Silicon Valley Comes to HBO

Finally today Silicon Valley: The comedy. HBO’s new eight-episode series called “Silicon Valley” premieres this weekend. It’s inspired by the high-tech Gold Rush, the world of algorithms and app developers co-created by actor and writer Mike Judge, who brought us “Beavis and Butthead.”

In this clip, a pitch is being made to an incubator founder:

To make sure the tech details in Silicon Valley were spot-on, HBO brought in Jonathan Dotan, whose career has straddled the tech industry and Hollywood.

“We actually had to go get two Stanford researchers, one professor, and a graduate student to help us define all the things that relate to this technology,” says Dolan. “And then there was a network of 12 consultants from CTOs, lawyers and programmers that helped us get every single detail right.”

But Dotan says Silicon Valley isn’t just for geeks. It pokes fun at the show’s characters, who are chasing the Next Big Thing.

“So we definitely look at billionaires and the show takes a look at basically a high-stakes game between two billionaires fighting for control of this technology,” he says. “I think a lot of the satire is kind of built on those lives, outlandish lives.”

Dotan says that while HBO hopes “Silicon Valley” will appeal to a broader audience, the writers did put in what he calls “dog whistle jokes,” which only techies might catch.

“Yeah, a broad audience might not even know that it’s a joke,” he explains, “but in Silicon Valley or people that are in technology, they just fall over saying, ‘How in the world can you possibly make a joke about the standard image that’s used in compression technology?”

Silicon Valley debuts Sunday night on HBO.

And you can watch the trailer here: