In Valley of the Boom, Hollywood Dissects Silicon Valley (Again)

Before Google and Internet Explorer, in that location was Netscape, which pioneered the first commercial web browser. Before Facebook, at that place was theglobe.com, a budding campus-based site. And earlier YouTube, at that place was Michael Fenne, a con artist on the run from the FBI who started a streaming video site called Pixelon.

Nat Geo's Valley of the Boom, which debuts afterward this yr, is the tale of these three startups and their contribution to the ascent (and autumn) of the online world. The serial, from Business firm of Lies creator Matthew Carnahan, stars Emmy winner Bradley Whitford, Steve Zahn, and Lamorne Morris.

If you lived through the mid-90s, the prove'due south ill-plumbing equipment Gap khakis, Aeron hinge chairs, beige cuboid offices, and modem noises will have you right back. If yous're lucky plenty to be much younger than the rest of us and can't remember life earlier the iPhone, y'all'll be—well, probably incredibly dislocated. Silicon Valley was (way) different when Mark Zuckerberg was withal in middle school.

Looming darkly over the entire narrative is Microsoft. In the mid-90s, it was a force to be reckoned with and, as one character in the series says, "Microsoft owns the internet." Cue a bunch of flashy tech sales guys rocking Ray-Bans and threatening to "take Netscape down"; one even carries a gun.

"Um, has Bill Gates seen this?" I asked at a Television Critics Association press conference in Los Angeles last week. "No i has seen this yet," Executive Producer Arianna Huffington replied with a smile.

Peradventure Neb doesn't care. He's saving the earth at present and probably wants to put Redmond's antitrust nightmare backside him and focus on ridding the planet of malaria rather than taking criminal offense at a vi-function Nat Geo series.

Simply Valley of the Nail isn't a traditional drama—or even a straightforward docu-drama. It's something more interesting (and weird). Interspersed with the dramatic storylines of the three companies are talking heads, including James Barksdale, co-founder of Netscape.

Valley of the Boom

At that place are too rap battles, characters breaking the fourth wall, flash mobs, and even a fantasy dream sequence with Steve Zahn in a fat arrange, fear wig, and tux. I've simply seen the trailer and a few sneak peek clips, but I'll exist tuning in. It looks odd but intriguing.

At the printing event last week, I sat down with Whitford (James Barksdale), Zahn (Michael Fenne), and John Karna (Marc Andreessen) to find out why they took the gig, what they call back of the mid-90s (Karna was born in 1992), and why Valley of the Boom is a necessary cautionary tale for today's digerati.

Here are edited and condensed excerpts of our conversation.

When you offset got the script, what did you think nigh doing a series which focused on the mid-90s, pre-bust Silicon Valley culture?

[Steve Zahn] It was such a unique script, but to first off with, it's hard for me to think of the mid-90s as "a period piece" because, that's when I was hither in LA, making movies, and now I'm fifty and live on a farm in Kentucky.

[John Karna] Well, I wasn't born until 1992.

Ha! Moving swiftly on. Bradley?

[Bradley Whitford] This series, well, it's the origin story of the internet.

Well, to be clear, it's really one of the origin stories of the globe wide web. But if yous look over in that location [I point in the direction of University of California, Los Angeles] that'due south where the internet started on Dec. five, 1969, when the Department of Defense force's Avant-garde Inquiry Projects Bureau (ARPANET) connected the first iv computer network nodes.

[SZ] Human that'south cool. I had no idea.

[BW] That's a good point. Good annotation.

I digress. As actors, thinking about preparing to portray the Silicon Valley subculture, what kind of research did y'all do?
[SZ] You lot know I'thou a different kind of thespian, I could have driven up to Silicon Valley and washed all that, but that's not who I am.

[BW] That's what John did.

You did?

[JK] Yes, about a month before I went up to Vancouver to shoot this, I collection up to Silicon Valley. I was on a quest to talk to Marc Andreessen, I actually wanted to meet him, so I went to Menlo Park and walked into his business firm. A security baby-sit stopped me and said, "What's your concern hither?" I said: "I'one thousand an thespian."

Bet that confused them, they're non used to actors upwards there. Did you get to run into him?

[JK] No, I didn't. But I concluded up talking with some friends of mine who piece of work for startups in San Francisco. I wanted to find out what it was similar when you've been upwardly for iii days coding direct.

Vicious.

[JK] That's what I heard.

Bradley, did you meet James Barksdale?

[BW] I didn't, but the internet is an amazing place for actors because we tin discover annihilation on at that place, so I collection around LA listening to Jim in my motorcar to get an idea of the man. He'southward the grownup in the room. Part of the reason why Netscape lost out to another company was considering they were less cautious about the manner it did business concern.

Valley of the Boom

In contrast to balmy-mannered Barksdale, Michael Fenne was something else, a shuckster and a slick sales guy, with a truly bizarre appearance. Steve, tell us more.

[SZ] I play a very unique guy, who became very successful. Without giving also much away, this guy leaves town and gets in trouble. But this was before the net when you could disappear; it was like the Wild West. Now you couldn't accept a story like Michael'south; anonymity is expressionless.

Y'all know that's why a lot of geeks clothing baseball caps pulled low over their eyes then they tin't get picked upwards by facial recognition cameras?

[SZ] Are you lot serious?

Absolutely, and I know a few researchers who hang out on the Night spider web and so stopped conveying what they phone call "personal tracking devices." [I point to my smart-enough phone]

[SZ] That's crazy! Simply, yeah, I cover the camera on my laptop with a piece of tape.

Did any of you accept a prior fascination with nerds?

[JK] I play video games constantly.

[SZ] Yep definitely. One of [the earliest] virtually mind-blowing [nerd] things I did was when I was doing Crimson Tide and staying with my friend Helen Childress, who wrote Reality Bites. Her husband Carlos had a computer and he showed me how to play Doom. It was the first time in my life I ever stayed upward all night, not on any drug or annihilation, where I only sat in that location—and I'm an fidgety guy, I never sit still—until the sun came up.

Do you nevertheless play games?

[SZ] Yeah I'm notwithstanding a big gamer. I similar Call of Duty and I just finished the concluding game of Assassin's Creed, that was amazing.

Bradley, any geek credentials?

[BW] Such as?

Gadgets, gameplay, cosplay, wearables, or insideables?

[BW] I accept been implanted with no technology in my ain body as however, only I practise implant chips in my rescue dogs and cats every bit tracking devices.

Steve, did you take a favorite scene as Michael Fenne?

[SZ] Yeah, when I break into this spontaneous trip the light fantastic. It was and so baroque. I'm at this church building and it's this moment where this character comes dorsum into himself. He'due south no longer living in his car, he'due south confident, he's but becoming this person he'due south decided to be. Then he turns to the photographic camera and says: "And now I'thousand going to do an interpretive dance based on the letter to my ex-wife."

Valley of the Boom

That's so random. Bradley, John, favorite scene?

[BW] Well, there's a rap battle…

Tell me it's not a bunch of white dudes in khaki pants.

[JK] No! With two awesome African-American rappers, Checkmate and Concise.

[BW] We witness it, in the scene - only no, this homie don't rap.

[JK] [can't end laughing] That's a quote: "Bradley Whitford - this homie don't rap."

Information technology all sounds super surreal.

[SZ] It was. That'due south the show. Information technology's very theatrical; it moves at 150 miles an hr and, because of the documentary aspect, which I call up blends in really well —which I was worried about at first. I idea: "Are we simply doing reenactments?" Merely it works.

Concluding question, having played significant characters in the mid-90s dotcom smash, how practice yous feel about the digital earth now?

[BW] The consequences of those times accept pb to many decisions which influence our lives today. Reaching into my brain—but more chiefly into my children's brains—and changing the manner that our neurons burn.

[JK] Information technology was cool to learn the idealism of those early years. The internet has become the greatest connector of all walks of life.

[BW] Information technology'southward all relative. They invented the press press and a agglomeration of monks showed up and said: "Oh come on what are you doing? I just memorized this entire fucking book!" Supposedly the miracle of the online community was that we'd all be communicating ameliorate on the planet. But look what has happened. Can the cyberspace exist used to dispense people? Yep. Has the current leader of the free globe weaponized Twitter? Yeah.

Right on. Steve, take us out on a loftier note.

[SZ] When you look back at the internet, this invention that is probably the biggest in the history of modern civilisation, information technology's inverse everything, and everybody. And I think we're still simply at the start really.