"Stewart Cheifet, the television producer and host who documented the personal computer revolution for nearly two decades on PBS, died on December 28, 2025, at age 87 in Philadelphia. Cheifet created and hosted Computer Chronicles, which ran on the public television network from 1983 to 2002 and helped demystify a new tech medium for millions of American viewers. Computer Chronicles covered everything from the earliest IBM PCs and Apple Macintosh models to the rise of the World Wide Web and the dot-com boom."
"From 1983 to 1990, he co-hosted the show with Gary Kildall, the Digital Research founder who created the popular CP/M operating system that predated MS-DOS on early personal computer systems. From 1996 to 2002, Cheifet also produced and hosted , a companion series that documented the early Internet boom and introduced viewers to then-new websites like Yahoo, Google, and eBay."
Stewart Cheifet created and hosted Computer Chronicles from 1983 to 2002, producing 433 episodes demystifying personal computing for a general audience. The program featured product demonstrations, guest interviews and the news segment "Random Access" covering industry developments. Cheifet interviewed industry figures including Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos, and showcased hardware, software, early IBM PCs, Apple Macintosh models and the rise of the World Wide Web. He co-hosted with Gary Kildall from 1983 to 1990 and produced a companion Internet-focused series from 1996 to 2002 that introduced sites like Yahoo, Google and eBay. After leaving production, he helped preserve episodes through work with the Internet Archive.
Read at Ars Technica
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