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Hi, I'm Ben Mathis and welcome to Kickass News.

Tomorrow night is the season 3 premiere of AMC's critically acclaimed series Halt & Catch Fire.

The title refers to a computer code that causes the computer's CPU to cease to operate and require a restart.

It serves as a metaphor for the tech industry itself, where some other company is always on your heels trying to build a better mouse trap,

and the ability to pivot and retool quickly is often the difference between being billionaires and being bankrupt.

Much like the Wiley Mavericks portrayed on their show, Halt & Catch Fire was created by two young upstart screenwriters named Chris Cantwell and Chris Rogers.

While working together in the social media division at Disney, they wrote their first pilot script together for a series about the rise and fall of a fictional tech startup during the heyday of Texas' Silicon Prairie in the 1980s.

They pitched it to three networks, and in their third meeting with AMC, the network behind Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead,

much to their surprise, AMC said yes, let's make it.

Today I'll talk with the two Chris' about their experience learning on the job at Halt & Catch Fire, and where the story is going, now that they've taken over the showrunner and executive producer reigns in season 3.

We'll talk about how Chris Cantwell's experience growing up during the 80s tech boom in Texas served as an early inspiration for he and Chris Rogers to write Halt & Catch Fire.

They'll also reveal some of the other real-life personalities and stories that influence the show.

We'll talk about the tech industry and what kind of personalities rise to the top in it, and what kind of feedback the creators of Halt & Catch Fire have gotten from tech legends like Apple, Steve Wozniak.

We'll discuss their decision to move the show's setting to Silicon Valley in season 3, and shift the show's focus from the personal computing revolution of the early 80s to the birth of the internet in the middle part of that decade.

Plus, we talk about robot butlers, and I find out who they'd rather be.

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