‘Party Down’ puts its cater-waiters through the wringer. The cast has been there too

LOS ANGELES — The misadventures of the striving and slacking cater-waiters of “Party Down” (miraculously back for a third season, 13 years after its cancellation) seem so authentically crazy that they must get their ring of truth from the cast’s real lives ... right? Well, yes and no. While most of the actors can relate to the day-job indignities, the Starz sitcom’s characters, several of them aspiring actors, bang into every episode, some — including star and executive producer Adam Scott — were a little luckier in real life.

Despite playing Henry Pollard, perhaps the most struggling of those struggling actors, Scott was able to “scrape together rent and food” from acting gigs soon after graduating acting school (with occasional help from his grandmother). He says, “I’ve [talked to] cater-waiters and they love ‘Party Down,’ which is always great. But I think why the show really works, or why we all loved doing it so