Community service as a TV theme

NEW YORK AND LOS ANGELES — Discerning television viewers may notice a recurrent theme on their favorite shows this week. The doctors on ABC's "Private Practice" give homeless teenagers free checkups. On NBC's "30 Rock," page Kenneth Parcell tries to adopt all the dogs at an animal shelter. And two characters on CBS' "Numb3rs" talk about joining Big Brothers Big Sisters.

The outpouring of volunteerism is no coincidence. The story lines were developed for iParticipate, an industrywide initiative aimed at urging viewers to give back to their communities. Spearheaded by the Entertainment Industry Foundation, one of Hollywood's major charitable organizations and the force behind last year's "Stand Up to Cancer" telethon, the project has been embraced at an unprecedented level by the networks, studios and stars.

More than 100 programs on ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and cable networks such as Nickelodeon and Lifetime will spotlight community service, either through explicit story lines or public service announcements featuring actors such as Emily Deschanel, Eva Longoria Parker and Rainn Wilson.

The message will be nearly ubiquitous, starting in the morning with programs such as "Today" and "The View," and then echoed on soap operas, prime-time series and late-night shows.

"We thought we'd have 20 or 30 programs involved," said Lisa Paulsen, chief executive of the EIF. "It's just caught on like wildfire."

But while the project has found widespread support in Hollywood, its dovetailing with President Obama's call for national service has fueled suspicion in some conservative circles that iParticipate is an effort to prop up left-wing causes.

Twitter users have posted messages complaining that the initiative is an abuse of the public airwaves. Writers on the blog Big Hollywood, part of the conservative news portal Breitbart.com, noted that the iparticipate.org's database of volunteer opportunities includes postings from Planned Parenthood and groups focused on ending global warming. (The database -- powered by a nonprofit Web platform called All for Good, designed by engineers from Google and other tech companies to be a single search interface for volunteers -- also includes listings for anti-abortion organizations and the conservative group Tea Party Nation.)