While majoring in English in college, Don Herbert acted in summer playhouse theater. He joined the US Air Force during World War II, became a B-24 pilot, and flew 56 bombing missions over Europe. When the war was over, Herbert came home and got involved in performing again. While writing, acting, and directing radio shows, he came up with the idea of putting on a live TV show featuring scientific demonstrations. This was during a time when most of the programming for children were cartoons.
Who Was Mr. Wizard?
Unlike other science shows, Herbert’s was fun
Herbert said “Our primary objective in putting the show together was to have fun exploring some stuff in science.” He used the word science because he thought the term physics was too intimidating.
In 1951, Chicago’s NBC affiliate broadcast the first episode of Watch Mr. Wizard
The show was so successful that it ran for 14 years and 547 episodes. So many kids were captivated by Mr. Wizard that in just a few years, 100,000 kids belonged to one of 5,000 Mr. Wizard Science Clubs.
As Mr. Wizard, Herbert amused and enlightened millions of kids
He taught everyday science by asking lots of questions. When a demonstration worked, he explained why. When it didn’t, he explained why it failed and made sure kids understood why failure is a part of doing things the scientific way.
Every week, a young boy or girl visited Mr. Wizard on the show
Together they would do a science experiment using everyday household objects because Herbert believed kids should be able to do the experiments at home. No glitz, no glamour, no high production values; just a gentle and easygoing man wearing a tie and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up because Herbert though a lab coat would be too stuffy.
Mr. Wizard and his young assistants learned things the hands-on way
They conducted experiments in electricity, how our blood circulates, magnetism, tornadoes, batteries, centrifugal force, and hundreds of other topics, including things we would not expect to see in the 1950s: computers, microwaves, radar, and fiber optics.
The New York Times called him “a television Einstein”
In an interview, Herbert said “I would perform a trick, as it were, to hook the kids and explain the science later. We thought it needed to seem like magic to appeal to the audience, but then we realized that viewers would be engaged with just a simple scientific question, like ‘Why do birds fly but not humans?’”
The kids invited to be on the show were all 11- and 12-year olds
He considered that to be the ideal age because “Once they got beyond that, they became know-it-alls,” he said.
Don Herbert was a guest on David Letterman’s first show
As an Indiana kid, Letterman had been a huge fan of Mr. Wizard. On the show, with Letterman as his assistant, Herbert demonstrated how to get a hard boiled egg into a bottle. Dave’s favorite experiment was when Herbert did a kids-don’t-try-this-at-home experiment with a paint can, a rubber tube, some powder, and a candle.
After Watch Mr. Wizard ended its run
Herbert wrote and produced more than 500 short films of scientific experiments that teachers used in classrooms all across the country. In 1983, he reprised his Mr. Wizard character with Mr. Wizard’s World, a modernized version of the original show. This show for kids ran on Nickelodeon for seven more years.
What people had to say about Don Herbert
Bill Nye wrote in Herbert’s obituary “I grew up loving Mr. Wizard. 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. His techniques and performances helped create the United States’ first generation of homegrown rocket scientists. He sent us to the moon. He changed the world.”
George Tressel of the National Science Foundation said, “The number of people who watched his show and went into the sciences as a career is virtually endless. They all say Mr. Wizard taught them to think.”
Physicist Frank Wilczek said “What was really remarkable about Mr. Wizard was that he talked to the kids as if they were real people.”
NPR host Ira Flatow said he thought Herbert was a better science teacher than most science teachers because he was always asking questions and encouraging kids to ask questions of their own.
Chemist Mel Schiavelli said Mr. Wizard had “an uncanny knack for conveying in simple words the science behind what just happened or didn’t.”
Steve Jacobs, Herbert’s one-time colleague said “Herbert taught kids how to think like a scientist, modeling for them how to predict and measure and analyze.”
Bonus
Alison Oswald wrote an article called Teaching Science with a Wizard’s Touch. In it she said Mr. Wizard was an ideal example of the process used by Smithsonian’s hands-on invention experience, the Draper Spark!Lab, a museum where visitors become inventors.
- Herbert prepared for each episode by identifying a problem (Think it).
- He conducted in-depth research (Explore It), which is evident in his 18 filing cabinets full of notes.
- He created drawings and diagrams (Sketch It) of how each episode worked.
- He built (Create It) equipment and prototypes necessary for his experiments.
- He tested (Try It) his experiments before shooting on live television.
- He learned (Tweak It) from testing with his young assistants and made adjustments.
- And, eventually, he marketed (Sell It) Mr. Wizard books and science kits.
A copy of his book, Mr. Wizard’s Science Secrets, is in the National Museum of American History
If this is the first time you heard of Mr. Wizard, take a look at YouTube’s Official Mr. Wizard’s World channel.
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