Terrific, Fletch. Yours is a tale that deserves telling. Of course, that's true of all your tales, since ipso facto, you are the one who tells them.

Edit: The long tradition holds: I am your first post. You might say I follow in your timestamps.

Techtv was 256 on Cox cable in Oklahoma and I used to watch.
When I was 13, I used to watch the screensavers everyday and looked forward to it.
Screensavers was my intro into the fact that there where other people who thought what I was cool was cool.
I remember Sarah and Kevin Rose(not that tool Perera) and their antics.
You have my support.
I throw curses to the 4 winds against that which is called g4.

Thanks.

In the last thread we had about harsh resignation letters, Fletch asked no one to post his letter, and since he has yet to revoke that, I'll wait until either he posts it (which I think would make a decent last installment), or he gives the OK. However, if your GoogleFu is strong, it's not exactly hard to find.

I hate to sound a bit sadistic, but great story so far. It's almost like reading a Grimm's Fairy Tale that's tailored for us geeks. Patiently awaiting the next installment.

I wasn't aware Leo had started talking about it all. I'll check that out. Maybe it's just one of those things where "enough time has passed." Perhaps this also means we'll find out who killed Kennedy.

Part three is up. Also, to answer the most important question, yes, you will get to read the full text of "the email" at some point. I may even throw in my original first draft if I can find it.

My only complaint is that I wish these were longer

I guess I found TechTV shortly after getting one of the first digital cable boxes in the area. When I first started watching, TSS was 90 minutes, so you really had to be into the show to spend that much time/every day watching it. I was a geek, but not all that knowledgeable, and TSS was where I first heard about "crazy" stuff like Linux.

Definitely a shame what happened. Still, it was pretty glorious while it lasted.

I wouldn't say he's talking about it so much as he has made a few stabs at Paul Allen, calling TechTV "one of his little hobbies", clearly with a bitter tone in his voice and obviously feeling as though Allen really didn't care much what he did to the people who worked so hard to operate the place. It's funny watching Tekzilla or almost anything on Revision3 as well now as pretty much that entire company is staffed by ex-TechTV people. I'm really enjoying the story so far. I actually got digital cable at one point just to get TechTV and it was such an amazing experience. I had finally found something on TV that catered to my interests for real and not just in a glossed-over marketing way. I was heartbroken but also not surprised to hear that G4 had taken over and about two months after they got their hands things, I cancelled digital cable again. What that channel is today is laughable and that it drove away almost the entire staff and gets far lower ratings than TechTV did even at the bottom end says it all I think. I hope that one day, something like Revision3 will be able to reach that level of experience again.

There were many casualties. Products ahead of their time that couldn't find a market while "pie in the sky" promises and hype had indefinite funding.

I was first introduced to The Screen Savers in my Auto CAD class in high school. We would watch a clip from it every day before starting on our two hours of work. I remember looking forward to the show every day, but not really understand exactly what it was or what it did since it was still very early in my nerd days.

As everyone else has said: Great stuff, Fletch. Excellent writing, makes the rest of us look bad (as per usual). I hope all this isn't too painful for you to put down.

What a great series of articles. I loved The Screensavers, and watched it consistently. In fact, 354 was always the first channel I tuned to upon arriving home from work and turning the TV and DSS receiver on. (Leo: "354 for Computers and More!") Always remembered that for some reason.

Thanks for writing this, Fletch. I always loved the show and I am interested in reading how things happened.

Is this the channel a female hostess of which has produced a minor hoopla in the male geek audience by posting a nude picture of herself online, with the nudity concealed (ephemerally) by a layer in the readily available .pst file?

yep.

Cat Schwartz (sp?)

A-ha!! thanks!!

Fletch: in the next installment of your memoir, I demand that you clarify whether that happenstance was in fact a publicity stunt.

Between the stories and the boobies, this thread is chock full of goodness.