A John D. MacDonald novel was the source material for A Flash of Green. Ed Harris plays a reporter for a Florida resort-town newspaper. His best friend is shady county-commissioner Richard Jordan. When Harris shows signs of sympathizing with a local ecology group that is dead set against a new land-fill development, Jordan tries to keep the editor quiet with a bribe. At first, Harris acquiesces, but rapidly develops a conscience when Jordan enlists a local right-wing terrorist group to keep the ecologists in line. A secondary plot involves Harris' romance with Blair Brown, an affair tainted by the fact that Harris' wife lies comatose in the hospital. Thanks to its pro-eco stance, A Flash of Green was financed by and telecast as an edition of PBS' American Playhouse.