Veteran journalist and presenter Jeff Watson, the man who helped pioneer popular science television in Australia with Towards 2000, has died aged 80.
Doctors had initially given Watson only three months to live after diagnosing him with brain cancer in 2018.
He died at a palliative care hospital in Sydney's north, according to Nine.
Throughout the 1970s Watson was a familiar face, reporting for ABC's original current affairs program This Day Tonight.
"I think current affairs was more fun in those days," he said in 2006.
"We wanted to leave people with a smile on their faces."
Watson recalled being chauffeured into ABC offices in a "black car" to apologise for some of the more daring reports that went to air.
"We were all out to make a lot of trouble," he said. "It was a very irresponsible program."
'No people in white coats'
In 1979 Watson was given the job of making a pilot science program with what he said was the "awfully dull" working title of Today Tomorrow.
"The first thing we said was, 'Oh for God's sake let's not make it look like another ABC program'," he recalled.
The program was called Towards 2000 — its name abbreviated from a translation of the name of an Italian science show.
It ran for three seasons at the ABC and went out to almost 100 countries.
"We said, 'No people in white coats looking down microscopes, in fact, no interviews — we're the experts,'" Watson said.
None of the team, Watson conceded, had a science degree or a degree of any kind for that matter.
"We'd say, 'We're never going to give you the definitive documentary on this piece of science or technology, we're just giving you the entree, not the main course — take it or leave it," he said.
"There were lots of new things about to burst onto the scene in 1979 which were not being covered by the general media.
"You think back to '79, the space shuttle hadn't flown, home computers, well, they didn't exist, mobile phones hadn't actually happened.
"There were all these things like maglev trains, cold fusion, satellite technology, all this tremendous growth in consumer electronics that was about to burst onto the scene, the compact disc.
"So there were all these goodies out there, all these people called it 'whizz-bang' type stories."
And it was with the whizz-bang stories that he was able to introduce audiences to more complex topics despite the storytelling challenges.
"We didn't stray away from big science, things like particle physics, like gene splicing, which presented an enormous problem visually to explain on television because you can't see the damn things," he said.
"There was no major scientific institution in the world that we had not gone to — we coined the phrase 'rock'n'roll science'.
"It was so successful on the ABC, of course, that they took it off."
Working with ABC and commercial TV
Watson's impressive CV included time with This Day Tonight, Four Corners, Towards 2000, Beyond 2000 and 60 Minutes and "on a number of occasions" he moved between the ABC and commercial stations.
"The main reason I went to 60 Minutes, like everyone else, was because they offered to double my money," Watson said in a 2006 interview.
"They gave me a gold credit card to go anywhere around the world.
"Working for the ABC was like working for a public library in a country town and working for 60 Minutes was like working for a used-car yard on Parramatta Road. I stand by that.
Watson opened the first episode of Getaway in 1992 and executive producer John Walsh said Watson was fundamental in launching the travel show.
"As one of the original presenters on the show he brought a world of experience to the on-air team and had the rare knack of being incredibly funny one minute and projecting authority and gravitas the next," Mr Walsh told Nine.
"Audiences really responded to him and there's no doubt he played a big role in the show's early success."
Watson is survived by wife Judi, children Timothy and Lucy and grandchildren Benjie, Lolly and Amelie.
"His humour and stories will be missed by all," the family said in a statement.
Jeff Watson will be farewelled at a service in Mona Vale on Sydney's northern beaches on Thursday.
