Arrested Development is a character-driven comedy television series about a wealthy but dysfunctional family. The show is presented like a documentary, complete with narration, archival photos, and historical footage. Set in Balboa Island, California, it is filmed on location in the city and the surrounding area.
The show was created by Mitchell Hurwitz (The Ellen Show , The John Larroquette Show , The Golden Girls). TV veteran Ron Howard is an executive producer and the uncredited narrator. It airs on Fox Television in the US and on BBC 2 in the UK. It debuted on November 2, 2003.
Brief outline
The premise of Arrested Development revolves around the Bluth family. The patriarch of the clan, George Bluth Sr. is founder and former C.E.O. of the Bluth Company, which builds 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, his company 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 financial records and various dealings. At that point, eldest son George Oscar was named president.
The show focuses on the tension that developed between the members of the Bluth family due primarily to their diminished spending power. 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. Much of the comedy comes from the quirks of the characters and the patterns that developed within the family structure.
Characters
See: 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 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. The parallel is not exact, as Michael Corleone is the third born, after Santino and Alfredo. However, after assuming power, both are subsequently surrounded by brothers and sisters who constantly ask for money or scheme behind their backs. There is even a scene in which the eldest Bluth son GOB confronts Michael, claiming that, because he is older, he should have control of the company and is tired of not getting respect, a dialog nearly identical to Fredo's conversation with Michael Corleone over the same thing in The Godfather Part II.
Response
The show is a hit with critics but has not yet gained a sizeable audience; it has finished its second season with no word yet on whether there will be a third.
It won five 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.
Jason Bateman also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor In A Comedy Series in 2005.
Due to low audience turnout and to promote their highly anticipated animated series American Dad, Fox announced that it would halt the production of the second season at 18 episodes, 4 episodes short of the planned season. (This cutback was satirized in the episode "The Sword of Destiny", in which the Bluth Company had an order to build 22 houses reduced to 18.) Many viewers suspect that this indicates the network's plans to cancel the show, though the network defends its actions claiming that by pulling it from the air during the network sweeps period (during which it presumably would fair poorly), it is justifying giving it another season.
External links
Last updated: 08-02-2005 03:13:12
