For Teddy Rist, charity isn’t about writing a check. Instead, the billionaire hero of NBC’s 8-part drama? “,” which debuts tonight, loves getting his hands dirty, weathering storms and traversing the Nigerian countryside to deliver vaccines to villages in need, James-Bond style. The series is based on the work of real-life moneybags do-gooder Bobby Sager,new dvds to buy, who says losing his anonymity is a fair exchange for spotlighting charitable works. “The show has an opportunity to touch a lot of people,” Sager said to an audience of 245 at the Paley Center for Media Tuesday. British actor James Purefoy, who plays Rist and also attended the event, added Sager’s “,buy online cds;boots-on-the-jungle, eyeball-to-eyeball philanthropy” served as great inspiration for the performance.

But will audiences tune in? Some critics have noted that American for watching a billionaire playboy gallavant around the globe, but if viewers are anything like panel attendee Fay Morley, NBC can breathe a sigh of revief. Said Morely, a 57-year-old teddy-bear maker who used to work with Flying Doctors in Kenya about 20 years ago, “I think ['The Philanthropist'] is a good way to awaken a lot of people.”