Where we are right now seems like science fiction compared to when this narrative unfolds. Sure, visionaries imagined what could happen, but it took tremendous work, brilliant minds and deep pockets to get there. Valleydetails dry subjects in quirky ways as it delves into how browsers with graphics came into being, dramatizing the bare-knuckle fight between the behemoth Microsoft and upstart Netscape.
Bradley Whitford (The West Wing) plays James Barksdale, CEO of Netscape, a fellow prone to down-home aphorisms such as: “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”
“In this manic world full of crazy characters, you have this stable dude,” Whitford said of Barksdale. “Mid-sentence, he just breathes in and breathes out. He has seen a lot. He is the grown-up in the room.”
Netscape was staffed with young, smart engineers, but none were smarter than the company’s co-founder Marc Andreessen, played here by John Karna (Lady Bird). Andreessen knew a graphics browser could be created -- if he and his staff just worked constantly. He lacked social niceties. As Karna explained, “Likeable is not a word anyone would use to describe him.”
Likable, however, is what Michael Fenne banked on. In what might be the craziest performance of his career -- and this actor has played an ape -- Steve Zahn (pictured at top) plays the colorful conman who bilks millions out of investors. Fenne, whose real name was David Kim Stanley, was a fugitive when he arrived in San Juan Capistrano.
Fenne fled Virginia, ballooned to over 350 pounds and dyed his hair a shade of blond that Divine, the late drag queen, would have found tawdry. Zahn loved every moment of the fat suit, wigs and playing someone bonkers. He toyed around with the persona and sought showrunner Matthew Carnahan’s advice.
“It was like diving off a cliff into fog,” Zahn recalled of getting into this character. “You have to trust there is something there. I really dove in, and it was a lot of fun."
Fun was at the heart of the third story, too -- the meteoric rise of theGlobe.com. Stephan Paternot and Todd Krizelman were Cornell University students who loved computers and wanted to create a place where people could publish their own stories and interact. Yes, just like Facebook, but years earlier. When their company went public, it was with the largest IPO in history. Paternot, then 24, made $97 million that day.
Like many featured in the series, he remains a major player online, but that company (and money) are long gone. As he watched the series, Paternot was shocked by how much actor Dakota Shapiro resembles him. “The first time I watched it, I was having a real out of body experience,” Paternot revealed. “It was deeply disturbing, to say the least.”
Eventually, he re-watched it and it all made sense. "People need to understand where we come from, so we don't keep repeating the same patterns," Paternot said. "The internet is not just computers and algorithms; it is people and a very human story. People need to work together to control it and make it a more effective tool for society."
Though Fenne, Barksdale, Paternot and Andreessen are real people, Carnahan added a fictional character, Darrin Morris, played by Lamorne Morris (New Girl). Darrin is a Manhattan-based stockbroker who moves to Silicon Valley, intent on cashing in. He’s the audience’s guide to story’s different threads, and consistently talks to the camera. Other characters also break the fourth wall.
“If I were to watch the show blind, I would need someone like Darrin to break it down,” Morris (pictured above) said.
Given that this is a complicated series, one that has Arianna Huffington as an executive producer, Carnahan (House of Lies) encouraged actors to take it to the edge. When he initially met Nat Geo executives, Carnahan told them: “I want to ruin your network! I want to do something that attempts to be as disruptive as these makers, who changed all our lives.”
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