This is the second week in a row we’ve seen the premiere of a show that feels like a duplicate.

Last week, MGM debuted “American Classic,” the story of a full-of-himself actor (Kevin Kline) who, after a meltdown, returns home to the theater he grew up in, the same premise as PBS’s better-in-every-way “Happiness.”

This week, HBO debuts “Rooster” (10 p.m. Sunday, HBO, HBO Max), the story of novelist-turned-college- professor Greg Russo (Steve Carell, “The Office”) and his college professor daughter, which, in setting and themes, is a lot like AMC’s one- season-and-done 2023 college professor dramedy “Lucky Hank” starring Bob Odenkirk.

Good news for viewers: “Rooster” generates more laughs than “Lucky Hank” ever did, especially the deeper you get into the 10-episode first season.

“Rooster” co-showrunners Bill Lawrence (“Ted Lasso”) and Matt Tarses (“Bad Monkey”) imbue “Rooster” with a tone reminiscent of Lawrence’s “Shrinking” and “Ted Lasso”: Serious, humanistic situations made palatable by quirky characters, including Lawrence’s “Scrubs” star John C. McGinley as Ludlow College’s fast-talking, self-absorbed, gossipy, polar plunge-loving president, Walt.

Yes, Carell is the star and he’s great doing his usual comedic Carell-isms (goofy voices, awkwardness, many pratfalls, embarrassing gaffes, etc.), but “Rooster” smartly surrounds him with other characters who are just as funny, albeit in different ways.

Russo, a divorced author of a series of beach-read books featuring a lead character named Rooster, is on campus for a lecture and to visit his art history professor daughter, Katie (Charly Clive), who’s facing a personal crisis.

Lawrence’s “Ted Lasso” star Phil Dunster sheds his arrogant soccer player character from “Lasso” to play a stuffy Brit who’s a Russian studies professor and Katie’s estranged husband who’s cheating on Katie with a co-ed, Sunny (Lauren Tsai).

Danielle Deadwyler (“The Piano Lesson”) steals every scene with her deadpan comedic reactions as competent literary professor Dylan, who may be a love interest for Russo and serves as a friend and sounding board to college president Walt.

It’s an impressive ensemble that’s augmented by recurring characters with small but memorable roles, from the college president’s oddball secretary (Annie Mumolo) to a town cop (Rory Scovel) to multiple student characters who provide small but notable comedic moments

Through five episodes made available for review, “Rooster” grows funnier the more time you spend with the characters, getting to know their quirks and experiencing the situations the show’s writers put the characters in.

“Rooster” satirizes aspects of modern college campus life, from disciplinary committees to campus protests. In episode three, Dylan exits a campus building to a commotion that turns out to be a double-booked “free speech zone” where animal rights activists protest at the same time (and in the same space) as a gun control group. Dylan asks a student which group she’s with, but the student is undecided.

“On the one hand, I do want jackfruit tacos in the café,” the student says, “but I also don’t love the idea of getting shot.”

By the fifth episode, Connie Britton shows up as Greg’s ex-wife, which helps illuminate why Greg is the way he is.

Fast-paced and funny with an undercurrent of authentic emotion, “Rooster” is a half-hour comedy worth crowing about.