New Orleans-based viewers of FOX's K-Ville, a show set in the city once ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, are enjoying the new drama series so much that some of them have decided to throw gumbo parties during the show's Monday broadcasts.

The idea to throw a weekly gumbo party came to New Orleans local and Audobon Aquarium of the Americas bird handler, Tom Dyer, following K-Ville's September 17 premiere, wherein Anthony Anderson's Marlin Boulet's made repeated references to “gumbo parties.”

"In the first 50 seconds of the first show, the guy said 'gumbo party,' and I couldn't make a roux fast enough," Dyer, whose home is located in Bywater, New Orleans, told The Times-Picayune.

Thus, the evening party revolving around one of the city's signature dishes was born.

"We have decided to have a gumbo party every Monday night for as long as [K-Ville] lasts.  It's like a New Orleans holiday that you do indoors -- it may be the only one, I think,” Dyer explained.  "We love this show.  I don't know what it is; maybe it's being able to watch our city on TV without it being the national news."

The parties are held at different locations each week.  Along with the consumption of gumbo, attendees also participate in a small betting game wherein each viewer chooses a New Orleans icon that they believe will be shown or mentioned in the night's episode.  The person whose chosen cliché appears first wins the pool.

During one of the parties, attendee Chris Beaven entered the pool and chose mosquitoes as his New Orleans cliché.  Because mosquitoes are not necessarily considered as one of the city's tropes, Beaven was asked to change his answer to either cockroaches, palmetto bugs or termites.  Sure enough, however, the episode that aired that night made an early reference to mosquitoes, robbing Beaven of his victory.

While K-Ville, which has so far featured such plotlines as Latin gangsters trading gunshots with upscale madams, may not always be on point, Dyer said that he has learned to cope with the show's tendency to overreach.

"You just have to let it roll over you.  It doesn't make a lick of sense, but it's a beautiful thing,” he told The Times-Picayune.  “I love this show.  And I love this party.”

So does private school and teacher Nancy White, who relocated to New Orleans this summer.  White says the gumbo parties capture the city's essence, which she had been hoping to find when she decided to transfer from California.

"People around here will look for any reason to celebrate, to gather together with friends and to have a party," she said.  "People here seem to see the novelty and humor in everything.  And certainly gumbo is as good a reason as any to have a party."


-Lisa Claustro, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: The Times-Picayune
(Image Courtesy of FOX)