In the annals of prematurely cancelled sitcoms currently outlived by The Big Bang Theory, Party Down’s two season tenure ranks up there with Apatow launching pad Freaks and Geeks (one season) and single camera classic Arrested Development (three). Revolving around the Hollywood wannabes of an LA based catering company, Party Down dined on the crushed dreams and unrealized potential of its characters and turned a bittersweet message about not getting everything you want in life (and being cool with it) into a rare comedy where profundity matched laughs. It was awesome. The writing was great of course (particularly in the first season), poignant when called for and served by an endearing cast made up of television’s finest players; Adam Scott (Parks And Recreation), Lizzy Caplan (Mean Girls), Jane Lynch (Glee), Megan Mullally (Will & Grace), Ken Jeong (Community), Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) and Martin Starr (Freaks and Geeks). We were sad it got cancelled last year (please do watch all two seasons when you can) but according to series creator Rob Thomas Party Down may soon return as a film.
Speaking from the Alamo Drafthouse’s Ultimate Party Down Marathon last weekend, Thomas said a Party Down film might shoot as early as next year: “People are talking to us about doing a Party Down movie,” he said. “We are pretty far down the deal-making process with that, so we’re hopeful that there will be a Party Down movie. Ideally, if it works out we could be shooting in television hiatus time next spring.”
Today Megan Mullally corroborated those claims in an interview with Split Sider: “It’s not signed on the dotted line yet, but it’s looking really, really good. I think they’re shooting for next summer to shoot it, maybe when people are on hiatus. I don’t know yet exactly, I don’t know anything about what it’s gonna entail. The movie itself, I don’t know about the content, but they’re just like inches away from closing their deals.”
Oh please let this be true. Here’s a taste of series highlight “Steve Guttenberg’s Birthday”. Are we having fun yet?
