When TDD arrived on the software scene around 1980, it became popular very fast. Why did it succeed so well?

I think it's because it was a combined theory and technology that hit the same "sweet spot" of intellectual infectiousness that the "proto-oncogene theory of cancer" did in the 1980's. Most of this episode is a history of the proto-oncogene theory. The next episode will look at case studies in software.

Sources:

Crafting Science: A Sociohistory of the Quest for the Genetics of Cancer, Joan Fujimura, 1997.
"Crafting science: Standardized packages, boundary objects, and 'Translation.'", Joan Fujimura, in Science as Practice and Culture, Andrew Pickering (ed.), 1992.
The Craft of Software Testing, Brian Marick, 1994. (Don't buy this book unless you need it for the unauthorized biography of me that you're writing. It's terribly out of date.)

Credits

I mention a comment from Twitter user James Thomas (@qahiccupps)
The DNA artwork is by Zephyris - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Thanks to Dawn Marick for checking the draft script.