Season 1 • Episode 1
LatestWatch Mr. Wizard was an American television program for children that demonstrated the science behind ordinary things. The show's creator and on-air host was Don Herbert. Marcel LaFollette said of the program, "It enjoyed consistent praise, awards, and high ratings throughout its history. At its peak, Watch Mr. Wizard drew audiences in the millions, but its impact was far wider. By 1956, it had prompted the establishment of more than five thousand Mr. Wizard science clubs, with an estimated membership greater than one hundred thousand." It was briefly revived in 1971, and then in the 1980s was a program on the Nickelodeon children's television network as Mr. Wizard's World.
Production
Kitchen-table experiments that actually worked—mostly.
Writing
Explaining combustion to children without liability waivers.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This show essentially invented the 'science communicator' archetype that Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson would later inherit.
Those 5,000+ Mr. Wizard clubs were basically 1950s STEM pipeline programs—predating modern science education initiatives by decades.
US
