6 Fascinating Facts About Mr. Wizard, TV’s Original Science Guy

MR. WIZARD'S WORLD, Don Herbert (right), 1983-91. — ©MTV Networks/courtesy Everett Collection

The children’s educational series Watch Mr. Wizard — which ended its original NBC run 60 years ago, on June 27, 1965 — introduced countless TV viewers to the wonders of science. And that’s a credit to its host, the charismatic Mr. Wizard a.k.a. Don Herbert.

Mr. Wizard’s televised science experiments were popular with kids but also older viewers, as the Peabody Awards noted in 1953 when it bestowed one of its honors on Watch Mr. Wizard: “The judgment of these older persons is further confirmed by the hundreds of commendatory letters received each week from teachers, P.T.A. groups, scientists, and others; and by the five thousand Mr. Wizard Science Clubs that are an outgrowth of this program in 42 states, Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, and the District of Columbia.”

Herbert died in 2007 at the age of 89, but not before returning to screen in Nickelodeon’s Mr. Wizard’s World in the ’80s — and becoming such an icon in the process that he received his own Saturday Night Live parody. Read on for fun facts about this educator to the masses.

1 After five years, Mr. Wizard clubs had more than 100,000 members

In 1956, about five years after Watch Mr. Wizard’s debut, the aforementioned Mr. Wizard Science Clubs had a total membership of more than 100,000 people, Marcel Chotkowski LaFollette reported in the book Science on the Air: Popularizers and Personalities on Radio and Early Television. LaFollette added that Herbert “embodied the new hybrid science host” after planning to be a science teacher and then becoming a radio actor earlier in his career.

2 He had an Electric connection with Ronald Reagan & acted alongside Nancy Reagan

As actor and future U.S. President Ronald Reagan hosted the anthology series General Electric Theater on CBS between 1953 and 1962, Herbert appeared as the “General Electric progress reporter,” according to The Boston Globe. Herbert urged viewers to “live better electrically” — through GE appliances, of course.

That TV show wasn’t Herbert’s only connection to the Reagan family, though. In 1939, as a young actor growing up in Wisconsin, Herbert shared the Coach House Summer Theater stage with Nancy Davis, who’d later marry Ronald and become First Lady Nancy Reagan, according to Herbert’s website.

3 David Letterman invited Mr. Wizard to his first-ever Late Night show

When David Letterman started hosting Late Night on NBC in 1982, he invited Herbert as a guest for the very first episode. (Late-night television being late-night television, Herbert’s 15-minute science lesson in that episode took a dirty turn, as Rolling Stone reported.) In other TV guest appearances, Herbert joined Johnny Carson, Regis Philbin, and the panelists of Hollywood Squares.

4 Beakman’s World and Smash Mouth both name-dropped Mr. Wizard

Beakman’s World, a children’s science TV show that aired in the 1990s, began and ended with South Pole-set scenes featured two penguin puppets that were named Don and Herb in honor of Herbert, according to The New York Times.

The rock band Smash Mouth also gave Herbert a shout-out. In the third verse of its 1997 hit song “Walkin’ on the Sun,” the band asserted that “Mr. Wizard can’t perform no godlike hocus-pocus” to fix the world’s ills. And many music fans heard that reference: “Walkin’ on the Sun” hit No. 2 on Billboard’s Radio Songs chart and stayed on that chart for 60 weeks.

5 Bill Nye credited Mr. Wizard with inspiring the scientists who won the Space Race

Bill Nye, who followed in Herbert’s footsteps as a TV science communicator, honored his predecessor in a 2007 obituary for the Los Angeles Times. “Herbert’s techniques and performances helped create the United States’ first generation of homegrown rocket scientists just in time to respond to Sputnik,” Nye wrote. “He sent us to the moon. He changed the world.”

After recounting Herbert’s career, Nye added, “If any of you reading now have been surprised and happy to learn a few things about science watching Bill Nye the Science Guy, keep in mind, it all started with Don Herbert.”

6 A U.S. Congress resolution honored Mr. Wizard

In 2007, following Herbert’s death, the U.S. House of Representatives honored him with House Resolution 485. In the text of that resolution, the House “expresses its appreciation for the profound public service and educational contributions of Donald Jeffry Herbert, recognizes the profound impact of higher educational institutions that train teachers, and encourages students to honor the heritage of Don Herbert by exploring our world through science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields.”