Triumph of the Nerds (1996)

Original title

The Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires

Directed by

Paul Sen

Genre

documentary film

Country

United Kingdom, United States

Runtime

3h

Rating

7.4 of 10 from 35 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary tells the story of how the personal computer was developed in the United States from World War II through 1995. It features interviews with key people like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Steve Wozniak.

informativenostalgicconversationalwryenergeticinsider-yretrospectivebrisk

What happens

Triumph of the Nerds is a 1996 British/American television documentary, produced by John Gau Productions and Oregon Public Broadcasting for Channel 4 and PBS. It explores the development of the personal computer in the United States from World War II to 1995. It was first screened as three episodes between 14 and 28 April 1996 on Channel 4, and as a single programme on 16 December 1996 on PBS. Triumph of the Nerds was written and hosted by Robert X. Cringely (Mark Stephens) and based on his 1992 book Accidental Empires. The documentary comprises interviews with important figures connected with the personal computer, including Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Paul Allen, Bill Atkinson, Andy Hertzfeld, Ed Roberts, and Larry Ellison. It also includes archival footage of Gary Kildall and commentary from Douglas Adams, the author of the science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The title Triumph of the Nerds is a play on the title of the 1984 comedy Revenge of the Nerds. Cringely followed the series with Nerds 2.0.1 (titled Glory of the Geeks in the UK), a history of the Internet to 1998. In 2012, Cringely released the full interview that Steve Jobs gave in 1995 for Triumph of the Nerds as Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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