Steve Carell says Rooster is "one of the best comedy pilots" he's ever read.

The 63-year-old actor has teamed up with Scrubs, Shrinking and Ted Lasso creator Bill Lawrence on a new HBO series focused on novelist Greg Russo, who visits a liberal arts college where his daughter Katie (Charly Clive) is a professor going through a major crisis.

Her husband Archie (Phil Dunster) has been having an affair with a grad student played by Lauren Tsai, and Katie's reaction is to burn his house down - leading to Greg agreeing to join as a guest lecturer as long as his daughter keeps her job.

Steve told The Hollywood Reporter: "I read the script and it was one of the best comedy pilots I've read -- period.

"Pilots are the hardest to write. You're creating a world, you're introducing it to an audience and you have to do it quickly, efficiently, without feeling like it's all backstory -- and be funny at the same time."

After he finished reading the first episode, he told his wife Nancy that he was "in".

He has also been impressed with the way Bill has handled his cast and given them freedom to explore their own characters.

He added: "Bill told all the actors at the first table read, 'Within a couple of weeks, I want you all to have an exponentially greater percentage of ownership of your character.'

"He invited people in to make the characters their own, to make them feel lived in and really breathe life into them… and each week the show changes and it gets a little more complex and a little more nuanced and the relationships become deeper and richer and funnier."

Meanwhile, HBO EVP Amy Gravitt - who is charge of comedy for the broadcaster - noted that Rooster is arriving at the perfect time.

She said: "It came at a time when we were rebuilding our slate -- right as Curb [Your Enthusiasm] was ending, just after Barry and [The Righteous] Gemstones and Somebody Somewhere were about to wrap up -- and it felt like it sat right in the space that we needed it to.

"It gave us, finally, the chance to work with Bill, who we admired for some time, and the same goes with Steve. It was really a no-brainer as soon as we heard it was on the horizon."

Rooster launches on HBO on March 8.