[HN Gopher] Stewart Cheifet, creator of The Computer Chronicles,...
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Stewart Cheifet, creator of The Computer Chronicles, has died
Author : spankibalt
Score : 138 points
Date : 2025-12-31 17:41 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (obits.goldsteinsfuneral.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (obits.goldsteinsfuneral.com)
| spankibalt wrote:
| From the obituary:
|
| Stewart Douglas Cheifet, age 87, of Philadelphia, PA, passed away
| on December 28, 2025.
|
| Stewart was born on September 24, 1938, to Paul and Anne Cheifet
| in Philadelphia, where he spent his childhood and attended
| Central High School. He later moved to California to attend
| college, graduating from the University of Southern California in
| 1960 with degrees in Mathematics and Psychology. He went on to
| earn his law degree from Harvard Law School.
|
| In 1967, Stewart met his future wife, Peta Kennedy, while the two
| were working at CBS News in Paris. They returned to the United
| States and married later that year. Stewart's career in
| television production took them around the world, and they lived
| together in the Samoan Islands, Hawaii, San Francisco, and Los
| Angeles, before eventually settling back in Philadelphia.
|
| Stewart and Peta had two children, Stephanie and Jonathan.
|
| Stewart is best known for producing and hosting the nationally
| broadcast PBS television programs Computer Chronicles and Net
| Cafe. Computer Chronicles aired from 1984 to 2002, producing more
| than 400 episodes that documented the rise of the personal
| computer from its earliest days. Net Cafe, which aired from 1996
| to 2002, explored the emergence of the internet. Both programs
| were widely regarded as visionary, capturing the evolution of
| personal computing and the early development of the digital age.
|
| Stewart's professional interests and talents were wide-ranging.
| After leaving television production, he worked as a consultant
| for the Internet Archive, helping to preserve and provide public
| access to cultural and technological media, including Computer
| Chronicles and other technology programs. He also shared his
| knowledge as an educator, teaching broadcast journalism at the
| Donald W. Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of
| Nevada, Reno. After retirement, he spent his remaining years
| enjoying time with Peta, his children, his grandchildren, and his
| brothers.
|
| Stewart is survived by his brothers Lanny and Bruce, his children
| Stephanie and Jonathan, and his grandchildren Gussy, Josephine,
| Benjamin, Freya, and Penny.
|
| Services will be held for immediate family only.
| mnky9800n wrote:
| You can watch these on YouTube if you want. They are quite
| fascinating.
|
| https://youtube.com/@computerchroniclesyt?si=1eQ8yROJ-191yHX...
| OhMeadhbh wrote:
| I heard that the YouTube channel isn't official and that
| watching them on Archive.Org is preferred. But they're not
| especially well organized on the Archive. Here's a link to a
| torrent with all the episodes, which might be a bit of overkill
| if you're just trying to find a single episode.
|
| https://archive.org/details/computer-chronicles-full-epidose...
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46447499
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46447235
| hbogert wrote:
| I think I would have enjoyed the chronicles back then. Alas too
| young.
| OhMeadhbh wrote:
| Oh. Have you talked to a grey-beard about users groups?
| Computer Chronicles was sort of like having a users group
| presentation in your living room every week. I learned about
| computers by users groups, computer chronicles, hanging out in
| computer stores and a few long distance phone calls to the bay
| area.
| technothrasher wrote:
| I honestly never paid that much attention to Computer
| Chronicles back in the day. But when I clicked on the link to
| the obit, I instantly recognized him from the photo.
| baal80spam wrote:
| Born in Central Europe, I've never had a chance to watch The
| Computer Chronicles in my childhood. I've discovered them via
| twitch a few years ago and I adore the series.
|
| RIP Stewart!
| ncr100 wrote:
| Watching him on PBS as a kid made me realize that my fascination
| with computers was OK. Because he looked like a reasonable adult
| and he showed enthusiasm. 1980's.
|
| So that helped to engender my enthusiasm, and encouraged me to
| essentially build my successful work-life around computing.
|
| I suppose he was an influencer in today's parlance?
| barryp wrote:
| Loved loved loved that show, a definite must-watch for a young
| nerd back in the late 80s. Thanks Stewart.
| conradev wrote:
| After leaving television production, he worked as a consultant
| for the Internet Archive, helping to preserve and provide public
| access to cultural and technological media, including Computer
| Chronicles and other technology programs.
|
| The full archive of Computer Chronicles is online because Stewart
| put in the work to make that happen. He talks a bit about it (and
| Computer Chronicles in general!) in a 2013 interview with Leo
| Laporte on TWiT: https://youtu.be/WdtHS_X1ibg
|
| RIP Stewart - you've taught me a lot!
| Upvoter33 wrote:
| Loved that show. RIP.
| jhickok wrote:
| What a wonderful resource The Computer Chronicles has been. One
| of the core pieces of entertainment I use to fall asleep to when
| I am on the road and trying to sleep in hotels. Rest in peace,
| Stewart.
| theodpHN wrote:
| RIP. Was a faithful CC viewer. Anyone aware of something like
| this show today that regularly reviews general
| software/apps/hardware/tech for a more mainstream audience - on
| PBS, cable, network, or even podcasts? With the role tech plays
| in the lives of all ages these days, one would think there would
| be more tech info offerings for the general public today than
| what was available back in the 80's - Computer Chronicles, MSNBC
| shows, magazine/newspapers (including the NY Times!) - but
| nothing comes to mind.
| GaryBluto wrote:
| It's strange to think nowadays that the "MS" in MSNBC meant
| Microsoft. How the times have changed.
| rchiang wrote:
| There's almost too much volume these days. There's dedicated
| websites/apps/podcasts for Apple, Android, PC gaming, Xbox
| gaming, PS4 gaming, Switch gaming, etc. Product Hunt was a hot
| thing for a while and is still running. In terms of more
| general coverage, The Verge, Engadget, Lifehacker, Wired, and
| NYT Wirecutter are still good among many many others.
|
| There was a good run of Computer Chronicles, TechTV, and G4 for
| a while there. These days, This Week in Tech still exists in
| podcast form. G4 had a short revival as G4TV a few years back.
| There's nothing nearly as popular these days, but there's still
| lots of good ones like Waveform, SomeGadgetGuy, and
| AwesomeCast.
| lysace wrote:
| There is very little with a) high technical quality in the
| presented content, b) an assumption that the average viewer
| is reasonably intelligent, and c) high production quality.
|
| The Computer Chronicles was kind of unique that way.
|
| Edit: OTOH I just saw a 55 minute well-produced youtube video
| on ASML's EUV photolithography machine that fulfilled all of
| that. I had some bias against this channel for some reason I
| don't remember, but anyway:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiUHjLxm3V0.
| Cornbilly wrote:
| Leo Laporte's TWiT podcast network is the only thing that comes
| somewhat close but it still falls well short of CC or TechTV.
|
| YouTube has a few quality channels but they tend to fit into a
| particular niche. The bigger names are just lowest common
| denominator slop like LinusTechTips.
| bitwize wrote:
| ExplainingComputers with Christopher Barnatt is a regular
| online series that tickles that right spot for me. He's got the
| professorial yet whimsical energy of an 80s BBC presenter,
| making the show feel a bit like The Computer Programme or
| Beyond 2000.
|
| https://explainingcomputers.com
|
| https://m.youtube.com/@explainingcomputers
| GaryBluto wrote:
| Such a shame. He was a great presenter: always enthusiastic but
| never over the top.
| TheAmazingRace wrote:
| Stewart Cheifet and Gary Kildall were a dynamic duo. Really
| appreciated the awareness they gave to the general public about
| computing and the wave of the future.
| gjvc wrote:
| Very much agree. Being in the UK I never saw the original
| broadcasts, but I've enjoyed them on YouTube. (the ability to
| "time-travel" with YouTube never ceases to amaze me.)
|
| We had a similar pair over here in .uk -- Chris Serle and Ian
| McNaught-Davis. They had a down-to-earth way of presenting the
| like of which we will not see again, mainly because of their
| characters, but also of the context in which they were
| presenting: as you say seeking to make the public aware about
| the wave of the future.
| (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Computer_Programme (the
| theme music of which was Kraftwerk's "Computer World", no
| less!))
| spogbiper wrote:
| (audio only) interview with Stewart that I enjoyed -
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQSWeJUjy-k
|
| skip to 2:30ish to bypass the podcast's nonsense
|
| i had the pleasure of meeting him a couple times, truly a nice
| guy with a passion for sharing computing with everyone
| anonnon wrote:
| List of episodes, with direct links to Archive.org streams:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Computer_Chronicles_ep...
| leonidasv wrote:
| I used to watch archived episodes of Computer Chronicles on
| YouTube almost every night before going to bed back in 2016~2018.
| It was my bedtime entertainment, watching those recordings from
| another era of computing and observing the hosts' enthusiasm for
| things we take for granted today. As a late millennial, it helped
| me experience a bit of what the 80s and 90s were like in
| computing.
|
| RIP Stewart.
| dakinitribe wrote:
| Stewart was a peak human.
|
| If you watch Computer Chronicles, you will notice that little to
| nothing has actually changed in computing in 40 years.
| markchristian wrote:
| What a tremendous loss for our industry. Stewart's genuine
| curiosity was infectious.
| rado wrote:
| Legend
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| I'm involved in a project to digitize "lost" episodes of Computer
| Chronicles that were missed in the first pass at the Internet
| Archive.
|
| You can watch newly digitized episodes here. More are coming in
| the new year.
|
| https://archive.org/details/@davidga/lists/2/computer-chroni...
|
| We're also building a comprehensive metadata database of every
| episode. Notably the TVDB metadata is not accurate or complete.
|
| You can see that here, noting that it is still a work in
| progress.
|
| https://computerchronicles.karpour.net/
| wonger_ wrote:
| How do you find the missing episodes?
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| We were granted access to the collection of Stewart Cheifet's
| tapes.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| Thank you for your team's work to preserve this collection.
| tssva wrote:
| Computer Chronicles, Byte, Compute!'s Gazette, 80 Micro and PC
| Magazine were windows into the larger world of computers as a kid
| in the 1980s. The Computer Chronicles episodes on computer
| networks and services sparked an interest in networking which
| turned into the focus of the 1st half of my professional career.
| I owe a debt of gratitude to Stewart Cheifet.
| imiric wrote:
| I'm sad to read that. CC is one of my favorite shows of all time,
| and Stewart was the perfect host: engaging, curious,
| knowledgeable, kind, friendly, charming. Like a tech Bob Ross,
| Fred Rogers, and Carl Sagan.
|
| He and the rest of the team captivated generations of people
| interested in the booming personal computer industry, throughout
| all of its early phases. The show often had on some of the great
| industry pioneers, and reported on many trends and new
| innovations. It's still fascinating to revisit these old episodes
| and relive the sense of wonder and excitement around novel
| hardware and software. I highly recommend watching and making a
| copy of all seasons from the Internet Archive.
|
| So long, Stewart.
|
| This news is worthy of a black banner on HN.
| icedchai wrote:
| I remember watching Computer Chronicles back in the 90's! I still
| watch it on YouTube occasionally.
| thought_alarm wrote:
| Computer Chronicles and MotorWeek were fixtures of my Saturday
| afternoons as a young kid in the 80s. 35+ years later both shows
| became fascinating and priceless time capsules of the era.
| ipython wrote:
| Agreed! Btw MotorWeek is still pumping out new episodes.
| Watched one yesterday.
| djmips wrote:
| Hacker News of the eighties
| rietta wrote:
| We are loosing so many of the legends. I don't distinctly
| watching the Chronicles when it first aired - was too young, not
| in the right market - but as a computer history nerd watching the
| videos on the Internet has been eye opening. It is also a really
| good way to get a sense just how advancing things were in the
| 1980s and how in many ways we have gone backwards in many areas.
| anonzzzies wrote:
| The chronicles are great; I like watching them today, like I
| enjoy reading EWDs today as well. Well done Stewart.
| russellbeattie wrote:
| When I was around 10yo in the early 1980s in New England, I loved
| to watch the Computer Chronicles - which usually was shown late
| at night for some reason. It's hard to describe now how awestruck
| I was at everything the show covered. I was too young to
| understand what a studio was, so I really thought they were
| filming from some far away skyscraper with a view of the city
| behind them. I wanted to be there! I still get that buzz of
| excitement and wonder when I watch recordings even today.
|
| After moving to Silicon Valley, one of the things that still
| gives me joy is the idea that I now live close to where the show
| was recorded in San Mateo. It's one of those small dreams as a
| kid that became reality.
|
| RIP Stewart.
| jecel wrote:
| Here is a one hour talk Stewart gave at the 2016 VCF East
| (Vintage Computer Festival):
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncnje4DdRxE
|
| He mentions that the first year it was a live program and they
| didn't have the resources to record them, so they are not
| available.
| bitwize wrote:
| He's joined his longtime collaborator, Gary Kildall. We lost a
| real one. Hey Hackernews, black band please?
| dmazin wrote:
| Ah, rest in peace. I recommend you watch Computer Chronicles.
| It's a treasure. If nothing else, it's a solid trip down memory
| lane.
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