Anyone who has been working with computers for about 30 years will remember the transition from business computers to personal computers. Back then, you had user groups, magazines that taught you programming, and if you were a kid, trading floppies with your friends to get the latest games. If you were into building hardware to add onto your computer, you probably had a subscription to Computer Shopper, the oversized magazine where you could find just about anything in its 600-800 tabloid-sized pages that often took up the entire mailbox when it was delivered.
Computer Chronicles was amongst the many TV programs that helped educate people about these new wonder boxes, along with shows like C|Net Central. It ran from 1981-2002 on PBS.
The Internet Archive has 560 of the episodes, available for download in different formats. Some have video problems due to tracking problems when playing back the video tape, but others are stable. A sample of the videos include “Apple II Forever”, Multitasking, Computer Ergonomics, a program about when Steve Jobs returned to Apple, “Spreadsheet Wars”, and a few on how Hypercard lead the way to the hypertext that’s used on web pages everywhere.
The Computer Chronicles page is located at the Internet Archive. If you’re feeling nostalgic or just want to make yourself feel really old, check it out. I may even have episodes recorded on the hundreds of VHS tapes I have in storage.