In a convenient bit of timing, the first premiere hosted by Warner Bros. Discovery since the jolt of its pending acquisition by Paramount was a comedy.
Rooster is not just a comedy, but one with broad-audience potential, co-created by Bill Lawrence of Ted Lasso and Scrubs fame. The Warner Bros-produced show’s debut Sunday on HBO will be one of the first half-hours in years to come from the network’s corporate cousin.
Those factors helped to explain the explosive laughter inside the 787 Seventh Avenue screening room in New York. Steve Carell scored big, but so did many members of the ensemble casts. Premiere crowds are always exuberant, of course, but there was a particularly hearty ovation for HBO’s “static angel” when it played before the opening credits.
Lawrence kept things light in his opening remarks, shouting out Scrubs star Zach Braff in the audience for laughing at a zinger aimed at Rooster co-creator Matt Tarses. (“That’s a familiar laugh – love it!”) But when things took a more sincere turn, it was hard not to imagine that the $111 billion mega-merger unsettling Hollywood was a point of reference.
“I’m proud of everyone in here and everyone couldn’t make it that worked on the show,” Lawrence said. “It’s not a normal feeling for me. I’m feeling joyful, you know. Oh, to be honest, it’s a shitshow. At a time when it’s kind of hard to feel joyful, you know, getting to come here and spending this evening talking about the show and being with you guys – I’m just grateful.”
At the after-party at The Pool, one senior Warner executive reflected the mood across the company as workers soldier on while bracing for their fourth takeover in a decade. “I just keep showing up,” the executive said. “When my phone stops working, that’s how you’ll know.”
Top WBD brass did not make an appearance. Not long before the lights went down, attendees’ phones lit up with a notification: CEO David Zaslav had just cashed out $114 million from the deal, selling 4 million WBD shares.
