Roadies, a new Showtime comedy following the road crew of a fictional major touring band, is set to officially premiere on Showtime on Sunday, June 26th. The series, created by music industry veteran Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous), puts the hard-working individual members of the often-overlooked crew in the spotlight by providing an insider’s look at the lives of some roadies for the Staton-House Band. Although they don’t have the prolific lives and public scandals of the rockers who take the stage each night, there is still enough recklessness and romance to go around with the road crew. The roadies persevere through the issues they face in their personal lives to make sure the show goes on as planned every night.
Ahead of the official Showtime release on Sunday, the network has allowed fans on YouTube and the Showtime app to watch the series premiere early. Check out the full episode below:
The show’s premiere episode is sure to pique the interest of any music fan. The dialogue is well-written and clever, and the characters are strange and lovable–like the conspiracy-nut bass tech from New Jersey who speaks in a fake British accent, the wise, road-worn tour bus driver who spouts advice like “It’s my opinion that in like you need two things to survive: oxygen and family. Everything else is dessert” (played with emotion by Luis Guzman), the grizzled felon head roadie (the hilarious Ron White) who shouts things like “when you look at me, you’re lookin’ at Rock n’ Roll in America!”, the spike-clad rocker kid who just got fired from Pearl Jam‘s crew but still would “take a bullet for McCready, ‘cus those are my guys!”, the crazy stalker groupie (“You live for what you live for. I live for this band.”), and many more. It’s a show about quite literally living for live music, and the ways people devote themselves to the music in order to feel close to it.
Needless to say, we’ll be setting our DVRs for this one. Check out new episodes every Sunday night on Showtime.