Party Down’s Martin Starr and Ryan Hansen on the cult show’s season three return

Only 13,000 people watched its original finale but the love for it grew so strong over the years, a revival was inevitable.

Party Down originally ran for two seasons in 2009 and 2010.

The label “cult” is sometimes misapplied to a TV show, movie or book that is actually solidly in the mainstream.

But when it comes to Party Down, it really was a cult show. The finale of its original 20-episode run in 2010 clocked in at 13,000 viewers. That was 0.004 per cent of the American population at the time.

The thing about cult shows is that when someone discovers it, it’s like a secret, an exclusive club that you have the power to share. It makes you feel like a tastemaker, someone ahead of the Big Bang Theory-watching hoi polloi.

So the word spread about Party Down. DVDs were bought and passed around, streaming recommendations were shared in office kitchens and group chats. And the cult show’s following grew, far beyond the 13,000 people who tuned in to the finale broadcast in 2010.

That fervour has finally – finally! – converted into a long-anticipated third season, 13 years after that cruel, albeit understandable, cancellation.

That it took so long can be chalked up to the vagaries of making television. It was too hard lining up the original cast’s schedules, and even now, this new six-episode season doesn’t feature Lizzy Caplan, who had a clash with another project.

But Adam Scott is back, and so are Ken Marino, Megan Mullally, Jane Lynch, Martin Starr and Ryan Hansen.

Party Down returns after a 13-year break. Picture: Stan

If the crew didn’t go now, it may never have happened at all.

“We talked about [a revival] almost immediately, like two or three years [after the original run],” Starr told news.com.au. “Once the show wasn’t picked up for a third season or not too long after that, they were already trying to figure out what future the show had somewhere.

“Especially when it was picked up on streaming, the audience grew tremendously and that allowed us to realise that this had the potential to go again. It was just a matter of time, even though it took 13 years.

“It’s one of those shows that all of us have been wanting to come back this whole time. Everybody, every interviewer or fan, would always ask us about it.”

Party Down is a hang out comedy. The show is centred on a catering crew who work different parties episode-to-episode, be that a corporate retreat, a school reunion or Steve Guttenberg’s birthday bash.

There were cool guest stars ranging from J.K. Simmons and Ken Jeong, to familiar faces from co-creator Rob Thomas’ other then-cult, cancelled-too-early series, Veronica Mars.

The Veronica Mars and Party Down crossover is strong. Thomas’ co-creators John Enbom and Dan Etheridge all worked on the series about the plucky teen detective while the fourth co-creator Paul Rudd (yes, that Paul Rudd) had guested on an episode of VM.

Ryan Hansen and Martin Starr have remained friends in between Party Down seasons. Picture: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for STARZ

Nothing much happened most Party Down episodes but the convergence of prickly hosts, drunk party guests and the grumblings of the Party Down caterers made for a sarcastic and fun time.

The alchemic magic in the concoction was the dynamic between the characters, most of them wannabe-actors whose thwarted ambitions grew into massive chips as they poured drink after drink for other people.

Each character was developed, with rich interiors that went far beyond a punchline.

Starr’s Roman is a near-nihilistic aspiring screenwriter who reserved his most vicious contempt for Hansen’s Kyle, a pretty boy fame chaser. But all that lashing out merely hid a deep insecurity.

Thirteen years on, Roman is still slinging drinks, more embittered than before as he watched life pass him by.

But Starr, who broke out in Freaks & Geeks and has had a prolific career in the interim, most notably on Silicon Valley, isn’t in the same place anymore, which made playing the character a bit more fun.

“It was more fun to explore it now having fully surpassed that emotional place personally,” he said. “It was more native to me then, and playing that for 10 weeks can be gruelling sometimes, to be in that headspace for that long.

“And now, being older and wiser and a bit more mature, it’s almost a therapeutic experiment.”

Megan Mullally and Jane Lynch return for the third season of Party Down. Picture: Stan

Hansen said he too has had “a whole life since seasons one and two”.

Hansen is acquainted with an on-set reunion. He played Dick Casablancas in Veronica Mars, which has had not one but two revivals over the years, first a movie in 2014 and then a fourth season in 2019.

But, Hansen said, coming back to Party Down was different.

“On Veronica Mars, we had our own storylines so a lot of the times, you don’t really get to work with the same people or get to know them a lot,” he explained. “But on Party Down, we’re all always at the same party so we’re instantly all back together again.

“It’s just incredible.”

Hansen was particularly chuffed to work with Lynch again, who had been in most of the first season but then had to bow out due to her Glee commitments.

“God, I just love Jane Lynch so much. Honestly. I love, love her,” he waxed. “She’s so funny on and off screen, we have the best time together. Her energy’s incredible, she’s just a legend.”

All of Hansen’s nerves – “I hadn’t seen everybody, except for Martin” – dissipated.

“Once we were all back together, it was like we’re a family again.”

Are they having fun yet? Yes, they are.

Party Down is streaming now on Stan