Down Is Up

Party Down, my favorite sitcom of the past decade, only lasted 20 episodes, the final one airing in 2010.  Since then, there have been constant rumors of a reunion show or movie of some sort.  Now it looks like it may be happening.  At least producer Dan Etheridge just floated the idea at a panel discussion in L.A. with the cast around.

The show's concept was simple but great. We follow a misfit team of caterers in Los Angeles, most of whom see the job as a stopgap while they try to make it in show biz.  Each week's plot is built around the event they're catering.

While I'm glad to hear Etheridge say the gang might get back together, it could be tricky.  Of course, they'd all be ten years older, which may make the team, already sad in the best of times, too pathetic.  But also, most of the cast have done well for themselves and it may be hard, not to mention expensive, to bring them together.

The heart of Party Down were Henry (Adam Scott) and Casey (Lizzy Caplan), whose up-and-down relationship was central to the arc of the show.  Since PD left the air, these two have been busy, Scott on shows such as Parks And Recreation and Little Big Lies, Caplan on shows such as Masters Of Sex and Castle Rock.

The rest of the cast has also been plenty busy starring in TV shows (such as Martin Starr in Silicon Valley and Jane Lynch in Glee), doing guest shots and even writing and directing various projects.  So getting them all in one place for any length of time might be tricky. But if the show can maintain the quality of the original, it'll be worth it.

And while we're at it, where's the Community movie we've been promised?

PS  Actually, a few minutes after I read the piece about Party Down, I chanced upon a discussion of a Community movie.  Community, as readers of this blog know, is my other favorite sitcom of the past decade.

The piece was about a panel devoted to Community (at the same festival where they had the Party Down reunion).  Creator Dan Harmon and most of the original cast was there. Notably missing was Chevy Chase and Donald Glover.  While I think a Community movie could work without Chase, I think at the very least you'd want to have the other originals characters who sat at the study room table.

This group would be even tougher to get together for a movie than Party Down.  Harmon has years worth of Rick And Morty on his plate, for one thing.  And Glover has become a huge star in TV, movies and music.  Brie stars in GLOW.  McHale and Jacobs recently got off their series, but who knows how long they'll be at large?

The money required would also be huge.  So unless some lottery winner wants to throw away millions to see it, perhaps there's no chance it'll come together.  But I can't still help but believe in Six Seasons And A Movie.