The cast of the critically-acclaimed but short-lived ABC sitcom Happy Endings reunited at last weekend’s Vulture Festival in New York to reminisce about their much-missed series. According to The Hollywood Reporter, creator David Caspe was joined by stars Eliza Coupe, Elisha Cuthbert, Zachary Knighton, Adam Pally, Damon Wayans Jr., Casey Wilson, and producer Jonathan Groff. While the panel was there to discuss the show in the past tense, questions inevitably arose about resurrecting the series.
Caspe insisted that “everyone would want to do [another season of the show],” provided it was done right. Groff suggested, “if there was a streaming service that made an offer…” while looking in the direction of representatives from Hulu, who sponsored the panel and are currently streaming the series.
Not content to talk about a Happy Endings reboot in the abstract, the cast began pitching story ideas. Knighton said, “I always wanted Dave to be a cop. I wanted to come back fat, buzzcut, something totally different.” Adam Pally suggested Max would capitalize America’s current political situation: “He’d be somewhere campaigning for Trump. Something big where he’s stealing.” Coupe suggested she and Wayans would still be married and still childless, prompting this heartfelt thought from Pally: “You don’t see on television married couples who love each other who aren’t stressing about, ‘Oh, are we going to have a kid?,’’ he said. “They were just a married couple that were in love and living in an awesome apartment. It was really refreshing and I still don’t think you see that on television.”
Among other fun tidbits from the panel: Penny’s catchphrase “ah-mah-zing” was apparently an ad lib by Casey Wilson, Whoopi Goldberg was considered to play Wayans’ mom, and Amanda Peet apparently told Caspe he loved the show, then immediately passed when offered a role. As Pally said, “I hope there is another chance to do this … I would just love to be around these people more.”