Out of Office: Bypassing Scranton, Steve Carell to Star in Sitcom from ‘Ted Lasso’ Creator Bill Lawrence
The Office is getting revived/rebooted/recycled soon, but it doesn’t look like Steve Carell will be a part of it.
Instead, the busy actor has just taken the starring role in a new single-camera sitcom from Ted Lasso co-creator Bill Lawrence, and Matt Tarses, who worked with Lawrence on Scrubs.
The planned ten-episode series, which was picked up by HBO, will be “set on a college campus, centering on an author’s complicated relationship with his daughter,” according to the show’s logline.
“HBO has long been a standard bearer of quality TV,” Lawrence said in a statement. “Getting to do a show there with Steve Carell is an immediate career highlight for Matt and me. Nothing can go wrong now,” he confidently predicted.
Lawrence and Tarses wrote the series’ first episode and will also executive-produce. Carell, Jeff Ingold and Liza Katzer will also serve as EPs.
HBO waxed effusive about the upcoming project in a statement. “The combination of Steve Carell and Bill Lawrence promises to be full of great laughs, warmth and charm,” said executive vice president of HBO & Max comedy programming Amy Gravitt. “We’re thrilled to be the home for this long overdue collaboration.”
Currently, Lawrence is showrunner for Shrinking on Apple TV+, which he co-created with actors Brett Goldstein and Jason Segal. He’s also producing another show for Apple, Bad Monkey, which stars Vince Vaughn and will premiere on August 14th.
As for Carell, his plate is full as well: he and Tina Fey are starring in the upcoming Netflix comedy series The Four Seasons, and he is also on-stage at The Lincoln Center starring in Uncle Vanya, and voices the lead animated character in IF, which opened last week. He will also reprise the role of Gru in the upcoming animated Despicable Me 4.