Jack Horkheimer, the vivacious host of the PBS astronomy program Star Gazer/Star Hustler and the director of the Miami Museum of Science, died of respiratory disease last Friday. He was 72. Here, AD Jameson of Big Other remembers Horkheimer.
Back when I was in late grade school/early high school, every Friday night, my local PBS station would run two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, plus one episode of the Original Series, all commercial free. In between ran episodes of Jack Horkheimer’s Star Hustler:
I’m not ashamed (now) to confess that, in those awkward adolescent years, this three-hour block of TV was the highlight of my week. (Yes, I was that kid, mad for Star Trek and astronomy.) Star Hustler is where I probably first heard Debussy’s Arabesque No. 1-and certainly where I first heard Isao Tomita’s electronic music. (And it’s also, along with Tom Carvel’s deranged ice cream cake commercials, probably where I first gained my love of cheap 1980s video art.)
RIP, Mr. Horkheimer, sir. Thanks to you, I’ll keep looking up.
This post originally appeared on Big Other.
