Bill Nye the Science Guy

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For the 2017 documentary, see Bill Nye: Science Guy.

Bill Nye the Science Guy
Walt Disney Television
McKenna/Gottlieb Producers, Inc.
Original release
NetworkPBS (1994–1999)
Syndicated (1993–1999)
ReleaseApril 14, 1993 (1993-04-14) –
February 5, 1999 (1999-02-05)

Bill Nye the Science Guy is an American

Buena Vista Television with substantial financing from the National Science Foundation.[1]

The show aired in syndication from September 10, 1993, to February 5, 1999, producing a total of six seasons and 100 episodes; beginning with its second season, a concurrent run of the series began airing on PBS from October 10, 1994, and ran until September 3, 1999, as it continued to be distributed in commercial first-run syndication.[2] After the show's first run was completed, Nye continued to portray the Science Guy character for a number of short interstitial segments for the Noggin cable channel that aired during reruns of the show. A video game based on the series was released in 1996, and a subsequent television show aimed at adults, Bill Nye Saves the World, ran from 2017 to 2018 on Netflix.

Known for its quirky humor and rapid-fire

Emmy Awards, winning 19.[3] Studies also found that people that viewed Bill Nye regularly were better able to generate explanations and extensions of scientific ideas than non-viewers.[4]

Format

Nye portrays a hyper-kinetic, tall, and slender

bloopers
from the episode.

Segments

Episodes

Main article: List of Bill Nye the Science Guy episodes
SeasonEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast airedNetwork
PilotsFebruary 24, 1991 (1991-02-24)April 14, 1993 (1993-04-14)KOIN-TV
KCTS-TV
126September 10, 1993 (1993-09-10)March 25, 1994 (1994-03-25)Syndication
226September 9, 1994 (1994-09-09)April 28, 1995 (1995-04-28)Syndication/PBS
313September 8, 1995 (1995-09-08)December 1, 1995 (1995-12-01)
413September 6, 1996 (1996-09-06)April 25, 1997 (1997-04-25)
514September 5, 1997 (1997-09-05)April 24, 1998 (1998-04-24)
68September 4, 1998 (1998-09-04)February 5, 1999 (1999-02-05)

History

Origins and creation

call-in questions.[9] His persona's first on-air appearance, as it is contemporarily known, occurred on January 10, 1987, by circumstance when the primary guest for that night's performance of Almost Live! called in to cancel their appearance; with no backup guest planned to fill the resulting empty time, the show's writers elected to have Nye demonstrate the household uses of liquid nitrogen.[7][10] During the demonstration, Nye submerged an onion in liquid nitrogen and proceeded to shatter it, receiving acclaim from the studio audience.[5]

As Nye produced more demonstrations for Almost Live!, he began to develop the idea of a show featuring his "Science Guy" persona; KING-TV declined his proposal, though he eventually received assistance from station alumni James McKenna and Erren Gottlieb.

Children's Television Act requirements;[13] because of this, Bill Nye the Science Guy became the first program to run concurrently on both public and commercial stations.[13]

Theme song

The Bill Nye the Science Guy theme song was written by songwriter and former math teacher Mike Greene,[14] who also sang the "Bill Nye the Science Guy" refrain and the distorted voice saying "Bill Nye the Science Guy". The word "Bill" is repeated throughout as a percussive shout. In developing the theme, Greene first came up with the melody, which he stated was inspired by Danny Elfman and his work with Oingo Boingo. When Greene was enlisted to write the theme song, the show's producers requested that the song "not sound like a kid's show"; the final result was accordingly uncommon for the time.[15] Greene initially sent a demo of the theme with him singing to the theme's producers, then sent two alternate versions with professional singers. The producers ultimately chose to keep Greene's voice as they found it funnier.[14]

Set to a house beat, Greene enlisted rappers to repeat the word "Bill!" as a percussive shout, deliberately imitating the shouting featured in House of Pain's 1992 song "Jump Around".[15] "I can't name them, because it was against their contract to do outside things without permission from their record company," Greene noted. "It was kinda funny, because they were in my studio one day to record a song. I was working on the Nye theme as they walked in and I told them, 'Hey, do me a favor and go in the booth and chant 'Bill, Bill, Bill' over and over again.' They had no idea what it was for, but they're cool, so they did. It sounded great, so that's the version we kept. The show didn't air until a year later, so it wasn't until then that they understood what this was really for."[14] In a comment that Greene posted on Reddit in 2018, Greene mentioned that he believed that the rappers were from several groups in his studio on the day of recording, but the only rapper he could specifically recall was Bronz of A.L.T. & The Lost Civilization. The spoken female vocals were provided by Leslie Kyle-Wilson.[16]

Production

The show was created in 1992 by Bill Nye, James McKenna and Erren Gottlieb, produced by McKenna/Gottlieb Producers, Inc, in partnership with KCTS in Seattle. The following year, the production companies entered a distribution agreement with Buena Vista Television, a subsidiary of Disney.[1] As part of the agreement, the profits of the show were split between Disney and the production team, with Disney owning full distribution rights across linear television, home video, and digital streaming. McKenna and Gottlieb all met while McKenna was a producer on Almost Live!, a Seattle-based comedy show.[17]

The announcer for the program was

Back to the Future: The Animated Series, where he played Doc Brown
's assistant and demonstrated several experiments.

The show has been likened to the next-generation version of Watch Mr. Wizard.[18][19] The show ran about the same time as and covered similar topics to Beakman's World, in fact sharing one crew member, editor/writer/director Michael Gross.

The show was primarily funded by the

Ore Ida, The Boeing Company (which Nye worked for until 1986, Boeing was also based in Seattle until 2001 when it relocated its corporate headquarters to Chicago, Illinois), and Intel
. The syndicated airings were credited as being "Produced in Association with the National Science Foundation", while the PBS airings changed it to being "Produced in Association with Walt Disney Television".

The show began with a 26-episode order for the 1993–1994 television season.[20] After its initial success, it was renewed for a second 26-episode order for the 1994–1995 season, followed by 13 additional episodes for the 1995–1996 season.[21] In February 1996, it was renewed for two more years, bringing the final episode total to 100.[22] The final episode aired in 1999, well after production ended in 1997.

Despite Disney's association and ownership with the show, it has never aired on any network owned by Walt Disney Television in the United States (such as Disney Channel and ABC, the latter of which Disney would acquire in 1996, three years after the show premiered.)

Noggin shorts

Nye in one of Noggin's original shorts

In September 1999, Bill Nye signed a multi-year deal to develop and star in original programs for

MTV Networks and the Children's Television Workshop (now known as Sesame Workshop). In addition to producing the new content, Noggin acquired all 100 episodes of Bill Nye the Science Guy; this made it the first-ever program acquisition by the channel.[24] Noggin and Nye chose not to develop new episodes of the show, and instead created original shorts featuring Nye, in character and costume from Bill Nye the Science Guy. In the shorts, Nye's "Science Guy" persona worked as the "head sparkologist" of Noggin,[25] and he tried to find out what topics sparked viewers' imaginations. Bill Nye told Multichannel News that he was interested in creating multiple original shows for Noggin, including a math-based series and one "showing kids how to exercise good judgment."[24]

Bill Nye also hosted "Noggin's What Sparks You? Special," a half-hour special that aired on April 7, 2000.[26]

Impact

Logo used for merchandise

In conjunction with the production of Bill Nye the Science Guy, KCTS-TV conducted several research studies that evaluated how effective the program was as an educational tool. In one study, it was found that viewers of the program made more observations and sophisticated classifications than non-viewers.[4] In surveys of elementary students who watched the program, most children concluded that Nye made "kids like science more". When surveyed whether Nye was a scientist or actor and comedian, most students asserted he was a scientist, though many said both. Students also described Nye almost equally as both "funny" and "smart", and believed he was a "source of good information."[27]

Awards

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Bill Nye the Science Guy

During its run, Bill Nye the Science Guy was nominated for 23

Emmy Awards, winning nineteen.[3]

Home media

Buena Vista TV."[29]

A set of 31 episodes is also available for purchase on the iTunes Store, though they have been split into two separate volumes; one containing 14 episodes[30] and the other containing 17 episodes.[31]

Despite Disney's involvement in the series, the series has not been available on Disney+ due to a dispute with Nye over revenue sharing.[32]

Video game

A computer game based on the series, titled

Macintosh by Pacific Interactive.[33]

See also

Notes

  1. Candace Cameron, Alfonso Ribeiro, Sinbad, Edgar Martínez, Nate McMillan, Mudhoney, Drew Barrymore, Al Gore and Taran Noah Smith
    .

References

  1. ^ a b Maddus, Gene (August 25, 2017). "Bill Nye Claims Disney Withheld $28 Million in 'Science Guy' Profits". Variety. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
  2. ^ "Schedule". Kentucky Educational Television. September 3, 1999. Archived from the original on February 9, 2001.
  3. ^ a b "Bill Nye, the Science Guy". IMDb. September 10, 1993. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
  4. ^ a b Bell, Phillip (2009). Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits. National Academies Press. p. 253.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Boss, Kit (December 18, 1994). "The Bill Nye Effect". The Seattle Times.
  6. ^
    Newspapers.com
    .
  7. ^ a b Dever, Jim (June 22, 2020). "How the Science Guy got his start in Seattle". KING 5 Evening. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  8. Splitsider. September 27, 2011. Archived from the original
    on May 6, 2017. Retrieved April 23, 2017.
  9. ^ a b Sayej, Nadja (July 25, 2017). "Bill Nye: 'You can shoot the messenger but climate is still changing'". The Guardian. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  10. ^ Stainton, Bill (July 28, 2015). "How One Question Invented Bill Nye the Science Guy". Bill Stainton. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  11. ^ "Bill Nye Is Still the Nuttiest Professor". Seattle Metropolitan. September 3, 2013. Retrieved April 23, 2017.
  12. ^ "HISTORICAL BACKGROUND FOR KCTS". Seattle Television History. University of Washington. Archived from the original on April 24, 2017. Retrieved April 23, 2017.
  13. ^ a b Chotkowski LaFollette, Marcel (2012). Science on American Television: A History. University of Chicago Press.
  14. ^ a b c Greene, Mike (June 6, 2014). "Who Wrote The Bill Nye Theme Music?". ScienceBob.com (Interview). Interviewed by Bob Pflugfelder. Retrieved May 5, 2017.
  15. ^ a b Great Big Story (October 4, 2018). How Bill Nye Got into the Rap Game (Sort Of) (Video). Retrieved December 13, 2021 – via YouTube.
  16. ^ Mike_Greene_Music (August 2, 2018). "Wow! This is very f…". r/todayilearned. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
  17. ^ "Bill Nye, The Science Guy | Archive of American Television". Emmytvlegends.org. Retrieved February 9, 2014.
  18. ISBN 9780470180846
    .
  19. ISBN 9780805845631
    .
  20. ^ "Bill Nye is BVT's Educational Guy" (PDF). Broadcasting. NewBay Media: 47. April 26, 1993 – via American Radio History.
  21. ^ "Disney Rings in New Year with Belle" (PDF). Broadcasting. NewBay Media: 18. January 2, 1995 – via American Radio History.
  22. ^ "Errata" (PDF). Broadcasting. NewBay Media: 35. February 5, 1996 – via American Radio History.
  23. ^ "Nye tries sparkling stint on new cable channel". Associated Press. September 24, 1999.
  24. ^ a b Moss, Linda (September 27, 1999). "Noggin Corrals Nye, The Science Guy". Multichannel News.
  25. ^ "Bill Nye, The Science Guy". CBS News. January 7, 2000.
  26. ^ "03/14/2000 - HEAD SPARKOLOGIST BILL NYE DOUBLE TEAMS THE AIRWAVES AT NOGGIN AND NICKELODEON WITH "NOGGIN'S WHAT SPARKS YOU SPECIAL," APRIL 7". September 14, 2001. Archived from the original on September 14, 2001.
  27. ^ Rockman; et al. "A Study of Bill Nye the Science Guy Outreach and Image Executive Summary". Seattle Television History, University of Washington. Archived from the original on June 11, 2017. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  28. Disney.go.com. Archived from the original
    on March 5, 2016. Retrieved August 26, 2016.
  29. ^ Adams, Becket (May 5, 2017). "Netflix: We didn't edit that Bill Nye episode". Washington Examiner. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  30. ^ "Bill Nye the Science Guy, Vol. 1 on iTunes". iTunes. September 10, 1993. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
  31. ^ "Bill Nye the Science Guy, Vol. 2 on iTunes". iTunes. September 10, 1993. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
  32. ^ "Bill Nye the Science Guy and Disney Feud over Streaming Revenue". February 26, 2021.
  33. ^ "Software can help kids weather summer doldrums". Deseret News. April 21, 1997. Retrieved September 4, 2019.

External links

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