The Mega-Brands That Built America - Season 2

First aired: 4/28/2024 8 episodes

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Episodes

1. End of the Landlines

Aired: 4/28/2024

When Motorola introduces the first handheld portable telephone to the world, the futuristic technology sets off a fierce battle among international telecommunications companies to produce the most popular cell phone. The competition for the next great mobile device produces innovations such as flip phones, ringtones, and text messaging. But when a little-known tech upstart from Canada decides to combine the features of a computer with a cell phone to make a smartphone called the Blackberry, the way we use phones will never be the same again.

2. Internet Killed the Video Store

Aired: 5/5/2024

A database software engineer is inspired to create a bigger, unprecedented family friendly video-store, Blockbuster. But, as the dot com boom explodes an opening appears for two software executives in California to redefine the industry and take on the media giant with their online subscription service, Netflix.

3. Easy Money

Aired: 5/12/2024

In the middle of the 20th century, a small piece of plastic revolutionizes the world of commerce as Diners' Club, Bank of America, and American Express race to change how people pay for everything kicking off the $6 trillion dollar a year credit card industry.

4. Suite Dreams: Birth of the Modern Hotel

Aired: 5/19/2024

Two visionaries breathe new life into the hotel industry in America and the world, by setting the modern standard for hospitality. Despite setbacks, economic downturns, and international conflict, these rivals will stop at nothing to be number one.

5. Music on the Move

Aired: 6/2/2024

In the 1950s, rival electronics companies aim to make music portable for the first time ever. What follows is a decades-long rivalry that prompts the creation of iconic products like the Pocket Radio, Cassette Tape, Walkman and the CD, alongside the rise of two of the biggest companies in the world.

6. Clash of the Computer Titans

Aired: 6/9/2024

A game designer named Steve Jobs starts a personal computer company in his parents' garage on his way to bringing computers mainstream. But when he commissions the help of a software design company run by Bill Gates, it's the beginning of one of the biggest rivalries in the history of American industry.

7. Rentals to Riches

Aired: 6/23/2024

A down-on-his-luck car salesman has the visionary idea to start the first rental car company in America, and when he joins forces with cab company owner John Hertz, they spread their revolutionary business across the country. But when WWII veteran Warren Avis starts his own rental car company, fierce competition between the two gives rise to a new industry with a $100 billion annual market.

8. Sneaker Head-to-Head

Aired: 6/30/2024

Two sneaker companies become industry titans through a decades long battle for global dominance, as they unleash iconic footwear that will bring sneakers mainstream and make them part of the fabric of American culture.