Party Down Cast Reveal Their Favorite Guest Stars

By Jenna Anderson

This weekend, viewers will be treated to the long-awaited third season of Party Down, which is returning to television after over a decade away. The series, which followed a ragtag group of caterers in Los Angeles, was dotted with some delightful guest stars — and it sounds like a few have definitely stuck out. ComicBook.com's Chris Killian recently spoke to the cast and crew of Party Down, and when asked about their favorite guest stars on the original run, both Steve Guttenberg and Steven Weber stood out.

"I didn't do the Guttenberg episode, but..." Jane Lynch began.

"Yeah, I mean, Guttenberg was always special because the movie Diner was a very important movie for me, growing up, and I loved him as an actor," Ken Marino explained. "So getting to work with him... Steven Weber!"

"Steven Weber, for sure!" Lynch added.

"Steven Weber was great," Martin Starr echoed in a separate interview. "And we were all excited, even at that time, with Guttenberg. Guttenberg was a big highlight, but I think Steven Weber was my favorite of our guest stars, he just brought such an intensity to the show that lent itself so well to what we do. He was so great in it and he like, put tape on his eye. He was just so game. He's just fun. He's just a fun guy to work with. And Gutenberg was great, too."

"It's hard because you know, in in the early seasons when nobody even knew what the show was, we were just kind of getting people that were friends of friends and people we could rope in at the last minute or things of that nature," creator John Enbom added. "So you know, the one that I think was the most interesting was just the way that Steve Guttenberg fell into that one episode. Our other producer, Rob Thomas, had worked with him on Veronica Mars and had just literally been email exchanging with him at the time that we were trying to break that particular episode. And he was just like 'Oh! What if we just asked Steve?' So, the fact that he just that kind of fell into place magically in that one little moment, and then the whole episode just kind of grew out of that, was that was pretty exciting. But a lot of great actors — J.K. Simmons was really fun to work with. Jennifer Coolidge coming in sort of at the end of the first season, when Jane got kind of pulled away was also just really fun. It's one of the great appeals of making the show for us is the idea that we can kind of have a field day with seeing what fun guest star characters we can come up with. We can then try and get somebody to come in and just go crazy." 

What is the Party Down revival about?

Ten years later, most of the Party Down catering team have moved on, including actor/bartender Henry Pollard (Adam Scott, Severance, Parks and Recreation). After a surprise reunion, the gang find themselves once again stoically enduring the procession of random parties and oddball guests all over Los Angeles.

Scott reprises his role alongside original cast members Ken Marino (The Other Two, Veronica Mars), Jane Lynch (Glee, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Martin Starr (Knocked Up, Silicon Valley), Ryan Hansen (Bless this Mess, Veronica Mars), and Megan Mullally (Will & Grace, The Great North). Previously announced new cast members joining in on the fun include Jennifer Garner (The Adam Project, Yes Day) Tyrel Jackson Williams (Thunder Force, Brockmire), and Zoë Chao (Love Life, The Afterparty). James Marsden (Disenchanted, Dead to Me) recurs as a guest star.

The third season is executive produced by Party Down alumni Rob Thomas (Veronica Mars, iZombie), John Enbom (iZombie, Benched), Paul Rudd (Ant-Man, Ghostbusters: Afterlife), Dan Etheridge (Veronica Mars, iZombie), and Adam Scott (Severance, Parks and Recreation). Enbom also serves as showrunner. Party Down is produced for STARZ by Lionsgate Television.

Who was your favorite guest star on Party Down? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Party Down Season 3 premieres on STARZ on February 24th.

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