Bill Nye is the Future of the Public Intellectual

Hardly anyone remembers the name of their middle school chemistry teacher. Or the name of the giddy elementary school teaching assistant who taught a one time biology lesson. Quite frankly, I can barely remember the name of my geology professor from last semester. But most will fondly cherish the memories of a substitute teacher wheeling out the creaky TV cart or the slow hum of the overhead projector turning on to display the jumpy theme song and 90s TV graphics that proudly announced an incoming science lesson taught by the eclectic Bill Nye.

For most Americans, Bill Nye stands as a public image of science and education that presents seemingly convoluted topics in a digestible, interesting, and - most notably - entertaining way that piqued the interest of elementary students and casual daytime television viewers alike. The way in which Nye consistently performed the balancing act of being a professional while maintaining a goofy “mad scientist” television persona was novel in the world of science and formed a new intersection between science and media that reimagined the image of the science educator and public intellectual. This reimagining was the product of a lifetime’s worth of experience stemming from Nye’s own upbringing and work both as a scientist and an entertainer.

Nye was born William Sanford Nye in 1955 to Jacqueline Jenkins and Edwin Darby “Ned” Nye in Washington D.C. Although Nye’s interest in science was self motivated, it’d be impossible to ignore the impact that Jenkins and Nye had on their son’s love of problem solving and working for a larger cause. Ned Nye worked as a WWII airstrip contractor and sundial enthusiast, while Jenkins worked a much more hands-on profession as a member of the “Goucher Girls”, a group of Goucher College alumni who played pivotal roles in cracking codes used by Japan and Germany in the war.

With the support of his parents and their upstanding background, Nye crafted an academic career that proved that the science guy box of his future Bill Nye the Science Guy act would be easily checked off. After attending the prestigious Sidwell Friends High School on a scholarship, Nye moved out to Ithaca, New York to study Mechanical Engineering at the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University. Here, he would go on to take classes with Carl Sagan, where his love of science deepened and the first thoughts of teaching the subject to others took their root.

After graduating in 1977 and receiving four consecutive rejections from NASA’s astronaut training program, Nye settled down and worked as an engineer for the Boeing Corporation and Sundstrand Data Control near Seattle. During his time with the company, he invented a hydraulic resonance suppressor tube used on Boeing 747 airplanes. But equally as important to what Nye was inventing by day at Boeing was the persona he was crafting for himself by night in comedy clubs across Seattle.

By 1978, Bill Nye had discovered a side gig that rivaled his lifelong love of science: making people laugh. After winning a Steve Martin look alike contest, Nye continued to use his impersonations of the well known comedian at parties to entertain progressively larger crowds. This newfound talent was what propelled Nye into the moonlight comedy scene of Seattle while working at Boeing during the day. When asked about this initial meeting of comedy and science that would go on to define his career, Nye responded, “[a]t this point in [my] story, I was working on business jet navigation systems, laser gyroscope systems during the day, and I’d take a nap and go do stand-up comedy by night” (Fast Company).

In 1986, he quit his job at Boeing to pursue his comedy career full time and began doing freelance work as a writer/actor on a Seattle sketch comedy show called Almost Live!. Here, Nye collaborated with co-host and future network host Ross Shafer, who encouraged Nye to “do that science stuff” (Popular Science). The “science stuff” that Shafer was alluding to would go on to become the base for Nye’s later works, with science experiments like eating nitrogen dipped marshmallows being presented in comedic fashion with charisma and charm atypical of educational media programming at the time. Nye’s segment quickly gained attention as viewers began regularly requesting “The Science Guy” to make appearances. At this point, the seeds of Nye’s interests in science, comedy and television had begun to take their root and become intertwined. The goofy scientist persona had been fine tuned with Ross Shafer on Almost Live!, and Nye's knowledge and passion for science based in his education and time at Boeing allowed him to explain and display scientific concepts in easily digestible manners that were quite novel to the worlds of science and education at the time. The final push towards putting the two together came from none other than Nye’s idol, Carl Sagan.

The 10 year reunion of Cornell University's class of 1977 marked Nye’s return to Ithaca. But while his classmates mingled, reminisced and networked after a decade apart, Nye sought out only one man in particular. Carl Sagan’s lectures had propelled Nye into the world of science and given him the drive and wonder to pursue a career in the field of engineering. But this time the eager alum was looking to use his learnings for something other than building planes. During a five minute meeting with Sagan, Nye pitched the idea for a science television program which focused on his interests as an engineer like the physics behind bridges and bicycles. Sagan’s only comment was to instead place an emphasis on pure science rather than technology to make the topics more interesting and digestible.

In the grand scheme of Nye’s career, this moment with Sagan on the edge of breaking into the science media industry could be seen as the exact moment when Nye’s comedic endeavors intersected with his abilities as a science professional. With his background in comedy, many would have viewed Nye’s unique intersection between comedy and science as entertainment rather than legitimate scientific and educational work. But it’s Nye’s calculated approach to the teaching of scientific concepts that made his show and work as professional as ever.

In 1993, Nye took this calculated approach to the big screen. He collaborated with the likes of James McKenna, Erren Gotttlieb and Elizabeth Brock to develop a pilot episode of his new show, Bill Nye the Science Guy. Nye pitched his show as “Mr. Wizard meets Pee-wee’s Playhouse” (Seattle Metropolitan) to the Seattle public broadcasting station KCTS-TV, who eventually picked it up. Bill Nye the Science Guy was primed for immediate production success as well after being picked up by Rabbit Ears Productions who would produce the show and Walt Disney Television who would go on to do both production and distribution. Nye Labs - the location where the show would be recorded and the sets would be designed - was set up in an abandoned warehouse near Seattle’s Kingdome.

Bill Nye the Science Guy would go on to run from 1993 to 1998 and would become one of the most-watched educational TV shows in the United States. During this time, Nye would continue building his on screen persona, adopting a playful powder blue lab coat and an array of eclectic and comically large bow ties that would go on to become an iconic image of his programming. With his go lucky, educational approach to science education, Nye’s initially children driven audience expanded quickly to include a widespread adult audience, with research showing that regular viewers were better at explaining scientific concepts and ideas than non-viewers.

Bill Nye the Science Guy received just as much acclaim in the entertainment world as it did in scientific and teaching communities. The pacing and tone of an educational program drew the attention of casual viewers and media scholars across the globe and won the show critical acclaim. Nye’s hit show would go on to be nominated for 23 Emmy Awards, winning 19. The Science Guy persona even eventually grew out of the show itself, expanding to become a universal image of science and education at Ellen’s Energy Adventure at the Universe of Energy pavilion at Epcot at Walt Disney World while also working as the on-air spokesman for the Noggin television network in 1999.

While Nye’s witty scientist persona has risen to the legendary status of a popular culture icon, Bill Nye himself remains grounded in our present world. In recent years, Nye has been rapidly expanding and broadening the scientific scope of his programming to include more pressing and topical issues that he looks to bring to the attention of the American public and global population at large. He’s used his platform to work on recent programming such as The Eyes of Nye and The End is Nye, programs which often focus on more controversial topics such as global warming, genetically modified food, and race.

Bill Nye’s career - from his time at Cornell to his position at the front lines of global warming awareness efforts - has restructured the image of the public intellectual and public educator to include the contemporary roles that television and the media have to play. Since as early as the 90s and the onset of the internet, the ability of the public intellectual to engage, inform and influence the public has become blocked off by the individualistic mindset of cell phones and computers to self-educate and inform through personal research.

In his essay Are Public Intellectuals a thing of the Past?, writing professor at the University of Southern California professor Stephen Mack, Ph.D, comments on the way we can conceptualize public intellectuals like Nye in our present age. Mack explains that “our notions of the public intellectual need to focus less on who or what a public intellectual is - and by extension, the qualifications for getting and keeping the title. Instead, we need to be more concerned with the work public intellectuals must do, irrespective of who happens to be doing it” (Mack).

The entirety of Nye’s career has been outside of the normal box of the public intellectual and probably wouldn’t fit in with the “who or what a public intellectual is” question that Mack describes. In other words, Nye’s larger than life persona, comedic chops and television/media presence would normally remove him from a more prim and proper definition of the public intellectual as a clean cut scholar. Rather, Nye embodies the definition of the public intellectual as an act rather than a subject. He isn’t the most educated or traditionally scholarly person in the scientific community, but he can use a combination of comedy and scientific knowledge to both entertain and educate the public.

Nye’s constantly evolving approach to the education of America’s public and his dynamic media presence proves that the public intellectual is still relevant and thriving. Our fast paced society demands a more contemporary version of the public intellectual that is able to stay constantly updated on the pulse of modern society, whether that be through technology or engagement with evolving global issues. While the gray-bearded, soft spoken college professor is still relevant, a goofy scientist with a big bow tie might just be the new form of the public intellectual.