Stewart Cheifet, Creator of the Computer Chronicles, Has Died

You can watch these on YouTube if you want. They are quite fascinating.

https://youtube.com/@computerchroniclesyt?si=1eQ8yROJ-191yHX...

I think I would have enjoyed the chronicles back then. Alas too young.

  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!

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.

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.

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.

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/

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.

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.

Hacker News of the eighties

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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.

Man, I love watching old episodes of Computer Chronicles on Youtube. RIP.

Loved that show. RIP.

I am so nostalgic for that time in my life. Nothing at all matches the aww of all that I was learning at that time.

Such sad news. As a kid growing up in RI I used to love watching Computer Chronicles on our local PBS station each weekend. Stuart and Gary were the best. RIP to a legend

A true pioneer who helped popularize computing in so many ways. Computer Chronicles absolutely helped catalog so many things that happened in computing, and in itself captured the changing computing culture of its era.

Suits, ties, combovers, oh my! But it also helped put faces and voices to names, introduce and show video of computing in action, trying to solve real problems, and showcasing businesses trying to figure out how to carve a niche for themselves in an emergent market.

It's also some of the best TV ever made, snappy, restrained, strangely calming.

RIP Stewart.

I love watching these on YouTube, RIP Stewart

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!

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.

Such a shame. He was a great presenter: always enthusiastic but never over the top.

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.

Such a loss! I like many others was captivated by this show. How many future IT industry professionals did Stewart inspire I wonder? Has to be thousands. A great legacy.

Still my favorite show to put in the background while I code.

I remember watching Computer Chronicles back in the 90's! I still watch it on YouTube occasionally.

He's joined his longtime collaborator, Gary Kildall. We lost a real one. Hey Hackernews, black band please?

I have fond memories of watching Computer Chronicles as a kid in the 1990s on PBS in Sacramento. Even though Sacramento is only a two-hour drive from Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley felt like a far-off place as a kid from a low-income family; it wasn’t until college when I visited Silicon Valley for the first time. While we couldn’t afford the latest and greatest of computing, Computer Chronicles enabled me to keep up with computing news. Even when we got Internet access in 1998, I still regularly watched Computer Chronicles until it stopped airing.

There seems to be a sense of wonder, excitement, and positivity about technology back in the 1990s and 2000s. I miss those days.

This deserves the black banner.

Loved loved loved that show, a definite must-watch for a young nerd back in the late 80s. Thanks Stewart.

List of episodes, with direct links to Archive.org streams: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Computer_Chronicles_ep...

The chronicles are great; I like watching them today, like I enjoy reading EWDs today as well. Well done Stewart.

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What a tremendous loss for our industry. Stewart's genuine curiosity was infectious.

I worked with Stewart for several years on a play on Gary Kildall. He would drive down from the Bay Area and I would drive up from the Monterey Peninsula and we would meet in inbetween towns such as Watsonville, Morgan Hill or Gilroy, and work on the manuscript. We did this until Covid struck, then stopped because of Stewart's health, connecting mainly through the internet or phone. . I had written the play first on my own, and he saw it and contacted me and after we met a couple times I asked him if he wanted co-authorship and he said he did. I had called the play A Mild Concussion, because that's what Gary had been diagnosed with after the fall in the Franklin Street Bar and Grill in Monterey. Also, I didn't use real names. Stewart wanted to, so we did, and changed the title to The Forgotten Computer Genius, a title he liked. I have emails from Stewart discussing the play. It is set in the final few days of his life, as he nurses his injury and tries to recall to a friend, a woman, all that has happened. The play, which was praised, after reading, by Sir Harold Evans, the late author of They Made America, which includes an incisive chapter on Kildall, and is ready for production - Steve Hauk.

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.

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.

(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

I'm sad to read that. CC is one of my favorite shows of all time, and he was the perfect host: engaging, curious, knowledgeable, respectful, 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.

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.

As a kid I loved waiting for whenever this show would air. It was like looking into the future. Now I can look into the future any time I want and all I see is garbage.

Take care Stewart, thanks for sharing the magic that computing is.

Legend