Bill Nye speaks onstage during the Seventh Annual Shorty Awards on April 20 in New York City. Now you can catch up on his old show on Netflix.
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Nostalgia for the ’90s isn’t only for “Saved by the Bell” reunions: the Internet freaked out this week when it realized episodes of beloved ’90s educational show “Bill Nye the Science Guy” appeared on Netflix this week.
The show ran from 1993-1998, and was popular for its mix of formats — combining experiments, skits and songs to talk about big science themes like gravity and pollution. It’s not the whole collection, but you can peruse 30 episodes from the five seasons. Should you be excited? In case you forgot about Nye, here are five reasons to get pumped about the show — and the things he’s been doing since.
He’s a rabid science defender
Nye has become somewhat of a science Hulk in recent years: you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry. He doesn’t quite smash things, but he clearly got so fed up with anti-science bunk coming from certain political circles that he’s taken to going on TV to fight back. It was long an informal scientist code to not engage with science-doubters, but Nye has clearly ready to push back. He famously science education in schools.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is probably the most popular scientist alive today: he’s had a TV show on FX (“Cosmos”), a talk show on Nat Geo, stars in a popular podcast, crushes it on Twitter, all while also serving as director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History and maintaining a rabid fan base.
Bill Nye works with Mark Cohen on an interactive exhibit in New York in April.Brian Ach/AP
As Tyson), but otherwise it’s still sound. The site quotes a Redditor saying who says:
“I am a middle school science teacher and I still use the episodes, or small sections of them during class when I don’t have the time to set up a complicated demo. I fill in the updated information that is different from what he may have shown. He is a good introduction to basic science concepts.”
Nye always teetered right on the good side of the line between educational nerdery and cheesy entertainment, kind of like that goofy chemistry teacher whose class you actually looked forward to in high school. The theme song is a reflection of that, and it’s pure 90s goofiness distilled into a few minutes, complete with cheap effects, a hip hop style hype crew chanting his name, guitar riffs and an ancient PC floating by.
