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The Happy Endings gang is back together… and it’s for an ah-mah-zing cause.
The cast of the late, great ABC sitcom reunited on Monday for a Zoom reading of an all-new episode to raise money for racial justice organization Color of Change and World Central Kitchen, which provides fresh meals to frontline workers. All six original stars — Adam Pally (Max), Casey Wilson (Penny), Damon Wayans Jr. (Brad), Eliza Coupe (Jane), Zachary Knighton (Dave) and Elisha Cuthbert (Alex) — returned for the new episode (titled “And The Pandemmy Goes To…”) and then stuck around for a live Q&A that included creator and executive producer David Caspe.
The episode finds the gang, of course, dealing with the coronavirus pandemic in their own unique ways: Penny is very concerned about her Zoom angles, Max has packed on a few pounds (“I stress-ate all my regular food the first week of the pandy”) and Jane is decked out in a hazmat suit, goggles and gloves: “I’ve been running pandemic simulations since grade school.” The others are worried that Jane seems to be there without her hubby (“You always did have a Carole Baskin vibe”), but Brad is still alive and down in Florida on business, since Jane insists he undergo a “ten-week self-tine” before he returns home.
Meanwhile, Alex is DJ-ing on Instagram as “DJ Be Nice” and ranting about the “Do-Nothing Democrats” ruining the economy: “My store is totally empty.” (“You have a store?”) Dave finally shows up after some jabs about his finances — he lost a lot of cash on Fyre Fest, apparently — and is instantly annoyed that Brad has a goatee now, too. Penny insists that the pandemic response is overblown — she’s dating a doctor! — but Jane is still being cautious: “I’ve been cooking my mail.” Dave hadn’t even heard about COVID-19, since he’s been off the grid at a “12-week social media distancing retreat at Joshua Tree,” where he became bros with Jared Leto and brainstormed a new restaurant where diners feed each other with their hands… named Cove+D 19. (Yeah, he’ll have to wait a little while on that one.)
Penny admits she was just faking her nonchalance about the pandemic — because she’s getting married and wants everyone to come! (“I need this!”) She’s desperate to get hitched to her doc boyfriend Rafe… but then she gets a text from him saying he’s moving to Geneva to work with the WHO. She calls him in frantic desperation, even peeling off her blue hoodie to reveal a wedding dress (!), but it’s no use: He hangs up on her.
The gang reassures her she’ll be OK, but the conversation gets derailed when Jane recognizes the mug Brad is drinking from (it’s from the “Fill Ups by Busy Philipps” collection!) and realizes Brad is actually just on a secret staycation in “a Parasite room” in their own subbasement. Yikes. She gets over it quick, though, and they start exchanging embarrassing dirty talk. To cap things off, Max asks Penny to marry him (they made a very complex marriage pact once, apparently) — and assures her they can both keep banging guys and eating burritos to their heart’s content. And she says yes! Dave offers to perform the service, and they make it official. Plus, Alex has a baby now?! (And the father is Derrick?!?!? Drama, indeed.)
Press PLAY above to watch the Happy Endings reunion, and drop your thoughts on the all-new episode in a comment below.
Awww I didn’t get to see the Q&A part, my feed stopped right at the end of the episode… bummer.
It is on Youtube.
Thanks, yeah I found it last night. Sometimes they don’t leave live things posted afterwards, so i’m glad they did this time :)
WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY was it ever cancelled!!! Dubbie Lando – gold. solid gold.
Someone needs to give this show another chance.. pleaseeeeee
Ah-mah-zing!!! I wish someone would bring this great show, actors and writers back.
Wow. I miss these characters. This was wonderful.
FACT: Happy Endings was doing quite well when it followed Modern Family. It was not only getting critical reviews but also good ratings (8 MIL). Then the butt monkeys (aka network executives) aired episodes out of order through Season 1, delaying the Season 2 finale until Season 3 and moving the show to Tuesdays then finally Friday nights. Happy Endings would have had at least 7 years or more and with a few Emmy nominations if the butt monkeys kept their paws off.
This aired during MF’s ratings peak. Of course it did well in what was, at the time, ABC’s most desirable slot. After a show gets launched there, it has to stand on its own, to prove it can survive without the massive lead in of the net’s biggest (scripted) show.
.
And it didn’t.
.
Look, its fans were certainly vocal. There just weren’t that many of them. I tried to like the show. I really did. But it was just OK. It had some good moments. But a lot of bad ones, and they sort of started to repeat themselves.
The show was great, though I did always think it had some lows that were pretty low. (Some of the characters are cringey). But yeah I agree with you, it’s a lot of revisionist history in the way people talk about this show. The show did well in season 2 because it was behind MF and honestly its retention wasn’t that great. It would’ve been a waste of space for ABC to leave it there, and then ABC tried it out in many different places on the schedule for season 3 and no one showed up. I don’t blame ABC for canceling it.
The thing is, “ABC’s most desirable slot” killed many shows because none of them could retain enough of Modern Family’s viewers to make the network happy, and to my recollection none of them did any better than Happy Endings. It wasn’t until Black-ish came along that they finally gave up on finding a show that could retain 80% of MF’s ratings or whatever ABC’s untenable goal was.
That was so awesome! We need a reboot like yesterday!
I mean revival.
Between this and Pushing Daisies, I would love to see both shows resurrected. This Zoom event for Happy Endings rocked! The cast didn’t miss a step here! Can someone work with Sony to bring Happy Endings back?!!!?
Same here. This reunion was so good and I hope everyone who caught it will tweet Hulu and Sony asking for more episodes. I’d love to see a Pushing Daisies Broadway show or something too but I’m not sure who we’d petition for that lol.
This was so good! I need more!
I was a big fan of Parks, but couldn’t make it through the Zoom episode, this one actually had me laughing. Such a bummer this is all we’ll get, was really hoping for a revival.
I’m not sure how P&R went so wrong but that reunion special ran out of steam almost instantly. Happy Endings actually made the Zoom format work to hilarious effect. Hopefully this episode will drum up enough interest for more.
Why was this show cancelled? I miss it so much, they’re all still so lovable and hilarious.
The magic is still there
Soooo enjoyable!!
I didn’t realize Dennis was the father! I just thought he was zoom bombing the call just as Alex was telling the group who the dad was. Whatever the case, it was fantastic! They still got it!
Yeah I thought she was gonna say Dave!
This was hilarious. Happy Endings should never have been cancelled!
These guys are great together, many people do miss the show, the network kind of messed up with release dates and other things that affected the show. Anyways it is good to see these guys come together for new episode reading. Many have gotten used to the virtual world now, from virtual wedding ceremonies to virtual reading of an episode, just perfect !!