Andrew A. Sullivan
University of Alaska Anchorage
History William Sanford Nye, more commonly known as a TV show host on American Broadcasting Company’s (Abc) Bill Nye: The Science Guy. Most people who grew up in the ninety’s think of him as a movie star, which is unarguably true, however nobody really thinks of how he ended up hosting one of the most famous TV shows and where and what he is doing today. William Nye was born in Washington, D.C. on November 27, 1955 to Jacqueline and Edwin Darby Nye. His father worked in advertising; his mother is a homemaker who earned a doctorate in education. This parent combination was probably what led Nye to choose his career field. Nye attended the Sidwell …show more content…
After that moment, he pursed a career as a stand-up comic. So during the early 1980’s he worked as an engineer during the day and a stand-up comedian at night. This routine eventually led Nye to conjure up the idea of creating his own TV show. After several years of working with two TV producers from Seattle to come up with a science program, they caught the attention of the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy to fund a pilot episode. Soon after the pilot was released, executives from Disney offered to produce his show. And in collaboration with PBS and the National Science Foundation the TV show Bill Nye: The Science Guy was created in June …show more content…
Nye’s program was, and still is, aimed to teach science to a young audience. His program was much more than crazy lights and trick photography, he said “every show has learning objectives, a sentence in fourth-grade language that describes what to get across in the show.” Nye’s style of teaching and communicating stunned parents and children. His passion and word choices were on par with a fourth grade level making his show so appealing. Along with a child-friendly atmosphere, Nye conducted one or two “do-it-at-home” experiments each episode, making learning much more interactive. Nye shows that it doesn’t matter how educated or published you are in your field, if you're a good communicator and you portray science accurately, you should be a successful media scientist. As much support and scientific evidence possesses, Nye says his TV program can only help “up to a point, and of course everyone disagrees on the point.” What he is saying is that as much as his show has to offer, it doesn’t show children the determination and education needed to have a career in