With Mr. Ames as writer and show runner, the series’ comedy ranges from broad and absurdist to deadpan and topical. It is the latest in a grand history of sitcoms about broadcast TV, from “Mary Tyler Moore” to “Murphy Brown” to “Sports Night,” and includes in-jokes about the industry and its major players, as well as more physical bits (spanking, spooning, et al). There are jokes about Cokie Roberts and the Falklands War, an extended Busby Berkeley-style dance sequence and a slapstick scene in an airport toilet stall. “I try not to be boring,” Mr. Ames said.

The series also represents a departure for Starz, a network best known for splashy, often grim adventure dramas about pirates (“Black Sails”); gladiators (“Spartacus”); and conflicted, dope-dealing club owners (“Power”). The network’s only other sitcom is the LeBron James-produced “Survivor’s Remorse,” which has its second season premiere alongside “Blunt Talk.”

Mr. Stewart relished the chance to play a journalist, visiting the sets of “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” and “The Rachel Maddow Show” to see how things were done. Journalism had been Mr. Stewart’s first career back in 1955, when he left school at the age of 15 to become a cub reporter at his local weekly paper. “I feel as though I’ve been preparing all my life to be a newsreader,” he said, using the British term for a news anchor.

Still, during his first year on the job, Mr. Stewart was already being lured away by his love for amateur theater. When rehearsals conflicted with story assignments, he would get people to cover for him, and if no one was available, he said, he would just make things up. “I got found out a couple of times,” he admitted. His editor gave him an ultimatum: Buckle down and give up this “stupid amateur acting,” or leave his paper that day.

Mr. Stewart left. His decision ultimately led him to the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966 and a long career on the English stage, as well as parts in several prestigious BBC productions. His subsequent starring roles as Captain Jean-Luc Picard on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and Professor Charles Xavier in the “X-Men” series made him a household name.

“At the time I was very resentful, but things kind of turned out in the end,” Mr. Stewart said. “I have a great deal to be grateful to him for, for giving me that ultimatum.” If he hadn’t, he conceded, he might have ended up a disgraced journalist instead of just playing one.

“I could have,” he said. “I could have ended up being Walter Blunt.”