One of Tech TV's flagship shows, the Screen Savers was a daily tech-oriented variety program where they review the newest computers, technologies, and their usefulness in the world. In the later years however, the show became a general-interest oriented and began to drift away from technology and more into pop-culture much like its successor Attack of the Show! to which replaced the Screen Savers. The show debuted in 1998 and ended in 2005.
The initial hosts were Leo Laporte and Kate Botello and in 2000, Botello left the show and was replaced with Patrick Norton and during their tenure, ZDTV became Tech TV. In 2004, Leo Laporte left the show to focus on his Call for Help gig and Kevin Rose began to take over his hosting duties and from there, Sarah Lane, Alex Albrecht, helped steer the ship of the show and as for Norton, he opted to remain in San Francisco while the show moved to LA along with most of the Tech TV operation after the Comcast buyout during the year. From there, the show went from general technological information to more into pop-culture content such as gaming, entertainment, and music among others. Near the end of the run, newcomers Kevin Pereira and Chi-Lan Lieu entered the fray. However, the Screen Savers ended in early 2005 when Attack of the Show! made its debut in the same year with Kevin Pereira, Sarah Lane, and Kevin Rose being the remnants of the Screen Savers run to do the initial hosting duties in the early years of Attack of the Show!.
In 2015, Leo Laporte's T Wi T ran a revival of the Screen Savers dubbed 'The New Screen Savers' which brought back Patrick Norton, Kate Botello, Sarah Lane, and Kevin Rose to host a number of episodes. During the revival, it returned to the Bay Area for the first time since it's initial move to LA a decade earlier during the Tech TV buyout. Unlike the previous era, it was broadcasted live online on YouTube as well as in podcast form. It ended in late 2018.
Recurring segments on the show include:
- "Bit Chat"
- "Dark Deals"
- "Dark Tips"
- "Download of the Day"
- "Live Calls"
- "Photoshop Challenge"
- "Show and Tell"
- "Site of the Nite"
- "Talkback"
- "The Giz Wiz"
- "The Screen Savers LAN Party"
- "Twisted List"
- "Windows Tips"
- "Windows Tweaks"
- "Yoshi's Mods"
- "Mac Minute"
- "Geek Library"
The Screen Tropers:
- Fully Absorbed Finale: The series finale of AOTS (TSS's successor) paid homage to the show by revealing the entire show's run was a bad dream of former Screen Savers host Leo Laporte.
- Retool: Initially a tech-oriented show, it gradually transformed into a general-interest show centered on gaming, technology, and entertainment. The show itself would later retool into Attack of the Show! in 2005.
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Retroactive Recognition: In an episode of the show, a young and blonde Morgan Webb was a frequent guest of the show and little did we know at the time, she would later host a well-known video game review show on the same channel for a number of years.
