Tuesday, January 18, 2000

Bill Blows Beakman Out of the Water

Bill Nye is certainly not the first to launch a show like this. My dad clearly remembers Mr. Wizard from his childhood, and "Beakman's World" was the most recent kids' science show I saw before I happened upon Bill. Mr. Wizard was Old Reliable. You could always count on learning something interesting from his show. While Mr. Wizard's show was very educational, it was generally rather stiff. Some more recent shows have sought to spice up their science a bit, but many have gone too far in the other direction. Such as Beakman. The science is buried under all the weirdness, which causes a bit of a headache after a while.

Bill Nye's show possesses just the right mix of education and entertainment to hold a captive audience and teach them quite a bit too. Each show has a theme which is introduced in ever more creative ways by Bill Nye, much to the annoyance of the unseen Voice whose job it is to keep Bill on track. The kids on the show present simple experiments children can do at home while Bill explains the scientific concepts of the day and demonstrates them in his lab and out "in the field" with experts. Towards the end of the show, the audience is treated to a music video parody recapping everything learned in the episode. Never has tv science been so much fun!

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