Silicon Valley (HBO)

About Silicon Valley (HBO)

Silicon Valley is an American comedy television series created by Mike Judge, John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky. A comedy partially inspired by Judge's own experiences as a silicon valley engineer in the 1980s, Silicon Valley released its first season on HBO in 2014, and aired its sixth and final season in 2019. The show centers on Richard Hendricks portrayed by Thomas Middleditch, a shy, introverted programmer who founds a tech start-up named Pied Piper, which evolves from a compression company to a global stablecoin (cryptocurrency) company.

Making / Production

Silicon Valley was shot entirely in California and the creators spent time in the real Silicon Valley for research. Many scenes take place in the fictional tech company Hooli, which is a parody of tech giants like Google and Apple.

Actors

• Thomas Middleditch as Richard Hendricks: A shy introvert who builds the compression code that starts the entire tech drama.
• Josh Brener as Nelson 'Big Head' Bighetti: Richard's best friend from college, often succeeds through dumb luck or others' mistakes.
• Martin Starr as Bertram Gilfoyle: A LaVeyan Satanist programmer who specializes in system architecture, networking, and security.
• Kumail Nanjiani as Dinesh Chugtai: Talented coder who often finds himself embroiled in silly and petty squabbles.
• Jimmy O. Yang as Jian-Yang: Elusive and hilariously weird developer, who often serves as a wildcard in the series.
• Zach Woods as Jared Dunn: Formerly an executive at Hooli, he later joins Richard's startup and becomes the CFO of Pied Piper.

Trivia / Interesting Facts

• Although the show is called Silicon Valley, most of the start-ups in the show are based in San Francisco.
• Several real-life tech moguls made cameo appearances on the show, including Bill Gates and Mark Cuban.
• The conducts and events of a few episodes led to real life implementation over the years.
• The show's creators and writers spend a lot of time in the Bay Area, attending tech events for research.

Awards

< p>Silicon Valley has been nominated for numerous awards over the years including the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series and the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy. It has also won a Critics' Choice Television Award and two Satellite Awards among others.

Quotes

• “I'm going to make it through this nightmare, I'm a survivor!” - Richard Hendricks
• “If you're not an asshole, it creates this kind of asshole vacuum, and that void is filled by other assholes.” - Gilfoyle
• "Always blue, always blue, always blue." - Jared Dunn

Music and Soundtrack

• The original soundtrack, known as 'Silicon Valley (Music from the HBO Original Series)', was released in 2017.
• Its memorable theme song entitled 'Stretch Your Face' was composed by artist Tobacco.