NerdTV was a technology

TV show A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platfo ...

from

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

. NerdTV was not aired, instead each episode was released as a

MPEG-4 MPEG-4 is a group of international standards for the compression of digital audio and visual data, multimedia systems, and file storage formats. It was originally introduced in late 1998 as a group of audio and video coding formats and related ...

video file, freely downloadable and licensed under a

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

license. Transcripts and audio-only versions of the released episodes were available as well. The show features Robert X. Cringely interviewing famous and influential

nerd A nerd is a person seen as overly intellectual, obsessive, introverted, or lacking social skills. Such a person may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular, little known, or non-mainstream activities, which are generally either highly t ...

s. Each episode was about one hour and features a single guest from the world of technology. From September 6, 2005 to November 29, 2005, thirteen episodes comprising Season One were released on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

. Another thirteen episodes were promised for Season Two, in which the show was renamed SuperNerds, along with a more consistent release schedule and better quality video files. Season Two was never created.

Schedule

Episode highlights

NerdTV008 – Avram Miller

This episode is one of the first where the subject ( Avram Miller) is not an entrepreneur, which is to say he didn't create a company that was successful, though he did facilitate many successful startup companies through his investment portfolio while at Intel. The show chronologically follows his career, including: *

Biotech Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists in the field are kn ...

(although the term didn't exist yet) experiences with brain-wave analysis. * networked computer monitoring in the hospital environment in the mid-late 1960. * starting & running a company in Israel at the end of the

War of Attrition The War of Attrition (; ) involved fighting between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and their allies from 1967 to 1970. Following the 1967 Six-Day War, no serious diplomatic efforts were made to resolve t ...

. * working with

Ken Olsen Kenneth Harry Olsen (February 20, 1926 – February 6, 2011) was an American engineer who co-founded Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1957 with colleague Harlan Anderson and his brother Stan Olsen. Background Kenneth Harry Olsen was bor ...

for

Digital Equipment Corporation Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president until ...

around the time of

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

's launch of the PC. * to finally joining

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

and working with them to develop numerous new ideas and venture capitalist investments

Intel Capital Intel Capital Corporation started off as the investment arm of Intel Corporation in 1991 and in January 2025, it spun off as a standalone investment fund. Intel Capital makes equity investments in a range of technology startups and companies off ...

Reception

Chin Wong of ''

Manila Standard Today The ''Manila Standard'' is a broadsheet newspaper in the Philippines which, as of 2017, is owned by the Romualdez family. The Romualdezes, through incumbent speaker of the House Martin Romualdez, also own Journal Publications, Inc., the owner ...

'' wrote, "An hour with a technology guru may be too much for nontechies, but for those with an abiding interest in the industry, ''NerdTV'' is must-see TV." In a mixed review, ''

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

''s Jason Silverman stated, "Cringely will surely refine the show as the season progresses. One lesson from episode one: Turn off your cell phone. But without additional resources -- a second camera and an editor? a shiny round table? -- NerdTV is not likely to be an important moment in web TV history. Episode one will be of great interest to Mac cultists. But one imagines that PBS would prefer that the series reach beyond the small clique of hard-core geeks."

References

External links

NerdTV homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nerdtv 2005 American television series debuts 2005 American television series endings PBS original programming American non-fiction web series Documentary films about technology