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From “Bored to Death” to driven to tears.
A few hundred super-fans of HBO’s mysteriously canceled Brownstone Brooklyn ode, “Bored To Death,” flocked to the Brooklyn Inn on Wednesday night after the show’s creator Jonathan Ames mentioned on Twitter that he and one of the stars, John Hodgman, would be drowning their sorrows.
The cult comedy — which featured Jason Schwartzman as a struggling Brooklyn writer turned ham-handed private eye — was abruptly canceled on Tuesday after three seasons.
Ames expected a few fans to show up after his Twitvitation, but the Boerum Hill writer didn’t expect the sea of young mortals lining up on Bergen and Hoyt streets, waiting to get into the bar.
“I know it sounds false, but it’s hard to imagine actually having fans,” said Ames. “We had a fun time making something loony and a little carnival-like.
“It’s not easy being alive — you think about things too much,” added the writer, himself a cult favorite thanks to books including “Wake Up, Sir!” and “The Alcoholic.”
Ames showed up at about 10 pm to a standing ovation.
“Everyone gets one drink, but I get one first,” he said, adding that he had $600 to spend.
The show brought together Schwartzman, Ted Danson and Zach Galifianakis in a golden comedic trio that fans say got better with age. Its scenes were packed with the stuff of Brooklyn: backdrops of Fort Greene, stoners and creative types, Park Slope lesbians and a stroller mafia. A highlight: Schwartzman’s character gets in such a bind that he ends up hanging, Harold Lloyd-style, on the hands of the clock atop the Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower.
Park Slope’s own Hodgman, who plays Schwartzman’s literary nemesis, vowed to make his own feature film — “a completely unlicensed spinoff where me and Dick Cavett live in an apartment together [in] the bank building.”
Hodgman’s spirits could not be lifted, even by spirits.
“I feel extremely melancholy, primarily because I don’t feel I’ll have the opportunity to work with such weirdoes and nice people again,” he said. “We shot scenes blocks from my house. I’m only brilliant blocks from my house.”
Bushwick resident Bryan Friedman felt betrayed by HBO.
“The show was a good quaint mystery, and those don’t exist anymore,” he said. “It was very Brooklyn.”
Reach reporter Kate Briquelet at kbriquelet@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2511.©2011 Community Newspaper Group
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