Mr. Wizard - Don Herbert, (a.k.a. "Mr. Wizard") hosted WATCH MR. WIZARD/NBC/1951-64/SYN/1971-72, a weekly educational program for children that helped safely demystify science for young TV viewers by conducting simple experiments.

The program opened with "Watch Mr. Wizard...That's what all the kids in the neighborhood call him because he shows them the magic and mystery of science in everyday living."

In reality there was no wizardry at all, just pure science made easy by Don Herbert. Using household items like milk bottles or mayonnaise jars instead of flasks or test tubes, he introduced his young viewers to the wonders of science.

The program emanated from a lower floor of a three-story Chicago Victorian house in which Don Herbert and his family resided. The series was later produced in New York. In 1953, Herbert introduced the idea of weekly alternating a boy or a girl to assist him with his on-air projects.

In 1987, Don Herbert was still going strong after 36 years on television hosting MR. WIZARD'S WORLD on the Nickelodeon cable channel and a syndicated science series ALL ABOUT which aired on 154 television stations.

Don Herbert commented on ENTERTAINMENT THIS WEEK (3/1/87) that "30...20 years later I meet people who say that they are scientists, or doctors or even lawyers...that Mr Wizard helped them do it... which is a great satisfaction."

The show was originally scheduled to be called YOUR FASCINATING WORLD until an advertising agent suggested WIZARD as an alternate title. 

Born in Waconia, Wisconsin, Donald Jeffrey Herbert died of cancer on Tuesday June 12, 2007, just on month shy of his 90th birthday.