Watch Mr. Wizard

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"Mr. Wizard" redirects here. For the personality known by the name, see Don Herbert.
Watch Mr. Wizard

Opening titles
Genre Educational
Starring Don Herbert
Production
Location(s) Chicago, Illinois, USA
Running time 30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel NBC
Original run 1951 – 1972
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Watch Mr. Wizard was a United States television program for children in the 1950s, a general science experiments show, that explained the science behind ordinary things. It was briefly revived in 1971, and then later in the 1980s as a program on the Nickelodeon children's television network as Mr. Wizard's World.

Contents

[edit] 1951-1965: Original series

Watch Mr. Wizard first aired on NBC on March 3, 1951 with Don Herbert as Mister Wizard[1]. In the weekly 30 minute show Don Herbert played a science hobbyist, and every Saturday morning a neighbor boy (Jimmy) or girl would come to visit. Mister Wizard always had some kind of laboratory experiment going that taught something about science. The experiments, many of which seemed impossible at first glance, were usually simple enough to be re-created by viewers.

One example was Mr. Wizard's use of a small axle and two wheels from a toy car or truck to illustrate the refraction of light when crossing the boundary between two transparent media having different refractive indices. He placed the axle, oriented horizontally, at the top of a sloping board having surfaces with two different coefficients of friction, meeting at an angled straight line. As the axle rolled down the incline, one wheel encountered the surface with the different coefficient of friction first. That wheel then started rolling at a different speed, which caused the axle to rotate away from horizontal. It was a wonderful mechanical analogy that made understanding the effect of convex and concave lenses intuitive.

The show was very successful; by 1954 it was broadcast by 91 stations. Mr. Wizard Science Clubs were started throughout North America, numbering 50,000 by 1965. The show moved from Chicago to New York on September 5, 1955, and had produced 547 live broadcasts by the time the show was canceled in 1965. The show was cited by the National Science Foundation and American Chemical Society for increasing interest in science, and Herbert won a Peabody Award.

[edit] 1971: Canadian-produced revival

The show was briefly revived by NBC from September 11, 1971 through September 2, 1972 as Mr. Wizard, based on 26 shows produced in color in Ottawa, Canada at the CJOH-TV studios. The series was legally considered Canadian content despite the American origins of the series and its host. CBC Television carried these episodes within Canada.

[edit] 1983-1990: Mr. Wizard's World

Mr. Wizard's World

Opening credits
Genre Educational
Starring Don Herbert
Composer(s) Paul Zaza
No. of episodes 78
Production
Producer(s) Fern Field
Location(s) Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Running time 30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel Nickelodeon
Original run 1983 – 1990
Chronology
Preceded by Watch Mr. Wizard
External links
Official website
IMDb profile

Mr. Wizard's World, a faster-paced version of the show developed by Don Herbert, was shown three times a week on the cable channel Nickelodeon. Once again, the revival was produced in Canada (this time in Calgary). The show produced 78 episodes from 1983 until 1990, and continued to run thereafter as reruns. It also had an Ask Mr. Wizard segment where Mr. Wizard answered questions sent in by viewers. Episodes of Mr. Wizard's World were re-aired in 2005 on the digital cable channel The Science Channel.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Watch Mr. Wizard: Still Crazy (for Science) After All These Years. Interview With Don Herbert. Education Digest. Ann Arbor: October 1994. Vol 60. Iss. 2: pp.68-71.
  1. ^ Watch Mr. Wizard Retrieved on December 2, 2007

[edit] External links