Anthony Bourdain’s CNN series will have NYC punks, Max Fish & Veselka in final season

Anthony Bourdain was in the middle of work on a new season of his CNN series, Parts Unknown, when he died by suicide in June. As LA Times reports, CNN is putting together a final season of the series with the material Bourdain had already filmed, audio from his on-location work, and follow-up interviews, to premiere this fall. The season will have seven episodes, including one that he’d already completed, and two final episodes that Amy Entelis, executive vice president of talent and content at CNN, told LA Weekly would serve as tributes to Bourdain:

The penultimate episode will have cast and crew talking about the making of the series, utilizing outtakes and behind-the-scenes footage. The last hour will be devoted to “how Tony affected the world,” Entelis said, drawing on fan reactions to his program and sidekicks and friends who appeared on the series. There are no plans to draw on the show’s archives beyond the final two episodes.

“We don’t want to start putting things together that weren’t meant to be,” Entelis said.

Of the other four episodes, one will center around NYC’s East Village and Lower East Side. As Eater points out, Bourdain visited locations for the episode in the spring, including Ray’s Candy Store, Veselka, Max Fish, and Johns of 12th Street (hopefully he talks about their extensive vegan menu). In the process, he met up with Harley Flanagan, Debbie Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie, filmmakers Jim Jarmusch and Amos Poe, hip hop pioneer and visual artist Fab 5 Freddy, influential punk rock music industry executive Danny Fields, Kid Congo Powers, Lydia Lunch, Richard Hell of Television, and others. He posted pictures with many of them on his Instagram account – take a look at some of them below.

Harley Flanagan previously spoke to Bourdain about his experiences in the 1970s Lower East Side music and art scene, and you can watch that below as well.

Anthony Bourdain was a great lover and champion of music, and was widely mourned by the music world when he passed away.