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Goodbye, Mr. Wizard

Posted 13 Jun 2007 in education, pop culture

I was sad to see this on the news this morning.

Don Herbert, who unlocked the wonders of science for youngsters of the 1950s and 1960s in the United States as television’s Mr. Wizard, died on Tuesday at his home in the Bell Canyon section of Los Angeles. He was 89.

The cause was bone cancer, his son-in-law Tom Nikosey told The Associated Press in confirming the death.

Herbert held no advanced degree in science, he used household items in his TV lab, and his assistants were boys and girls. But he became an influential showman-teacher on his half-hour “Watch Mr. Wizard” programs, which ran on the NBC network from 1951 to 1965. Millions of youngsters may have been captivated by Howdy Doody and the Lone Ranger, but many were also conducting science experiments at home, emulating Mr. Wizard.

“Watch Mr. Wizard,” which was aimed at youngsters between 8 and 13, received a Peabody Award in 1953 for young people’s programming.

More than 100,000 children were enrolled in 5,000 Mr. Wizard Science Clubs by the mid-1950s.

After his children’s program went off the air, Herbert remained a presence in TV science programming with general-audience shows like “How About” and “Exploration.” NBC revived “Watch Mr. Wizard” for one year in the early 1970s. In the 1980s, Herbert reprised his children’s shows with “Mr. Wizard’s World” on the Nickelodeon cable network. He became something of a TV celebrity beyond his lab as a guest of talk show hosts Johnny Carson, David Letterman and Regis Philbin, and as a panelist on the game show “Hollywood Squares.”

Working in shirtsleeves on his TV laboratory set, Herbert aroused the curiosity of children in an informal way that turned sometimes-arcane scientific conceptions into fun.

Exactly. And while I never turned that love of science into a career, Mr. Wizard helped create in me a love of learning and a way to understand things which might have eluded me otherwise. Rest in peace, sir.

Posted by FullMetalPatriot
12th gen. American, Constitutionalist, Harley-riding Texan, gun owner & NRA member, blogger, illustrator, Florida Gator alumnus. #TCOT

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