Today is the 20th anniversary of the Disney/PBS program Bill Nye: The Science Guy.
To mark the anniversary I’d like to take a moment to talk about the program and the man that made science fun and accessible to a generation.
Nye began his career as a mechanical engineer for Boeing where he developed some tech that is still used in their 747s today. It’s no wonder that the very first episode of The Science Guy was titled “Flight” and discusses related topics such as air pressure and generating lift. Included in the episode was the Soundtrack of Science song titled Smells Like Air Pressure by Nyevana, a parody of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit which premiered exactly two years prior.
While my first introduction to Bill Nye was as The Science Guy on PBS, his entertainment career and the genesis of the science guy character actually began several years earlier.
The character was born out of Almost Live!, a sketch comedy show based in Seattle of which Nye was a regular contributor. As the story goes, he once attempted to correct the host, Ross Shafer’s pronunciation of the word gigawatt. Shafer responded, “Who do you think you are, Bill Nye the Science Guy?”. The rest, as they say, is history.
If you’re interested in one of the Almost Live! Science Guy sketches you’ll find one below.
Nye wasn’t just the Science Guy and had another character on Almost Live!, Speed Walker, a superhero who fought villains such as the Needler and his giant wrench with only his strangely gyroscopically stable head and the power of heel-toe, heel-toe.
After Almost Live! Nye had his second scientific role as the mute assistant to Doc Brown on the Back to the Future animated series. The segment appeared at the end of each episode and Nye would silently demonstrate the scientific principles that Doc Brown was discussing. The segment was so popular it lead to his hosting duties on Bill Nye: The Science Guy.
The show survived for 100 episodes and taught a range of scientific principles, focusing on one theme each time. Its tone and material made it a perfect teaching aide in schools. I have fond memories of a teacher rolling in a TV and VCR on what looked like a pretty flimsy stand and knowing that today… today we’re watching Bill. Today will be a good day.
The Science Guy went off the air in 1998. Though it’s been fifteen years, the man and the show feel no less relevant. The topics discussed and the principles of science taught are still important today. Nye taught children and adults not only facts but a way of thinking, experimenting, and viewing the world. It gave dimension and magic to flat concepts in a text book and made it clear that science was fun, even cool.
Nye didn’t stop with the shows cancellation, he’s been an active proponent of science and education, participating in projects like The Big Think and lobbying politicians on scientific issues.
Nye is now the CEO of The Planetary Society, a group founded by Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman in 1980 that advocates for exploration of the solar system. You can also get your Science Guy fix via an app available on Apple IOS. There Bill will teach you about optical illusions, traversing the solar system, and how to tie a bow-tie, among other things.
