The untold tale of Apple and Microsoft's patent battle.
By Craig Finseth July 19, 2011.
Maybe it's because it's a cable-less era. Maybe it's because TV programming is more than the sum of the medium, but American Genius, which returns for its first full season next week, is one of the most moving TV shows you'll watch all year.
American Genius, Netflix's springtime drama (premiering Monday, May 22), revolves around the lives of three Silicon Valley mavericks: Steve Jobs (Jason Issac), Bill Gates (Ron Livingston), and the late-night "Super Dave Osborne" (Dave Allen). The premise is a bit over-the-top, but it's easy to see the appeal: The three creators of Microsoft were school-mates at Lakeside School and university-mates at Harvard.
They've been friends for decades and, in that time, two of them built a company that grew to dominate technology. What happened to the third, Steve Jobs? The show's founders -- creators Brad Copeland and Matt Silverstein -- admit they don't want to know the answer to that question. They're more interested in understanding why he can't share the spotlight with Gates and Osborne, who make their millions from software and are friends with the two friends who founded Microsoft.
To start, Steve Jobs was born into wealth and privilege. Gates and Osborne, on the other hand, grew up poor. Or, at least, poor by Silicon Valley standards. There were never enough computers to go around at Lakeside School, and Osborne's dad was a mean drunk who beat him and his siblings.
Osborne's parents divorced when he was 13, and when he reached 14, his father threw him out of the house for being a "loser" and a "little shit." That left his mother and her new husband, a physician named Paul Terrell, to raise Osborne and his two brothers. He was rarely home, save for family parties.
He was the kind of kid who never wanted to get up in the morning. He was the kind of kid who always wanted to go outside and play.
Yet, he did. Even if it was just on the street.
(Courtesy of Mark Saks)
Steve Jobs didn't like school, either. He was the kind of kid who never wanted to get up in the morning. He was the kind of kid who always wanted to go outside and play. be359ba680
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