Arrested Development facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Arrested Development |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Created by | Mitchell Hurwitz |
| Starring | |
| Narrated by | Ron Howard |
| Composer(s) | David Schwartz |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 84 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
|
| Producer(s) |
|
| Camera setup | Single-camera |
| Running time | 22 minutes (seasons 1–3) 23–48 minutes (seasons 4–5) |
| Production company(s) |
|
| Distributor | 20th Television Netflix (seasons 4–5) |
| Release | |
| Original network | Fox (seasons 1–3) Netflix (seasons 4–5) |
| Picture format | 720p (16:9 HDTV) (seasons 1–3) 1080p (16:9 HDTV) (season 4) 4K (16:9 UHDTV) (season 5) |
| Audio format | Dolby Digital 5.1 |
| Original release | Original series: November 2, 2003 –
|
Arrested Development is an American television sitcom created by Mitchell Hurwitz. It aired on Fox for three seasons from November 2, 2003, to February 10, 2006, followed by two seasons on Netflix from May 26, 2013, to March 15, 2019.
Arrested Development follows the Bluths, a formerly wealthy dysfunctional family. It is presented in a serialized format, incorporating handheld camera work, voice-over narration, archival photos, historical footage and maintains numerous running gags and catchphrases. Ron Howard served as both an executive producer and the omniscient narrator and, in later seasons, appears in the show as a fictionalized version of himself. Set in Newport Beach, California, Arrested Development was filmed primarily in Culver City and Marina del Rey.
Arrested Development received critical acclaim. It won six Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award, and attracted a cult following. It has been named one of the greatest TV shows of all time by publications including Rolling Stone, Time, Entertainment Weekly, and IGN. It influenced later single-camera comedy series such as 30 Rock and Community.
Despite the positive response from critics, Arrested Development received low ratings and viewership on Fox, which canceled the series in 2006. In 2011, Netflix licensed new episodes and distributed them on its streaming service. These episodes were released in May 2013. Netflix commissioned a fifth season of Arrested Development, the first half of which premiered on May 29, 2018, and the second half on March 15, 2019.
Contents
Production
Conception
Discussion that led to the creation of the series began in the summer of 2002. Ron Howard had the original idea to create a comedy series in the style of handheld cameras and reality television, but with an elaborate, highly comical script resulting from repeated rewritings and rehearsals. Howard met with David Nevins, the president of Imagine Television, Katie O'Connell, a senior vice president, and two writers, including Mitchell Hurwitz. In light of recent corporate accounting scandals, such as Enron and Adelphia, Hurwitz suggested a story about a "riches to rags" family. Howard and Imagine were interested in using this idea, and signed Hurwitz to write the show. The idea was pitched and sold in Q3 2002. There was a bidding war for the show between Fox and NBC, with the show ultimately selling to Fox as a put pilot with a six-figure penalty.
Over the next few months, Hurwitz developed the characters and plot for the series. The script of the pilot episode was submitted in January 2003 and filmed in March 2003. It was submitted in late April to Fox and was added to the network's fall schedule that May.
Casting
Alia Shawkat was the first cast in the series. Michael Cera, Tony Hale, and Jessica Walter were cast from video tapes and flown in to audition for Fox. Jason Bateman and Portia de Rossi both read and auditioned for the network and were immediately chosen. The character of Gob was the most challenging to cast. When Will Arnett auditioned, he played the character "like a guy who thought of himself as the chosen son, even though it was obvious to everyone else that he was the least favorite"; he was chosen immediately for his unique portrayal. The characters of Tobias and George Sr. were originally going to have minor roles, but David Cross and Jeffrey Tambor's portrayals mixed well with the rest of the characters, and they were given more significant parts. Howard provided the narration for the initial pilot, and his narrating meshed so well with the tone of the program that the decision was made to keep his voice. Howard aided in the casting of "Lucille 2"; the producers told him that their dream actress for the role was Liza Minnelli but that they assumed no one of her stature would take the part. She agreed when Ron Howard asked her himself, because they were old friends; she had been his babysitter when she was a teenager.
Production design
Arrested Development uses several elements which were rare at the time for American live-action sitcoms. It was shot on location and in HD video (at 24 frames per second) with multiple cameras, parodying tactics often employed in documentary film and reality television, straying from the "fixed-set, studio audience, laugh track" style long dominant in comedy production. The show makes heavy use of cutaway gags, supplementing the narrative with visual punchlines like security camera footage, Bluth family photos, website screenshots, archive films, and flashbacks. An omniscient third-person narrator (producer Ron Howard) ties together the multiple plot threads running through each episode, while humorously undercutting and commenting on the characters. Arrested Development developed a unique self-referentiality through use of in-jokes that evolved over multiple episodes, which rewarded longtime viewership (and in turn may have discouraged new viewers and contributed to the show's ratings difficulties).
Cancelation and revival
During the series' third season in 2006, despite months-long rumors of Arrested Development having been picked up by the cable television network Showtime, creator Hurwitz declined to move the show to another network. As Hurwitz explained, "I had taken it as far as I felt I could as a series. I told the story I wanted to tell, and we were getting to a point where I think a lot of the actors were ready to move on." He said that he was "more worried about letting down the fans in terms of the quality of the show dropping" than he was about disappointing fans by not giving them more episodes. He also said, "If there's a way to continue this in a form that's not weekly episodic series television, I'd be up for it".
On October 2, 2011, the cast of Arrested Development reunited for a panel at The New Yorker Festival in New York. At the panel, Hurwitz declared his intention of producing a truncated fourth season as a lead-in to a film adaptation.
Six years after the series had been canceled by Fox, filming for a fourth season began on August 7, 2012. Fifteen episodes of the show's revival season were released simultaneously on Netflix on May 26, 2013. The first eight episodes of the fifth season were released on Netflix on May 29, 2018, and the remaining eight episodes premiered on March 15, 2019.
Characters
Main characters
The plot of Arrested Development revolves around the members of the Bluth family, a formerly wealthy family who continue to lead extravagant lifestyles despite their changed circumstances. At the center of the show is Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman), the show's straight man, who strives to do the right thing and keep his family together, despite their materialism, selfishness, and manipulative natures. Michael is a widowed single father. His teenage son, George Michael (Michael Cera), has the same qualities of decency but feels a constant pressure to live up to his father's expectations and is often reluctant to follow his father's plans. He battles with a crush he has on cousin Maeby, which developed from a kiss she gave him as part of a prank.
Michael's father, George Bluth Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor), is the patriarch of the family and a corrupt real estate developer who is arrested in the first episode. George goes to considerable lengths to manipulate and control his family in spite of his imprisonment, and makes numerous efforts to evade justice. His wife, and Michael's mother, Lucille (Jessica Walter), is ruthlessly manipulative, materialistic, and hypercritical of every member of her family. Her grip is tightest on her youngest son, Byron "Buster" Bluth (Tony Hale), an overeducated (yet still undereducated) mother's boy who is prone to panic attacks.
Michael's older brother is George Oscar Bluth II (Will Arnett), known by the acronym "Gob" (/dʒoʊb/). An unsuccessful professional magician whose business and personal schemes usually fail or become tiresome and are quickly abandoned, Gob is competitive with Michael over women and bullies Buster. Michael's twin sister Lindsay (Portia de Rossi) is spoiled and materialistic, continually seeking the center of attention and leaping on various social causes for the sake of vanity. She is married to Tobias Fünke (David Cross), a discredited psychiatrist-turned-aspiring actor. Their daughter is Mae "Maeby" Fünke (Alia Shawkat), a rebellious teen with an opportunistic streak, who seeks to defy her parents for the sake of attention, and otherwise pursues boys and power, and furthers her complicated relationship with George Michael.
Recurring cast
Several other characters regularly appear in recurring roles.
- Jeffrey Tambor as Oscar Bluth, George Sr.'s identical twin brother, a lethargic ex-hippie seeking the affection of Lucille.
- Henry Winkler as Barry Zuckerkorn, the family's lawyer, who often hinders the family's legal battles rather than helping them. He is eventually replaced by Bob Loblaw (Scott Baio). (Max Winkler portrays Barry in flashbacks)
- Liza Minnelli as Lucille Austero, AKA "Lucille 2", Lucille's "best friend and chief social rival" as well as a sometimes-love-interest of Buster and later, Gob.
- Justin Grant Wade as Steve Holt, a high school super-senior and football star at the high school George Michael and Maeby attend, and is later discovered to be Gob's son.
- Carl Weathers as Carl Weathers, a parodied version of himself as Tobias' acting coach.
- John Beard as John Beard, a fictional version of himself as a news anchor reporting on the characters' antics.
- Mae Whitman as Ann Veal, George-Michael's stern Christian girlfriend, often forgotten or disparaged by Michael (Ann was first played by Alessandra Torresani.)
- Patricia Velasquez as Marta Estrella, Gob's girlfriend who eventually reciprocates Michael's infatuation with her and ends up causing conflict between the two brothers. (Leonor Varela originally played Marta)
- Steve Ryan as J. Walter Weatherman, a one-armed amputee, and a former employee of George Sr.; Weatherman appears in flashbacks in several episodes where, as hired by George Sr., he would teach the Bluth children lessons by participating in staged accidents where he would "lose" his (prosthetic) arm.
- Charlize Theron as Rita Leeds, an intellectually disabled British woman who becomes Michael's female companion.
- Judy Greer as Kitty Sanchez, George Bluth Senior's assistant, lover and partner-in-crime.
- Ed Begley, Jr. as Stan Sitwell, the owner of Sitwell Enterprises, a rival company to the Bluth Company.
- Christine Taylor as Sally Sitwell, Stan Sitwell's daughter and a consistent love interest for Michael.
- Justin Lee as Annyeong, the adopted Korean son of Lucille and George Sr.
- Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Maggie Lizer, an attorney and compulsive liar who has a recurring relationship with Michael.
- Rob Corddry as Moses Taylor, the star of the fictional TV show Wrench! and a noted gun rights activist.
- Ben Stiller as Tony Wonder, a magician and Gob's chief rival, well known for baking himself into a loaf of bread to feed the troops.
- Amy Poehler as Gob's unnamed and frequently forgotten wife, who married Gob as the final in a long line of escalating dares.
- Jane Lynch as Cindi Lightballoon, a government mole who tries to gather incriminating information from an incarcerated George Sr. but ends up falling in love with him instead.
Episodes
List of Arrested Development episodes
See also
In Spanish: Arrested Development (serie de televisión) para niños
