Arrested Development
Arrested Development is a character driven comedy series on Fox Television. It first aired on November 2, 2003.
It was created by Mitchell Hurwitz, creator of The Ellen Show and a writer on The John Larroquette Show and The Golden Girls. One of the Executive Producers is TV veteran, Ron Howard, who also helped develop the show and provides voice over narration. It eschews a laugh track and shoots on location, thereby breaking out of the mold typical to most situation comedies.
Awards
The show is a bona fide hit with critics but as of the beginning of the second season, it had yet to attract a sizable audience. Nevertheless, it won 5 Emmy Awards in 2004, including Best Comedy, Best casting, and Best Writing in a Comedy for the Pilot episode. It also won the Television Critics Association Award for Best Comedy and Outstanding new series, the TV Land award for Future Classic, and the Golden Satellite award for Best Comedy. Jessica Walter (Lucille Bluth) and Jeffrey Tambor (George Bluth Sr.) also won Golden Satellites for their performances.
Fan response
The fan base for Arrested Development are usually exceedingly devoted and often obsessed with tracking the arcana that is compiled as the show progresses. At least one website, a fake newspaper called The Balboa Observer-Picayune provides transcripts, a sizable collection of image caps, video, audio, contextualized quotes and the Bluthcyclopedia billed by its creators as "The Holy Bible for everything Bluthian"[1].
Brief Outline
The premise of Arrested Development centers around the Bluth family. The Patriarch of the clan, George Sr., is Founder and former C.E.O. of the Bluth Company, which builds model homes, among other things. George Sr. was arrested by the Securities and Exchange Commission for defrauding customers and spending too much of the company's money on "personal expenses". He was convicted and sent to Orange County Prison that, ironically, he had built in 1983.
Meanwhile, his wife, Lucille became C.E.O. and immediately named her youngest son Buster as the new President, but he was not prepared for the rigors of the job. Michael, the middle son and twin to the Bluth's only girl, Lindsay, then was awarded control. He maintained control until he himself became the target of the ongoing investigation into the company's records and various dealings. At that point, eldest son George Oscar was named chairman.
The show focuses on the tension that has developed between the members of the Bluth family. Sibling rivalries, unresolved oedipal conflicts, sexual incompatibilities, personal identity crises, adolescent trauma, aging, pride, miscommunication, lying, guilt, subterfuge, manipulation, determination, social status anxiety, and countless other themes weave serpentine throughout Arrested Development.
Much like other dysfunctional family comedies such as Malcolm in the Middle, The Simpsons, Roseanne, and Married with Children, the family unit is depicted as necessary for the survial of the individual. Each of the characters is often exaggerated and occasionally absurd. Yet, they are all connected as a family unit. They maintain their separate identities by honoring their debts to one another. Much of the comedy comes from following the obsessive aims of each character, oblivious to whatever obstacle might impede their sacred path. Michael is the one who has to reign in the manic tendencies of the Bluth family. He can be seen as the necessary structure that allows the rest to persist in their delusions and fantasies.
Characters
See: List of characters from Arrested Development
Trivia
Michael Bluth's (Jason Bateman) first name is a sly reference to Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) of The Godfather movies. Like Corleone, Michael Bluth is the second born son of a wealthy and powerful family who is (somewhat reluctantly) forced to take over the family business due to the incapacity of the family's patriarch. He is then surrounded by brothers and sisters who constantly ask for money or scheme behind his back. There is even a scene in Arrested Development where GOB confronts Michael over the opinion that GOB should have headed the company as first born and is tired of the lack of respect, a dialog nearly identical to Fredo's conversation with Michael over the same thing in The Godfather Part II.