Previewing American Genius

When you hear there is a show called American Genius you would expect an episode featuring Albert Einstein, probably the most famous and revered genius in this nation's history. But the genesis of the National Geographic Channel miniseries is that the nation's brightest all had rivals to push them to greater heights. So instead of an episode devoted to the best and brightest this nation has ever seen, they focus on two (or more) that raced to create new industries.

Obviously the premiere tonight focuses on the most recent that has taken over the nation's interest over the past quarter century and just recently ended: Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates. Sure the former is already up to his second posthumous bioflick since his death due to his charismatic personality, but it was Gates, who had the upper hand for most of the duo's rivalry (you can argue it was not until the iPhone until Jobs took the pole position).

Also on tonight is a rivalry I did not even know existed until now. Thanks to a paragraph in ever US History textbook, we all know Orville and Wilber Wright were the first in flight but there is much more to that story thanks to a man named Glenn Curtis whose rivalry ended up most more bitter than that of Jobs and Gates (as well as more deadlier).

Future episodes feature other familiar names: Hearst vs Pulitzer (journalism), Colt vs. Wesson (revolvers), Oppenheimer vs. Heisenberg (the atomic bomb), and Edison vs Tesla (electricity). The only names I did not recognize from the episode title are Farnsworth vs. Sarnoff which turns out to be the story of beginning of the television. There is also an episode dedicated to the space race.

American Genius airs Mondays with back to back episodes starting at 9:00 on the National Geographic Cha
nnel.