History Trivia / PartyOfFive

* NotSoCrazyAnymore: With the commercial appropriation and privatization of the internet in 1995, the internet was still an unsure thing for many companies in terms of marketability. However, Sony wanted to start testing the idea that the internet could be used as a medium for fan interaction, starting with ''Party of Five''. Many other networks took years to consider the internet as a viable medium (although network upstarts [[{{Creator/TheWB}} The WB]] and {{Creator/UPN}} quickly followed suit), and as such ''Party'' had the likely the largest online growth for its time commercially. Fan forums themselves were nothing new, as tech-savvy individuals had been using Usenet discussion boards since even before the 90s at the time, but it was the first time the idea was embraced by studios, and it was the first time that TV fan sites were made accessible to the average viewer in ISP form. Indeed, by 1997, there were over 50 dedicated fan sites all across the United States and Europe, more than any other non-sci-fi show (with sci-fi shows of course running the largest share of fan sites and forums) by a huge margin. Also, star Matthew Fox would occcasionally host ''Party of Five'' conferences on Compuserve's eDrive (Entertainment Drive) forum, one of the earliest predecessors to now-popular Reddit 'Ask Me Anything' events

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: The first three seasons were the only ones out on DVD for years. The last three were only available in the US as video on demand. A series boxset is planned for 2016 release.
* NotSoCrazyAnymore: With the commercial appropriation and privatization of the internet in 1995, the internet was still an unsure thing for many companies in terms of marketability. However, Sony wanted to start testing the idea that the internet could be used as a medium for fan interaction, starting with ''Party of Five''. Many other networks took years to consider the internet as a viable medium (although network upstarts [[{{Creator/TheWB}} The WB]] and {{Creator/UPN}} quickly followed suit), and as such ''Party'' had the likely the largest online growth for its' time commercially. Fan forums themselves were nothing new, as tech-savvy individuals had been using Usenet discussion boards since even before the 90s at the time, but it was the first time the idea was embraced by studios, and it was the first time that TV fan sites were made accessible to the average viewer in ISP form. Indeed, by 1997, there were over 50 dedicated fan sites all across the United States and Europe, more than any other non-sci-fi show (with sci-fi shows of course running the largest share of fan sites and forums) by a huge margin. Also, star Matthew Fox would occcasionally host ''Party of Five'' conferences on Compuserve's eDrive (Entertainment Drive) forum, one of the earliest predecessors to now-popular Reddit 'Ask Me Anything' events

* ActorAllusion: Julia is a 15-year-old girl who is able to pass for 21 with a fake ID (allowing her to work in a bar). As noted above, Neve Campbell was 19 in the first season.
* AdvertisingCampaigns: If anyone ever had any doubt as to ''why'' Fox executives wanted to keep ''Party'' on the air, beginning in early 1997, Dr. Pepper sought out a $15 million-dollar cross-promotion with the show - earning Fox $150,000 per 30-second spot, at the time it made the show one of Fox's biggest ad revenue-earners since Bart Simpson's Butterfinger campaign.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Riding on the coattails of the massive ratings success of ''Intervention'', the showrunners decided to up the stakes with the Nielsens in Season 4 by introducing a season-spanning cancer arc for Charlie and a minor arc involving Julia's marital issues. It worked extremely well, given that the show that was originally created as a Beverly Hills, 90210 fallback was regularly pulling in more viewers than 90210 for the first time in the show's history. Unfortunately, the cancer arc was also what was considered by many to be when the series jumped the shark, and by Season 5 it was back to an average of below-7 on the Nielsens, losing most of the viewer base that they had earned back in Season 3 (although it was actually still averaging higher than 90210 for the earliest portion of the season). Unfortunately, by the final season, even a season premiere where Charlie and Kirsten finally got married could only bump them up to a 6, and for the first time, the show's ratings were even lower than when the show had first aired.
* CastTheRunnerUp: Creator/JerryOConnell dropped out of the role of Bailey to star in another Fox series, ''{{Series/Sliders}}'', so it was between Scott Wolf and Jonathan Whitworth. The former got the part, and the latter got a role in the pilot and later another episode as PK - a bad boy love interest for Julia.

* FakeAmerican: Neve Campbell (Julia) and Tamara Taylor (Grace) are Canadian.

* RetroactiveRecognition: The amount of guest stars the show had that went on to be famous. The likes of Brittany Murphy, Kate Hudson, [[{{Series/Psych}} Maggie Lawson]], Jane Kaczmarek, Freddy Rodriguez, Rider Strong, Breckin Meyer, Christina Pickles, [[Series/Charmed1998 Ivan Sergei, Jennifer Rhodes]] and Phil Lewis.
** A lot of other main cast members who would have been unknown back then - such as Creator/ScottGrimes (Will) who would later star in ''ER'', ''Series/BandOfBrothers'' and Ridley Scott's ''Robin Hood''. Ditto for Lacey Chabert (Claudia) who is now more known for ''Film/MeanGirls'' or her voice on ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys''. And of course, Matthew Fox became [[Series/{{Lost}} Jack Shepard]].
* StarMakingRole: For Neve Campbell, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Matthew Fox, and Lacey Chabert.

** Creator/TaraStrong nearly got the role of Julia before it went to Neve Campbell. The two were roommates at the time. Strong makes a small appearance in the episode "Homework" as a girl making out with her boyfriend at the start.
** Similar to the above example, Scott Wolf stated that after Jerry O'Connell dropped out before initial casting began, Johnny Whitworth - who plays troubled teenager P.K. in the pilot and later episode 'Fathers and Sons' - was the other actor in the running for the role of Bailey.

* AdvertisingCampaigns: If anyone ever had any doubt as to ''why'' Fox executives wanted to keep ''Party'' on the air, beginning in early 1997, Dr. Pepper sought out a $15 million-dollar cross-promotion with the show - earning Fox $150,000 per 30-second spot, at the time it made the show one of Fox's biggest ad revenue-earners since Bart Simpson's Butterfinger campaign

* CastTheRunnerUp: Creator/JerryOConnell dropped out of the role of Bailey to star in ''{{Series/Sliders}}'' so it was between Scott Wolf and Jonathan Whitworth. The former got the part, and the latter got a role in the pilot and later another episode as PK - a bad boy love interest for Julia.

* TheOtherDarrin: Griffin was played by James Marsden in the season 1 finale and by Jeremy London for the rest of the series. Owen was played by six different actors, rapidly aging the character to an elementary schooler by the end of the show.

* RetroactiveRecognition: The amount of guest stars the show had that went on to be famous. The likes of Brittany Murphy, Kate Hudson, [[{{Series/Psych}} Maggie Lawson]], Jane Kaczmarek, Freddy Rodriguez, Rider Strong, Breckin Meyer, Christina Pickles, [[{{Series/Charmed}} Ivan Sergei, Jennifer Rhodes]] and Phil Lewis.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Riding on the coattails of the massive ratings success of ''Intervention'', the showrunners decided to up the stakes with the Nielsens in Season 4 by introducing a season-spanning cancer arc for Charlie and a minor arc involving Julia's marital issues. It worked extremely well, given that the show that was originally created as a Beverly Hills, 90210 fallback was regularly pulling in more viewers than 90210 for the first time in the show's history. Unfortunately, the cancer arc was also what was considered by many to be when the series jumped the shark, and by Season 5 it was back to an average of below-7 on the Nielsens (although it was actually still averaging higher than 90210 for the earliest portion of the season). Unfortunately, by the final season, even a season premiere where Charlie and Kirsten finally got married could only bump them up to a 6, and for the first time, the show's ratings were even lower than when the show had first aired.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Riding on the coattails of the massive ratings success of ''Intervention'', the showrunners decided to up the stakes with the Nielsens in Season 4 by introducing a season-spanning cancer arc for Charlie and a minor arc involving Julia's marital issues. It worked extremely well, given that the show that was originally created as a Beverly Hills, 90210 fallback was regularly pulling in more viewers than 90210 for the first time in the show's history. Unfortunately, the cancer arc was also what was considered by many to be when the series jumped the shark, and by Season 5 it was back to an average of below-7 on the Nielsens (although it was actually still averaging higher than 90210). Unfortunately, by the final season, even a season premiere where Charlie and Kirsten finally got married could only bump them up to a 6, and for the first time, the show's ratings were even lower than when the show had first aired.

* CreatorBacklash: While the cast and crew got along remarkably well - almost to the point of genuinely annoying tabloid sources - Matthew Fox later admitted to TV Guide that he frequently got into disagreements with the showrunners over the show's creative direction, as he came to dislike the overly-emotional tone of the show and expressing wishes for the show to be more 'visceral', and specifically for the male characters to be more emotionally centered. Having said that, he's still proud of what the show was, enjoyed working with his castmates immensely, and expressed a willingness to move forward, as before the show was officially cancelled, he and Lacey Chabert were the only cast members to renew their contracts.

* AdvertisingCampaigns: If anyone ever had any doubt as to ''why'' Fox executives wanted to keep Po5 on the air, beginning in early 1997, Dr. Pepper sought out a $15 million-dollar cross-promotion with the show - earning Fox $150,000 per 30-second spot, at the time it made the show one of Fox's biggest ad revenue-earners since Bart Simpson's Butterfinger campaign

** Similar to the above example, Scott Wolf stated that after Jerry O'Connell dropped out of Po5 before initial casting began, Johnny Whitworth - who plays troubled teenager P.K. in the pilot and later episode 'Fathers and Sons' - was the other actor in the running for the role of Bailey.

** Creator/TaraStrong nearly got the role of Julia before it went to Neve Campbell. The two were roommates at the time. Strong makes a small appearance in the episode "Homework" as a girl making out with her boyfriend at the start.

* TheOtherMarty: Jerry O'Connell was cast as Bailey at first but quit just before the pilot was filmed - to star in ''{{Series/Sliders}}''.

* NotSoCrazyAnymore: With the commercial appropriation and privatization of the internet in 1995, the internet was still an unsure thing for many companies in terms of marketability. However, Sony wanted to start testing the idea that the internet could be used as a medium for fan interaction, starting with ''Party of Five''. Many other networks took years to consider the internet as a viable medium (although network upstarts [[{{Creator/TheWB}} The WB]] and {{Creator/UPN}} quickly followed suit), and as such ''Party'' had the likely the largest online growth for its' time commercially. Fan forums themselves were nothing new, as tech-savvy individuals had been using Usenet discussion boards since even before the 90s at the time, but it was the first time the idea was embraced by studios, and it was the first time that TV fan sites were made accessible to the average viewer in ISP form. Also, star Matthew Fox would occcasionally host ''Party of Five'' conferences on Compuserve's eDrive (Entertainment Drive) forum, one of the earliest predecessors to now-popular Reddit 'Ask Me Anything' events

* NotSoCrazyAnymore: With the commercial appropriation and privatization of the internet in 1995, the internet was still an unsure thing for many companies in terms of marketability. However, Sony wanted to start testing the idea that the internet could be used as a medium for fan interaction, starting with ''Party of Five''. Many other networks took years to consider the internet as a viable medium (although network upstarts [[{{Creator/TheWB}} The WB]] and {{Creator/UPN}} quickly followed suit), and as such ''Party'' had the likely the largest online growth for its' time commercially. Fan forums themselves were nothing new, as tech-savvy individuals had been using Usenet discussion boards since even before the 90s at the time, but it was the first time the idea was embraced by studios, and it was the first time that TV fan sites were made accessible to the average viewer in ISP form. Also, star Matthew Fox would occcasionally host ''PoF'' conferences on Compuserve's eDrive (Entertainment Drive) forum, one of the early predecessors to now-popular Reddit [[AMAs]] ('Ask Me Anything')

* NotSoCrazyAnymore: With the commercial appropriation and privatization of the internet in 1995, the internet was still an unsure thing for many companies in terms of marketability. However, Sony wanted to start testing the idea that the internet could be used as a medium for fan interaction, starting with ''Party of Five''. Many other networks took years to consider the internet as a viable medium (although network upstarts [[{{Creator/TheWB}} The WB]] and {{Creator/UPN}} quickly followed suit), and as such ''Party'' had the likely the largest online growth for its' time commercially. Fan forums themselves were nothing new, as tech-savvy individuals had been using Usenet discussion boards since even before the 90s at the time, but it was the first time the idea was embraced by studios, and it was the first time that TV fan sites were made accessible to the average viewer in ISP form. Also, star Matthew Fox would occcasionally host ''PoF'' conferences on Compuserve's eDrive (Entertainment Drive) forum, one of the early predecessors to now-popular Reddit AMAs ('Ask Me Anything')

* NotSoCrazyAnymore: With the commercial appropriation and privatization of the internet in 1995, the internet was still an unsure thing for many companies in terms of marketability. However, Sony wanted to start testing the idea that the internet could be used as a medium for fan interaction, starting with ''Party of Five''. Many other networks took years to consider the internet as a viable medium (although network upstarts [[{{Creator/TheWB}} The WB]] and {{Creator/UPN}} quickly followed suit), and as such ''Party'' had the likely the largest online growth for its' time commercially. Fan forums themselves were nothing new, as tech-savvy individuals had been using Usenet discussion boards since even before the 90s at the time, but it was the first time the idea was embraced by studios, and it was the first time that TV fan sites were made accessible to the average viewer in ISP form.

* NotSoCrazyAnymore: With the commercial appropriation and privatization of the internet in 1995, the internet was still an unsure thing for many companies in terms of marketability. However, Sony wanted to start testing the idea that the internet could be used as a medium for fan interaction, starting with ''Party of Five''. Many other networks took years to consider the internet as a viable medium (although network upstarts [[{{Creator/TheWB}} The WB]] and {{Creator/UPN}} quickly followed suit), and as such ''Party'' had the likely the largest online growth for its' time commercially. Fan forums themselves were nothing new, as tech-savvy individuals had been using Usenet discussion boards for over a decade at the time, but it was the first time the idea was embraced by studios, and it was the first time that TV fan sites were made accessible to the average viewer in ISP form.

* NotSoCrazyAnymore: With the commercial appropriation and privatization of the internet in 1995, the internet was still an unsure thing for many companies. However, Sony wanted to start testing the idea that the internet could be used as a medium for fan interaction, starting with ''Party of Five''. Many other networks took years to consider the internet as a viable medium (although network upstarts [[{{Creator/TheWB}} The WB]] and {{Creator/UPN}} quickly followed suit), and as such ''Party'' had the likely the largest online growth for its' time commercially. Fan forums themselves were nothing new, as tech-savvy individuals had been using Usenet discussion boards for over a decade at the time, but it was the first time the idea was embraced by studios, and it was the first time that TV fan sites were made accessible to the average viewer in ISP form.

* FakeAmerican: Neve Campbell is Canadian.