Don Herbert, 89, 'Mr. Wizard' of children's TV By Richard Goldstein
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Don Herbert, who unlocked the wonders of science for youngsters of the 1950s and 1960s in the United States as television's Mr. Wizard, died on Tuesday at his home in the Bell Canyon section of Los Angeles. He was 89.
The cause was bone cancer, his son-in-law Tom Nikosey told The Associated Press in confirming the death.
Herbert held no advanced degree in science, he used household items in his TV lab, and his assistants were boys and girls. But he became an influential showman-teacher on his half-hour "Watch Mr. Wizard" programs, which ran on the NBC network from 1951 to 1965. Millions of youngsters may have been captivated by Howdy Doody and the Lone Ranger, but many were also conducting science experiments at home, emulating Mr. Wizard.
"Watch Mr. Wizard," which was aimed at youngsters between 8 and 13, received a Peabody Award in 1953 for young people's programming.
More than 100,000 children were enrolled in 5,000 Mr. Wizard Science Clubs by the mid-1950s.
After his children's program went off the air, Herbert remained a presence in TV science programming with general-audience shows like "How About" and "Exploration." NBC revived "Watch Mr. Wizard" for one year in the early 1970s. In the 1980s, Herbert reprised his children's shows with "Mr. Wizard's World" on the Nickelodeon cable network. He became something of a TV celebrity beyond his lab as a guest of talk show hosts Johnny Carson, David Letterman and Regis Philbin, and as a panelist on the game show "Hollywood Squares."
Working in shirtsleeves on his TV laboratory set, Herbert aroused the curiosity of children in an informal way that turned sometimes-arcane scientific conceptions into fun.
"What was really remarkable about Mr. Wizard was that he talked to the kids as if they were real people," said Frank Wilczek, a physicist at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, New Jersey, in a 1990 interview while recounting informal approaches to teaching science.
During the 1960s and 1970s, about half the applicants to Rockefeller University in New York, where students work toward doctorates in science and medicine, cited Mr. Wizard when asked how they first became interested in science.
Donald Jeffry Herbert was born in Waconia, Minnesota. He took part in dramatic productions at La Crosse State Teachers College in Wisconsin. After graduating in 1940 with a degree in English and general science, he acted opposite Nancy Davis, the future Nancy Reagan, in summer stock.
After service as a bomber pilot in Europe during World War II, he worked as an actor, model and radio show writer in Chicago, then developed "Watch Mr. Wizard," which made its debut in 1951 on WMAQ-TV, the NBC affiliate in Chicago. The program later originated in New York and was eventually carried by more than 100 stations.
International Herald Tribune
