My buddy Nick has finally fallen prey to one of the best, if not the best, television shows ever made: Arrested Development.

Aside from maybe Family Guy, I’ve never seen a show with such an abundance of quotable lines and memorable moments. Anyone that’s seen the show and loved it (a.k.a. everyone but Rebecca) knows exactly what you’re talking about when you drop such lines as “Illuuusions, dad!”, “I am an actoooor”, or make any mention of “Cornballing”. Who can forget Julia Louis-Dreyfus as blind / pregnant attorney Maggie Lizer, Goerge Michael’s uncontrollable obsession with his cousin Maeby, or Charlize Theron as the MRF (mentally retarded female) love interest of Michael? And hell, to this day, just saying Bob Loblaw’s Law Blog gets a laugh out of me. So why the hell did it only last 3 seasons on the air?

Simple. We’re all too dumb to get it. This show payed off for the constant viewer… the viewer that tuned in every week and actually paid attention to what was going on. Arrested Development was a hard, if not impossible, show to come into half way through a season. Most of the time, the story contained in the 30 minutes airtime wasn’t some standalone tale… it built off of everything else that came before it and contained numerous references that the casual viewer simply wouldn’t get. Seeing blue paint all over the Bluth home would go unnoticed or seem completely out of place if you hadn’t known Tobias had tried out for Blue Man Group episodes prior. GOB crowing like a rooster with his hand on top of his head would seem completely random and (even more) ridiculous if you hadn’t seen how that caught on an entire season ago.

Some also say the reason A.D. got canned was the fact that the show underwent several timeslot changes and Fox simply didn’t market the show correctly. Let’s hear what David Cross has to say on the matter:



I still argue that Arrested Development was a thinking person’s show… and unfortunately American audiences just aren’t that cerebral when they sit down on that couch and hit the power button on the boobtube. Thanks for ruining it for the rest of us, ‘tards… now go back to watching Dancing With the Stars or whatever other brainless reality show happens to be on right now.

Either way, it was an amazing and always enjoyable watch that never got as far as it deserved… at least we can be thankful it accomplished as much as it did in it’s short run. Now, who’s down for a season one marathon?