MetroActive Movies | Bell Science: "Capra ended up writing and directing the first three--Our Mr. Sun (about solar energy), Hemo the Magnificent (all about blood), and The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays (on the very trendy subject of radiation)--and producing a fourth, Meteora: The Unchained Goddess (about weather), directed by horror movie star Richard Carlson.
Mr. Sun debuted on CBS in 1956 at 10 p.m., making it clear that Bell Labs was not aiming at an audience of children, but at adults. The others came along, one per year, until Capra left the project. After a hiatus of three years, five more Bell Lab films were aired: Gateways to the Mind (about the five senses), The Alphabet Conspiracy (about the history of language), Thread of Life (about DNA), About Time (self-explanatory), and a Disney-produced final entry, The Restless Sea.
Except for the last one, all of the Bell Science films starred Dr. Frank Baxter, who was introduced each time out as Dr. Research--and displayed a great knack for explaining complicated things in simple language. Perhaps a bit too simple. Critics at first applauded Capra's creative use of animation and humor, but many soon tired of the films, complaining that they oversimplified science."
