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Watch Mr. Wizard
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==1951β1965: Original series== [[File:Mr Wizard.JPG|thumb|200px|left|Herbert in 1961]] ''Watch Mr. Wizard'' first aired on [[NBC]] on March 3, 1951, with [[Don Herbert]] as the title character.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mrwizardstudios.com/watchmrwizardtvshow.htm |title=Watch Mr. Wizard |access-date=2012-05-24 |year=2004 |publisher=Mr. Wizard Studios, Inc.}}</ref> In the weekly half-hour [[live television|live television show]], Herbert played a science hobbyist and every Saturday morning a neighbor would come to visit. The children were played by [[Child actor|child actors]]; one of them ([[Rita Walter|Rita McLaughlin]]) enjoyed a long subsequent acting career. Mr. Wizard always had some kind of laboratory experiment going that taught something about science. 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; by 1954 it was broadcast live by 14 stations, and by [[kinescope]] (a film made from the television monitor of the original live broadcast) by an additional 77.<ref name="Sternberg">{{cite book|title=Museum of Broadcast Communications - Encyclopedia of Television (Second Edition): Volume 1|last=Sternberg|first=Joel|publisher=CRC Press|year=2004|isbn=9781579584115|editor1-last=Newcomb|editor1-first=Horace|pages=2487β2488|chapter=Watch Mr. Wizard|chapter-url=http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/W/htmlW/watchmrwiz/watchmrwiz.htm}}<!--see also https://books.google.com/books?id=CFXgj7a55agC&pg=PA2487--></ref> Mr. Wizard Science Clubs were started throughout North America, numbering 5,000 by 1955 and 50,000 by 1965.<ref name=Sternberg /><!--nice to have this number confirmed; it isn't clear which source Sternberg used.--> The show moved from [[Chicago, Illinois|Chicago]] to [[New York City|New York]] on September 5, 1955, and had produced 547 live broadcasts by the time the show was canceled in 1965.<ref>"N.B.C. Will Cancel 'Mr. Wizard' Show; Children's Science Program Has 14 Years Air", ''New York Times'', by Val Adams, April 17, 1965, p41</ref> The show was cited by the [[National Science Foundation]] and [[American Chemical Society]] for increasing interest in science{{citation needed|date=May 2012}} and won a 1953 [[Peabody Award]].<ref>{{cite web |title=George Foster Peabody Award Winners |url=http://www.peabody.uga.edu/winners/PeabodyWinnersBook.pdf |publisher=University of Georgia |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726163315/http://www.peabody.uga.edu/winners/PeabodyWinnersBook.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-26 }}</ref> Thirty-two episodes of ''Watch Mr. Wizard'' were selected by Herbert and released on eight DVDs.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mrwizardstudios.com/watchmrwizardtvshow.htm |title=Watch Mr. Wizard Main Page |publisher=Mr. Wizard Studios |access-date=2024-02-11}}</ref>
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