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Bill Nye: Cornell University alum, Boeing engineer, comedian, and, yes, the center of the breakout series Bill Nye the Science Guy. The children’s educational series, first airing in 1993, became one of the most-watched shows in the genre, landing 19 Emmy Awards out of 23 nominations across its five years on air. Nye – who landed an Outstanding Performer in Children’s Programming Emmy – and his series had a tangible, positive influence on children of the 1990s, with Nye telling Today that, “People come up to me, [saying the show is] ‘the reason I became a physician, the reason I became a geologist.” Fast-forward to 2017, with Netflix hoping to recapture that success with Bill Nye Saves the World. They didn’t, and the reputation he had built up over the years tanked. And you don’t need to be a scientist, rocket or otherwise, to understand why.
‘Bill Nye the Science Guy’ Made Science Fun
Nye and collaborators developed a pilot for Bill Nye the Science Guy for Seattle PBS station KCTS-TV in 1993, pitching it as “Mr. Wizard meets Pee-wee’s Playhouse.” It’s the perfect description of the series, a quirky, fast-moving, and engaging series that took extremely complex topics and made them understandable and fun. Episodes largely followed a similar, high-paced format. Following the memorable, bass-heavy and undeniably catchy theme song, Nye walks onto the “Nye Labs” set, bedecked with scientific visuals and contraptions pertaining to the episode’s topic.
Often, episodes contain a song parody and music video, changing the lyrics to reflect that same topic, in a segment called the “Soundtrack of Science.” Other segments, including “Great Moments in Science,” where popular show announcer Pat Cashman narrates a historical event in science, TV, commercials, and film parodies, are also a part of the rapid-fire series, as are guest appearances and interviews with people talking about their work or other contributions related to that same topic.
“Wouldn’t it be better if things were not disastrous?”
Each episode then ends with Nye enthusiastically thanking viewers for watching before capping off with a positive, inspiring message meant to encourage their exploration of science. Those endings, along with the goofy experiments, Nye’s authenticity, passion, and genuine enthusiasm stoked children’s desires to explore the world, to fulfill their curiosity about how and why things work the way they do. Nye wasn’t a TV character or a teacher, but a hybrid of both, a memorable figure that inspired many. For that reason, Collider names him as number one on its list of life-changing TV characters.
‘Bill Nye Saves the World’ Forgets What Made ‘Bill Nye the Science Guy’ Work
That kind of influence is hard enough to pull off once, but Netflix was sure they could catch lightning in a bottle twice when they announced Nye was coming to the streamer in 2017 with a new show, Bill Nye Saves the World, only they seemed to completely forget how the lightning was caught in the first place. Instead of gearing the series towards educating children, the series is targeting adult science fans. Gone is the kinetic pace, the humor, and that contagious enthusiasm, replaced with more serious fare and only a touch of whimsy.
This would be fine if the series approached its topics with that same degree of exploration and wonder, but it doesn’t come close. The Bill Nye of this series is the polar opposite of Bill Nye the Science Guy, a skeptical cynic who holds to his own viewpoint on social and political topics, and guides episodes to foster that viewpoint as the correct one. The Nye who made science fun, who encouraged viewers with inspiration to explore the world with scientific curiosity, shows up in flashes, but, for the most part, is completely absent.
That even comes across in the promotional images for the show. In the picture gallery above are two posters. One, for Bill Nye the Science Guy, shows Nye with his hands held open, as if to present the scientific images that surround him – a magnet, a flask, a book, etc. – in a manner that evokes the joy and wonder of science. The other for Bill Nye Saves the World features Nye with atoms circling his head, holding up his enclosed hand with one finger held up as if to scold the viewer. No wonder, no openness, just admonition.
The failure of the series to live up to its predecessor, its divisive nature, and the disparity between the “old” Nye and the new one ultimately tanked Nye’s reputation as a man who made science fun into a grumpy cynic who has no interest in hearing out, let alone exploring, opposite opinions. That said, a Peacock series in 2022, The End is Nye, is certainly more optimistic and fun, with the first half of an episode showing Bill Nye succumbing to a catastrophic global event before “resurrecting” Nye to talk about how, while it could happen, there are things to do to lessen its impact, and even ways to survive it. It’s life lessons from the trusted figure of Bill Nye the Science Guy, a guy who couldn’t save the world after all, but is going to make it not so bad when, not if, we all work together.
