Exclusive: Party Down on Starz Print

Written by: Rae • October 5th, 2008 • Filed Under: Exclusives, Featured, Party Down

PARTY DOWN, a Rob Thomas project including Ryan Hansen, lands at Starz. Yesterday a little birdie, who shall remain nameless but is someone I trust, whispered some TV news in my ear that is both good and bad. The good? Rob Thomas has sold ten episodes of Party Down and it’ll begin airing in March! The bad? My wallet is not going to be happy to hear it’ll be paying for me to add Starz to my cable bill so I can watch.

Now I know not all you Rob Thomas fans out there are as ~~rabid~~ avid as I am so you probably have no idea he even had another show in the works (you know, besides the two that he’s already juggling). But, yes, for awhile now (pre-Veronica Mars as I understand it) Rob – along with Paul Rudd and John Enbom and Dan Etheridge – have had a comedy show that they’ve been trying to sell. They actually got together and shot the pilot with their own money so that they could shop it around.

As more and more networks passed on it, I was afraid we’d never get to see it. Since a friend read the script and thought it was “HYSTERICAL,” I was more than a little bummed by that. BUT! Starz has stepped in and saved the day. Or the show, if you will. I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

Party Down is about cater waiters in LA. Those folks who follow their dreams to Hollywood only to find themselves wandering around at the age of 30 and wondering if it’s time to give up the dream and get a real job. Rob’ll be busy running things over at Cupid, so this is mostly going to be John Enbom’s show. I loved Enbom’s work on VM so this makes me a very happy camper.

Plus, there are several familiar faces among the cast including Ryan Hansen, James Jordan, Jackie Debatin, Enrico Colantoni, and Paula Marshall. Of course, Enrico and Paula are off doing their own shows at the moment so it’s possible they’ll have to do some recasting. My source did say they were trying to get as much as the original cast as possible, though, and Ryan Hansen was heard talking about working on a Rob Thomas show that wasn’t Cupid or Good Behavior so chances are good he’s definitely on board.

So, yay, to the happy TV news this weekend!

And, yes, I know y’all are going to doubt me until you hear this from another source but that’s OK. The official announcement should be out soon and then you can come back here and celebrate with me.

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There Are 9 Responses So Far. »

1. Comment by Anita on 5 October 2008:

This is great, but yeah, the only sucky thing is that now I have to pay for STARZ! (Although, I’m sure it will make STARZ happy.) Too bad they didn’t sell it to SHO as I’m already paying for that for Dexter and it would be nice to watch two shows on there!
2. Comment by Joe on 5 October 2008:

Great that Starz is getting it’s own linup of shows. This and Crash is awesome for them and us!
3. Comment by afrocurl on 5 October 2008:

that’s great news. I suppose this is one of those moments when I’m really happy to have Starz as part of my huge cable package.
4. Comment by mari guerra on 5 October 2008:

yay Im so happy for Ryan!! I can’t wait to see him again!!
5. Comment by Kelley (aka Spadada) on 6 October 2008:

I forgot about James Jordan. Yay for James Jordan! (And weren’t Ken Marino and Adam Scott aka Vinnie Van Lowe and Mr. Rooks the leads? Or did I make that up?)
6. Comment by Polter-Cow on 6 October 2008:

I don’t think you made that up. Adam Scott, at least, is still on the IMDb page, however accurate that may be.
7. Comment by Kelley (aka Spadada) on 6 October 2008:

Aha! I didn’t make it up.

From jujubee’s interview with Rob:

“And there are several Veronica Mars people in Party Down. Ken Marino, who played Vinnie Van Lowe is one of the leads in it. And, uh, and Jane Lynch, from all, who is in all those Christopher Guest movies who played Mrs. Donaldson, the student council sponsor in an episode in season one, is in it. And then Adam Scott, who played the teacher who… Veronica’s favorite teacher who had the affair with the student, is really kind of the lead in it. And then James Jordan who played Lucky and then Tim Foil is in it. Enrico is not… uh, Rico Colantoni, whose not– wouldn’t be a regular in the series, but has a huge guest starring role in which he does full on nudity [laughter] is in it. And Paula Marshall plays his wife in it. So, yeah, we had quite a few Veronica Mars people in it.”
8. Pingback by All My Rowdy Friends… « My Take on TV on 9 October 2008:

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9. Pingback by Told Ya: Party Down News Official Now : RTVW Online on 13 October 2008:

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