SEASON 1 – Starz
Created by John Enborn, Rob Thomas, Dan Etheridge, and Paul Rudd
Theme music by Josh Kramon
- 001. Willow Canyon Homeowners Annual Party – 3/20/2009
- The Los Angeles-based Party Down catering company is working a homeowners annual party in Willow Canyon. The team is led by the ambitious team leader Ron Wayne Donald (Ken Marino). The others on the team include aspiring comedian Casey Klein (Lizzy Caplan), saccharine screenwriter Roman DeBeers (Martin Starr), aspiring actor Kyle Bradway (Ryan Hansen), and former actress Constance Carmell (Jane Lynch). Coming back to work on this particular day after an absence of working as an actor is Henry Pollard (Adam Scott). The party is hosted by Gordon (Enrico Colantoni) and Liddy McSpadden (Rebecca Creskoff). Ron briefs his team on sensitivity training, not eating the guest’s food, and putting out the trip jar, and then introduces Henry to the others. Casey shows up late while bickering on the phone with her husband Mike Klein (Wes Armstrong), causing Ron to give her a final warning. The host Gordon is drastically underdressed and unenthusiastic about the party, much to the irritation of his wife. Many of the guests start to recognize Henry, but he won’t reveal what has made him famous. Casey is worried that her husband Mike will show up and cause a scene since they are in an argument. She asks Henry to look out for him and warn her if he shows up, and then realizes that she recognizes him as ‘that guy’. Roman messes with Kyle by calling and leaving a message for him, telling him that he is being considered for a role. When Ron has an accident while juggling a bottle for some kids, he tries to go clean it up in the bathroom. Kyle and the hosts’ teenage daughter Monica (Eden Sher) are making out in the bedroom nearby, and she thinks that Ron is masturbating. Ron gives her an impassioned speech to her about not saying anything or he will destroy her. Gordon shares with Henry how miserable he is with his lifestyle. Kyle finally recognizes Henry from his beer commercial, and recalls his famous line “Are we having fun yet?” Once he mentions it in front of the party, the floodgates open for everyone quoting it to him and asking him to say it. When Mike shows up at the party, Henry tries to stop him and have him wait outside, but Mike pushes him into the pool. Gordon takes this as his cue to get completely naked and jump into the pool, but no one will join him in the pool. Kyle gets the message about the part being offered to him, which mentions that the character now has cancer. Roman encourages him to shave all of the hair off of his body. Casey thanks Henry for trying to stop Mike, but she winds up getting fired by Ron, who then puts her back on ‘final warning’ when she threatens to sue. Casey tells Henry that her husband got a job offer in Vermont, so they will likely be moving there. When Casey sees Kyle shaving off his eyebrows, she tells him that it was Roman who left the message. Ron tries to fill out the comment card for Party Down, but Liddy tells him that she wants to do it herself. Each of the Party Down employees gets $14 in tips, but Henry gets $13.36. However, he gets a hand job in the car from one of the female guests named Heidi (Jackie Debatin) who recognizes him from the commercial. Cantrell Harris is the black party guest Mike. Andrea Lwin is the Asian guest. Dan Sachoff is the guest who notes they lost. Andy Siegel is the boring fat guest. 1/13/24
- 002. California College Conservative Union Caucus – 3/27/2009
- The Party Down crew caters an underage California College Conservative Union caucus, where they are expecting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to be their special guest. However, they are told not to interact with him. Meanwhile, Casey contemplates her possible move to Vermont, looking over literature for a comedy troupe called The Yucks who perform there. The secretary of the group, Jeffrey Ells (Josh Gad) tries to keep the event organized and gives speeches to Ron about leadership. Jeffrey shows Ron the items they are going to present to the Governor, including an engraved briefcase, and convoy U.S. flag that had been under enemy fire, and a box of Cuban cigars. Jeffrey agrees to allow Ron to shake Schwarzenegger’s hand. Roman intends to pass a script called Terror Bird that he wrote off to Schwarzenegger. When one of the conservative guys, Greg (Jason Dohring) overhears Ron talking about the Cuban cigars, he immediately objects and brings it before the committee since Cuba is a Communist country. Jeffrey is furious and blames it on Ron, who sends Constance to go get some fancy American cigars. Casey finds out that Greg’s girlfriend Heather (Alona Tal) is from Burlington, they have conversations about Vermont. Heather contends that it is a great place to raise a family and plans to move back there with Greg. However, Greg drops the bomb that he got an internship in Washington, which leads to a big fight between them. Constance is bitter about being around conservatives and sends Kyle over to bait a guy named Tim (Chris Grabher) to tell a gay joke. After Ryan hears the joke, he tells Tim that he is gay, but then Tim reveals he too is also gay. Constance also makes a huge deal when she hears that a student named Todd’s vote about the Cuban cigars didn’t count. She assumes it is because he is black, but it turns out that he is from Toronto, so is ineligible to vote. Ron sends Constance to the back room and tells her not to speak anymore. When Ron looks inside the briefcase, he finds out that Roman has left a copy of script inside and also managed to get barbecue sauce all over the flag. He attempts to wash it, but winds up destroying the flag with bleach. Constance returns with the cigars but tells her that the owner talked her into a buying a box of Cubans, so he has her remove the cigar bands and dump them into the briefcase. He attempts to take the flag hanging on the pole outside to replace the other one. In an effort to make the flag look battle-worn, he sets it on fire, but then can’t get it out easily. Everyone in the party looks out the window and sees him with the burning flag. Dan Wisner (Brett Stimely) from the Governor’s office shows up to tell them that Schwarzenegger was tied up and won’t be able to make it. Wisner is taken aback when he sees the remnants of the burnt flag that they were going to present to the Governor. As Casey continues to struggle with her Vermont decision, Henry hints to her that she should stay. Out in his car, Wisner smokes one of the cigars and looks over the script to Terror Bird. Ryan Pinkston is Dennis, the shrimp. 1/14/24
- 003. Pepper McMasters Singles Seminar – 4/3/2009
- The Party Down crew is assigned to an elderly singles mixer hosted by Pepper McMasters (Marilu Henner), an author who has written a book called Seniorlicious!. Kyle and Constance are disgusted by the thought of the old people getting together for sex. Meanwhile, Casey is still struggling with her decision not to go to Vermont and arguing with her husband Mike. Kyle and Roman continue to bicker as they are both annoyed by the jokes that they’ve had played on them by the other. Kyle meets a single man named Bruce Nesbitt (Ed Begley Jr.), who brags about all of the medicine he takes that keeps him going. He gets Nesbitt to give him a pill for erectile dysfunction and slips it into Roman’s drink. Roman tells Henry that he is going to go after Casey if she and her husband break it off. Nesbitt recognizes Constance as a woman with whom he once had sex in Cabo. She finally remembers him but can’t believe how old he looks. She blows him off, but when Nesbitt asks Henry to join him in the bathroom to smoke a joint, Constance jumps at the chance to join them. As they get stoned, Constance and Nesbitt go down memory lane and have a lot of laughs together, but when he asks to take the party back to his place, she suddenly shies away and isn’t interested. Ron catches them in the bathroom and gives them a lecture about how drugs killed one of his friends. A cop (Todd Christian Hunter) tries to come into the bathroom, but Ron manages to divert him to another bathroom by telling him that an old man stunk it up. Lizzy gets some advice from Pepper about how much freedom she feels now that she is a single woman. This inspires Lizzy to finally break it off with her husband. Henry doesn’t understand why Constance turned down Nesbitt since they have both aged the same number of years since they’d last seen each other. During Pepper’s lecture, it is revealed that the nurse (Olivia Alaina May) in the crowd who is taking care of a man named Fred (Bix Barnaba) in a wheelchair is actually a topless stripper. When Nesbitt gets up to dance with her, he has a heart attack and collapses on the floor. They try to engage the cop, who turns out to be a stripper as well. Casey tells Henry that she is getting divorced, and they immediate make out and have sex in a back room. When Constance sees that Nesbitt has collapsed, she has a meltdown and begs him to get up. She kisses him and this ends up reviving him. Most of the crowd think this is all part of the seminar, and Pepper agrees. Roman tries to give Casey a hug to comfort her when he hears about the divorce, but the erectile medicine kicks in and she thinks he is very happy to see her. Traber Burns is the older man named Ray at the bar. Rico Bueno is the man who walks in on Henry and Casey. 5/8/24
- 004. Investors Dinner – 4/10/2009
- A wealthy client named Tony Carolla (Daran Norris) hosts an investment party, and before it starts, he gives the Party Down crew the rundown of rules. They have already broken the first one by not wearing khaki pants like he requested, but he also tells them not to use his telephones while they are working. Meanwhile, Roman tries to prove that Baretta’s name in the TV show Baretta was because his last name was Baretta, not because he carried one. Constance tries to prove him wrong by bringing along a prop Baretta gun from the TV show that she obtained while she was playing a hooker on an episode of the show. Henry and Casey arrive at work at the same time, and both act rather coy about their sexual encounter. She tells him that she might have been irresponsible and hasty by using him to make a clean break with her husband. Ron is taken in by the luxury house in which they are working and has the goal to become wealthy himself through his hard work and vision. When Roman gets hold of the fake gun and pulls it on Casey as a joke, Ron tackles him… just in time to be caught in the act by Mr. Carolla. As Roman enjoys looking up the skirts of the ladies on the loft of the house, an exceptionally rude investor named Gerald Lynch (Richard Fancy) shows up and starts barking orders at everyone. Kyle meets another guest named Kellum (Ryan Devlin), with whom he has a lot in common as it relates to sound systems. They agree to go out partying after the party, and Constance tries to latch onto hanging out with them as well. Kyle tries to gently brush her off, but Kellum pretends to like her and teasing her that his father is producing a live-action play of Old McDonald. He then asks her to act like various barnyard animals, which he finds endlessly amusing. Ron is assigned by Mr. Carrolla to clean up the poop of the dog Jasper, which belongs to one of the guests, Mrs. Burstyn. On top of that, Ron has stepped in it and dragged it all over the house. When Casey refuses to clean it up, Ron has to do it himself. Henry sees an Asian man who he thinks he recognizes as a former member of his acting class named Ted Yang (Martin Yu), but the man denies it. Mr. Carolla gives his presentation on an investment opportunity to purchase a seaside village in Baja. Casey warns Henry that she’s not the ‘pancake lady’ and then gives him an analogy about a woman who made a pancake for a man who was not excited about it, then proceeded to make him more and more pancakes to try and please him. Henry and Casey then sneak off to the bathroom to make out, but he tells her that he almost forgot that she’s not the pancake lady. He also goes through the doors looking for pills, only to find one bottle in the back of one empty drawer. He deduces form the empty drawers, the dead phones, and the actor friend that he saw that the entire investment presentation is a scam. Henry tries to warn Mr. Lynch about the scam, but Lynch is so rude to him, that he offers him the best of luck on his investment. When Henry realizes that Ron has asked Mr. Carolla to invest him money in the Baja venture, he tries to stop him by revealing to everyone that the investment is a scam, even exposing Ted Yang as an actor. When everyone starts asking for their money back, Carolla tries to leave the house, but Lynch has his driver (Larry Lanehart) try and stop him. Lynch pulls a gun on him, but Ron recognizes it as the prop gun and stands up to Carolla, daring him to shoot him in the head. When Roman shows him that he has the prop gun and that Carolla’s gun is real, Ron wets his pants and curls up into the fetal position. Kyle doesn’t care for the way that Kellum made fun of Constance and decides to stand him up and hang out with Constance instead. Casey proposes that they have a causal relationship, as friends with benefits. Henry gets a final chance to cuss out Mr. Lynch when he asks Henry for his coat. Henry and Casey steam up the car, even if she won’t stop mentioning the pancakes. 5/8/24
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