Living With Ed: Hollywood Dreams And A Recycled Milk Carton Fence

Ed Begley, Living With Ed, green movement, eco-friendly, Global Warming, environment, environmentalism, Hollywood, Cheryl Tiegs

At least reality TV makes our house look bigger.

There’s an episode of Living With Ed where we go over to Cheryl Tiegs’ house. It’s stunningly gorgeous...Cheryl, in all sincerity, asks me, 'Well, how do you guys heat your pool?'

Rachelle Carson-Begley , Hollywood

Date Posted: 12/05/07

Reader Rating:

Living with Ed isn't always glamourous, but it's always green, and that makes a happy home, says Hollywood actress Rachelle Carson-Begley, who is married to Ed Begley, six-time Emmy-nominated actor and one of the original environmentalists. When Ed first cracked out the solar panels in the late 80s, Rachelle thought he was crazy. Fast forward past the Me Generation and Rachelle found herself moving into Ed's "frat house" and living off the grid. Rachelle says she's a little envious of Cheryl Tiegs' pool, but at least she's living guilt-free and loving Ed. Tune into Living With Ed on HGTV.

Living With Ed is very much home and the way we live. Everyone asks me if I’m freaked out to have my home opened up on reality TV. I guess I should be, but we’re actors. Plus my house looks bigger on TV, and that’s great! We have a very small house.

I wasn’t always a greenie, but it’s ironic that I wasn’t, because my father named me after Rachel Carson, who was really the first environmental writer in the 50s and 60s.

As the 60s and 70s progressed, I started to notice pollution. The air was terrible. For my first month of being in LA, I was sick because of the smog. Over the years the air in LA got progressively better, but only because it had hit this critical mass. I was very sensitive to it and I started saying, “This is wrong.” I just knew this was an issue.

When I moved to Hollywood from New York in the 80s, of course it was the Me Generation and the landscape was very self-involved, much as it is now. Bigger was better, more was better, bigger cars, bigger cars…big consumption all around.

At that time, the whole world was getting their careers going, and while socio-political issues like women’s rights et cetera were being talked about, the environment was way on the backburner and low on the totem pole.

I moved to Canada from LA in the early 90s, and I was very impressed with the environmental code there. Canadians were ahead of the curve. It occurred to me then how precious the world was, and I started to get into more outdoors things, like skiing and what have you.