PALEY CENTER FOR MEDIA, THE: PALEYFEST 2018: SILICON VALLEY {PUBLIC SHORT VERSION}
Summary
One in a series of evenings and special screenings presented as part of The Paley Center for Media's 35th William S. Paley Television Festival in Los Angeles. Held this year at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, the festival celebrates the excellence and diversity of American television and is dedicated to television's creative community. This PALEYFEST 2018 seminar honors "Silicon Valley," the comedy series about a group of young entrepreneurs struggling to stay afloat in the competitive tech world of northern California.
Host Rene Reyes (executive in charge of production, The Paley Center for Media) offers opening remarks, and welcomes Stacy Hunt Wilson (Hollywood editor, Vulture/New York magazine) to the stage. Wilson then moderates the following panelists: executive producer/co-creator/writer Mike Judge; executive producer/showrunner Alec Berg; and cast members Kumail Nanjiani (Dinesh Chugtai), Martin Starr (Bertram Gilfoyle), Amanda Crew (Monica Hall), Zach Woods (Jared Dunn), and Thomas Middleditch (Richard Hendricks).
The panelists touch on such topics as: their first "big breaks," including Berg's job on "Seinfeld," Woods' role in "In the Loop" (2009) and Starr's role in the cult hit "Freaks and Geeks"; rewriting the original pilot script with dubious inspiration from business magnate Paul Allen; how the roles were tweaked based on the actors' auditions and interpretations of the characters; then-unknown actor Middleditch's amazement at landing the lead role; Jared's role as the moral center of the group and his deep affection for Richard; Crew's sense of relief at Monica's lack of a romantic connection with any of the male characters; Dinesh and Bertram as an "angry old married couple"; viewer criticism of the show's gender and racial disparities, with comparisons to Judge's previous male-centric animated series "King of the Hill"; their interest in "holding a mirror up" to the actual imbalances in the real tech industry; their extensive research and use of consultants, including a disturbing conversation at the Amazon headquarters about the moral imperative of technology; how technology may have "broken the world"; offhand comments from real tech execs that were "too villainous" even for the show's fictional antagonists; Woods' observation that much advanced technology is really the "coping mechanism" of socially inept programmers and designers; Starr's views on Bertram's organic character development, including his perusal of the LaVeyan Satanist Bible; Starr's sympathy for viewers who claim that they work alongside "a Bertram Gilfoyle"; how Woods builds his character's oddball backstory with his "beautifully complex" comedic improvisations; the process of "phasing out" the character of Erlich Bachman, played by departing actor T.J. Miller, contrasted with writing out the character of Peter Gregory, played by Christopher Evan Welch, who passed away in 2013; surprising tidbits the actors have learned about one another; ideas for prequels, including the original idea to explore the past relationship between Peter and Gavin Belsom (Matt Ross) before Welch's death; and speculation about the show's future.
Questions from the audience then lead to a discussion of the following topics, among others: their invention of a "horrible sexist app" that turned out to be real; funny deleted scenes and lines, including Jared's strange friendships with elderly women; "Mean Jerk Time," the "baroque" running joke that has been factually analyzed in real programmers' white papers; and how they attempt to avoid "caricature" with the character of Jian Yang (Jimmy O. Yang), who is inspired by Judge's college roommate.
Details
- NETWORK: N/A
- DATE: November 30, 1999 7:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:01:47
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 132022
- GENRE: Seminars
- SUBJECT HEADING: N/A
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Rene Reyes … Host
- Stacy Hunt Wilson … Moderator
- Kumail Nanjiani … Panelist
- Martin Starr … Panelist
- Amanda Crew … Panelist
- Zach Woods … Panelist
- Thomas Middleditch … Panelist
- Mike Judge … Panelist
- Alec Berg … Panelist
- Paul Allen
- T.J. Miller
- Matt Ross
- Christopher Evan Welch
- Jimmy O. Yang