When he rides his stationary bike, he generates power that’s stored in batteries in his garage and is used to run everything from the lights to the toaster in his house.
He times — with a timer — his wife, Rachelle Carson, in the shower.
Solar panels aren’t the only thing up on his roof. He got himself a spiffy vertical wind turbine earlier this year.
Actor Ed Begley Jr. is one of Tinsel Town’s most extreme (and amusing) environmentalists — and his eco ways are fodder for public consumption in “Living with Ed,” a docu-soap that premiered on HGTV earlier this year. The show takes viewers inside the green life and green times and very green home of Begley and the not-as-eco-minded Carson, his love/antagonist on the show.
Their digs (they were his digs first; he moved in 1988, years before he and Carson were a couple): a modest, two-bedroom ranch that dates to 1936, located in the very modest Studio City, Calif. (“By Hollywood standards, this is a shack,” Begley said in the first episode. “By world standards, this is a palace.”) Their 7-year-old daughter, Hayden, lives with them.
The show: Catch it at 9:30 p.m. Mondays on HGTV.
1. What is your favorite thing about your home, the reason you bought it? I just liked that it was in this wonderful neighborhood — a very nice ‘Leave it to Beaver’ neighborhood that is one block away from a busy area where there are lots of shops and restaurants. I liked that it was very near to where I was working at the time, which was [then called] CBS-MTM Studios.
2. How would you describe your decorating style? I was a bachelor, so I didn’t have much of a style. Rachelle brought some style in the house. The style is … RACHELLE [he screams to her in the background] HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE OUR STYLE? [She screams back: ‘ECLECTIC.’] Eclectic.
3. Who makes all the major decorating decisions in your household? She does. I defer all that to her. I used to fight her on stuff. And then I realized as long as it worked, obeyed the simple rules of function — the light switch would work when you turn it on — that’s all I care about….There are still issues. Every third time I open the medicine cabinet, stuff falls out. This, to me, is not functional. [Rachelle screams in the background: ‘THEN LET’S REMODEL THE BATHROOM.’ He chuckles.] I can’t get to my razor. I have inches left. I’m going to put police crime tape in the medicine chest. ‘Do not cross this line.’
4. How do you organize and collect your recyclables? It just got much simpler in Los Angeles. It’s a no-brainer. For years, we’ve had something that made it very simple — a blue bin. Everything [went in there and it] used to be No. 1 plastic, No. 2 plastic, aluminum cans, newspaper and other paper products, glass and that’s it. Period. Now, they have accepted all other resins — No. 3, No. 4, No. 5, No. 6 and, I’m told, No. 7 [plastics]. … The blue bin is very large; we roll it out to the curb.
5. What do you want to do greener in your home? Rachelle is upset about the visual blight — she’s upset about the rain barrel [in the yard]. She finds that to be visually unappealing. I find it more visually unappealing to have the people in Lone Pine wearing dust masks because we have taken their water from them. I find it more visually unappealing to have the fish flopping in the mud in northern California because we have taken the water from them. I am about solutions. … That solution [the rain barrel] did not please her. So I’m finding another solution. My new project is to dig a cistern, an underground cistern, that she can’t see in the back yard to allow gravity to take all that wonderful rainwater underground to that cistern. Then you pump it out. You use it to water our plants as needed.
6. One thing we would find on your nightstand: The remote to the television. There’s also the clock and there’s my water.
7. One thing on a wall in your living room: An Ed Ruscha lithograph. He’s a famous California artist. … I bought it a decade ago. It’s [an image of] a Standard gasoline station with an olive suspended in space next to the station.
8. What do you think that represents? Olive oil?
9. One thing in your house from your childhood: I have my dresser, a dresser that I had as a very young man. It was either my father’s or my stepmother’s dresser. It’s in my bedroom.
10. What’s the most high-tech gadget or appliance in your home? My 12.5 kw inverter. That’s in the garage with the batteries [which store electricity produced from the solar panels and wind turbine on his roof and the electricity he produces on his exercise bike].
11. Who’s the maker of your everyday dinnerware? Um. We just have simple stuff, from years ago. Hold on. Let me look at it [he walks to the kitchen]. Port Townsand. It’s just white porcelain. Simply white, dishwasher/microwave safe.
12. Who’s the maker of your fine china? I don’t have any fine china.
13. If you had to save one “thing” from your home, what would it be? Photographs. And my father’s [Ed Begley Sr.’s] Oscar. It’s on the mantel in my office.
14. What is the biggest collection in your home? DVDs. Several hundred.
15. What CD would we find in your player right now? Right now, it’s Tom Waits … “Orphans.”
16. What reading material would we find in your bathroom? I don’t read in the bathroom. I just don’t. I couldn’t read a fortune cookie in the amount of time I spend in the bathroom.
17. What’s the most embarrassing thing in your home that you hide when guests come over? HONEY [he screams to Carson] WHAT’S THE MOST EMBARRASSING THING IN OUR HOME THAT WE HIDE WHEN PEOPLE COME OVER? [She screams back: ‘NOTHING.’] Nothing, that’s the most embarrassing thing … I don’t hide anything.
18. If we came unexpectedly, would we find your bed made — or not made? If you come before 11, it would be unmade. After 11, it’s made. Irma, the housekeeper, makes it. On the weekend, Rachelle makes it.
19. What currently does not function in your house, but you haven’t had a chance to get it fixed yet? Let me think about that. Let me just walk around. I will probably find something. I’m pretty good about taking stuff in. … Oh, the ethernet connection to the back of my computer. I have to use wireless only, because I fried it. I plugged an identical-size plug for some teleconferencing equipment into it and fried it.
20. What would we find in your garage? My bicycle. Begley’s Best non-toxic cleaning products. I have lots of that stocked up in the garage. Batteries and the inverter.
———-
kklages@tribune.com
