but I am remembering more of the original show I saw on PBS

That would be James Burke's "Connections" series, eh?

You might be able to e-mail Burke and ask him what his source was. Also, there was a companion book to the series that might contain that reference and that you can probably get at your library.

In this vein, my contribution of "trivial foundations" would be -- while Beethoven would be pissed if he heard it called trivial -- the capacity/design of the Compact Disc being based on the length of the 9th Symphony. There are recent techno discussions on the BBS about CD design factors, but I am old enough to remember reading a story before the market introduction of CDs about the Beethoven factor. I just can't find a solid reference to it now.

[edit: It looks like Burke was born in Ulster]