The Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires (1996)

Three part documentary that shows the insight look at the history of computers, from its rise in the 1970s to the beginning of the Dot-com boom of the late 1990s.

Writers:

Robert X. Cringely (book), Robert X. Cringely (screenplay)

Stars:

Robert X. Cringely, Douglas Adams, Sam Albert

Cast

Credited cast:
Robert X. Cringely	...	Himself (host / interviewer)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Douglas Adams	...	Himself (author)
Sam Albert	...	Himself (former IBM executive)
Paul G. Allen	...	Himself (co-founder, Microsoft)
Bill Atkinson	...	Himself (designer, Macintosh Development Team)
Steve Ballmer	...	Himself (vice-president, Microsoft)
Dan Bricklin	...	Himself (VisiCalc inventor)
David Bunnell	...	Himself (founder, PC World and Macworld magazines)
Rod Canion	...	Himself (co-founder, Compaq)
Jim Cannavino	...	Himself (former head, PC division, IBM)
Christine Comaford	...	Herself (CEO, Corporate Computing International)
Eddy Curry	...	Himself
Esther Dyson	...	Herself (computer industry analyst)
Larry Ellison	...	Himself (founder and president, Oracle)
Chris Espinosa	...	Himself (manager, Media Tools, Apple)

Storyline

Three part documentary that shows the insight look at the history of computers, from its rise in the 1970s to the beginning of the Dot-com boom of the late 1990s.

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Plot Keywords:

computer equipment | personal computer | nerd | industry | corporate warfare | 

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Genres:

Documentary

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Details

Official Sites:

PBS: Triumph of the Nerds

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 June 1996 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Triumph of the Nerds

Company Credits

Production Co:

Oregon Public Broadcasting

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Goofs

Part 1 refers to the First West Coast Computer Faire where the Apple II was introduced. The Faire was in April 1977, not 1978.

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Quotes

Robert X. Cringely - Host: First, they dump the idea of 9 to 5. In this industry, you can work any 80 hours per week you like.

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Connections

Spin-off Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview (2012)

User Reviews

That Other 70's Show!

The production of the PBS miniseries "Triumph of the Nerds" as documented by journalist and self professed gossip columnist Robert Cringely is a campy trek through the personal computer revolution. The 3-hour narrative covered many of the notable characters responsible for the PC's development such as the inventive geeks, aspiring college hackers, social radicals, corporate marketeers, and leading up to the inevitable war of wills to bring about global, political, and economic change. The miniseries is as much about the personal computer revolution as it is about the one-upmanship ideology of bringing a better mouse trap to market. Piracy is deemed a good thing by the very players that use corporate legal methods to protect themselves from that very end. By means of reverse engineering, misapplications of patent rights, cleverly worded legal disclosure documents, so called `Virgin' engineers and outright theft of intellectual property; it is a sordid affair indeed. The story reads like a checklist in the PDA of Machiavelli's `The Prince'. It seems that `The Prince' is alive and well in the 21st Century.

I would highly recommend this film to any geek or geek-in-training.

Look also for "The Pirate's of Silicon Valley"