Fans of Party Down, the Starz cult hit that last aired almost 10 years ago, got news they have long been hoping to hear: a show reunion may happen in the not too distant future.

“I’m thinking the next year or two we’ll explore a way to get the gang back together again,” co-creator and producer Dan Etheridge revealed toward the end of a Party Down panel discussion Sunday at Vulture Festival LA. The full cast was on hand for the event, including actress Megan Mullally, who joined Party Down in the show’s second season.

“I want to do it again,” she insisted. “Can’t we do the show again?” She called performing on the show the most fun she’s had as an actor, a sentiment echoed by other cast members.

“It was truly a blessed time. It was truly the most fun I had doing a job,” shared Jane Lynch, who appeared in most of the series’ first season before she departed to honor a prior commitment to star on Fox’s Glee (she returned for the final episode of Party Down’s season 2, which wound up being the series finale).

Party Down centered on a group of struggling actors and writers trying to make it in Hollywood, relegated to working for a catering service to make ends meet. Each of the season’s 10 episodes was built around a different catering event for the Party Down crew, including, in season two, a surprise birthday party for Steve Guttenberg (who played himself in the episode).

In a surprise for the Vulture Fest audience, Guttenberg came out from behind a curtain to join the Party Down team on stage.

“I knew that it was going to be great,” Guttenberg said of the episode, rated by many fans as the series’ best. “I was really psyched to shoot the show. I was really thrilled to be there…It was really a lot of fun.”

Party Down did not attract a big viewership during its run on Starz. “Sixty-five thousand viewers,” producer Rob Thomas, co-creator and producer of the show, noted of one set of Nielsen figures. “I had never seen a number that low.”

But the sitcom has steadily gained devotees over the years and on Sunday a ballroom full of fans greeted the Party Down talent as rock stars. There had been talk after the show ended of bringing back the series as a movie, but that idea ultimately fizzled. If there is a reunion in the future, it apparently won’t take shape on the big screen.

“I don’t think a movie is in the cards,” Etheridge commented. Adam Scott, one of the first actors cast on the show, concurred, commenting, “I don’t know about a movie.”

Producers revealed the circuitous route Party Down took to Starz. They first pitched HBO, Thomas said. The network was keen on the project, but cooled after series co-creator Paul Rudd became unavailable to star in it. From there, producers pitched FX.

“At the end of the day they [FX] decided it didn’t fit well with [It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia],” he revealed. The pilot “sat in our collective drawers for two years.”

They later showed a pilot episode to Comedy Central, Thomas said.

“It was 30 minutes without a laugh,” he recalled. “We went to Showtime with it…They loved it. [But] the head of Showtime said, ‘I don’t know how to market this show.’” He added Starz “was really was our last stop.”

Along with Lynch, Mullally and Scott, cast members Lizzy Caplan (“Casey Klein”). Ken Marino (“Ron Donald”), Martin Starr (“Roman DeBeers”) and Ryan Hansen (Kyle Bradway”) traded stories of their favorite episodes. For Marino, it was one that co-starred Stormy Daniels, the porn actress who was thrust into the headlines more recently after she said she had an affair with Donald Trump before he ran for president.

In the episode, “She’s the one who [performs a sex act] on me,” Marino recalled. “Tries to.”

In addition to Stormy, there were a number of R-rated memories shared at the panel discussion, including discussions of nudity on the show and Mullally’s recollection of shooting a scene where the Party Down characters cater an orgy. “This is a little too real for me,” she recalled.

Starr, who currently stars in Silicon Valley, now ending its run on HBO, appears up for a cast reunion of Party Down, if it happens. He considers that series one of his best experiences in the business.

“This was maybe the only job where every time we wrapped we stayed around [the set],” he commented. “This was a fun place to be.”

Party Down, the comedy about a group of caterers looking to break big in Hollywood, is the latest series to get a revival.

A new version of the comedy is in the works at Starz with the original quartet of creatives, Rob Thomas, John Enbom, Paul Rudd and Dan Etheridge developing the project.

The original series ran on Starz for two seasons between 2009 and 2010 and starred Ken Marino, Adam Scott, Jane Lynch, Martin Starr, Ryan Hansen, Lizzy Caplan and Megan Mullally.

It’s not clear whether all of the cast will return to the revival, particularly given the fact that one of the reasons it ended was many of its stars such as Lynch, with Glee, and Scott, with Parks and Recreation, went on to star in bigger shows.

“At the end of 2019, the Party Down cast and producers were all reunited at a retrospective for the show hosted by Vulture. We had such a good time that we wanted to find a way to get the team back together again,” said Thomas. “The cast is so busy these days that finding a window where we can do it may require trigonometry, but we’re determined to make it happen.”

That reunion saw Etheridge say that they would explore a way to get the “gang back together” and Mullally, who joined in season two, said that she wanted to do it again as it was the most fun she’s had as an actor, a sentiment echoed by other cast members including Lynch.

Enbom will serve as showrunner on the potential six-part limited series and will exec produce alongside Thomas, Rudd and Etheridge. The revival is being produced by Lionsgate Television. Karen Bailey, EVP, Original Programming will oversee on behalf of Starz.

Party Down centered on a group of struggling actors and writers trying to make it in Hollywood, relegated to working for a catering service to make ends meet. Each of the season’s ten episodes was built around a different catering event for the Party Down crew, including, in season two, a surprise birthday party for Steve Guttenberg (who played himself in the episode).

“Before the cast of Party Down became well-known television and movie actors and award winners, they were all wearing the same pink bowties as part of a less than competent team of Los Angeles cater-waiters while chasing their dreams of stardom on the Starz series,” said Christina Davis, President of Original Programming for Starz. “Fans have been waiting more than ten years for this revival to happen and we’re thrilled to be in development with Rob, Paul, Dan and John at the helm.”

EXCLUSIVE: The Party Down revival is a go. Starz has given a six-episode order to a new installment of the cult 2009-10 comedy series. The formal green light follows lengthy negotiations with the cast, which recently were completed.

Adam Scott, Jane Lynch, Ken Marino, Martin Starr, Ryan Hansen and Megan Mullally have closed deals to return for the new season. Not coming back is original cast member Lizzy Caplan, whose schedule could not accommodate Party Down’s 2022 production start, believed to be in mid-January. The busy actress, who just signed on for Paramount+’s upcoming Fatal Attraction series reboot, had an existing commitment to the FX limited series Fleishman Is in Trouble, whose shoot overlaps with that for Party Down, creating a scheduling conflict that could not be resolved.

The Party Down revival, whose development was announced by Starz in March, is executive produced by the original series’ creators/EPs, Rob Thomas, John Enbom, Paul Rudd and Dan Etheridge, as well as Scott, who was a producer on the original. Enbom will serve as showrunner.

As Thomas revealed at the March development announcement, the revival stems from the Party Down reunion held in late 2019.

“We had such a good time that we wanted to find a way to get the team back together again,” Thomas said in March, admitting that getting all actors together would be a challenge. “The cast is so busy these days that finding a window where we can do it may require trigonometry, but we’re determined to make it happen.”

Party Down follows a Los Angeles catering team – a sextet of Hollywood wannabes stuck working for tips while hoping for their “big break.” Each half-hour episode finds the hapless catering team working a new event – and inevitably getting tangled up with the colorful guests and their absurd lives.

The original series premiered on Starz in 2009 with Scott, Caplan, Marino, Lynch, Starr and Hansen starring. Lynch left after the first eight episodes of the 10-episode first season to do Glee. After Jennifer Coolidge filled in for the final two episodes of Season 1, Mullally joined the cast as a series regular in Season 2. Lynch returned for the Season 2 finale. Both seasons remain available on Starz and for download or streaming via the Starz app.

“After more than 10 years, we’re excited to have the cast — many of whom are now hugely popular, award-winning stars — return to don their pink bowties and head back to the party,” said Jeffrey Hirsch, President and CEO at Starz. “The fan demand for a Party Down revival is clear, and we look forward to what Rob, Paul, John, Dan and now Adam will do as they bring this special project and these hilarious characters back to life.”

The limited series is produced by Lionsgate Television. Starz’s EVP Original Programming Karen Bailey is overseeing for the network.

At the time of Starz’s 2010 cancellations of Party Down and Gravity, the premium cable network was pulling back on comedy. Starz returned to the genre a few years later with a handful of series, including Survivor’s Remorse and Ash vs. Evil Dead. Party Down is joining two other current Starz comedy series: Run the World and the upcoming Shining Vale.

Scott is repped by UTA and Rise Management. Lynch is repped by Realm Talent and Hansen Jacobson. Marino is repped by UTA and Artists First. Starr is repped by ICM Partners and Rise Management. Hansen is repped by Gersh. Mullally is repped by UTA.

The party is starting again when #PartyDown premieres Friday, February 24 on STARZ! Returning with Adam Scott, Jane Lynch, Ryan Hansen, Ken Marino, Megan Mullally, and Martin Starr!

Party Down
S3 E1 · Kyle Bradway Is Nitromancer
30 min · Feb 24, 2023

Ten years later, Kyle Bradway has just landed his star-making superhero role; he hires "Party Down" to cater his celebration party, leading to welcome reunions and some unexpected surprises.