Y2K Invasion of the Millennium Bug - PBS (1998)

This is probably the most boring documentary I have ever digitized and shared. Y2K: Invasion of the Millennium Bug was produced by South Dakota Public Television and PBS in 1998, and it seems to have been aimed at the older generation of the time who kept hearing about the upcoming Y2K bug but didn’t really understand what it was. It also seem to be the first copy available online. It was transferred using VHS-Decode.

I initially tried to acquire this tape because of the subject matter and thought it would be interesting for the newer generation. People like myself, who lived through that time period, know how big of a deal the Y2K bug was back then and how prevalent it was in the media during the years leading up to 2000. I was surprised to see a few videos and conversations online from younger people talking about it like it was a hoax or something silly that “never happened.” It wasn’t a hoax, and it wasn’t just sensationalized for the news—it was a real issue that could (and did) have real-world consequences. The reason not much happened is because of the army of IT workers and programmers all over the world scrambling and working overtime to patch everything before January 1, 2000. Thanks to them and their work, the consequences were not nearly as bad as they could have been.

Unfortunately like I mentioned at the beginning, this documentary is extremely boring and doesn’t hold up to other PBS productions. It’s mostly interviews with experts trying to explain the Y2K issue to people who had no idea about computers and some cringy presentation and situation. it also lacks the usual energy and pizzazz that PBS documentaries of the time often had.

Nevertheless, here it is for historical and preservation purposes! It is still an interesting time capsule showing old computer program and the Internet of the era but I would probably watch a different documentary if you want to learn about the Y2K bug.