Paul Schindler On The Computer Chronicles
Sad News: Stewart Cheifet has died
Thank you S.M. Oliva for the sad news of Sterwart Cheifet’s death at 87.
S.M. Oliva:
A montage of some of Stewart’s cold opens as a sort-of “In Memoriam” tribute. There’s even a came from George around the 2-minute mark.
The New York Times is now using Chronicles video:
Paul Brainerd Dies at 78; Pioneered Desktop Publishing With PageMaker
His New York Times obituary said, “His software brought printing into the digital age, allowing users to stop manually splicing columns of text and graphics and instead create layouts on a virtual pasteboard.” The obituary includes a Computer Chronicles clip halfway through).
Thank You and Welcome
Thank you for your continuing interest in The Computer Chronicles and in me. I understand you love the program. So do I. It was a fantastic experience.
I was the weekly software reviewer in 133 episodes of the Chronicles (1983-1992), as well as a commentator (1984-85) and a regular on what was the Christmas show and became the Annual Buyers Guide show (1985-1999). The show went out of production during its 20th year, in December, 2002.
I did some other network tv:
I’ve been on local and national TV numerous times, mostly as a game show contestant (I appeared on the game shows Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, Scrabble, Win Ben Stein’s Money and Merv Griffin’s Crosswords) and as an author.
Video of my game show appearances
Pictures of my game show appearances
And it is unlikely I will be on national TV again. I would like to share some of the material I have written on my blog and recorded on my podcast as well as… The Rest of the Story. Some of you have been kind enough to express interest in my post-Chronicles time. After I left computer journalism, I taught 8th grade history, and now devote time to my family and my column/podcast hobby, as well as my hobby of writing love songs and parodies.
I am coming around to the feeling that the Chronicles is the Star Trek of the new century. Off the air for 25 years, it attracts enthusiastic viewers, old and new. Some who weren’t alive when it went off the air, such as Scott P… . If you were born in this century, drop me a note, and with your permission, I will add you to that last sentence.
Welcome to this site. Your comments are welcome.
Computer Chronicles Content Links
Find all things Chronicles on S.M. Oliva’s Computer Chronicles Revisited. He posted an episode review about the first time I served as co-host in March 1989.
Here are some George Morrow Commentaries from 1985-86.
Don’t miss the Youtube posting of the Special Computer Chronicles edition of my podcast. Available in RSS form as well.
Here are links to Computer Chronicles content from my blog.
Richard Dalton Co-Wrote Most Of My Reviews / I was the Chronicles’ Weatherman
A playlist containing three clips from Paul’s years on the Chronicles.
Paul Pans the Macintosh
Paul’s Piracy Commentary
Paul’s Review Shtick
Computer Game Reviews Supercut
Thanks to S.M. Oliva, who was kind enough to create and share a supercut of my game reviews from the first six seasons.
The Rest Of The Story
If you want to know what I’ve been up to for the last quarter century:
Promoting the best movie ever made (Pauline Kael and Citizen Kane to the contrary notwithstanding) Groundhog Day.
Paul Schindler, A Column on Things
My Blog
My Wikipedia Page
Paul Schindler, A Podcast on Things
RSS feed /RSS Page
YouTube Playlist of Podcasts
Writing Songs
The whole story of my songwriting hobby
My Spotify Artist Page
My Youtube Channel
A Little Radio
Tom King’s Computalk was nationally syndicated on a talk-radio network in the 90s and 00s. I did two Christmas fill-in shows for him.
Short-time CMP unit First-TV had me launch a syndicated show, Life on Line Radio. Not many stations picked it up, and it was cancelled on May 25, 1997 when First-TV was shoved down the memory hole. Such were the wild-west days of the early Internet.
I participated in the memory-hole process. I had CDs of all 20 programs. A few years ago, in effort to reduce the burden of untrammeled nostalgia my daughters will face when I am gone, I threw them away. Didn’t save one.
Do You Remember
The famous Adam Osborne picture on the day his firm went belly up? He took George Morrow with him.
What the heck? An effect. You never know
My family likes to say that everything reminds me of a story and the story is always about me. I hope that isn’t true. Thanks for reading this overlong exposition.
Please feel free to comment, or send me email at p@compchron.com. What’s your Chronicles experience been like?
You are about to learn why you were lucky that I was only given a minute a week on the Computer Chronicles. No one has ever accused me of not writing enough. A variation of an A.J. Liebling quotation applies to me: “I write better than anyone who writes faster and faster than anyone who writes better. And more than either of them.”
Most of the time I just do what I do, trying to do well by using the skills I was blessed with by genetics and environment. I look only at the effects of the moment: doing a professional job, getting paid, being appreciated, being asked to come again. I can’t begin to guess what effect I’m having on others.
Sometimes I get surprised.
I was moved to tears by several emails I received recently: people saying words to the effect of “I entered computer science because of you.”
I was simply trying to wrap solid and useful information in a light-hearted package. Hence, the shtick and the occasional mugging. A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down the pants. I don’t know why I inspired people: perhaps I made personal computing look like fun.
I never know what will happen because of the waves that spread out when I drop a pebble in the water. Just another day in front of the camera for me; a life-changing moment for a viewer. Viewers may forget what you say, but they never forget how you made them feel.
You don’t have to tell me if you went into computer science because of my reviews, but I’m glad you did, and that I could help. Maybe one or two of my thousand eighth-grade history students will go into history. I’d be honored, as I am already honored by the people I apparently guided into computer science.
What produced those emails a quarter century after the show ended? Created the afterlife of the Computer Chronicles? Stewart Cheifet and his production company generously gifted virtually the entire series to the Internet Archive. There it has been discovered by a new generation as well as rediscovered by those who grew up with it. Continued interest surprises me since most of what we covered no longer exists. Many of the people who appeared are dead, or long out of the computing racket.
Some viewers have written to me to say they leave the show on in the background because it comforts them—not unlike the people who go to sleep at night listening to archived baseball broadcasts on YouTube (yes, that is a thing).
Paul Harvey (who he?) used to end his daily radio broadcast with “The rest… of the story.” I have always been fascinated by what happened to my youthful idols. I know some of you are too, because you’ve told me so.
I am saddened that most people outlive their fame, often in straitened circumstances. Albeit a few, mostly minor (call me Mr. D-list), who weren’t desperate for the limelight, do quite well when the light goes out. Happy or sad, all of us has-beens enjoy it when we are remembered. Unlike entertainment people, no one who recognizes me shouts out my catchphrase. They would probably feel awkward saying “that’s my opinion I’m Paul Schindler.”
Apparently, some people are happily surprised to find out I’m still alive and easily reachable, unlike some of my colleagues. You’d need a Ouija board to talk to George or Gary or Stewart. Apparently the recent outburst of interest in me stems from reposting of some of my email responses, a mention on Reddit, and a plug in S.M. Oliva’s Computer Chronicles Revisited
So here we are. Thanks for your interest.
I don’t believe I am that guy in Galaxy Quest who parlayed a single appearance into a career on the fan-con circuit. True, I only co-hosted a few episodes. Mostly I appeared a minute a week. But apparently those minutes were memorable. Again, thanks for making it to the end.
My Lack Of Power
I don’t have the statistics, but I recall being crazy for Personal Information Managers (PIMs) on the Chronicles, since I was in my personal life. Never a Blackberry, just oddballs.
Ecco, which I praised the first time around and plugged on a Christmas show, was born dead. I used it for three decades, until last year. The installer had stopped working at the end of the 20th century, so, with each new version of Windows I installed the required DLL files and did the rest by hand. I keep it on my desktop in case I need an old entry that somehow didn’t get transferred. It exports to a csv file, so when Ecco itself can no longer be installed (probably Windows 10), if I am looking for 30-year-old contacts in companies that died in the last century, I will have to use a spreadsheet.
The vendor, NetManage, called once (after they stopped updating it in 1996) to tell me they appreciated my support, and then told me of the miserable sales figures. Unlike Clive Barnes, who could close a Broadway Show on opening night with a bad review from the Times, apparently I couldn’t save a piece of software with a good review and a plug at Christmas. My power, it appears, was limited.
Funny Picture
S.M. Oliva informs me that someone posted this on Discord in response to a games review video he posted.
Video New and Old
1994 Computer Chronicles SW Review Pilot NEVER BEFORE SEEN
Stewart Cheifet, Paul Schindler and Gina Smith in the unsold 1994 pilot
Comphron-adjacent: Paul Schindler computer video from elsewhere
Comphron-Adjacent Computer News Segment for FNN (later CNBC)
Week of July 29, 1986. I have no recollection of recording this; I would have had to go into San Francisco to record this for Financial News Network (later CNBC) in a studio. It may have had something to do with weekly computer news summary someone (I forget who) was paying me to write on The Source.
Compchron-adjacent Part 1 Mar 1991 CMP PCVision
Compchron-adjacent Part 2 Mar 1991 CMP PCVision
Failed pilot, killed by the sudden plunge in tech industry advertising budgets after the First Iraq war. It was not the only industry supposed to be a weekly VHS videotape (look it up) sold by subscription. The anchor is Clark Barrett, an actor we hired because he looked and sounded like an anchor. I had never participated in an actor audition process before; it is painful on both sides. He won because, only a decade after Walter Cronkite retired (once important TV guy) he had that avuncular, older white guy vibe with a deep, deep voice, that people in TV still liked in the dark ages; not necessarily viewers, but the people who made TV.
Ironically CMP had to call it PC Vision because Stewart had already wrapped up the name PCTV.
Japan’s national broadcaster, NHK, came to my home in 2004 for a feature on the computerized home office. Careful observers will notice several locations used on software reviews. Bonus: at the end is an interview with me conducted by the middle-school tv station during my first year of teaching 8th grade US history (not CompChron-Adjacent at all)
CompChron-Adjacent 1997 CMP FirstTV web wars segment
Video on the Internet before the Internet was capable of it
Computer Chronicles Clips You May Not Have Seen In This Form
March 1984 Compchron Season 1 Show 11 Word Processing with Gary Kildall on panel
Computer Chronicles Clips That Have Been Around A While
Computer Chronicles: Paul Schindler Review Shtick Supercut
S.M. Oliva (Computer Chronicles Revisited, https://www.smoliva.blog/) prepared this supercut of the shtick with which I began every review for eight years. His blog contains a list of every product I reviewed.
Computer Chronicles: Paul Schindler Pans The Macintosh
On, March 19, 1985 Paul Schindler became one of the few reviewers to pan the recently introduced Apple Mackintosh
Computer Chronicles Paul Schindler Piracy Commentary
February 1, 1985, Paul Schindler, complete with shtick, offers his opinions on software piracy during the dark ages of personal computing
Actually See Richard Dalton
My silent partner in writing Chronicles software reviews was Richard Dalton. As far as I can remember, I mentioned him a few times in my reviews and a few times in the main body of the show. Now, I can show you what he looked and sounded like:
Richard Dalton appeared in a failed CMP computer program pilot.
Hair and Makeup
On Computer Chronicles, unlike the rest of television, you were on your own for hair and makeup. Except during the taping of the the 1994 Computer Chronicles SW Review Pilot. They even do your hair and makeup on game shows.
Never before and never after did Stewart provide hair and makeup (we all did our own. Not having visible bags under my eyes was so cool). Clearly Stewart wanted this pilot to look professional so it would sell.
Pictures New and Old
Paul’s College Radio Program
Not sure how to spell my name in the early years
Paul, UPI Boston, Harris Terminal 1976
Paul E. Schindler Jr.
