Don Herbert
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| Don Herbert | |
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| Born | Donald Jeffrey Herbert Kemske July 10, 1917 Waconia, Minnesota |
| Died | June 12, 2007 (aged 89) Bell Canyon, California |
| Official website | |
Donald Jeffrey Herbert (born Donald Jeffrey Herbert Kemske;[1][2] July 10, 1917 – June 12, 2007), better known as Mr. Wizard, was an American television personality. He hosted two television shows about science aimed at children.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Herbert was a general science and English major at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse (then called La Crosse State Normal College) who was interested in drama. His career as an actor was interrupted by World War II when he enlisted in the United States Army as a Private. Herbert later joined the United States Army Air Forces, took pilot training, and became a B-24 bomber pilot who flew 56 combat missions with the Fifteenth Air Force, flying out of a base in Italy. When Herbert was discharged in 1945, he was a Captain and had earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters.
[edit] Mr. Wizard
After the war, Herbert worked at a radio station in Chicago where he acted in children's programs such as the documentary health series It's Your Life (1949). It was during this time that Herbert formulated the idea of Mr. Wizard and a general science experiments show that utilized the new medium of television. Herbert's idea was accepted by Chicago NBC station WNBQ, and the series Watch Mr. Wizard premiered on March 3, 1951. The weekly 30-minute show,co-produced by Jules Power,[3] featured Herbert as Mr. Wizard, with a young assistant who watched while Herbert performed interesting science experiments.[4] The experiments, many of which seemed impossible at first glance, were usually simple enough to be re-created by viewers. The show was very successful. 547 live episodes were created before it was canceled in 1965. Herbert won a Peabody Award for his work on the program in 1953.[5]
After his show was canceled, Herbert produced films for junior and senior high schools, wrote several books on science, and in 1969 developed a Mr. Wizard Science Center located outside Boston, Massachusetts. (The center no longer exists.)
The show was briefly revived in the 1971–1972 season as Mr. Wizard, produced in Canada by CJOH-TV in Ottawa; this series was seen on NBC, as well as CBC Television in Canada.
In 1982, Don Herbert was a guest on the first ever episode of Late Night with David Letterman.
In 1983, Herbert developed Mr. Wizard's World, a faster-paced version of his show that was shown three times a week on the cable channel Nickelodeon. The show ran until 1990, and reruns were shown until 2000, making it the longest running show on Nickelodeon.
In 1993, children's science show Beakman's World paid homage to Herbert by naming its two penguin puppet characters "Don" and "Herb" after him.
In 1994, Herbert developed another new series of 15-minute spots called Teacher to Teacher with Mr. Wizard. The spots highlighted individual elementary science teachers and their projects. The series was sponsored by the National Science Foundation and was shown on Nickelodeon.
Herbert died of multiple myeloma on June 12, 2007, at his home in Bell Canyon, California.[5]
[edit] Awards
- Herbert won a Peabody Award for his work on Watch Mr. Wizard.
- Three Thomas Alva Edison National Mass Media Awards
- In 1991, Herbert received the Robert A. Millikan award from the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) for his "notable and creative contributions to the teaching of physics."
- 1994 James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry from the American Chemical Society
[edit] Notes
- ^ Gilkey George R. (1981), A History of the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, 1909-1979, The University of Wisconsin–La Crosse Foundation, p. 229, http://murphylibrary.uwlax.edu/digital/uwl/Gilkey/text.htm
- ^ Rindfleisch, Terry. A life remembered: 'Mr. Wizard' let kids experience science. La Crosse Tribune. June 14, 2007.
- ^ Hevesi, Dennis: Jules Power, 87, a producer of 'Mr. Wizard' on TV The New York Times October 15, 2009
- ^ "Don Herbert, 89; TV's Mr. Wizard Taught Science...", Los Angeles Times, June 13, 2007
- ^ a b Goldstein, Richard (June 13, 2007). "Don Herbert, 'Mr. Wizard' to Science Buffs, Dies at 89". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/13/arts/13herbert.html.
[edit] External links
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Wikinews has related news: Television's 'Mr. Wizard' Don Herbert dies at 89 |
- Mr. Wizard Studios - Official Mr. Wizard webpage
- Don Herbert at the Internet Movie Database
- Watch Mr. Wizard
- MP3 interview with Herbert on the public radio program and podcast The Sound of Young America
- Voice of America article on Don Herbert
- Archive of American Television Video Interview with Don Herbert -- January, 2005 -- 2 hours
