Monday's announcement that Arrested Development is to return for a final series and a movie had its relatively small but highly passionate fanbase turning cartwheels. Mitch Hurwitz's sitcom is one of the most inspirational of the past decade – one of television's defining shows of recent years. Its influence is everywhere.
Nowhere is that more pronounced than in NBC's 30 Rock, with its quick cutaways and flashbacks. Jack Donaghy's malpractising quack Dr Spaceman owes something to the Bluth family's clueless lawyer Barry Zuckerkorn, not to mention that cheery dispenser of bad news The Literal Doctor, while Inbred Austrian royalty Prince Gerhardt Hapsburg brings to mind gym magnate Uncle Jack. At the first mention of The Rural Juror it's hard not to recall Bob Loblaw's Law Blog.
But it's not just 30 Rock that occasionally pays homage to Arrested Development. FX's critically acclaimed animated spy spoof Archer (described by creator Adam Reed as "James Bond meets Arrested Development") features three actors from the show playing characters not a million miles away from their Arrested Development counterparts. It's also made with liberal helpings of the callback humour and running jokes that made Arrested Development's name. I can't think of another sitcom that takes more pleasure in running jokes – from the recurring incest theme to the Bluth family's concurrent fixation on, and terrible difficulty with, successfully impersonating a chicken.
Likewise, Community's love of meta-humour – with its bewildering spoofs, homages and fourth wall breaking – seems to nod a little to the show. (Who can forget Henry Winkler literally jumping the shark for the second time in his acting career?). Watching the barely-in-the-closet Dean of Greendale College, I can't help but hear every single entendre that comes out of his mouth as a disguised shout out to the "bi-curious" Tobias Fünke.
So for me the planned extension of the Bluth family story is only to be welcomed, although there is no guarantee a new series of Arrested Development will succeed. Maybe the cast won't be able to trigger that magical chemistry again or perhaps we'll find that the concept has simply run its course. Even if the show dazzles, it might not attract the ratings – just like it never really did with its original run.
But to use all that as reason to not get excited? If I may quote Gob Bluth: Oh COME ON! An all-time great sitcom many believe finished too soon returns after just five years with all the major players, writers and producers still in their prime? If that's not cause for high-fives and cries of "Steve Holt!" then what is? I see this as the lineal monarch of modern sitcom coming back to reclaim its throne. However brief its reign I hope the other sitcoms around show due deference. Respect is due.
View all comments >