Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Loves HBO’s ‘Silicon Valley’

Dramas inspired by real events tend to disappoint those who were there at the original. Directors and writers get the details wrong — often intentionally — in service of the action and audience expectations. HBO’s popular Silicon Valley isn’t a recreation of olden days in the tech world (the 80s!), but it does the same thing anyway — sacrificing a few technical truths to tell the larger truth. That’s just fine with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Interviewed for National Geographic’s new series American Genius, Woz said he’s totally into HBO’s Silicon Valley. “I watched the entire first season [of Silicon Valley]. It fit into this thing where when we started Apple there were companies that would spin-off.” Woz may be a programming genius, but he was around Steve Jobs and Apple long enough to know a little about drama, too. That’s why he loves the show. (He also likes AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire.) “Those TV shows definitely have… an interest, a spark, a point that could grab an audience,” Woz said. American Genius premieres June 1, 9pm, on National Geographic Channel with an episode called Jobs vs. Gates. You may have heard — they had some battles.