Mike Judge lampoons ‘Silicon Valley’ in return to TV

  • By Patrick Kevin Day Los Angeles Times
  • Thursday, April 3, 2014 1:49pm
  • LifeGo-See-Do

There was a time when Mike Judge feared that he’d missed the Google bus to the tech boom.

The writer-director, best known for creating MTV’s “Beavis and Butthead,” first thought of a TV series about the digital world in 1999. At the time, he was in talks for an online animation show to be hosted by one of the numerous new websites looking to provide original programming, but less than a year later the bubble had burst and the notion of a satirical series about a new California gold rush in the world of tech (as well as his animated series) evaporated.

Fast forward a little more than a decade, with the 51-year-old executive producer and writer poised at 10 p.m. Sunday to launch “Silicon Valley,” a half-hour, live-action HBO series that lampoons the land of goofy apps, nerd millionaires and the cult worship of tech titans.

“I started out thinking, ‘Are we doing this too late?’” Judge said on a recent afternoon in his rather spartan writers’ room at the Culver Studios.

A look at the recent headlines of excess and eccentricity rolling out of Northern California seems only to confirm Judge’s instinct that the tech culture is ready for mockery. Longtime San Francisco residents are incensed by Google’s private bus system, Facebook continues to gobble up small companies for billions of dollars, and venture capitalist Tom Perkins compared the treatment of the richest one percent to that of Jews in Nazi Germany.

“I think this time is even crazier than the first tech bubble,” said Judge, who was also behind the 1999 comedy film classic “Office Space.” “Now is an even better time to do it.”

The series, which is already collecting early positive reviews, follows the struggles of a small group of programmers as they found a start-up company called Pied Piper in a business landscape where even doctors have an idea for the next billion-dollar app. Thomas Middleditch stars as a panic-attack-prone, low-level programmer at tech giant Hooli (think Google) who stumbles onto a compression program that can deliver massive amounts of information online without quality loss. A bidding war among tech giants ensues.

Suddenly, Middleditch and his low-level programmer friends, played by Martin Starr, Josh Brener and stand-up comedians T.J. Miller and Kumail Nanjiani, are scrambling to found and sustain a start-up company.

Comparisons to HBO’s “Entourage,” about the Hollywood adventures of a wealthy movie star and his friends abound, and the parallels aren’t lost on Judge.

“In Hollywood, you sell a script, you become a movie star and suddenly you’re driving fancy cars, buying nice houses, going to fancy parties,” he said. “(In Silicon Valley) it’s just ‘How do we have fun? I don’t know.’ It’s all these introverts. It’s not the kind of people who used to become rich 80 years ago.”

Alec Berg, an executive producer for “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” who will help Judge guide the series after the pilot, sees the dude-heavy, big-money tech world as even more pretentious than Hollywood.

“I don’t think most people in Hollywood hide behind the mask of ‘I’m doing this to make the world a better place,’” Berg says. “To watch people in tech garner billions of dollars and deny that it’s about the money at all, there’s a disconnect.”

With the creative freedom afforded by a premium cable channel, Judge and Berg promise the show isn’t going to hew to standard sitcom conventions. Since the characters are completely shaped by the future of their company, from pipe dream to reality, that’s where the show will live entirely in the first season. Don’t expect any vacations; these guys are all about work.

One of the immediate standouts of “Silicon Valley’s” cast is Christopher Evan Welch, who plays a strange venture capitalist whose ability to show emotion is on an Asperger-like level.

Sadly, the 48-year-old Welch died of lung cancer last December midway through filming the first season. (Judge and Berg said they aren’t going to address the character’s sudden absence in the season’s final episodes, but will next season if the show is renewed.)

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Life

Brandon Hailey of Cytrus, center, plays the saxophone during a headlining show at Madam Lou’s on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lynnwood-based funk octet Cytrus has the juice

Resilience and brotherhood take center stage with ‘friends-first’ band.

FILE - In this April 11, 2014 file photo, Neko Case performs at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. Fire investigators are looking for the cause of a fire on Monday, Sept. 18, 2017, that heavily damaged Case’s 225-year-old Vermont home. There were no injuries, though a barn was destroyed. It took firefighters two hours to extinguish the blaze. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP, File)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Singer-songwriter Neko Case, an indie music icon from Tacoma, performs Sunday in Edmonds.

Sarah Jean Muncey-Gordon puts on some BITCHSTIX lip oil at Bandbox Beauty Supply on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024, in Langley, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Bandbox Beauty was made for Whidbey Island locals, by an island local

Founder Sarah Muncey-Gordon said Langley is in a renaissance, and she’s proud to be a part of it.

Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli
Tangier’s market boasts piles of fruits, veggies, and olives, countless varieties of bread, and nonperishables, like clothing and electronics.
Rick Steves on the cultural kaleidoscope of Tangier in Morocco

Walking through the city, I think to myself, “How could anyone be in southern Spain — so close — and not hop over to experience this wonderland?”

chris elliott.
Vrbo promised to cover her rental bill in Hawaii, so why won’t it?

When Cheryl Mander’s Vrbo rental in Hawaii is uninhabitable, the rental platform agrees to cover her new accommodations. But then it backs out. What happened?

Byrds co-founder Roger McGuinn, seen here in 2013, will perform April 20 in Edmonds. (Associated Press)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

R0ck ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famer Roger McGuinn, frontman of The Byrds, plans a gig in Edmonds in April.

Mother giving in to the manipulation her daughter fake crying for candy
Can children be bribed into good behavior?

Only in the short term. What we want to do is promote good habits over the course of the child’s life.

Speech Bubble Puzzle and Discussion
When conflict flares, keep calm and stand your ground

Most adults don’t like dissension. They avoid it, try to get around it, under it, or over it.

The colorful Nyhavn neighborhood is the place to moor on a sunny day in Copenhagen. (Cameron Hewitt)
Rick Steves: Embrace hygge and save cash in Copenhagen

Where else would Hans Christian Andersen, a mermaid statue and lovingly decorated open-face sandwiches be the icons of a major capital?

Last Call is a festured artist at the 2024 DeMiero Jazz Festival: in Edmonds. (Photo provided by DeMiero Jazz Festival)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Jazz ensemble Last Call is one of the featured artists at the DeMiero Jazz Festival on March 7-9 in Edmonds.

Kim Helleren
Local children’s author to read at Edmonds Bookshop

Kim Helleren will read from one of her books for kids at the next monthly Story Time at Edmonds Bookshop on March 29.

Chris Elliott
Lyft surprises traveler with a $150 cleaning charge

Jared Hakimi finds a $150 charge on his credit card after a Lyft ride. Is that allowed? And will the charge stick?

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.