Origins and creation Bill Nye was originally an engineer for the
747 airliner at
Boeing, having moved to
Seattle in 1977 after he was accepted for the position. Nye eventually left Boeing in 1985 to join Shafer and Keister in writing and performing for
Almost Live!, a then-fledgling
sketch comedy television show produced by local
NBC affiliate
KING-TV. As a result, Nye was subsequently asked to give scientific answers to the show's
call-in questions. During the demonstration, Nye submerged an
onion in liquid nitrogen and proceeded to shatter it, receiving acclaim from the
studio audience. Their pitch lasted for four years, being declined by
Fox and other networks over various concerns, until they convinced Elizabeth Brock of local
PBS member station
KCTS-TV to take a chance on the idea. KCTS-TV commissioned a pilot for
Bill Nye the Science Guy, which aired on April 14, 1993, on the station itself before airing on PBS stations nationwide for the rest of the month. Nye's program became part of a package of syndicated series that local stations could schedule to fulfill
Children's Television Act requirements; because of this,
Bill Nye the Science Guy became the first program to run concurrently on both public and commercial stations. who also sang the "Bill Nye the Science Guy" refrain and the distorted voice saying "Bill Nye the Science Guy". The word "Bill" is repeated throughout as a percussive shout. In developing the theme, Greene first came up with the melody, which he stated was inspired by
Danny Elfman and his work with
Oingo Boingo. When Greene was enlisted to write the theme song, the show's producers requested that the song "not sound like a kid's show"; the final result was accordingly uncommon for the time. Greene initially sent the theme's producers a demo with Greene singing the theme. Greene then sent two alternate versions with professional singers. The producers ultimately chose to keep Greene's voice as they found it funnier.
Production The show was created in 1992 by Bill Nye, James McKenna and Erren Gottlieb, produced by McKenna/Gottlieb Producers, Inc, in partnership with KCTS in Seattle. The following year, the production companies entered a distribution agreement with
Buena Vista Television, a subsidiary of
Disney. The announcer for the program was
Pat Cashman, whom Nye knew from his time on
Almost Live!. Before his show launched, Nye had previously worked alongside
Christopher Lloyd in
Back to the Future: The Animated Series, where he played
Doc Brown's assistant and demonstrated several experiments. The show has been likened to the next-generation version of
Watch Mr. Wizard. The show ran about the same time as and covered similar topics to ''
Beakman's World'', in fact sharing one crew member, editor/writer/director
Michael Gross. The show was primarily funded by the
National Science Foundation, the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the annual financial support from the viewers/stations of the PBS network. Other funding sponsors included
Ore Ida,
The Boeing Company (which Nye worked for until 1986, Boeing was also based in Seattle until 2001 when it relocated its corporate headquarters to
Chicago, Illinois and later
Washington, D.C.), and
Intel. The syndicated airings were credited as being "Produced in Association with the National Science Foundation", while the PBS airings changed it to being "Produced in Association with Walt Disney Television". The show began with a 26-episode order for the 1993–1994 television season. After its initial success, it was renewed for a second 26-episode order for the 1994–1995 season, followed by 13 additional episodes for the 1995–1996 season. In February 1996, it was renewed for two more years, bringing the final episode total to 100. The final episode aired in 1999, well after production ended in 1997. Despite Disney's association and ownership with the show, it has never aired on any network owned by
Walt Disney Television in the United States (such as
Disney Channel and
ABC, the latter of which Disney would acquire in 1996, three years after the show premiered.)
Noggin shorts 's original shorts In September 1999, Bill Nye signed a multi-year deal to develop and star in original programs for
Noggin, a cable channel co-owned by
MTV Networks and the
Children's Television Workshop (now known as Sesame Workshop). In addition to producing the new content, Noggin acquired all 100 episodes of
Bill Nye the Science Guy; this made it the first-ever program acquisition by the channel. Noggin and Nye chose not to develop new episodes of the show, and instead created original shorts featuring Nye, in character and costume from
Bill Nye the Science Guy. In the shorts, Nye's "Science Guy" persona worked as the "head sparkologist" of Noggin, and he tried to find out what topics sparked viewers' imaginations. Bill Nye told
Multichannel News that he was interested in creating multiple original shows for Noggin, including a math-based series and one "showing kids how to exercise good judgment." ==Impact==