Adam Pally departed The Mindy Project last week. Damon Wayans, Jr. announced he’ll be exiting New Girl (again) after the sitcom’s fourth season wraps this May. Eliza Coupe‘s USA comedy Benched got the axe after one season. Are you starting to recognize the pattern here?
Half of the main cast from the criminally underrated but highly lauded cancelled NBC sitcom Happy Endings is about to be available for a triumphant reprise. At least, that’s the idea that popped in my head when all this news made itself public in the eerily same window of time.
Now, Max, Brad, and Jane are crucial to a Happy Endings comeback, but there cannot be such a thing without the other half: I’m talking about Penny, Dave, and Alex, of course. So what are their portrayers up to? Casey Wilson currently stars in NBC’s Marry Me, a funny show you should be watching from Happy Endings creator (and Wilson’s husband) David Caspe. Zachary Knighton and Elisha Cuthbert are primed to star in Fox’s Weird Loners and NBC’s One Big Happy, respectively. (Fun fact, because why not: Cuthbert stars alongside Endings‘ alum Nick Zano in her new series.)
Where does this leave us? Well, if Marry Me continues to perform well creatively with the occasional uptick in the ratings department, it very may well be renewed for a second season; star Wilson and creator Caspe would then be attached to that. As for Knighton and Cuthbert, it’s too early to tell their availability status since their new series have yet to premiere (both are set to launch next month).
Enter the curveball the length of my wide-eyed smile. On Feb. 6, the Happy Endings writer’s Twitter account blasted out a cryptic tweet that takes you to a countdown portal with the words “It’s almost a new day” sprawled across the page. The timer will reach zero in 50 days from now. I’ll do the math for you: that’s April 1, aka April Fools Day. Are the writers hinting at series comeback? Their Twitter account currently follows Netflix, Amazon, and Yahoo! Screen–Internet streaming services known for resurrecting dead shows (see: Arrested Development, Community). Or, more likely, are they teasing a one-off reunion of sorts that will bring back the cast for one final hurrah? OR, is this a heinous mind trick set to explode in tears of disappointment come April 1? I doubt that; the worst news, I suppose, is that the team is teasing a brand new series. And even that’s not bad news, per se, but it’s not a Happy Endings revival. The thing we are all now anticipating.
With that, let the wild speculation begin.
Update: Hope you’re keeping tabs on @HappyWrites. The Happy Endings writers are barraging followers with all kinds of tantalizing tweets involving hashtags like #ketchup and #wintercomestwice. Most exciting, though, is this video they shared; it’s Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” and the video starts playing at the “Winter” section of the song. Not sure what the winter hooplah is all about but “Four Seasons”–get it?! If Endings were to make a comeback, a new season would be the series’ fourth! This is getting real, people. Or is it a hoax? The anticipation is killing me slowly.