'Rooster' Wasn't Filmed Entirely in a Studio for the Settling of Ludlow College

Even though Rooster does not give viewers the Steve Carell of The Office as a hapless Michael Scott-type, it does allow the actor to return to comedy, so there's that. But, since the show takes place at a college and seemingly inside of an actual university, fans want to know where Rooster is filmed and if the college actually exists in real life.

Steve plays Greg Russo, a writer who arrived at the New England college where his daughter works to become a larger part of her life, even if she isn't wild about him invading her world as a college professor. Since the college is almost a character itself in the HBO Max comedy, where is Rooster actually filmed?

Rooster takes place at a college in New England, and the college shown in the series definitely looks the part. But did filming actually take place at some liberal arts campus in Massachusetts or Connecticut? Apparently not. However, Rooster is definitely filmed at a real college located on the West Coast instead of the East Coast.

According to the University of the Pacific, the university's Stockton, Calif. campus is used for the college in Rooster. The show's creator, Bill Lawrence, reportedly told students from the real-life school that, after touring the Stockton campus, he and other producers realized it would be the perfect backdrop for the show to portray a classic New England university campus.

"When we went up there and toured the place, not only was the campus itself so nice, but the people and the students were so nice. It just felt like a really good fit," Bill said, per the University of the Pacific.

Later, during the summer months, the campus was transformed into the setting of the show, complete with the colors of the school depicted in Rooster.

Not only that, but real college students, faculty, and staff members at the University of the Pacific, Stockton, are used as background extras for the show. The entire campus is used for important parts of filming and even storage for props, with locations like parking lots and the Janet Leigh Theatre.

The school that serves as the main focus of Rooster is called Ludlow College. But since the show itself is fictional, it looks like there isn't a real college of that name that was used as the basis for the college in the series. Bill Lawrence told The Hollywood Reporter that the show is based on the close relationships between fathers and daughters in his life, including his own. But Ludlow College is a fictional New England location for the purpose of the story.

To be fair, there is a Ludlow College that exists, but it's in Shropshire, England, and technically, it's called Ludlow Sixth Form College. It's also not a college in the sense of what Americans view as a college or university, but a school for teenagers ages 16 to 19. Ludlow College in Rooster is its own entity.