RIP Mr. Wizard

The man who played Mr. Wizard (Don Herbert) died today at the age of 90. I remember spending lots of afternoons at my grandparents house watching shows like Mr. Wizard on Nickelodeon.

One of my favorite parts of the show is how he’d have a new assistant all the time. It spawned various jokes (cue the dinosaurs “we’re gonna need another Timmy!”) Looking back, Don and his show were a much larger part of my upbringing than I realized.

Don was responsible for getting many of my generation interested in science, and he will be greatly missed.

June 12th, 2007