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Children’s television wasn’t always the crap most of it is today. When I was growing up we had sweet shows like Double Dare, You Can’t Do That On Television, Snorks, & even educational stuff like Don Herbert’s show, Mr. Wizard. 

Herbert didn’t coddle children the way hosts like Barney “The Most Annoying Pedophile Dinosaur Ever” does and dammit… those kids were better for it. He just taught them about science and often resembled a grandpa getting annoyed by kids who don’t listen to instructions. 

Check out a montage of Mr. Wizard below and either relive the greatness or get schooled on why we need more TV show hosts like him today.

This article appears in Jul 19-25, 2012.

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Blast From The Past: TV’s “Mr. Wizard” taught kids with tough love

by The Source Staff, The Source - Bend, Oregon
July 23, 2012

<h1>Blast From The Past: TV’s “Mr. Wizard” taught kids with tough love</h1> <p class="byline">by The Source Staff, The Source - Bend, Oregon <br />July 23, 2012</p> <p>Children's television wasn't always the crap most of it is today. When I was growing up we had sweet shows like <em>Double Dare</em>, <em>You Can't Do That On Television</em>, <em>Snorks</em>, &amp; even educational stuff like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Herbert" target="_blank">Don Herbert's</a> show, <strong><em>Mr. Wizard</em></strong>.&nbsp;</p> <p>Herbert didn't coddle children the way hosts like Barney "The Most Annoying Pedophile Dinosaur Ever" does and dammit... those kids were better for it. He just taught them about science and often resembled a grandpa getting annoyed by kids who don't listen to instructions.&nbsp;</p> <p>Check out a montage of Mr. Wizard below and either relive the greatness or get schooled on why we need more TV show hosts like him today.</p> <p><object><em>You need to use a flashplayer enabled browser in order to view this video</em></object></p> <p> </p> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> http://www.youtube.com/v/VkJEt1UsUcs </div> </figure> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/news/blast-from-the-past-tvs-mr-wizard-taught-kids-with-tough-love-2178574/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com&quot;&gt;The Source - Bend, Oregon&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.bendsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/cropped-Untitled-design-4.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=20418&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://www.bendsource.com/news/blast-from-the-past-tvs-mr-wizard-taught-kids-with-tough-love-2178574/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/bendsource.com/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

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