With The Studio, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg Grow Up

Amoeba Records in Hollywood Boulevard is not the best place for someone of Seth Rogen's visibility to shop hassle-free.

- Austin Considine

LOS ANGELES - Amoeba Records in Hollywood Boulevard is not the best place for someone of Seth Rogen's visibility to shop hassle-free. Located just blocks from TCL Chinese Theatre, right by Dr. Phil's and Dr. Oz's stars on the Walk of Fame, there may be few places worse.

But when the actor and filmmaker was not being interrupted by his admiring bro-fans, Amoeba was, however, a perfect place to dig through hundreds of vinyl soundtracks.

It was the Tuesday before the Oscars in early March, and The New York Times was there with Rogen's long-time creative partner, writer-director-producer Evan Goldberg, to browse records and talk about their latest creation: The Studio, an ambitious, celebrity-stuffed industry satire for Apple TV+ that premiered on March 26.

Rogen had been tasked by his wife, American actress-screenwriter Lauren Miller, to stock more jazz-appropriate, given the show's jazzy score and improvisational feel, shot mostly in long single takes.

But, as Goldberg and Rogen—who are both 42 and have been friends since they were teenagers—noted, their taste in music had really been formed by their love of movies.

The two men and their early brand of sweet-but-raunchy stoner comedy had managed to evolve and survive the vicissitudes of time, taste and social attitude, even as not every joke—nor every career among their cohort—survived with them.

In many ways, The Studio, in which Rogen plays the beleaguered head of a fictional major studio, speaks to their evolution. They are no longer the young Canadian outsiders. They are powerful producers in their 40s with the ability to make and break dreams themselves.

The many celebrities in The Studio, most playing versions of themselves, have helped insulate Goldberg from much of the buzz surrounding this latest endeavor too, even as he and Rogen created the series and directed all 10 episodes.