Stuart Chafet, a television producer and host who has documented the personal computing revolution on PBS for nearly two decades, died December 28, 2025 at age 87 in Philadelphia. Cheifet created and hosted Computer Chronicleswhich aired on public television from 1983 to 2002 and helped demystify the new technological medium for millions of American viewers.
Computer Chronicles spanned everything from the earliest models of the IBM PC and Apple Macintosh to the advent of the World Wide Web and the dot-com boom. Chafet has interviewed computer industry figures including Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos, demonstrating the hardware and software to a wide audience.
From 1983 to 1990, he co-hosted the show with Gary Kildallfounder of Digital Research, who created the popular KP/M operating system that preceded it MS-DOS on early personal computer systems.
Computer Chronicles – 01×25 – Artificial Intelligence (1984)
From 1996 to 2002, Cheifet also produced and hosted Network Cafea companion series documenting the early Internet boom and introducing viewers to then-new websites such as Yahoo, Google and eBay.
A legacy worth preserving
Computer Chronicles began as a local weekly series in 1981 while Chafet was working as a station manager for KCSM-TV, the public television station at the College of San Mateo. It became a national PBS series in 1983 and aired continuously until 2002. production 433 episodes in 19 seasons. The format remained the same: product demos, guest interviews, and a final news segment called “Random Access” covering industry events.
After the show ended its run and Shafet left television production, he worked to preserve the show's legacy as a consultant for the Internet Archive, helping to make episodes of the series available to the public. Computer Chronicles And Network Cafe.
