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Technology|Stewart Cheifet, Host of TV’s ‘Computer Chronicles,’ Dies at 87
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/10/technology/stewart-cheifet-dead.html
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He spent two decades hosting the PBS series, during the formative years of personal computing. It was seen in more than 300 cities at its peak.
Jan. 10, 2026
Stewart Cheifet, who enthusiastically charted the geeky formative years of personal computing as the host of a long-running show for PBS, “Computer Chronicles,” which launched in the Bay Area in 1983, died on Dec. 28 in Philadelphia. He was 87.
The cause was the flu, said his daughter, Dr. Stephanie Cheifet Koven.
Mr. Cheifet (pronounced chef-AY) broadcast “Computer Chronicles” from a set in San Mateo, Calif., that in its modest production values was just one step up from the public-access TV satire “Wayne’s World.” A mix of news, interviews and how-to segments, it introduced early adopters of what were then called “microcomputers” to the first Macintosh from Apple; Windows 95, the breakthrough Microsoft operating system; and a wondrous new communications tool: “electronic mail.”
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Neither a computer engineer nor a programmer, Mr. Cheifet had a law degree from Harvard and a background in television production and journalism. He launched “Computer Chronicles” while working as the station manager of KCSM-TV (now KPJK), a PBS affiliate in San Mateo, when he noticed a trend: “At that time, people had just started buying Apple IIs and Commodore 64s,” he told Newhouse News Service in 1995. “There were no computer stores. There were no computer magazines. People needed help, and they needed software. So the Users Group was born — a bunch of people getting together on, say, Thursday nights and talking about their computers. We thought, well, why not form our own Users Group and put it on TV?”
Within months of its debut, “Computer Chronicles” was picked up by three dozen public stations and, within a year, it was offered to PBS affiliates nationally. It was seen in more than 300 cities at its height.
It ran for 19 seasons, through 2002, with 433 episodes. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos were all guests. In later seasons, Mr. Cheifet delved into cyberdating and virtual reality. A prescient 1984 episode on artificial intelligence included a researcher who acknowledged the limitations of A.I. applications but predicted that in “10 years, 20 years, these kinds of systems will be quite generally useful.”
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