A rebooted Party of Five debuts January 8 on Freeform, and while the details have changed—it’s now the kids of the Mexican-American Acosta family who are left to fend for themselves after their parents are deported rather than killed by a drunk driver—the young-adult melodrama remains the same. The original may not hold the same place in the ‘90s teen-TV firmament as Beverly Hills, 90210—it can’t help but feel like the California Dreams to 9-oh’s Saved By The Bell—but make no mistake: the wet-eyed orphans of the Salinger family left an indelible imprint on the culture. Please join me in celebrating ten things we take for granted that Party of Five gave us.
Moviestore/ShutterstockScott Wolf's character, Bailey, lost his parents, developed alcoholism, and experienced a sibling with cancer. Light stuff.
Everybody One: Nonstop Teen Pathos
Sure, the rich kids at Beverly High had their share of heartbreak, but there was always comic relief in even the heaviest 90210 seasons, generally centered around Tori Spelling and difficult clothing. Not so for the Salinger kids. They were already orphaned by episode one, left to raise an infant and keep up a San Francisco home. And when all the drama of that tragedy got wrung out, they got cancer, they got alcoholism, they got racist boyfriends. The bad times never let up for our heroes, and we drank it all down without a chaser.
Everybody Two: Jennifer Love Hewitt’s Music Career
Okay, she had already been a pop star in Japan by age 12. But her addition to the Po5 cast as Bailey’s girlfriend Sarah compelled her to rush out a U.S. debut, and though I have no idea what compelled her to name it Let’s Go Bang, I celebrate her choice. (I also don’t know what the title means: like, let’s all explode, or let’s you and I go somewhere and have sex? A beautiful mystery.)
She did a second, self-titled album almost immediately, and though neither album produced any hit singles, that didn’t stop her from trying it again a few years later. She paired up with Meredith Brooks and scarves for the single “BareNaked,” which also wasn’t a hit, but which is exactly what 2002 pop music sounded like. Also she was in the video for LFO’s “Girl On TV,” and then fifteen years later she produced and starred in The Client List, a Lifetime show about a hand-job salon. Jennifer Love Hewitt, let’s get moving on that memoir.
Everybody Three: The Intervention Episode
Blossom had the Very Special Episode on lock in the mid 1990s, but Party of Five did it best with season three’s “Intervention,” in which the Salinger kids and Sarah confront Scott Wolf’s Bailey about his drinking problem. It was a tough watch, it gave every character an opportunity to shine, and it worked so well the four remaining American daytime soaps each do one every four to six weeks. Plus, I would bet you my last dollar this scene is still on Lacey Chabert’s acting reel.
Everybody Four: That Less-Is-More Kind Of Acting
You cannot convince me that Catherine O’Hara had not just seen an episode of Party of Five when she improvised this moment in Waiting For Guffman.
Neve Campbell made a career out of the thing where you have your most emotional moments looking away from the person you’re talking to, and then moving your head back to them in a way that makes your gorgeous hair glisten in the studio light. Once you notice it, it’s all you notice.
20th Century StudiosBailey drove a Jeep Wrangler, inspiring young men of the 1990s to desperately want their own.
Everybody Five: Jeep Wranglers
Fine, Jeep Wranglers existed long before this show, but did anyone make them as appealing as our made-for-television Tom Cruise Scott Wolf? A generation of American men said, “I will forgo shock absorption if I can look this cool,” and 25 years later, it’s our chiropractors’ problem.
Getty Images//Getty Images
Everybody Six: The Scream franchise
Do you think we’d have gotten four films (and apparently a fifth, non-canon) with anyone other than Neve Campbell as Sidney? Party of Five gave her character Julia multiple opportunities to show the perfect mixture of innocence and strength, fear and self-assurance the role of Sidney would call for. Good thing Reese Witherspoon turned the job down.
Everybody Seven: The BoDeans
Like the Rembrandts, the BoDeans are now best-known for a relatively wack ‘90s TV theme song, but they have a strong body of work elsewhere. But I imagine the band is living at least semi-comfortably off of the residuals, so I can live with it. And if even one person got turned on to “Dreams” because of “Closer To Free,” everybody wins. Maybe it’s you, maybe it’s now.
ScreenshotLook at those tracks!
Everybody Eight: That Official Soundtrack
By the mid 1990s, as the post-Nirvana alternative boom began to subside, it was absolutely plausible that a teenager would listen to Bob Dylan. While the official 90210 soundtrack leaned heavily on the pop R&B (Shanice, Brian McKnight, and the non-Smash Jeremy Jordan) that would define the later part of the decade, Party of Five pushed all trends aside and gave the kids Syd Straw and Nanci Griffith. (Thankfully, someone put the soundtrack on Spotify.) It’s a dispatch from a dimension where Freedy Johnston blew up in 1994 instead of Dave Matthews.
Getty Images//Getty ImagesThat's Jeremy London. Or is it? Who can say?
Everybody Nine: The London Brother Who Wasn’t In Dazed & Confused
I think it was Jeremy who played Julia’s boyfriend Griffin. And maybe he was Pink in Dazed & Confused. I don’t know, and neither do you, and neither does he.
Time & Life PicturesAndrew Keegan was a heartthrob in the ’90s. Later, he started a cult!
Everybody Ten: Featured Actors with Bright Futures
While Matthew Fox and Scott Wolf dominated Tiger Beat—I did not realize until just now how much wildlife imagery would be involved here—the Po5 casting directors took some risks with their guest stars. Bit players included:
- Adam Scott, who hosts an REM podcast and is apparently an actor of note;
- Scott Grimes, who voices Steve on American Dad and can therefore buy and sell us all;
- Andrew Keegan, who started a cult! Seriously!
Whether the Acosta Po5 will have the same impact on our culture (and I guess religion) as the original remains to be seen. But I’ll be watching.
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