T.J. Miller explains why he won’t be returning to season 5 of HBO’sSilicon Valley. T.J. Miller is pretty much everywhere these days and he appears to be spreading himself a little thin with so much work on the table.T.J. Millerwas recently seen in Cannes where he parasailed along the coast to promote theEmoji Movie, a stunt that was reminiscent ofBoratshowing up in quite possibly the best banana hammock ever seen in 2006. Miller also has a regular gig as Mr. Mucinex in the Mucinex commercials, so he’s obviously a busy guy. But is a crazy workload the reason that we won’t get to see the return of Erlich Bachman?
Miller’s portrayal ofErlich Bachmanis arguably his best role to date, except for maybe Mr. Mucinex, and it has rocketed Miller into well-deserved success. Bachman, the Aviato creator and talent incubator is one of the best comedic characters on television today and fans were justifiably upset when Miller and HBO announced that he would not be returning for the recently renewed season 5 ofSilicon Valley. The announcement was pretty vague, but it did say that Miller and HBO had come to a mutual decision and that there were no hard feelings.
Miller recently did an interview withEntertainment Weeklyand explained his decision to leave the hit show. Read what he had to say below.
“I would love to do The Emoji Movie and things like that and have the time to develop animated features. I would like to keep offering up Gorburger and letting people see a very different side of talk show guests. And that was a big part of why I said, ‘I’ve learned everything I can from this show. I would love to continue to be involved with it, if only because fans really do enjoy the show, and they seem to enjoy the character. But ultimately I just have to make more things and different things.”
Miller obviously is a busy guy, but his whole reason for leaving seems kind of, well, like Erlich Bachman. In true Bachman fashion Miller goes on to say this.
“So (I left) for my own sanity, and for the sake of slowing down, and being more present and able to devote more time to this myriad of projects that I have going on.”
It undoubtedly was a tough decision for Miller to make, but it seems that he is very comfortable with that decision now. Miller also reveals that he was scared to tell the rest of the cast about his decision and decided to text them the news. He explains.
“I was really scared. I texted them days before the news came out because I was really… I don’t know. (Laughs.) It’s like you’re afraid of actually going through with the breakup. I love those guys. They’re the funniest people around, and I didn’t know: Would they be upset that I didn’t seek their counsel? Or check with them first?… I wascowardlyenough to text all of them this explanation, just like I emailed all my family, and everybody was so sweet.”
So this begs the question: Are T.J. Miller and Erlich Bachman the same person? That certainly seems like a very Bachmanian way of dealing with the whole situation.
In the midst of talking about his reasons for leaving Miller brought up that the end ofseason 4 of Silicon Valleyhas an “organic end” to Bachman. Which is interesting because life seems to finally be heating up for the entrepreneur. SO how will Bachman exit the show? Will Jian-Yang drive him off in the yellow corvette into the sunset? Will Keenan Feldspar make him a giant successful tech god? We’ll just have to wait until thefinal episode of season 4in a few weeks.
