Line #22 Trivia/SiliconValley


1	* ActorLeavesCharacterDies: Subverted as his character isn't actually dead, but has disappeared and is later declared legally dead by a judge for property reasons. The departure of Erlich Bachman was very clearly influenced by TJ Miller, burning all bridges with the cast and crew. Erlich goes through much more misfortune than in previous seasons, directly leading to him leaving the company. Despite previously being portrayed as their friend, nobody else involved in Pied Piper cares that he's going away, with the only person making any effort to say goodbye being Jin-Yang, who only does so to be a dick to Erlich one last time. He later joins up with Gavin who quickly abandons him when given the opportunity at a den in Tibet where Erlich is set up to stay for five years, smoking so much opium that he's incoherent and unresponsive. When asked about his whereabouts later, Gavin denies knowing them, and Erlich is never seen again, with the series finale heavily implying [[spoiler:Jian-Yang murdered him to steal his identity]].
2	* CaliforniaDoubling: Very little of the series was filmed in Silicon Valley or the adjoining San Francisco Bay Area. Interiors were often filmed on sound stages in Los Angeles, while most exteriors were Los Angeles locations, often in Burbank, which has a passing resemblance to Silicon Valley. However, some exteriors were shot on location. Most establishing shots were filmed in and around Silicon Valley, and most recognizable real-life locations were filmed on location as well, such as AT&T Park, Oracle Arena, and the Moscone Center.
3	* TheCharacterDiedWithHim: Creator/ChristopherEvanWelch (Peter Gregory) died partway through filming season 1. The character was PutOnABus for the final three episodes, and died in the first episode of season 2.
4	* CreatorBacklash:
5	** Creator/TJMiller said that the reason he left the show was because it had become [[StatusQuoIsGod too cyclical]] and was in danger of wearing thin. Ironically, the producers (including Creator/MikeJudge) give the same reason for their plan to write Erlich off for most of season 5 as was originally planned before Miller outright quit, as they got tired of recycling the same old plots to keep him relevant. Miller did, however, have good things to say about the series' development since leaving it, and complimented the series finale.
6	** A year later, Creator/AliceWetterlund accused the rest of the cast and crew of being complicit in Miller's antics, which were already at a level that should have been unacceptable even back during her time on the show. She concluded, "They can all fuck off forever." When Thomas Middleditch was accused of sexual harassment a couple of years later, she said, "I tried to warn you."
7	* DawsonCasting: Big Head and Richard are 26, while Josh Brener and Thomas Middleditch were 30 and 33 respectively. Averted with Erlich, who is 33 at the start of the show, like TJ Miller. It is unknown how old Dinesh and Gilfoyle are, but Kumail Nanjiani was 36 and Martin Starr was 32 in season one, and given the fact they were heavily recruited at times, it seems unlikely they would need to live rent-free in Erlichs incubator.
8	* {{Defictionalization}}:
9	** The Weissman Score was something created by the writers to try to convey a metric to an audience that might not necessarily be well-versed in computer programming. But the producers had Stanford researchers actually develop a legitimate equation that is slowly gaining traction in the research community.
10	** The middle-out compression algorithm that Pied Piper uses on the show might actually become the basis of a new theory that could truly revolutionize data compression in the real world.
11	** The equation for jerking off a roomful of dicks is the subject of a genuine 12-page scientific article that's been published.
12	** Jian Yang's "Not Hot dog" app is available in the App Store, it can be downloaded [[https://itunes.apple.com/app/not-hotdog/id1212457521 here]], and yes, it can actually tell you whether it's a hot dog or not. Unlike in the show, however, it can [[spoiler: tell a dick from a hot dog.]] Jian-Yang also appeared on Bloomberg Tech's [[https://twitter.com/TechAtBloomberg/status/863944535419666432 official Twitter]] to talk about the app, although he quickly switches to [[spoiler: taking advantage of the audience he has to humiliate Erlich for cashing out beforehand]].
13	* HarpoDoesSomethingFunny: The core cast includes several seasoned improv comedians, so some of the show's dialogue comes from them riffing off of one another.
14	* HostilityOnTheSet:
15	** On July 18, 2018, Creator/AliceWetterlund took to Twitter to accuse Creator/TJMiller of inappropriate, unprofessional behavior on set, writing:
16	-->"I hope to not ruin it for you, but Creator/TJMiller was a bully and petulant brat."
17	** Indeed many others cited Miller as bullying and harassing his cast and crew onset. That's also not going into how he parted with the show on very unpleasant terms.
18	* PosthumousCredit: Christopher Evan Welch (Peter Gregory), died of lung cancer in December 2013 at the age of 48 and after having only shot 5 of the 8 planned episodes. Instead of recasting his role (since the series had not premiered yet), the writers wrote Peter Gregory out of the last few episodes.
19	* ThrowItIn: The cast has a lot of veteran improv comedians who are given a lot of leeway to do their stuff. Most notably, almost all of Jared's DarkAndTroubledPast is made up by Creator/ZachWoods on the spot, and he's cautioned fans that he's never tried to make it all fit together so they shouldn't try to build a coherent story out of it.
20	* {{Typecasting}}: Quite a few instances of this:
21	** Thomas Middleditch as a neurotic geek, much like his characters in the movie ''Search Party'' and ''WesternAnimation/PennZeroPartTimeHero''.
22	** Zach Woods is practically playing a much nicer version of Gabe, his character in ''Series/TheOfficeUS''.
23	** Martin Starr as a wisecracking nerd. Just like in ''Film/{{Adventureland}}'', ''Series/FreaksAndGeeks'' and ''Series/PartyDown''.
24	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
25	** Pied Piper’s Skunkworks was planned as a multi-episode arc spanning most of season 3, but it was abandoned after it was believed it would be funnier to have the plan immediately blow up in their face.
26	** Due to Creator/TJMiller's schedule, as well as his lack of dedication to being on the show, with Miller often being late to shootings, and alleged clashes with co-creator Alec Berg, as well as difficulty for the writers in finding stuff for Erlich to do, the writers only planned for Erlich's bus trip to China to be temporary, with Erlich returning for three episodes in Season 5 before writing him out of the show for good. Miller declined to return at all, making his departure permanent.
27	** Creator/KumailNanjiani suggested mining his changing physique for comedy in the final season (he'd been getting into shape for ''Film/{{Eternals}}''), but the writers decided not to draw attention to his changed appearance.
28	** Creator/MikeJudge and Alec Berg claim they came "very close" to having the series finale explicitly reveal that [[spoiler:Jian-Yang [[KillAndReplace murdered Erlich to steal his identity]]]] but then decided to leave it ambiguous.
29	* WriteWhatYouKnow: Many plot elements are based on the experiences of the writers and actors.
30	** Creator/MikeJudge based the show on his own experiences as part of the F/A-18 program.
31	** The opening scene of the pilot was inspired by a party Judge attended where Music/RunDMC was playing to a similarly uninterested tech crowd. Judge chose Music/KidRock as the act because Rock owed him a favor.
32	** The Richard subplot in "Proof of Concept" is based on some real life drama that happened to one of the writers: They were going out with a woman, they broke up, the woman kept trashing him behind his back by saying he was obsessed with her, and when the two ran into each other one day, the guy wanted to set the record straight that he ''wasn't'' obsessed with her, but the woman wasn't convinced.
33	** Jared's inexplicable nighttime German ramblings originate from an experience that actor Zach Woods had. According to his roommate, he awoke from a sound sleep and announced, "I hate the Jews!" before promptly falling back asleep. Woods, who is Jewish, has no memory of the event.
34	** Everyone mocking Dinesh's gold chain is based on an actual experience Kumail Nanijiani had in high school. Apparently the real insults were much worse.

Context Trivia / SiliconValley