Ted Sarandos' ‘Studio' Appearance Is a Wink
Let us be more simple and less vain, Rousseau once wrote. But then, he never occupied a C-suite with cameras rolling everywhere.
This time of year, we talk about guest appearances by actors on television — Kaitlyn Dever on The Last of Us, Jamie Lee Curtis going full Donna on The Bear, Melissa McCarthy channeling John Cena opposite Meryl Streep in Only Murders in the Building.
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What we talk about less is guest appearances by executives of television, and for good reason. Executives are supposed to stay far from a TV camera. Isn't that the bargain — they have the power to fire everyone, and in return, we don't have to see them?
Yet a different guest appearance is filling snack-room chatter across Hollywood and media companies these days — the one where Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos turns up (at a urinal at the Golden Globes) on Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's Apple TV+'s The Studio. The industry satire features many Hollywood types playing perfectly exaggerated versions of themselves, starting with Martin Scorsese and working on down. But there's only one big exec — Sarandos — who schools Rogen's green studio-boss character on how an exec should ensure contractually that he's thanked at awards shows, like he is.
Sarandos isn't the only member of the suit class showing up on our screens; 'tis the season, apparently, for this weird subgenre. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones materializes in Taylor Sheridan's Landman to give a (moving) speech to Jon Hamm on how family has been his driving force.
Knicks games on WBD's TNT have even spotlighted CEO David Zaslav. A recent first-round matchup between the Knicks and Pistons granted us the spectacle of the exec chatting with some celebs. 'On hand here at the Garden, John McEnroe, Paul Rudd and David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery,' intoned broadcaster Ian Eagle; clearly the three men all share the same pop-cultural resonance. An appearance later in the playoffs featured cuts to Timothée Chalamet, Ben Stiller, Tracy Morgan and, again, Zaslav. This all might've been funnier if Zaslav pulled a Sarandos and went on an ESPN broadcast. As it was, it just played strangely, considering WBD has recently lost live basketball rights.
Brandon Tartikoff started this trend, so we have his late, blessed memory to blame. The NBC pioneer had numerous cameos, including one with Screech et al. on Saved by the Bell mocking the idea of a school sitcom, self-poking at the instincts of TV bosses.
The exec cameo is an odd beast, meant to humanize but often doing the opposite — you need to be that important to be making fun of yourself. After all, Tartikoff did greenlight that show, and it was a hit, as his very presence on it attests. At least when Bill Gates cameoed on The Big Bang Theory or Mark Zuckerberg on The Simpsons, they played it straight, avoiding the humblebrags.
Sarandos in particular deserves some attention. He is clearly engaging in amusing self-parody, letting us in on (or allowing Rogen to let us in on) the insecurities of the big-bonus class in these days of Wall Street and social media pressure. As Sarandos notes, an exec needs to be thanked because it's the only way people will know about their association with a show.
But as with other appearances, what makes the executive cameo fun is also what makes it annoying, a robust exercise in good-humored narcissism. The joke is that they can laugh at themselves, even if the very act of going in front of the camera requires taking yourself seriously. And sorry, going on a rival's show is kind of a flex.
Indeed, if all of this wasn't enough, Rogen has revealed Apple actually wanted Tim Cook in the scene instead of Sarandos. The desire for some in-house promo is understandable, but surely the head of the country's fourth- largest company has more to worry about than getting noticed at a fictional Golden Globes urinal? Or, if the flex was the concern, that Apple viewers might suddenly become aware of a rival executive?
Ever the mischief-maker, Rogen has not only revealed this but even made an argument for why Apple should mount an Emmys campaign for Sarandos — 'have him take a nomination away from one of his own shows,' he told THR's Mikey O'Connell.
Alas, Netflix has no lead contenders in guest actor in a comedy, and there is no indication that Apple will be campaigning Sarandos. And given how many great actors make guest appearances this season without any subtextual agendas, thankfully so.
But it does raise the question: If by some chance Sarandos were to win, would he be contractually obligated to thank Tim Cook?
This story appeared in the June 4 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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