With all the renewed concern over global warming and the environment, there's likely a sizable number of viewers interested in learning how to live green, or greener, but this is not the show to instruct them.

“Ed,” whose second season premieres on Monday at 10:30 after a preview on Sunday at 10, doesn't really work on an instructional level, or for that matter on a home-improvement level, and for all the clever chitchat between Begley and wife Rachelle Carson, the show’s host and narrator, "Ed" is not particularly entertaining.

As an actor, Begley can be quite engaging, bringing both dry humor and genuine pathos to his Dean O’Dell on “Veronica Mars” last season. But as a reality series personality, while certainly amusing, he's not magnetic enough to compensate for the series' limitations, which include a done-on-the-cheap feel.

Here's a big one. In the season premiere, most of the recommended home changes are discussed but never actually implemented onscreen. We’re told what can be done but we don’t actually see it happen.

That may be because of a tight production schedule or because of the program’s budget.

Regardless, it diminishes the impact. A critical part of any home improvement show is marveling at the before and after. On "Ed," we see the before but are called upon to envision the after, and it doesn't work.

There's another equally important element to all home improvement shows: feeling good. The homeowners are invariably overjoyed with their bettered lives, and the viewer feels the rub-off effect, sharing in their joy, even when the makeover might not have been what they would have chosen.

"Ed" lacks feel-good.

The show's experts advise the homeowners that most of their environmentally responsible fixes will save them money in the long run but will be costly short-term. It's a known fact, no denying it.

Well, what if you can't afford those more costly improvements? What homeowner wants to feel like he's destroying the planet because he can’t afford solar panels or a new hybrid car?

As the new season opens, Begley and Carson are off to make over two homes, one belonging to a friend, former supermodel Cheryl Tiegs, the other to the Cerones, a family of four.

Tiegs is already pretty green. Her gorgeous home in the hills already employs some compact fluorescent bulbs, plus she has two hybrid cars. But she’s up for more of Begley’s suggestions, from solar panels to wind power.

But we can only imagine them. Does that mean she’ll have windmills on her property? We never find out. We get the before, with the after left for another time.

What makes it all the more frustrating is that Tiegs can afford it all, a total, futuristic house to amaze and marvel over, with money no object.

Not so the Cerones, a far more typical American household, where everything is evaluated on cost, particularly major projects. Begley brings in two experts to do a green audit, a vaguely menacing-sounding process that determines how eco-friendly the dwelling is and how to make it more so.

The experts are knowledgeable but they exude a judgey air, and Lisa Cerone comments on how she feels inadequate just watching them evaluate the place. Indeed, the show projects a vibe suggesting everyone ought to embrace all the recommended changes and feel guilty if they do not.

That's not a good vibe. Regardless of how much people may want to save the planet, not everyone can afford multiple hybrids or solar panels, and no good comes from making them feel guilty about it.

Viewers can be expected to have the same reaction as Cerone, and out there in TV land, where Hollywood meets real America, the Cerones far outnumber the Tiegses.