Seth Rogen takes on the role of a studio head in the new AppleTV+ series “The Studio,” and the actor/writer/director’s trademark blend of cleverness, crassness, and earnestness finds great material in the wheeling, dealing, and bumbling of the modern Hollywood studio system. 

Making its debut Wednesday with two episodes, the show’s first installment strains somewhat under the weight of story setup and exposition — like most pilots — but its second is a rip-roaring comedic tour-de-force.

Mr. Rogen portrays Matt Remick, a youngish executive at Continental Studios, a fictional entertainment company, who early on is appointed the new head of all production. The anointer of this title is CEO Griffin Mill, played by Bryan Cranston with sleazy relish, though the acclaimed actor allows his wardrobe to do the majority of the work: hazel chunky glasses worn with a turtleneck under a plaid blazer and offset with a statement necklace. 

He resembles a “dime-store Bob Evans,” as someone calls him in the show, and that’s not the only insider joke regarding the character: His name is also a nod to the studio exec played by Tim Robbins in Robert Altman’s Hollywood satire “The Player” from 1992.

Many more allusions to current and past films and filmmakers come up during the first two episodes, which is no surprise in a series about the making of motion pictures. Yet the contemporary actors and directors featured aren’t just relegated to cameos or bit parts — they’re often integral to the plot. 

No less an auteur than Martin Scorsese appears in two key scenes in the pilot, with the amiable director giving a wonderfully “true” performance as himself. The filmmaker is so integral to the comedy’s initial storyline about the fast-tracking of a movie based on Kool-Aid — yes, the powdery, sugary soft drink — that to reveal more would be to spoil the fun. Suffice it to say, it all culminates deliciously at a party thrown by the real-life Charlize Theron.

Not every element works in the first episode, such as the mentions of social media trends and the occasional sexual vulgarity standing in for a joke. The always humorous Catherine O’Hara plays the recently fired studio head Patty, who might be inspired by a former Sony Pictures chairwoman, Amy Pascal, but her scene with Mr. Rogen involves too much melodramatics and industry speak to generate much laughter. Still, the full sequence ends heartwarmingly when she’s given an option to be a producer with the studio, and the two discuss moviemaking outside with a rainbowed vista of Los Angeles behind them. 

Kathryn Hahn stands out as banjee-girl-meets-cynical-marketing-exec Maya, as does David Krumholtz as agent Mitch Weitz, who is all too happy to point out the Jewishness of Hollywood. If the satire at times is a bit too lite, the directorial choices by Mr. Rogen and Evan Goldberg add anxious texture through jazzy drumming, minimal cuts, and a roving camera always moving around the characters and their elegant offices and luxury homes.

Indeed, there’s very little editing at all, with the pilot’s first apparent cut occurring around the six-minute mark. The prevalence of long takes dovetails with the character Matt’s belief in cinema as an art form, with the technique referenced several times, none more emphatically than in the second episode’s plotline of a director attempting a complicated continuous shot. To add hubris to folly, Messrs. Rogen and Goldberg shoot the 24-minute narrative as a “oner” themselves, pulling it off marvelously, even if whip pans and careful image stitching were also involved to cheat us into thinking the entire thing is one take. 

Director/actress Sarah Polley (“Women Talking,” “The Sweet Hereafter”) embodies herself in this second installment, with Greta Lee (“Past Lives”) also playing a version of herself as the star of Ms. Polley’s movie. Some time has passed since the events of the first episode, and the two women are joined on location at a gorgeous home by Patty, who is the film’s producer. 

The cast and crew are setting up for the film’s final elaborate sequence during “magic hour” when Matt and Sal (Ike Barinholtz), his best friend and fellow Continental exec, show up. In a series of escalating interruptions, mishaps, and suck-ups — with time running out to pull off the intricate blocking amid airy golden light — the episode is a hilarious look at how easily things can go wrong on a set, especially with the studio head present. 

Future episodes of “The Studio” promise more Tinseltown takeoffs, celebrity self-awareness, and nervous energy, particularly as the “Kool-Aid movie” will enter into development. Fingers are firmly crossed that for the rest of the season, Mr. Rogen and his fellow writers maintain the level of hilarity and momentum built up with the first two. One also hopes they continue to rely on long takes and further filmmaking ingenuity to elevate their funny stories, to turn what’s a pretty good streaming show into must-see TV.