Let's Go Sciencing was an educational instructional television series. In this series (a production of Nebraska Public Television), the host (a clean-cut slender young blonde-haired man) performed various science experiments for science students in grade school. The host often started a new topic by showing something to the viewers and then asking (in a voice which had an almost musical quality), "Do YOU know what THIS is?" The demonstrated science experiments ranged from electrical experiments involving electric lights connected to a battery to iron filings on paper demonstrating magnetic field lines. The experiments were always clearly laid out for the show's viewers to see and were always interesting to watch.
The opening to Let's Go Sciencing was a film which showed school children on a playground. In the opening, the children would be running around, using playground equipment such as a teeter totter. The show's theme song consisted of children singing as percussions played in the background; and, the theme song ended with a piano playing. Part of the show's theme song included the words, "Let's go sciencing! Let's go sciencing! Sciencing today!" The middle part of the theme included children asking various scientific questions and then finally collectively asking, "I wonder why?!"
Let's Go Sciencing was shown no later than the early 1970's. The black and white series was removed from circulation when more color educational/instructional shows became available. Since that time, the series has not been broadcast by South Dakota Public Television.
The black and white television images from Let's Go Sciencing were of good quality. Based on memories from having watched the series half a century ago, the quality of the black and white television images was best compared to those from the old Ernie Kovacs shows. The image definition was good; but, black and white television from that time also had limitations. It had the peculiar quality in which the television cameras compensated for the brightness of bright objects in such a way that the bright objects appeared to be surrounded by dark halos. For example, if the host was performing an experiment involving a light bulb, the bright filament of the bulb would appear to be surrounded by a dark region on the television screen.
It is not known at this time whether or not Nebraska Public Televiison has retained its recordings of Let's Go Sciencing The series was removed from rotation when color educational/instructional television programs began dominate the broadcast schedule. It is known that many broadcasters with limited budgets tended to get rid of recordings of their older shows when the shows were no longer being shown. Since Let's Go Sciencing was a black and white series, retention of recordings of this series might have been considered to have been a low priority. After the development of color television, old black and white television shows were often considered to have been of no interest.
In more recent years, some broadcasters have expressed an interest in recovering old recordings of their` early black and white television shows for historical purposes. Some copies of old black and white television shows might have survived if public broadcasters from neighboring states had retained the copies after airing the shows. In other cases, schools with reel-to-reel videotape machines might have recorded copies of the series.
Let's Go Sciencing is the copyrighted property of Nebraska Public Televison. Nebraska Public Television is not responsible for the contents of this article. No copyright infringements were intended in the writing of this article. This article was written as a tribute to the TV show.