Since its commercial inception in the late 1940s American television has been great at fudging the line between truth and hype, news and corny kitsch. Back in the mid-90s, a rubber-faced, slightly mad-looking guy started popping up on public TV stations across the country. The series, "Bill Nye: The Science Guy," ran for about 100 episodes between 1994-99. The show stopped, but the comic guy hosting it found himself increasingly in demand to confront a growing number of slick climate-change deniers and money-happy hustlers claiming to showcase the Christian Bible's "truths" about the origins of life on our gradually warming planet.
Here was a job for Bill Nye. Born in 1955, William Sanford Nye was first a student of and later a disciple/mentor to the famous TV science wiz Carl Sagan. Sagan, who developed a large following as a frequent, fun science explainer to "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson, died prematurely of cancer in 1996, leaving a slot to fill: a camera-friendly, non-stuffy "educator" who could take on modern Bible-thumpers, including those financing Sun Belt religious theme parks. In truth, on TV Bill Nye looks like a Pee Wee Herman impersonator.
Debuting at the 2017 San Francisco International Film Festival, David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg's flip and witty bio-doc "Bill Nye: The Science Guy" (opening Friday in San Francisco and at Landmark's Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley) is a fast-paced dose of arguments aimed at climate-change deniers along with the usual cable-TV lineup of religious crazies and right-wing hustlers. Thankfully, the Cornell University-educated (a Mechanical Engineering degree), Washington D.C.-raised Nye is up to the challenge.
The breezy 97-minute mix of old Nye clips and new footage filmed in front of a mostly college-age bevy of new fans is light on information and heavy on a late-night-TV style mix of gags and one-liners. It's all perfectly digestible, although there are some genuine scientific experts sprinkled through the proceedings, most notably, Hayden Planetarium spokesman Neil deGrasse Tyson. Everyone on our side of the climate-warming debate will enjoy Nye debunking the Bible theme-park promoters and especially the weight-lifting anti-climate-change guy, who battles to retain the loyalty of his cute, baseball cap-wearing, blonde 20something skeptic son, who threatens to jump over to the Nye side.
From a science perspective, one is grateful that Nye is a high-profile champion of LightSail, a Carl Sagan idea, and that Nye has taken on the challenge of heading up the Sagan-created Planetary Society, at a time when Trump and his minions are busy slashing government funding for science in order to finance tax cuts for the 1%. For those who become Nye fans at a screening, the new series "Bill Nye Saves the World" can be found on Netflix.
Bill Nye takes on modern-day Bible-thumpers. Photo: Structure Films