**** This is marked as solved but it is NOT solved. I’m pursuing a promising lead but this is still not precise. Mods, please remove solved flair****

This was a science show that aired on PBS (‘81-‘86ish). The intended audience was for adults (not a kids science show)

The presenter was a nondescript 30s-40s white man. He had a North American accent (not British)

Some notable segments:

• The presenter holds a straight stick between two hands and talks about how perception is fallible. He then rotates the stick, proving it is actually curved.
• Many examples of the letter “A” in different fonts are flashed on the screen, proving that all of them are recognizable to our brain as “A”
• An elderly white man in a suit is handed a closed shoebox and told to deduce what is inside without opening the box. He patiently and thoughtfully tilts the box back and forth several times, explaining what he is deducing from the sound it makes. He eventually correctly deduces that the shape inside is an octagonal wooden cylinder.

It had the warm, calm, intellectual feel of a PBS/BBC/CBC educational TV show of the 70s or 80s - similar to Connections, Cosmos, or Look Around You.

The last one (the man and the box) may have come from 3-2-1 Contact (prove it to me) but the other two definitely were not.

It was NOT Bill Nye the Science Guy.

Please prove this is the show I’m thinking of by providing links or other citations of the scenes I’m describing. Just saying “It was Cosmos” is insufficient.

Edit: It was NOT The Curiosity Show. That took place on a TV studio set and was in video; this show was shot on location and was likely on film.