How ‘Party Down’ Came Back From the Dead

In the wake of its cancellation, Thomas retreated to the corners of the internet where Party Down fans had mostly congregated. “I could go onto YouTube and see clips of Party Down in the comments and feel the love for the show,” he says. “And I could feel that picking up every year.” Though a movie project was floated early on, Enbom couldn’t determine a way to translate the episodic nature of the series; still, the producers kept pestering Starz to find a solution. “Every couple years we would check in with them: ‘You want to make more episodes? Can we make them elsewhere?’” Enbom says. “And the answer was always ‘No.’”

Then, a regime change. In 2019, Starz named Jeffrey Hirsch president and chief executive, just a couple months before the producers and cast would reconvene at Vulture Festival for a retrospective panel. “That was integral in this whole process,” Starr says. “I remember we were like, ‘OK, let’s get together and show them we love each other to see if we can get the support again.’” After years of viewers discovering the show on Hulu, and cast members addressing reunion rumors in every interview they gave, Thomas eventually pitched Hirsch a new season at lunch. Without much convincing, “things happened pretty quickly,” he says, and Enbom started writing.

Though Enbom had originally centered the new season around Henry and Casey’s (Caplan) on-and-off relationship, he pivoted when Caplan couldn’t work around her shooting schedule. Instead, Season 3 adds a few different characters—namely, Evie (Jennifer Garner), as Henry’s new love interest, along with Saxon (Tyler Jackson Williams), a viral online video star, and Lucy (Zoë Chao), an experimental chef uninterested in heating up pigs in a blanket. More than a dozen years later, the show’s budget has at least expanded the types of food it passes around. “We were always interested in and excited about actually bringing in new caterers, because that’s the rhythm of catering,” Enbom says. “The younger generation [has] different takes on what this whole arc of success actually means in a new landscape.”

Enbom also found creative ways to reestablish his now mid-life group’s rapport, incorporating some helpful throughlines—and the same philosophical quandaries—within a modern world. How did Ron manage through the pandemic? Are there any consequences for Kyle’s Nazi-esque wedding song? Is TikTok the new way to build a brand when you’re stuck plating fruit? The answers avoid some of the earlier run’s thornier, outdated jokes even as the cast’s predictably goofy scenarios push the envelope. “There’s some stuff in Season 1 and Season 2 that we wouldn’t do today—we’re all a little smarter and a little better,” Hansen says. “But it still has that edginess.”

At this point, reprising old shows and rebooting classic movies has become part of the pop cultural fabric—but that doesn’t mean it isn’t risky. Scott, who also serves as a producer, understands the inclination to be wary of resuscitating and potentially ruining “perfect little things” from the past, but he never hesitated when Starz gave everyone the green light. “People feel close to it and feel ownership over it. Which is part of the specialness of it,” Scott says. “It’s really nice because [originally] we didn’t think anyone would ever see it and didn’t care.”

But people do care, and Starz is betting on its return, promoting new subscriptions with Party Down imagery and clips while executives chart the numbers and ponder a potential fourth season. It’s quite a 180 from the pitch rejections Thomas experienced two decades earlier—and a fitting lesson for the characters themselves. If you wait long enough, and don’t give up, you might find a version of success you never imagined. “That’s the funny and depressing part of chasing your dreams,” Hansen says. “I think that’s what resonates.”