The Screen Savers

Infobox Television
show_name = The Screen Savers


caption = "The Screen Savers" logo
format = News/Documentary, Talk Show
runtime = 60 minutes
producer = Joshua Brentano
Kelly Gavin
executive_producer = Paul Block (2001 - 2004)
Jim Downs (2004)
starring = Leo Laporte
Kate Botello
Patrick Norton
Kevin Rose
Alex Albrecht
country = USA
language = English
network = ZDTV, TechTV
first_aired = May 11, 1998
last_aired = March 18, 2005
website = http://www.thescreensavers.com
imdb_id = 0240295
tv_com_id = 15772

"The Screen Savers" (broadcast May 11, 1998 – March 18, 2005) was a live American TV show on TechTV. The show launched concurrently with the channel ZDTV (later known as TechTV) on May 11, 1998. "The Screen Savers" originally centered around computers, new technologies, and their adaptations in the world. However, after it was taken over by G4, the show became more general-interest oriented and focused somewhat less on technology. The final episode of "The Screen Savers" aired on March 18, 2005. Repeat episodes continued to air until March 25, 2005 when its replacement program, "Attack of the Show!" began 3 days later on March 28, 2005.

History

1998–2000

"The Screen Savers" premiered on May 11, 1998 as part of ZDTV. It aired live from San Francisco, California. Originally hosted by Leo Laporte and Kate Botello, the show featured a large and continually changing group of contributors.

2000–2001

In early 2000, Kate Botello left the show. Patrick Norton took her spot, and he and Laporte hosted the show for much of its run. A few months after Botello left, ZDTV became TechTV.

For much of its run, "The Screen Savers" had a running time of 60 minutes. This was later changed to 90 minutes (the expansion coming with the advent of the 'TechLive' all-day news format in 2001), but was reduced back to its original length due to scheduling conflicts and the difficulty of creating enough content for a 90-minute program.

2002–2003

In 2002, the show built a new set and designed a new logo and graphics. The new set was much larger and brighter than the previous "basement" set. The new set offered more room for the studio audience, application-specific areas, a dedicated LAN Party section, and a new lab for Yoshi.

2004–2005

2004 was an important year for "The Screen Savers". Laporte left "The Screen Savers" to focus on hosting "Call for Help", and Kevin Rose took his spot. Soon after Comcast bought TechTV in order to merge it with their struggling gaming channel "G4", the TechTV offices were hit with massive layoffs affecting over 200 personnel. G4 moved the show to their studios in Los Angeles, California. The first Los Angeles based episode aired on September 7, 2004. Norton declined to move with the show, opting to remain in San Francisco with his new wife. Alex Albrecht took his spot. On November 11, 2004, Kevin Rose, Sarah Lane, and Alex Albrecht announced on their personal blogs that G4 had decided to revamp "The Screen Savers" by making it more pop culture, Internet, and gaming-oriented. Alex Albrecht, Yoshi DeHerrera, Dan Huard, executive producer Paul Block and the show's entire staff (comprised mostly of TechTV employees) either resigned, made separation deals with G4, or were officially terminated. After the layoffs, the show changed formats, leaving computer and technology-focused content and adopting a gaming and entertainment variety show style that presented gaming and technology related news, product demonstrations, software clinics, interviews with notable people, live music, and such original segments as "Dark Deals", "Gems of the Internet", and "It Came from eBay".

New episodes of the revamped show, which would later become "Attack of the Show!", began on November 29, 2004; without a live studio audience. Kevin Pereira and Chi-Lan Lieu took over hosting duties. Chi-Lan later left G4 and was replaced as co-host briefly by Sarah Lane and finally by Kevin Rose. The final hosts of "The Screen Savers" were Kevin Rose and Kevin Pereira. The show's executive producer was Jim Downs.

Cancellation

On March 17, 2005, the cast announced that on March 28, 2005, "The Screen Savers" would officially end. The first episode of the officially titled "Attack of the Show!" aired on March 28, 2005. (See 2005 in television)

Format

Each show began with a short commentary on the day's technology-related news stories, sometimes accompanied by an online poll. This was followed by a call for help from a viewer, either through telephone or netcam. Early in the show's run, this was followed by Leo's Boot Camp, designed to help people who were new to computers. More calls were answered throughout the show, along with a variety of segments. These included various interviews, coverage of special events, The Twisted List, Site of the Night, and Download of the Day. As each show came to an end, questions sent in by email were answered. For part of the show's run, quotations sent in from viewers were read at this time.

egments

Here are a few of the many segments which appeared on The Screen Savers.
* "Bit Chat"
* "Dark Deals"
* "Dark Tips"
* "Download of the Day"
* "Live Calls"
* "Photoshop Challenge"
* "Show and Tell"
* "Site of the Nite"
* "Talkback"
* "The Screen Savers LAN Party"
* "Twisted List"
* "Windows Tips"
* "Windows Tweaks"
* "Yoshi's Mods"
* "Mac Minute"

Hosts

Final hosts

Some of the final hosts of "The Screen Savers" were:
* Sarah Lane: Sarah became co-host when Chi-Lan Lieu decided to lessen her involvement with the show. She, Kevin Rose, and Brendan Moran were the only on-air talent from TechTV still featured on the show. She left G4 and "Attack of the Show!" on April 6, 2006.
* Brendan Moran: Brendan left, along with Sarah, on April 6, 2006.
* Kevin Pereira: Kevin continues to host "Attack of the Show", along with Olivia Munn, Zach Selwyn, and Layla Kayleigh.
* Kevin Rose: Currently part of several online IPTV tech projects along with former TechTV employees, such as Revision3. Kevin is also founder and chief architect of the social news site Digg. He left G4 and "Attack of the Show!" in May 2005.

Previous hosts and supporting members

Former hosts and supporting members included:
*Alex Albrecht: Alex joined "The Screen Savers" as co-host on the first G4techTV episode airing from Los Angeles. He was terminated on November 11, 2004. His last episode aired November 10, 2004. Alex now co-hosts the vidcasts "Diggnation" and "The Totally Rad Show", both distributed through Revision3.
*Kate Botello: Kate left the show to co-host "Extended Play" with Adam Sessler. She also co-hosted a TechTV video on computer basics with Chris Pirillo. Kate currently lives in Traverse City, Michigan, where she owns and operates a web design company.
*Jessica Corbin: Jessica left the show after the merger hosted "Love's a Trip" [ [http://www.stylenetwork.com/Shows/LovesATrip/ Loves's a Trip] ] , a reality TV show on Style as well as cohosted most of the 26 episodes of InDigital a vidcast production of Revision3. She now cohosts PopSiren, another vidcast distributed through Revision3.
*Yoshi DeHerrera: Yoshi was the show's modding guru. He was terminated on November 11, 2004. His last episode aired November 10, 2004.
*Dan Huard: Dan was terminated on November 11, 2004. His last episode aired November 10, 2004. He now hosts a revamped "thebroken" vidcast with Revision3.
*Leo Laporte: Leo left the show on April 1, 2004. He was the host of "The Lab with Leo Laporte" on G4techTV Canada in Canada and How To Channel in Australia, till the series was canceled in Canada, and pulled from the schedule in Australia. He also has his own technology talk radio show on Premiere Radio Networks (previously exclusive to KFI AM 640), as well as a host of numerous podcasts, most notably "this WEEK in TECH". He has also started an internet broadcasting network, streaming 25+ hours of new video content each week. This network is called "TWITLive".
*Chi-Lan Lieu: Chi-Lan co-hosted "The Screen Savers" with Kevin Pereira for a short time in December 2004. She was replaced as co-host by Sarah Lane in January 2005 and has since announced her departure from G4 on her personal blog.
*Megan Morrone: Megan left the show to have a baby. She currently co-hosts a weekly podcast with Leo Laporte on the This Week In Tech network called Jumping Monkeys.
*Patrick Norton: Patrick, who married, left the show after the merger so as to not be transferred to Los Angeles. He hosted an internet tech show called "DL.TV", which he left as of August 2, 2007 to join Revision3. He is currently the co-host of Revision3's Tekzilla with Veronica Belmont.
*Martin Sargent: Martin left the show to host his own late night variety show on TechTV: "Unscrewed with Martin Sargent". His last episode on "The Screen Savers" was May 23, 2003, with the exception of making a few appearances on the show in 2004. "Unscrewed with Martin Sargent" was cancelled on November 11, 2004 and Sargent was terminated shortly after. He has since been in producing two Revision3 vidcasts, "Webdrifter" [ [http://revision3.com/webdrifter Webdrifter] ] and "Infected" [ [http://revision3.com/infected Infected] ] . The final episode of "Infected", episode 50, was released December 6, 2007, and it was announced that Martin would be hosting a new show called "Internet Superstar" beginning in January 2008.
*Cat Schwartz: Cat left the show to co-host "Call for Help" and eventually left G4techTV in August 2004.
*Morgan Webb: Morgan left the show in April 2003 to co-host "X-Play" with Adam Sessler. In late 2007, she also launched a tech news vidcast called "Webbalert" [ [http://www.webbalert.com/ Webbalert] ] . It is a short summary of the day's tech news.
*Scott Herriott: Scott appeared in the "House Call"'s segment and demonstrated technology in his search for Bigfoot.

ee also

*"Hosts of The Screen Savers"
*"List of notable guests appearing on The Screen Savers"
*"this WEEK in TECH" - A weekly podcast hosted by Leo Laporte and other former cast members of "The Screen Savers".
*"DL.TV" - A bi-weekly Internet show hosted by Robert Heron, with other former TechTV and ZDTV employees behind the scenes.
*"Revision3" - an IPTV company founded by Kevin Rose and Dan Huard with shows hosted by Rose, Albrecht, Sargent, Norton, Lane, and Corbin

References

External links

* [http://www.g4tv.com/screensavers/index.html/ "The Screen Savers" official website]
* [http://www.attackoftheshow.com/ "Attack of the Show" official website]