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This page aims to deal with issues related to the Computer Chronicles. Stewart Cheifet (Creator, Presenter and Executive Producer of the series) has been extremely kind in providing some answers (in May 2009), these contributions are quoted below.

Future of the Computer Chronicles

The series was unexpectedly cancelled in 2002 despite a campaign afterward to keep it on air and hence ended without a retrospective show to celebrate the series. Ever since the possibility of its reappearance has been a keen discussion point and the following from Stewart Cheifet addresses this issue:

“i dont see computer chronicles coming back on the air. the world has changed so much and with a million blogs and podcasts covering similar territory, not sure how the economics would work.”

However, despite the news that the Computer Chronicles would not return there could be a new a series from Stewart Cheifet Productions:

“i am thinking though of a new series that would focus primarily on the new youtube world with advice and info on digital video, online video distribution, etc. everyone is a video maker now and there is so much to know.”

The above coupled with plans to introduce the Healthcare Chronicles TV series mean that we will see Stewart Cheifet back on our screens at some point in the future. Though there will be disappointment that Computer Chronicles will not return, the vast majority of the series can be viewed/downloaded online and with a continued fan base, its future legacy is ensured.

Computer Chronicles DVD Set

On several sites, including archive.org and personal websites, demand for an official Computer Chronicles DVD release has been steadily rising over recent years. The ‘authenticity’ that comes with an official release is something that is lacking, despite the ability to download and create your own DVDs of the series. It is interesting to note that during the broadcast of the series official video cassettes could be purchased on demand. Stewart Cheifet provided a brief answer:   

“re a dvd set, ive been thinking about that. its quite costly to do that.”

So, the possibility is there for an official DVD release. One possible way to see if the expense is worth it is to publish a limited edition DVD set containing maybe 5-10 episodes. If this is well received this could then be withdrawn and season boxsets released much like how many TV series today are released after transmission. The time needed to produce a potential design etc is lengthy, but it is hoped here that a Computer Chronicles DVD release will appear in the future.

Computer Chronicles Initial Broadcast Year

This is a topic which raises many points but after researching on the Internet I posted on archive.org, my original post is as follows:

http://www.archive.org/iathreads/post-view.php?id=103322

Poster:

parallax7

Date:

February 15, 2007 05:10:50pm

Forum:

computerchronicles

Subject:

Computer Chronicles Initial Year?

Hi

I have come across an interesting issue and was wondering if someone could help clarify the facts? The main Computer Chronicles page here at archive.org states that the series started in 1983 and lasted for twenty years (till 2002) being presented by Stewart Cheifet. But some sources on the net seem to contradict this stating that Jim Warren was its founding host backdating the Chronicles back to at least 1981. I typed ‘"computer chronicles" jim warren’ into google and came up with some hits:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Chronicles
Quote: “The series was created in the Fall of 1981, by Stewart Cheifet, then the station manager of the College of San Mateo's KCSM-TV, initially broadcast as a local weekly series. Jim Warren was its founding host for its 1981-1982 season. It aired continuously from 1981 to 2002…”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Warren
Quote: “He hosted PBS television's "Computer Chronicles" series for their first two seasons (originated at the College of San Mateo's KCSM-TV, Channel 60, 1981-1982)”

http://www.citivu.com/dvorak/95awds.html
Quote: “He was also the founding host for the PBS Computer Chronicles television series…”

http://www.netaction.org/about/board.html
Quote: “Warren was founding host of PBS television's "Computer Chronicles" series (1981-1982)…”

But after looking at the companion book to the series written by Herbert (H. D.) Lechner in 1984 titled “The Computer Chronicles,” in the preface (Page xv, dated March 1984) he writes “’The Computer Chronicles’ [book] can be used alone, with a video course supplement, or with the 26-episode television series shown on the Public Broadcast System” and the front cover of the book has a list of the chapters matching the episode titles from the first season (1983-1984) of the Computer Chronicles listed at archive.org making no reference to any episodes prior to 1983.

Also, if you watch the Gary Kildall special episode from 1995 (http://www.archive.org/details/GaryKild) Stewart Cheifet’s first sentence is: “This was the very first episode of the Computer Chronicles broadcast back in 1983…” and I found that the episode in question was “Mainframes to Minis to Micros” (http://www.archive.org/details/MainFram1984) which from the video file (see uploaded image) was recorded on 2/10/83 and from the webpage was broadcasted on 2/12/1984 -> thus from an edition of the series itself we can imply the beginning of the Chronicles to have been in 1983.

Taking the point also that the earliest episode to be hosted on archive.org is “Mainframes to Minis to Micros,” it all gets a little confusing! Clarification on this matter would be appreciated and if the series did exist prior to 1983 does anyone have any information they could post or ideally give screenshots etc of any such recorded episodes?

Thanks

Attachment: mainframe.jpg

Continuing from the above post, to definitely prove that the show Stewart Cheifet refers to as “…the very first episode of the Computer Chronicles…” is ‘Mainframes to Minis to Micros’ this hyperlink shows a side-by-side screencap comparison. Another way to date the series is via season data; from episode titles as follows you can see they infer the series beginning in 1983/84.

 Title 1Title 2Title 3Title 4Title 5

To confirm the above, underneath there is a season list of the Computer Chronicles that has been sourced based on the fact that ‘Mainframes to Minis to Micros’ was broadcast on ‘2/12/1984’, hence the list starts the series from 1984:

1983/1984 - Season 1

1983/1984 - Season 2

1985/1986 - Season 3

1986/1987 - Season 4

1987/1988 - Season 5

1988/1989 - Season 6

1989/1990 - Season 7

1990/1991 - Season 8

1991/1992 - Season 9

1992/1993 - Season 10

1993/1994 - Season 11

1994/1995 - Season 12

1995/1996 - Season 13

1996/1997 - Season 14

1997/1998 - Season 15

1998/1999 - Season 16

1999/2000 - Season 17

2000/2001 - Season 18

2001/2002 - Season 19

2002 - Season 20

The only mention of Jim Warren as the series’ founding host is on a few web pages, there seem to be no videos or screencaps showing that Computer Chronicles broadcast in the years 1981-82 and there is no official mention of these on archive.org. However, Stewart Cheifet has more recently provided some information as detailed below.

Contributors to the Computer Chronicles (and others) have kindly provided further information regarding the issue of the start date of the series. Firstly, Dorie Fox, Segment Producer on CC (1986-1996) e-mailed the site with information on the series, including:

'The date CC started is 1983 & I came on board in 1986'

Paul E. Schindler, Jr. was regular reviewer and commentator on CC throughout most of its run and has given permission for the following to be reproduced:

'He was the weekly software reviewer for the late PBS program The Computer Chronicles (1984-1992), as well as a commentator (1987-88) and a regular on what was the Christmas show and became the Annual Buyers Guide show (1985-1999). The show went out of production during its 20th year, in December, 2002.'  

Information sourced from http://www.schindler.org/. This appears to place the start of the series during the years 1982/83. Finally, Jeffery Cash of Strictly Sega has given permission for an interview he conducted with Stewart Cheifet to be reproduced here. The following is a transcript of an extract from the interview (though all efforts have been made to minimise errors in the transcript produced by stquantum.com, some may remain):

'Interviewer: I was just wanting to know, how did you guys start Computer Chronicles? Like, I’ve tried to look it up on Wikipedia I can’t figure out, I mean how did it start?

 SC: Well, it’s a really really interesting question. It was really a grassroots movement […] I got the idea to, I was running a television station at the time, of actually televising live a weekly user groups meeting so that instead of thirty guys in a room sharing this stuff you could have thousands of people sharing this information. So it started as a little local TV show in which a bunch of hackers would get together and come to the studio and talk about all the new things they’d figured out over the past week. Even back in the early eighties it was pre-Internet but you still had bulletin board systems going and the guys on the BBS started talking to each other and I started getting, actually the TV station started getting phone calls from other TV stations around the country, who were getting phone calls from gadget geeks and their community we hear there’s this damn show on the air and we want to watch it, we wanna got to this meeting too! We figured this was a good idea, so we went out looking for some money and found some sponsorship money and turned it from a local show into a national show and literally by just answering the phone, we never tried to sell it, it was on in like thirty five cities to begin with and it ended up in over two hundred cities in the United States and in over a hundred countries around the world. It really was [awesome], it was really driven by people just saying this is cool I can’t get this anywhere else.'

 This last quote raises an interesting point, though officially Computer Chronicles did begin in 1983 the series may indeed have had a life beforehand just in a different form.

Conclusion: It does seem that without any definitive, concrete evidence to point to the contrary, the start of the series should be taken as 1983 (ending in 2002 - with filming beginning in 1983, initial broadcast in 1984) with Stewart Cheifet, Gary Kildall as its initial hosts (Herb D. Lechner 'guest' hosted during the 1984 season, as well as having wrote the companion book). This refers to the national version of the show, with this version being broadcast worldwide such as within the United Kingdom.

Speculatively: Based on some of the information above it is reasonable to speculate that after Stewart Cheifet created Computer Chronicles it initially ran locally, perhaps with Jim Warren as its founding host from 1981/82 until 1983 before changing hosts and format, which then began broadcasting nationally from the episode 'Mainframes to Minis to Micros'. However, it should be noted save for the quote from Stewart Cheifet above no episodes, screencaps etc are available as yet for Computer Chronicles pre-1983. Donation of any such material would go a long way to firmly setting CC's starting date, but until such a time this topic remains open.

Update (May 2012): Stewart Cheifet has confirmed that the Computer Chronicles did indeed broadcast as a local series in 1981 with Jim Warren as host. Unfortunately no tapes of this local series are known to have survived though there is documentation about the local series which will hopefully be made available in the future.