Series creator Mike Judge, meanwhile, admits that he may not know Silicon Valley better than Musk does, but 'I'm just going off of what I've observed.'
- Apr 5, 2014
AceShowbiz - Following "Silicon Valley" screenning in Redwood City, San Fransisco on Wednesday, April 2, Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk slammed the new HBO series. Met a day later at another premiere event in Hollywood, the show's crew took time to defend their take on the lives of computer geeks.
"I'm not quite sure what going to Burning Man has to do with anything that was in the show," producer Alec Berg told The Hollywood Reporter in response to Musk's claim that series creator Mike Judge had never been to Burning Man.
Hitting back at Musk, he continued, "I feel like [Musk] may have a slightly skewed opinion of people because he's a billionaire and everyone wants to be helpful to him. It's like he's the most beautiful woman in the world and he's saying, 'Gosh, men are so helpful. They carry your bag and they get the door for you.' If no one ever says 'no' to you and everyone is following around trying to help you, you probably lose perspective pretty f**king fast."
Berg added, "I also feel like the people that disliked it the most are the ones we were most going after, so it seemed like we probably hit the target if they got irked."
Judge appeared to be less offended by Musk's criticism, saying, "I would not claim to know Silicon Valley better than he does. I'm just going off of what I've observed." He jokingly added, "Maybe I'll go to Burning Man with him and smooth it over."
Previously, Musk pointed out what he thought was wrong on the upcoming comedy. "None of those characters were software engineers. Software engineers are more helpful, thoughtful, and smarter. They're weird, but not in the same way," he said.
Calling it "stranger than the fiction," he continued, "I really feel like Mike Judge has never been to Burning Man, which is Silicon Valley. If you haven't been, you just don't get it. You could take the craziest L.A. party and multiply it by a thousand, and it doesn't even get f**king close to what's in Silicon Valley. The show didn't have any of that."
"Silicon Valley" is set to premiere Sunday, April 6 at 10:30 P.M. ET on HBO. Partly inspired by Judge's own experiences as a Silicon Valley engineer in the late '80s, the sitcom centers on young tech guys who are living together and trying to make it big in the Silicon Valley.
