated through sharing of animated GIFs on Tumblr and elsewhere online.

Parodies

Following its UK and international broadcast between 2007 and 2008, various scenes from Planet Earth became a popular source material for parodies on YouTube. On January 24th, 2008, Max Goldberg uploaded an audio-dubbed parody of Planet Earth titled "Fuck Planet Earth," featuring a voice over narration imagining the internal monologues of various animals as they struggle to flee their predators for survival (shown below, left). In the following six years, the video garnered nearly 1.5 million views. On October 13th, 2008, New York City-based collective Olde English Comedy uploaded a two-part audio-dubbed parody of Planet Earth featuring an irreverent voice over narration delivered in the style of David Attenborough (shown below, right). In the next six years, Olde English Comedy's parody videos garnered nearly 1.4 million views in aggregate.

Snoop Dogg's Plizzanet Earth

On July 1st, 2014, Jimmy Kimmel Live unveiled a new segment titled Plizzanet Earth which parodies Planet Earth by replacing Attenborough's narration with an original voiceover provided by American hip hop recording artist Snoop Dogg. Over time, the segment became so popular that an online petition asking Animal Planet and Discovery Channel to commission an entire season of the series with narration by the rapper was created on Change.org.

#TrumpNarratesPlanetEarth

On November 15th, 2016, a week after Donald Trump became the president-elect of the United States and two days after the BBC premiere of Planet Earth II, parodies of Sir David Attenborough's voiceover reimagined in the style of Trump began trending under the hashtag #TrumpNarratesPlanetEarth on Twitter.^[12]

Search Interest

External References