It seems like every computer maker was using some celebrity to sell there machines in the early 1980s. Commodore had the right idea with William Shatner for the VIC-20. Who better to sell a computer than a sci-fi star? Radio Shack did well also with the famed Sci-Fi and science writer Isaac Asimov. Of course, then there was Texas Instruments with Bill Cosby for the TI-99/4A...
I'm not sure that "You Won't Find a Broader Line of Microcomputers Than Radio Shack's TRS-80" is the absolute best endorsement they could have come up with but what they were getting at is that there were a number of TRS-80 models that excelled for different purposes. Most computer makers had basically one model or sometimes two. Tandy/Radio Shack at this point (circa 1980 or so) had the Model II and Model III (unrelated really), the color computer and a couple of portable models. Though the Model III is not mentioned by name in this ad, it is the one that Isaac Asimov is using in the picture.
In this second ad with Asimov, he is featuring the TRS-80 Model III and in particular it's ability as a word processing system. It seem that SuperSCRIPSIT must have been the best thing since sliced bread.
The TRS-80 Model III was probably the most common TRS-80 model at this particular time because of its relative popularity in the education market. Illogically, the Model III was the successor to the original TRS-80 while the Model II was a completely different machine (good thing they didn't use Leonard Nimoy for this ad). The Model III was completely redesigned into an all-in-one design and had a number of enhancements while maintaining compatibility (at least 80% anyway) with the Model I.
The Model III was released in July 1980. In addition to being an all-in-one unit, it had a better keyboard, could now do lowercase letters and had a faster processor (a 2.03 MHz Z-80 vs. the 1.77 MHz version in the original) and faster and more reliable disk and cassette interfaces. The lowest end version still only had 4KB of memory but it was expandable up to 48KB. Two floppy drives could be added to the case (typically single-sided, double-density) though a power supply upgrade and system memory of at least 32KB was necessary to do so.
My computer programming class when I was a freshman in high school used TRS-80 Model IIIs and 4s. This was in 1989-90 when they were already long out of date (though the Model 4D was still being sold at this time).
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I don't remember the model, but my 8th grade "computer club learned BASIC on the TRS-80. Then it was a big deal in 9th grade, we were the first class to use a TRS-80 color computer in geometry class. This would have been '81 and '82.
I don't recall having computers in the classroom until I was in 7th grade. Those were Apple IIs and that would have been starting in 1987 or so. In High School I used TRS-80s my first year to program in BASIC and then original IBM XTs to program in Pascal for the rest of High School. I always though it was funny because the way funding worked, the class I had for typing (keyboarding) had nicer computers than the programming classes. They had PS/2s...probably 386es but I don't remember for sure.
A TRS-80 in 1981/82 would have been a Model I or III (The III's were all-in-one units but the Model I wasn't) or possibly the original Color Computer. School's usually used the Model I or III though.
It was plugged into a TV screen, and it was black & white, so it must've been a model I.
I had electric typewriters for typing class. Funny thing is, other than the driving simulator in 10th grade Drivers' Ed., I don't remember any other computers in school after 9th grade.
Computers weren't widespread when I was in high school either. There were two classrooms that had computers from what I remember. One was for programming classes and the other was for keyboarding/typing. If you didn't have those classes, you probably wouldn't have seen any.
Wow. Using model 3 in 1989. Your school was into retro before it was fashionable 😀 must have that in my collection.
Wow - you really know your computer history. I love it! Written anything about the old Crays?
Funny about Asimov - he was renowned for doing all his work on IBM Selectric typewriters. He kept two so when one needed maintenance he could switch to the others. I doubt whether he ever really switched over to the TRS-80. But then Shatner probably never used a Commodore, either.