Evidently emboldened by the success of—or at least the existence of—Hulu’s Veronica Mars revival, creator Rob Thomas has started contemplating the idea of a revival of one of his other canceled-too-soon TV cult classics: Party Down. As reported by Vulture, Thomas, Jon Enbom, and Dan Etheridge (a.k.a. the Party Down creators) revealed at Vulture Festival over the weekend that they don’t think long-rumored plans for a movie will ever pan out, but they’re still going to “explore some ways to bring the gang back together” in the next “year or two” (seemingly implying that a revival of some sort is being considered, since “the gang” already got back together in the real world for the Vulture panel and so that wouldn’t be especially exciting).
As for what such a revival would be, we can only guess. The whole premise of the show was that it was about the employees of a catering business who were all in various stages of getting chewed up and spat out by the entertainment industry, with Adam Scott starring as an aspiring actor whose career was destroyed by his appearance in a famous beer commercial (it centered around him using the catchphrase “Are we having fun yet?”). The series finale, spoiler alert, ended with him finally finding enough self-esteem to go on an audition—setting up the fan-canon interpretation that the audition was for Parks And Recreation, which Adam Scott first started appearing on immediately after Party Down.
If the show gets revived and pretty much anyone is still working at this catering business, it will mean some pretty bleak stuff has happened. Given the aforementioned Veronica Mars revival, though, here’s a pitch: Adam Scott’s character is a successful actor and everything is going well, and then Lizzy Caplan’s character gets killed by a car bomb because the big villain was basically John Doe from Se7en the whole time even though it doesn’t make any sense. Or maybe Ken Marino can get killed? Either way, somebody’s getting killed.
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Now that you mention it, it would be hilarious and appropriate if the Party Down revival were even more depressing than the Veronica Mars revival was.
In episode 3, everybody but Adam Scott gets hit by a bus, so he decides to open a Soup ‘R Cracker in their honor. In the last 5min of the season finale, the Soup ‘R Crackers gets ripped apart by a tornado and Adam Scott leaves LA for some reason.
The show is probably pretty cheap to shoot since every episode is already just an already available shooting venue. I’d be down for more of this show
Are we having fun yet?
That right there is a Ron Donald Don’t.
(sad Ken marino voice) Soup ‘r Crackers
Lizzy Caplan as Annie Wilkes shows up in Monterey, CA and has an affair with Adam Scott’s Ed. And probably kills some people.
What is going on with Lizzy Caplan’s outfit? No shirt, jean jacket, cardigan cuffs, fancy long skirt but also maybe some part of it is khaki? Very confusing.
No one has contacted me, yet, for my opinion, but I would like Adam Scott to focus his energies more on Greatest Events in Television History. But I’ll take this as a consolation prize.
Bring back Jane Lynch or fuck off.
I just revisited this show about 2 months ago and it’s still a great show. We need more of it. It ended too early.
I’m getting my wife into it after not having seen it for years. It’s somehow funnier now.
Too many heavy hitters to be on Starz.
I think this was before they were heavy hitters
Yea they weren’t as established, but Party Down was when they were all on the cusp of breaking out – Lynch to Glee, Scott to Parks n Rec, Hansen to Friends with Benefits (ok bit of a bomb), Caplan kept doing movies but was fairly known post Mean Girls, Marino and Starr kept up their regular character work but both were known from the David Wain universe (Wet Hot, Wainy Days) or the Apatow universe (Freaks n Geeks, Undeclared), Mullally, Coolidge, and Bell were all quite established, and then the cameos: JK Simmons, Joey Lauren Adams, George Takei, Ken Jeong, Paul Scheer, Rob Corddry, etc etc. And even if they weren’t household names, they’d done enough work that you’d recognize their face. All this to say, I agree with you, it was an excellent show and it ended way too early!
Lizzy Caplan’s character gets killed by a car bomb because the big villain was basically John Doe from Se7en the whole time even though it doesn’t make any sense.So is it a general consensus that the new season of Veronica Mars is a mess?When it first went live the reviews were pretty positive, with a lot of “This is so much better than the fan-servicey movie was.”But it’s really just a pretty bad season of tv, and a really bad season of vm.(which sadly doesn’t give me a lot of hope for a Party Down reboot)
I liked it except for the ending.
Same, as did most people I know IRL who watched it. I Perhaps maybe the sort of fans who felt the ending negated the quality of the whole piece are the same fans who’re continuing to say that very loudly.Cos yeah, to suggest that it wasn’t a good season of VM feels a bit willfully ignorant of many of the show’s qualities that were on display throughout
I liked it. I did not think the one death was necessary – there were lots of other ways to incorporate roadblocks, but the idea the VM has issues and really needs to be in counseling fit to me. I believe the vast majority of people liked it. Just not the ending.
The first time through I thought it was maybe okay. But then I rewatched it, and so much just isn’t good.I feel like I could write a thesis on this, but a few quick points:The bomber story really doesn’t work. Rewatching other VM arcs it’s like “Ohhh, that’s why that character was doing that.” With the bomber it’s like “Nope. BS. This makes no sense.” The new sheriff & mayor are a waste of characters. Maloof too. And Weevil is really underutilized.The hillbilly family is terrible. They’re really escapees from izombie, and should have stayed there.The mexican gangster story is one extremely long trip to the fireworks factory, without ever actually getting there. AND they somehow fail to even kill people properly, which sets up the completely ridiculous return of the hillbilly.Hillbilly is shot in one episode. Returns as the big cliffhanger of the next episode. Isn’t mentioned at all in the episode after that. And then stupidly reappears just in time for peak cliche. (there are a bunch of weird structural/editing problems throughout the season)Above all though, Veronica is so much stupider and less resourceful than she should be. She’s been a PI for years, but has less of a network than she did when she was in highschool.Other than the very first scene with the rich divorcee there are basically no “Veronica Mars is smarter than me” moments in the whole season, and that’s a problem.Does she have a hacker? Nope – she needs to wait for the navy (?!?)Does she do background checks? Nope – she relies on internet weirdos whom she just met and previously didn’t even know existed.And when she needs to evacuate a school because of a bomb? Drive all the way there. Park. Run up to the podium. Get into a fight for the mic. Tell everyone that they’re stupid. And then finally announce that there’s a bomb.I will just stop there, but season 4’s problems aren’t just the ending. But if there is another season I will still be there to see if they can fix it.
I could debate you on many of these, but with regard to the first in particular, I thought the bomber’s actions totally made sense.
The guillotine bomb makes no sense at all. It’s there to be superdramatic, but it’s just bad writing. That whole side of the mystery is a bunch of non-sequiturs strung together with a “It’s because he’s crazy!” as the big reveal.
It was because he wanted attention.
But what does that have to do with a Party Down reboot?
(which sadly doesn’t give me a lot of hope for a Party Down reboot)Just that the Veronica Mars writers haven’t really changed, even if I think the quality really did. I would worry the same thing about a Party Down continuation.(although I think part of the problems with VM is that they’re trying to set up future seasons, where hopefully PD would be written as a one-and-done)
Because of the Rob Thomas connection?Sorry I actually didn’t realize VM and PD had a connection.
Ah, yes. That’s it.In the Rob Thomas Cinematic Universe I didn’t like izombie.And I didn’t like the latest Veronica Mars, largely because I think it inherited a bunch of izombie’s tics.And I am worried that the same thing would happen with Party Down.
Ugh, if they aren’t going to make it right, don’t make it at all.
This is great news! But … for real, where is the Netflix Firefly revival?! GIVE ME BACK MY SPACE COWBOYS
I always thought this show could have gone on forever. As the actors get jobs on bigger shows, just write their characters getting a break and then get some new up-and-comers. I think the only two characters you really need for it to work are Ron and Roman, the embodiment of pathetic desperation, and the self-convinced genius who’ll never make it because he can’t see past his own nose.
Constance marries an old billionaire and inherits his fortune. She misses everyone and buys Party Down from a flailing Ron. She gets the gang back together and way overpays them so they can care even less about clients. Ron is jealous and tries to savage the new franchise.
I think they should go the Wet Hot American Summer route and start off right after and not acknowledge how much older they are.
That is a very confusing statement between the em dashes. Are you just being more precise? Are you suggesting that the revival was not a success? If so, financially or critically? Is the some third implication that was intending by I am missing? And, why the italics? Do the italics make it a joke?