| Party Down | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Comedy |
| Created by | John Enbom Rob Thomas Dan Etheridge Paul Rudd |
| Directed by | Fred Savage Bryan Gordon |
| Starring | Adam Scott Ken Marino Jane Lynch Lizzy Caplan Megan Mullally Ryan Hansen Martin Starr Jennifer Coolidge |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 20 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | John Enbom Rob Thomas Dan Etheridge Paul Rudd |
| Producer(s) | Adam Scott Bryan Gordon Fred Savage |
| Camera setup | Single-camera |
| Running time | 26–28 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Starz |
| Original run | March 20, 2009 – June 25, 2010 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Party Down is an American comedy television series created and primarily written by John Enbom, Rob Thomas, Dan Etheridge, and Paul Rudd that aired on the Starz network in the United States.
Contents |
The concept of Party Down was six years in the making, with many of the ideas for the episodes conceptualized years before the show was made.[1] An original unaired pilot was shot at Rob Thomas's house with all the original cast except Lizzy Caplan, whose character was played by Andrea Savage. The pilot was used to sell the show to the Starz network.[2]
This half-hour comedy follows a Los Angeles, California, catering team for the titular company. The sextet of aspiring Hollywood actors and writers, as well as drifting lost souls, work small-time catering gigs while hoping for their break or some positive change in their lives. Each episode finds the team working a new event, and inevitably getting tangled up with the colorful, affluent guests and their absurd lives.
Jane Lynch did not appear in the last two episodes of the first season due to her commitment to Glee. Jennifer Coolidge replaced her as Constance's roommate, Bobbie St. Brown, for the final two episodes of the season. In season two, neither Lynch nor Coolidge returned in a starring role, while Lynch guest starred in the final episode of the season. A new character named Lydia (Megan Mullally) was introduced to fill the void.
The series was executive produced by co-creators John Enbom, Rob Thomas, Dan Etheridge and Paul Rudd.[3] Enbom served as showrunner.[4] The co-executive producers were Jennifer Gwartz and Danielle Stokdyk and Jennifer Dugan was a producer.[5] Beginning with season two, series star Adam Scott served as a producer, while series directors Bryan Gordon and Fred Savage served as supervising producers.[3] Series star Ken Marino directed the second-season finale episode.[3]
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | DVD release date | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season premiere | Season finale | Region 1 | Region 4 | Bonus features | |||
| 1 | 10 | March 20, 2009 | May 22, 2009 | April 6, 2010[6] | April 6, 2010[7] | Audio commentaries by executive producers John Enbom and Dan Etheridge and actor Adam Scott on "Taylor Stiltskin Sweet Sixteen" and "Celebrate Ricky Sargulesh"; Party Down: A Look Behind the Scenes; What Is Party Down? featurette; Outtakes; Gag reel | |
| 2 | 10 | April 23, 2010 | June 25, 2010 | September 28, 2010[8] | February 2, 2011[9] | Gag reel; Party Down promo | |
Andrew Wallenstein of The Hollywood Reporter said, "Lurking behind the surface of this raucous comedy is an astute meditation on the promise and peril of leading an unconventional life, something about which aspiring actors know a thing or two."[5] The American Film Institute named Party Down one of the 10 best shows of 2009.[10] Season two scored 85 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 12 critical reviews.[11] James Poniewozik of TIME ranked Party Down as the sixth best television series of 2010.[12]
Party Down has many connections with Rob Thomas's previous series, Veronica Mars: John Enbom was a writer, Dan Etheridge was a producer/director, Paul Rudd made a guest appearance, and Jennifer Gwartz and Danielle Stokdyk served as co-executive producers.
Series regulars Adam Scott, Ken Marino, Jane Lynch and Ryan Hansen also appeared on Veronica Mars. Scott and Lynch had guest appearances, while Marino had a recurring role and Hansen was a series regular. Other Veronica Mars cast members who have guest-starred on Party Down include Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni, Jason Dohring, Alona Tal, Ed Begley, Jr., Daran Norris, Ryan Devlin, Martin Yu, Michael Kostroff, Steve Guttenberg and Joey Lauren Adams. Bell, Colantoni, and Dohring were series regulars, while the others had recurring roles, except for Adams, who was a guest star.
Party Down also has connections to Freaks and Geeks. Producer/director Bryan Gordon directed two episodes of Freaks and Geeks. Series regulars Martin Starr and Lizzy Caplan had roles on Freaks and Geeks; Starr was a series regular, while Caplan had a recurring role. David "Gruber" Allen, who had a recurring role on Freaks and Geeks guest starred in an episode of Party Down.
In addition to series regular Ken Marino, several cast members of The State appeared on Party Down, including Kerri Kenney-Silver, Thomas Lennon, and Joe Lo Truglio. David Wain directed the season 2 episode "Not On Your Wife Opening Night".
Ken Marino, Lizzy Caplan, Martin Starr, Ryan Hansen, and Megan Mullally appear as their Party Down characters in an episode (titled "Party Down") of the television series Childrens Hospital, in which Marino and Mullally also star.[13] Lizzy Caplan and Adam Scott also each appeared in a single previous episode, with Caplan playing Mullally's daughter. David Wain, who directed the Party Down episode "Not On Your Wife Opening Night", is also executive producer, writer, director, and guest star of Childrens Hospital.
| Country | Channel | Premiere date |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | Super Channel | March 23, 2009[14] |
| Australia | Movie Extra & ABC2 | December 1, 2009 (Movie Extra)[15] & January 6, 2011 (ABC2)[16] |
| Russia | 2×2 | January 27, 2011 as Патимейкеры (English: Partymakers)[17] |
On June 30, 2010, Starz canceled Party Down. While the show was warmly received by critics, its Nielsen ratings were very low. Losing Jane Lynch to Glee as well as Adam Scott to Parks and Recreation were believed to be additional factors in the decision to end the series.[18]
On April 19, 2011, in an interview with The Huffington Post, Lizzy Caplan talked about the possibility of a Party Down film. While she commented that "certainly nothing is set in stone", she did state that the film is "something that we all really want to do. People are busy with their television shows and whatnot, but it's definitely something that we all want to do, so I think we'll do everything we can to make it happen".[19] Further discussion of making a film adaptation was brought up creator Rob Thomas at at a cast reunion at an Alamo Drafthouse on June 25, 2011, in which Thomas stated that the film was "pretty far down the deal-making process". He also commented that he seemed "hopeful" that the deal would close in time to start filming during the television hiatus of spring 2012.[20]
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