Mr. Wizard - A Sad Day for Kids of the 80s
Let me take you back a little bit. About twenty or so years (gulp). Thousands of kids would wake-up, yawn, stretch and make their way to their television sets.
It was the 80s and while we had more television programming to choose from than those who grew up in the previous decades, there was still nowhere near the mess of over-stylized children's programming that there is today. However, we had this new channel that was all about kids. Nickelodeon, it was called. Never "Nick" and, for the most part, way more interesting than Nickelodeon's only competition at the time: The Disney Channel.
We'd turn the dial (still had those then if you had an older set) and find ourselves inside the house of a man who was known as Mr. Wizard. This was before Law and Order: SVU and MySpace. It was innocent and safe and fun. We were all welcome inside Mr. Wizard's home and while we were there, we were going to do something novel: we were going to learn.
Perhaps what was truly fascinating about this was that, not only were we willingly going to absorb the knowledge handed to us by this science wizard, but we wanted to learn. And later on, after the show was over, we'd tell our friends about what we'd learned and even try a few of the experiments ourselves.
I even had my own personal favorite. It involved salt and an ice cube. You see, once you placed the ice cube in a bowl of water, you placed a string on top of the cube. After doing so, you then sprinkled a little salt onto the cube. The salt additive causes the ice to begin to melt and, like magic, you're able to pick up the cube with the string. To this day, whenever I see a salt truck salting the streets (which is rare here in the South), I think of that ice cube.
I'm not the only one who remembers Mr. Wizard fondly. After the news of Don Herbert's passing, sites that are better known for tough talking cyber crowds filled with nostalgic posts from the children of the 80s who had once tuned into Nickelodeon after a nutritious bowl of Fruity Pebbles. Gone (for the most part - there's always a jerk in the crowd) were the snarky quips and quick-witted insults. Digg's own post about the passing of Mr. Wizard quickly filled with memories of the show and how Mr. Wizard made being a geek cool. Members of Ohnotheydidnt, a site better known for its humorous yet sometimes harsh criticism of celebrities, took the news pretty hard as well. The post informing visitors of his passing soon became a living memorial for the children's television host as members of the site posted remembrances of key episodes they had enjoyed. The few YouTube videos that contained clips from the show became a place for fans to remember and comment on the man who had taught them science better than their own elementary school teachers.
Mr. Herbert's own messageboard on Internet Movie Database also filled with sympathy posts including one from his own grandson that detailed how his grandfather hadn't been doing well for quite some time and had grown tired of being attended to by others.
I don't know what Mr. Wizard's scientific take on memories was, but there are certainly many floating around about him tonight. In memoriam of a fixture of my own childhood, here's a look back at the man who made science fun for the Atari and Nintendo generation. Perhaps he's enjoying a nice conversation with Mr. Rogers and Jim Henson right about now.
Mr. Wizard was anti-global warming before anti-global warming was cool:
Lois Lane would have been better as a blonde. Anyways, I think your blog is pretty awesome. I'd be glad to offer you one of my awesome, super soft Geekfitters.com shirts in exchange for a link.
Go here for details:
http://www.geekfitters.com/qxw3mx5.html
Best,
Chris Geek
Posted by: Chris | June 18, 2007 at 03:11 PM