Bill Nye: Science Guy

Prejudicial Confession: I have known William Nye for...what?...35 years (Lordy...tick, tick, tick). A professional encounter doing radio ads for a computer store and a mutual friendship led me to working in the post-sound department for "Disney Presents 'Bill Nye the Science Guy'" for the first couple of seasons (a marathoning 65 episodes). Best job I ever had. So, I am, of course, predisposed to like this film. Just a warning.

Unde-NYE-a-BILL
or
The Man in the Arena (Fit to be Bow-Tied)

I first became aware of this enterprise when I found myself in the middle of filming it. It was at a party for the 20th Anniversary of the production of "Bill Nye the Science Guy" and the titular host was being followed by a film crew dutifully recording our shenanigans. I ducked the cameras, but I was curious to see how the resulting film turned out.

The result, Bill Nye: Science Guy, is out now and making the film festival circuit before debuting next year on PBS' "POV" docu-series and it's probably never more timely than now. Bill's made quite a career for himself as a talking head on the news channels for any scientific subject from Global Warming (or "Climate Change" if you can't get your mind around why it would actually snow as a result) to "AI" (a lot of people are worried about the growth of it—I worry about the shrinking of natural intelligence) to whatever "science-y thing" happens that needs somebody to explain it simply and entertainingly. Bill's good at that. A lot of that has to do with an infectious curiosity and an on-camera enthusiasm that can, frankly, be alarming. Bill loves the tech, the arcana, and the proof, and he loves to demonstrate it with a brio that would intimidate Colin Clive.

These qualities made Bill a hero for a couple generations of kids bored by the statistics of science class...it at least kept them awake. That show (as he admits in the film) "nearly killed me." And the past couple decades he's been showing up on the tube in his "expert" mode and some television shows ("The Big Bang Theory," of course and "Numb3rs"—which its creators say was partially inspired by the "Science Guy" show). But, he's also expanded his range, becoming CEO of Carl Sagan's Planetary Society, writing a series of books (that are personal, informative, and funny), and doing good work—stumping for funding education, and being a very vocal advocate for the recognition of climate change, and against the forces of dogma and superstition. That has also made him a lot of enemies...like half-Governor Sarah Palin who decried that he was "just an actor on a kids show"* (No, half-Governor, you're thinking of Paul Zaloom—he's BIG in Latin America!) and any other person whose future doesn't extend any further than the next fiscal year of their financial statement.

The latter is the subject of Bill Nye: Science Guy following Bill (with extraordinary access, I thought) as he schleps around the country making personal appearances, posing for endless selfies—"you DO suffer from 'selfie fatigue'" he offers at one point—and doing the work, public and private, that intrigues him, holding up a single Bunsen burner of Science alight in the face of an encroaching Dark Age of fake news, psuedo-science and a knee-jerk suspicion of facts in the preference of urban legend.

 

Media made Bill a star, but there's just as much media—well-funded media—putting out a lot of crap (remember when The Discovery Channel was about REAL stuff?) and the Science Guy is Hans-Brinker-in-a-lab-coat trying to stem the tide. BN:SG watches fairly dispassionately as Nye passionately argues and counter-argues against claims that he feels are not only wrong-headed, but dangerous. And Bottom-line-feeders don't like that, as much as magicians and charlatans don't like The Amazing Randi.

High School Bill

The film skips along mostly hovering around Bill's current day-job at the Planetary Society (where he's overseeing his old astronomy professor Carl Sagan's dream of "a solar sail"), his speaking engagements, and his quest to "evangelize" the dangers of climate change, but also delves into his past as young nerd to Boeing engineer to comedy writer for Seattle's comedy show "Almost Live!" (director Steve Wilson weighs in) to the formation of "The Science Guy" persona (a last-minute skit idea when a scheduled guest cancelled) to the Disney/PBS Show (with interviews with co-creators Jim McKenna, Erren Gottlieb and writer/science researcher Ian G. Saunders—looking good, kids!) to his new roles, complemented with interviews with Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Ann Druyan. He's also committed to trying to "tilt" the windmills of climate change deniers and entrepreneurial anti-evolutionists (who seem to have learned their history by studying "The Flintstones"—"eh, it's a living..."), but one gets the impression that he always gets drowned out by the sound of the change in their pockets.

Bill Parson's Sheldon, Bill, Bob Newhart's Prof. Proton, and Johnny Galecki's Leonard

on "The Big Bang Theory"

The quixotic aspect of Nye is the most fascinating (although some of the glimpses of family history which have an underlying spark in Nye's pursuits, that he is unafraid to examine and share, are also raw and inspiring), as he continually meets with, and prods, counters, and challenges proponents of the more profitable views of the issues. It is a lonely task that puts him in the arena for public scrutiny by any yay-hoo with a private agenda (or web-site) and the idle riskless scorn of the trolling sycophants who have the mob mentality of the patrons of the Roman Coliseum. You have to admire him for that.

And you have to admire him for the final answer he gave in the well-known debate with the gent who challenged him to a debate on evolution and the 6,000 year old Earth theory. When asked if there was anything that might change their minds, the fellow who accused Nye and others of making science "a religion" had his karma run over his dogma by saying "As a Christian, nothing would change my mind." When Nye answered, he said it with one word: "Evidence." Science and its study is about asking questions, rather than acting like you know all the answers.

*** Bill's sustained double-take on Ms. Palin's statement is one of the moments in the film that made me laugh out loud. Her contention that "I know as much about science as him" is as accurate as "I can see Russia from my house!" but is emblematic of what is a human trait—people who are actually not expert at something think they're better at it than they are—think of the guy who tail-gates you at 60 mph; he thinks he knows driving but knows nothing about physics, or is so sure of his driving skills and his brakes that he thinks he can avoid the inevitable smash-up that will occur if there is a momentary change in driving speed. It seems we have gone from "Not knowing what you don't know" to "Not caring about what you don't know" to "being proud of what you don't know." Nobody should be PROUD of their ignorance. 

Two guys playing to the camera: The one on the left being fulsome.
The guy on the right not needing to be.