In Back to School and An Extremely Goofy Movie, a dad following his son to college is presented as the ultimate nightmare. In HBO’s Rooster, however, it’s kind of sweet?
Okay, the situation isn’t exactly the same. Steve Carell’s new comedy Rooster follows a writer who heads to an idyllic New England campus not as a student but as a professor to be closer to his daughter, who is also an adult faculty member. She’s having marital problems of the just-had-a-breakdown-and-committed-arson variety.
Things are off to a promising start. When it premiered on March 8, Rooster boasted the title of HBO’s most-watched comedy premiere in the US in over 10 years, per The Wrap. The series is now airing its first season, and if you haven’t checked it out yet, here are a few at-a-glance facts to get you up to speed.…
Ludlow College is fake, and the campus set is in California.
Where is Rooster filmed? The prestigious liberal arts enclave where Greg (Carell) and his daughter Katie (Charly Clive) both work, Ludlow College, is not a real place, though the outdoor scenes were shot on location at a real university…in California.
The University of the Pacific’s Stockton campus a couple hours outside San Francisco, to be specific. According to SF Gate, the show shot at the campus for two weeks during the summer, meaning that the layered costumes the cast wore to emulate a fall vibe were especially hot. And the campus’s real-life staff and the show’s crew apparently got along, which is a good sign should production need to return for a potential second season.
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Steve Carell and Charly Clive.HBO/Katrina Marcinowski
Who is in the Rooster TV show cast?
One of 2026’s first hits, Rooster features an ensemble cast of TV veterans mixed with new faces. In addition to Carell, the show stars John C. McGinley (Scrubs), Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights), Alan Ruck (Succession), and Phil Dunster (Ted Lasso). You’ll also see up-and-comers like Robby Hoffman (Hacks), Clive (The Lazarus Project), Danielle Deadwyler (Till), and Lauren Tsai (Moxie).
Steve Carell’s wife makes a cameo on the show.
On the series, Greg is divorced from Beth (Connie Britton), but IRL, Carell has been married to wife Nancy for 30 years…and she makes an appearance in episode three, playing the wife of Ludlow’s dean of faculty (Alan Ruck). “I love it,” Carell said of her part in the show to USA Today. “She’s the funniest person I know. She’s way funnier than I am, honestly.”