Valley of the Boom


Valley of the Boom is an American docudrama television miniseries created by Matthew Carnahan that premiered on January 13, 2019, on National Geographic. The series centers on the 1990s tech boom and bust in Silicon Valley and it stars Bradley Whitford, Steve Zahn, Lamorne Morris, John Karna, Dakota Shapiro, Oliver Cooper, and John Murphy.

Premise

Valley of the Boom takes a close look at "the culture of speculation, innovation and debauchery that led to the rapid inflation and burst of the 1990s tech bubble. As with its hybrid series Mars, Nat Geo select doc elements to support the scripted drama to tell the true inside story of the dramatic early days of Silicon Valley."
The series features interviews with many of the people depicted in the dramatized portions of the production in addition to other Internet personalities such as Mark Cuban and Arianna Huffington. Notably absent from these interviews are Netscape co-founder and former vice president of technology Marc Andreessen, who declined to be interviewed, and Jamie Zawinski.
Although the program is primarily focused on the quick rise and fall of three influential technology companies, namely Netscape, theGlobe.com, and Pixelon, the program also highlights smaller companies of that era, such as sfGirl.com.

Cast and characters

Main

Recurring

Guest

Production

Development

On November 15, 2017, it was announced that National Geographic had given the production a series order consisting of six episodes. Executive producers included Matthew Carnahan, Arianna Huffington, Jason Goldberg, Brant Pinvidic, and David Walpert. Carnahan acted as showrunner for the series and directed as well. David Newsom was co-executive producer and led the non-scripted unit of the production. Joel Ehninger acted in the role of producer. Production companies involved with the series included STXtelevision and Matthew Carnahan Circus Products. On September 24, 2018, it was announced that the series would premiere on January 13, 2019.

Casting

On March 16, 2018, it was announced that Bradley Whitford, Steve Zahn, Lamorne Morris, John Karna, Dakota Shapiro, and Oliver Cooper had joined the series' main cast.

Filming

Principal photography for the series began on March 26, 2018 in Vancouver, Canada and was expected to conclude by May 28, 2018.

Release

Marketing

On July 24, 2018, the first trailer for the series was released.

Premiere

On September 21, 2018, the series held its world premiere during the second annual Tribeca TV Festival in New York City. Following a screening, a conversation took place featuring members of the cast and crew including creator Matthew Carnahan, actors Bradley Whitford, Steve Zahn, Lamorne Morris, and real-life subject Stephan Paternot, founder of theGlobe.com.

Distribution

The series premiered globally on National Geographic in 171 countries and 45 languages. STXtelevision distributes the series in China.

Reception

The series has been met with a mixed response from critics upon its premiere. On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds a 72% approval rating with an average rating of 5.90 out of 10 based on 18 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "A visual collage of dot com history, Valley of Boom proves to be just as sprawling and ramshackle as the docuseries' subject." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the series a score of 58 out of 100 based on 11 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".