We were incredibly excited when we were asked to tell this story for PBS’s history series American Experience. Today, whether we like it or not, many of us interact with the world through the products and services of companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple. We live in a digital age, but how did that revolution happen? “Silicon Valley” is an engaging look at the birthplace of the modern technological era told by the people who shaped it. In 1957, amid the lush orchards of California’s Santa Clara Valley, eight of the country’s most talented young scientists and engineers took a major professional and financial risk to join forces and start their own company, Fairchild Semiconductor. Their leader was 29-year-old Robert Noyce, a physicist with a brilliant mind and the affability of a born salesman who would co-invent the microchip—an essential component of nearly all modern electronics we use today. Fairchild Semiconductor’s radical innovations and monumental success drew thousands of people to northern California and spawned dozens of new companies, transforming the region into a hub of technological ingenuity. Today, the lure of Silicon Valley continues as young innovators and entrepreneurs flock there in the hopes of inventing the next big thing. For us, it was thrilling to meet and interview individuals like Gordon Moore, who co-founded Intel with Robert Noyce, and Andy Grove, who helped make Intel an industry giant. These men and all the other technology pioneers that built Silicon Valley truly changed the world.

Winner 2013 The Columbus International Film & Video Festival Bronze Plaque
Winner 2013 Writers Guild of America award for writers Randall MacLowry and Michelle Ferrari

Air Date: February 5, 2013

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