I'm old enough to remember the Mr. Wizard TV show very clearly. One of television's proudest accomplishments.

The show was so good that it should have been imitated, sooner and more effectively than it eventually was (by the above-menitoned Beakman and also Bill Nye the Science Guy). But Mr W seems to have been too hard an act to follow, and there nothing remotely similar to his show appeared for many years.

I suppose Don Herbert really and truly was "one of a kind." Quite apart for the scientific insight and the low-key showmanship, he also conveyed a very warm and personable presence and probably made science seem a lot less forbidding to many kids.

My kids also know and fondly remember Mr. Wizard ~ probably more from the reborn, later-in-life series on Nickelodeon than from reruns of the original series that I had watched a generation earlier. (Incidentally, my 27-year-old comedian son sarcastically refers to one of his obnoxious and ignorant know-it-all contemporaries as "Mr. Wizard" ~ cracks me up!)

In the obit, Don Herbert is quoted thus:

A lot of scientists criticized us for using the words 'magic' and 'mystery' in the show's subtitle, but they came around eventually."

What subtitle? I couldn't find it in the article. Anyone remember?