All language subtitles for The Arrested Development Documentary Project, 2013

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[MAN SINGING JINGLE]

[CARS WHOOSHING]

WOMAN INTERVIEWER:
Have you heard

ofArrested Development?

-Arrested Development?
-Arrested Development...

-Arrested Development!
-No.

-No...
-No.

-Nope.
-No.

-No.
-BOTH: [IN TANDEM] Nope!

Never heard of it.

I've heard of it, but I really
don't know anything about it.

Tell me about it, what is it?

It's a TV show. I think.

I think I watched it
a couple of times.

Who's in it?

Was it on HBO
or something like that?

I understand it was
a pretty good show...

But they canceled it! Yeah...

I am seriously sitting here,
being interviewed on a show...

-[CHUCKLES]
-...because I love it so much.

I don't remember
ever laughing as hard

at anything on television.

It's just the funniest show
I've ever seen. Ever.

It's my favorite show.
Ever. Ever!

Arrested Development,
across all borders,

is hilarious.

Yeah, if you're watching
an episode, and it doesn't

seem funny,

then you know there's
something wrong with you.

It's getting to laugh at rich
people for being stupid.

-[CHUCKLES]
-It's brilliant.

Revolutionary.

People were not ready
for this show at all.

You have to be forewarned
for this kind of brilliance.

True story.

Um...

Neil, Jeff...

[SIGHS]

I created a show called
Arrested Development.

Of which there are more,

um, fans, in this movie

than there are
outside of this movie.

I'm Joe Russo.
My brother Anthony.

We directed the, uh, pilot.

You know, the show
came about in a unique time

in television history.

You know, I had worked a long
time in situation comedy,

and sitcoms had become stuck.

And it was sort of born
in the wake of

the rise of HBO and
HBO's re-invention of...

Of what television is.

I did a show called
Everything's Relative.

Which was in many ways
a precursor to
Arrested Development.

It was about a family
that was completely

in-meshed with itself
and obsessed with itself.

And we did four episodes,
and it was trashed by critics.

And, uh... And it died.

But I... I... [STUTTERS] It
started to play with the form

that I had come up in.
Having worked on

The Golden Girls
and things like that.

A guy named David Nevins
was at NBC when we did it.

I'm David Nevins,

I'm the president
of Imagine Television.

So when he became president
at Imagine Television,

his boss Ron Howard told him
he wanted to do a show

that was kind of multi-media.

And it would have this sorta
fast-paced, loose, home movie

slash documentary style.

It was a very unformed idea
at that point.

-Nevins called us...
-And we started

throwing around ideas.

He said "Come in, I want
to talk to you guys.

There's this show that
we're working on that's

"an idea that Ron had."

I had this notion
that it should look
and feel and sound

different than,

you know, what you were
traditionally seeing

in half-hour
television comedy.

They had said that Ron
wanted to sort of reinvent

the half-hour.

And we had this idea,
that we wanted it to feel
very gorilla...

That was one of the reasons
we chose the Russo's,

'cause they hadn't done a ton
of network comedies.

They were young, and
certainly felt like they were

gonna be in tune with that
gorilla filmmaking style.

They could get a lot done
very, very quickly when

they needed to.

We had shot our first
credit card movie

for $35,000. So we really knew

sort of,
gorilla filmmaking tactics.

Right from the beginning,

that was how we wanted
to do it.
And part of the reason

that we hired them is 'cause
we knew that they would be
comfortable with that.

And then I...

Well, I met
with a few writers,

and one of them
was Mitch Hurwitz.

Who I'd worked with before
on Everything's Relative.

I always had a feeling
about Mitch.

And Mitch really,
really liked the idea.

He'd kind of come up through
traditional sitcoms,

but I always felt that he was
probably the best bet to be

the next great comedy voice.

And he had this...
Started talking about,

in a second meeting,
this family.

Of his.

We started thinking,
"Well, maybe [STUTTERS]

"it should be about a family."

He wanted to do a highly
dysfunctional extended family.

With extreme characters.

And David Nevins suggested,
"Maybe there's some element

"that pushes them together."

My brother and sister-in-law
moved in with me,

so we talked about
sort of adult siblings
coming together.

And I thought that was
pretty great.

That was the time of Enron

and all these
accounting frauds.

And I actually worried
at the time

I'm like "Well, will this be
out of date

"by the time we
get on the air?" [LAUGHS]

You know? Will there be
no more accounting fraud?

And I even said, like,
"You could even have

"a narrator if you want."

Ron instantly said, "I like
that guy Mitch." And, uh,

we were off and running.

Writing the pilot was the
biggest challenge

I ever had
up until that point.

Mitch came back with this
script, and the story was,

it was just so funny.
And it was so unusual.

I kind of wanted to do a show
about a family that

because of their wealth,
they hadn't developed

as human beings.

What Mitch loves to write...
is just people being so wrong,

wrong-headed,
and yet so believing
that they're right.

I'm always fascinated when I
sort of go back and look

at the pilot, of the density
of the storytelling in it.

I don't really know how...
How close the Bluths are

to his family, but, you know,
you listen to him
talk about it

and it seems like
they're not too far off.

And he graphed it onto his
childhood in Orange County...

There are characters that are
represented from my real life.

-In there.
-I knew his family story,

and a lot of that had been in
Everything's Relative...

I was from a family that was

somewhat overprotective.

I did have a cousin,

she did go to schools
that didn't have grades.

You know, gave out crocodiles
and things like that.

And Mitch sold, I don't know
if he told you this...

My brother and I had started
a cookie business when we

were kids.
Called The Chipyard.

Down at the pier
in Orange County.

And there's actually one
in Boston still.

And that kind of became
the banana stand.

You know, Mitch just has,
once he gets going

on something, he has a very
like, fertile mind.

Things started crackling.

And it came together
very quickly.

I ended up doing
30 drafts of the pilot.

The great thing about the long
script was that it really

allowed us to understand
what Mitch was thinking.

Every character
had three things.

I think that that's one of
the things that is so

appealing about the show.

So anyway,
I had this script that's

70 pages in its tightest,
tightest form.

There were all these
backstories for everybody...

The fun of the show,
and the charm of the show

really came about in that
initial development phase

in trying to condense that
down to 30-some pages.

I first came across the script
when my, uh...

My good friend Mitch Hurwitz
sent it to me.

I thought it was an insanely
crazy, funny script.

And I thought that
they would never make it

in a million years.

...and turned it in, and then
the network like picked it up

that afternoon.

We knew that it was
different by,

obviously, the cast
that was assembled.

There's never been a cast

that was better, sharper,
funnier...

Casting, more than
anything, really

defines a television show.

All of it, all of it came out
of Mitch Hurwitz.

Great TV writers like Mitch
really adapt to who they

end up with as the actors
for their show.

It's hard to cast, you know,
three out of five parts right.

But, you know, he got
nine for nine.

This is a nice place,
you guys live in the back?

MALE INTERVIEWER:
What's the first word
that comes to your mind?

Bateman. Is a [BLEEP] God.

That's a sentence,
that's not a word.

Today you're going to be
talking to Jason Bateman,

who played Michael Bluth.

-I love Michael!
-Michael!

-Michael.
-Michael!

He's a single dad
who's lost his wife.

Jason Bateman, who knew
this guy was that funny?

Michael Bluth is sort of
the glue that holds the

show together.

BATEMAN: He was
the least eccentric

of the family. Probably the
most appropriate to

sort of,
channel the show through.

Which was the hardest thing
to find for the show, was the

center of the show.
The camera friendly.

Uh, network friendly...
Who could deliver

a badass joke.

RUSSO: I remember seeing
Jason Bateman's name

on the casting sheet.

But there was a concern
on the part of the network
and studio because

he had been in a series
of pilots that hadn't made it

to the air.

I don't know how many
people they went through

before they landed on me,
but, uh,
I don't need to hear it.

I don't want to know
what you know.

So their feeling was that he
had this, um, baggage of

unsuccessful shows
in his recent history.

Didn't really know that much
about him. But I knew that

he did a lot of pilots
every year.

And I was going to be
auditioning for another show

that Mitch Hurwitz was also
producing the following day.

Something that looks like
it was definitely gonna go

on the air, and that I'd be
more sort of, suited for...

So I went in and I
auditioned for it...

-...and he killed it!
-We're like "[BLEEP]

"We've got our guy!
We've got Michael Bluth!"

And Mitch follows me out
of the reading room...

And I remember running out
into the hallway saying,

"This, right?
You like this right?

"Don't come in tomorrow
for that other thing."

I said "Great! That's my ride,
I gotta go."

[CREW MEMBER SHOUTS]

CREWMAN: Don't mind that.

How do I not mind that?

I think I had the most,
you know, serious laughs

where I almost hurt myself
with Gob.

-Gob.
-Gob!

George Oscar Bluth.

I play Will Arnett.
My name is Gob Bluth.

Gob stands for, uh,
George Oscar Bluth.

Everyone always
called him Gob [PHONETIC].

Gob!

Couldn't cast Gob and we
needed that kind of, macho

end of the spectrum to
balance off Tony Hale

on the other end, and put
Michael in the middle.

I was an actor living
in New York and

they were looking for the part
of Gob,

I was looking for a job...
[LAUGHS] It was perfect!

I almost believe, like,
that's who Will Arnett is

just too true a performance.

Will Arnett as Gob
took that role to a level
I don't think

anybody knew it was
gonna go to.

You know, it was such a
specifically written thing,

and I thought that would
make it easier for actors...

I'd done a pilot for CBS,

it went to series, and
in that, between that time,

my character
was written off the show.

I remember my manager
calling me and saying

"You gotta read this,
you gotta read this!"

And I said "I'm not going
to do it.

"TV already broke my heart."

You know? And, uh, I'm not
gonna go down the aisle again

with lady television.

And he said, "I don't
know what the [BLEEP]

"you're talking about..."

CREWMAN:
This is very professional.

-Oh, my God!
-[PEOPLE CHUCKLING]

Lindsay is my
favorite character.

-Lindsay Bluth.
-Lindsay!

I'm Portia de Rossi, and I
played Lindsay Bluth Funke.

Lindsay is, um,

the daughter
of the family and...

...kind of a vapid twit.

Portia's part was written
the opposite, in a way,

of what Portia played.

She was very, um,
self obsessed.

She wears like, ostrich
skinned boots yet

somehow she pretends she
wants to save the trees

and help the environment.

dE ROSSI: Not terribly caring
about anyone in her family

or anyone around her.

Then she is only focused on
what's going to
get her some

loving, basically.

And she was the actress that
was funny enough

and special enough that made
me change the writing.

Which I hadn't done
with the other parts.

Very underrated.
Portia de Rossi, like,

rocks my socks off.

CREWMAN: Professional here.

Oh, crap!

I really think my favorite
character is Buster.

-Buster!
-Buster.

Byron Buster Bluth.

Buster is the youngest brother
of all the siblings

to Michael, Gob, and Lindsay.

And, uh, he is just

an anxiety-ridden mama's boy?

And no one else is really
bothered to spend the time

to break him out of it.

Our delightful Tony Hale.

I think one of the best
descriptions of Buster was,

"He was in the womb
for 11 months."

He really is, like,

the medical definition
of arrested development.

Tape came in from New York...

...and I remember
walking into casting one day

and Mitch was just like,
so excited. "You gotta...

"You guys gotta watch
this casting tape."

Mitch was saying once that I
did something with my knees

but the shot was only
from here down,

so they don't know
what I was doing.

The video just started with
him kind of rocking...

And in fact what he was doing
was, he was...
He was doing this massage

that was in the
script but his hands were

out of frame.
So all I saw was this...

[IMITATING BUSTER]
Hey, brother!

-CREWMAN: Very professional.
-[LAUGHS]

Very professional.

I'm Jeffrey Tambor,

and I got to play two roles!

I got to play George Sr.,
and I got to play his...

His errant brother Oscar.

You know, Jeffrey Tambor
wasn't originally

supposed to be on the show.

You know, Mitch had a
previous working relationship
with Tambor.

We were shooting the pilot,
and I had this part of

George Sr...

I think I was doing Hellboy 1.

I had a month off, so I came
back to the United States

and literally,
as I hit the airport

I was re-checking my messages

and there was
a message from Mitch.

I called Jeffrey,
really the night before.

"Would you come on it for
a day and play the father?"

"Would you come down
and do this thing tomorrow?"

And I never thought another
thing about it, and then

I got a phone call...

And then fortunately, he said
to me "I could actually see

"doing this
on a weekly basis."

I was like, "Oh, thank God."

George Sr.,
Bernie Madoff with heart.

[LAUGHS HEARTILY]

BATEMAN: Somebody like
Jeffrey Tambor

when he's on board, you just
know it's going to be

a very real sort of comedy.

I always wonder how you
follow up a role as iconic

as what he played
on Larry Sanders,

and to turn around and get
another show where you have

that great a role again...

I think Tambor's blessed.

He really set the comedic tone
for the show.

WOMAN: Lucille is my
favorite character.

Gangy.

-She's a raging bitch...
-She's a drunk.

-Not a good mother.
-Doesn't really care

much what happens to the
family as long as she

still comes out on top
at the end.

Oh, she's just evil.

[GIGGLES] That's why
she's great!

We were having a hard time
casting the mother,

and there was somebody
I really wanted

that the network
wouldn't approve.

And Sandy Grushow said to
me "Mitch, this is how pilots

"fall apart. We don't have
a mother," and

Deborah Barylski once again,
the casting director said

"Let's bring in
Jessica Walter."

And she was exactly what you
see, I mean, she's just crisp

and tight and hilarious and
mean and

Sandy Grushow said "Okay.
She can play the mother."

[STUTTERS] Like that.

My grandmother was
exactly like Lucille.

Just a gold-digging
evil person.

God rest her soul.

I don't even know how

you describe a character
like Tobias.

I don't think anyone else
could be Tobias Funke.

You can never go wrong
with David Cross. Ever.

[CREWMAN SPEAKING]

Why? Seems like a waste of
time if people already know

who I am.

I love David Cross. I called
him and said "Any part

"you wanna play."

I was first talking
to Mitch about it,

before I had even met Mitch,
talking on the phone.

And I was hoping he
wouldn't say Michael Bluth.

And I remember thinking
"There's no [BLEEP] way

"that David Cross is going to
do a network television show."

He thought about it, and he
got back to me and said

"Uh, I think I'd like
to play Tobias."

Tobias is a little bit of
all of us.

He does get
the greatest lines,
but at the same time,

he's the one who carries

probably the
longest running joke.

I've met a lot of Tobias'
in my life.

Out of all the characters he
probably makes me laugh
the most.

You see a lot of them
in Boston.

[BUSTLING NOISE]
He lays around the house

all day, and he says funny
lines all day long, I mean

that's my idol.

Some people might disagree,
but I think he's a real loser.

There's something so blank
slate about George Michael.

George Michael
is Michael Bluth's son...

His mother has passed away,
and he is just
this struggling,

conscious of the whole family.

He embraces the fact that his
family is kind of messed up.

But he's so soft-spoken
and good-natured that

he can't force his conscience
on anybody else.

George Michael is the most
lovable one of the Bluths.

I mean, he's the only one
that really does no wrong,

and I think they need
that one character.

MAN: Michael Cera I had seen

in a pilot that he'd done
years before.

It was like, the embodiment
of sort of Woody Allen

and a 12-year-old kid.

You know, I don't know where
they found Michael Cera...

We found out he's in
Brampton or something,

in Canada. The casting
director calls me and says,

"Great news, Michael Cera
liked the script and he

"is willing to read for this."

And I was like, [CHUCKLES]
He liked this? He's 14!

Like, he's discriminating?

My name is Alia Shawkat,

I played Maeby Funke
on Arrested Development.

[BLEEPING]

Alia I cast off a photograph.

I was actually casting another
pilot at the time,

we were looking for a kid,
and I came across this picture

Alia, and I put it in
this other pile
and I just like her little

quirky look,
and her bright eyes.

Maeby, the teenage daughter
of Tobias and Lindsay...

She doesn't look
like either of them, so

question marks are everywhere.

She's like a rebellious
teenager who's

street smart, just not
book smart.

She's just got that confidence
through the roof, and

nothing's gonna stop her.

I think the narrator is like
my favorite character.

I wound up being the narrator.

That was kind of an accident.

Then I got kind of,
corralled into it.

But I was really glad
that I, that I was.

His voice is so
pleasant to listen to.

He's an unbelievably
creative guy,

and a very ambitious guy.

Here's this like, unbelievably
credited director,

who's narrating this show.

But he's not the narrator,

it's Ron Howard
talking about his show.

Ron is like
my younger brother.

He was in favor of
all the rules that we broke.

With Arrested Development,
you could have the narrator

exposing the hypocrisy
of the characters.

Or creating little jokes by
making little observations.

He kind of almost says
what you're thinking.

Whenever he talks,
you see his face.

I never saw him, you know.
He was a voiceover.

In doing the narration,
often I was doing it from

you know, like inside the cab
of the sound man's truck,

in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

It really not only carried
the plot line forward,

but added another laugh,
you know, into the mix.

We've been huge fans
of Arrested Development

since the series premiered.

On the very first episode...

Oh, I got hooked.

-Pretty much got hooked.
-I was hooked.

-Hooked.
-Episode one...

We couldn't stop watching it.

I had this really cool
teacher in high school,

so I went up and I was
chatting with him before

class, and I saw this strange
little white and orange box,

and I was like, "What's this?"

nd he's like, "That
is the greatest show
you'll ever watch."

I'm one of those people
that had a friend...

...who wouldn't
leave me alone about it.

"No, no, man. Just watch
the pilot, man it's gonna be

"so cool, you're gonna totally
get into this..."

My friends that would watch it
would quote it to each other

all the time
throughout the day.

-I just made him buy the DVDs.
-Yes.

Didn't even know
if he'd like it.

And I wanted to be
a part of that.

Then I heard people
talking about it...

Everyone was talking about it.

So we'd end up watching
five episodes that night.

A few episodes turned into
like an eight-hour marathon.

And by then I was
completely hooked.

I just fell in love
from there.

Instantly.

And that was it.

You want me to explain the
plot of Arrested Development?

No, it's not possible to give
a rundown of the plot.

[MUMBLING]

You could encapsulate it in a
book the size of a dictionary.

At its heart,
Arrested Development

is a show about
family dynamics.

And it's a show about
an adult family.

And how damaged they are.

That's not really what it's
about though, is it?

Basically, it's about a, uh,
a family with a hell of a lot

of baggage.

That has had money, and acts
as though they still do.

And yet one of the sons,
he's sort of the only one

that sees the reality
of their situation.

These are rich,
snobby bastards...

But they're so [BLEEP] up.

That family is probably
a lot closer to the average

American family than, you
know, any of these other

crap comedies that are
on television.

It's a show about
family values.

But in a sick, twisted,
dysfunctional way.

-Family first.
-Family first.

Here we have the family,
that at one point

had everything.

Except ethics and scruples.

It's just about a family
that lost their money,

and became desperate.
And needed to bond together

to make it through
this economic storm.

And we, the audience
and the cameras,

follow them as they
try to, you know,

navigate the challenges
of the less privileged.

That's a very unfunny
way to say it.

I think everything starts
and ends with the writing.

It was the best writing staff
I've ever seen put together.

They worked hard. They
really, really worked hard.

It was a constant reinforcing
of "Wow, these guys are good."

There's so much going on,
I mean, there's so much

bang for your buck, every few
seconds there's a joke,

a set-up, a joke, a set-up.

Most of the time
on network television,

you write to the lowest
common denominator.

You want to please the masses.

Arrested Development
never did that.

It didn't care if you
got the joke or not.

We did the show, more or less,
as Mitch wrote it.

And had a lot of faith in our
audience to get the jokes.

There wasn't a lot of room

for just rambling.

It wasn't that laugh out loud,
and once you got it,

it was belly laughs.

It was so quick. So quick.

It was almost like
an Airplane!movie.

While you're laughing,
you're missing three jokes.

We did do more
complicated shows,

more complicated stories,

so they would be more
re-watchable.

HOWARD: You know, I just

wanted every single thing
to be funny.

He is a perfectionist.

He would just give you these,
you know,
brilliant lines to say

and it was a joy. It was a joy
just to be able to say them.

BATEMAN: Truly, every time
I wouldget a script,

I would get up early those
mornings and read it.

We used to call each other
and say "Oh, my God,

"have you read this week's
script, it's so funny!"

I've never done that before,
and I haven't done it since.

They were dedicated
to making the best

possible comedy on the air.

Usually, over the course
of like a series,

for five years you'd be lucky
to get one script that good.

We were getting it
on a weekly basis.

I remember people telling me
"That's not normal."

I really wanted every
character to have a story.

I wanted the stories
to be intertwined,

um, and I don't
completely know why.

Y'know, it wasn't just like

"What's the king of queens
doing this week

"in episode 403?"
You know, it's... [STAMMERS]
The characters don't

really change in those shows.
And this you could see

immediately, the characters
were gonna grow, develop.

I just felt like that was
the challenge of this

particular series.
I don't know what
I would have done that

on another show.

It's one of those shows
that rewards you

for paying attention.

Who think three years ahead
in the arch of their comedy?

Well, Mitch does.
Very few other writers can.

I loved the kinds of shows

that you could watch
and look for detail,

and try to put the pieces
together yourself.

I loved being
a little bit behind.

There were a few times on
screen where there weren't

multiple levels of comedy
going on.

You really have to think,
and be paying attention

to get it.

You really had to,
you know, focus.

Because there's a hidden gem
in every episode.

Every time I watch the show,
I pick up something new.

There are so many jokes on a
joke on a joke on a joke...

...and they don't care.
If you can't keep up

you'll have to watch it again.

And all the pieces
fit together.
There's not a point where

it just doesn't make sense,
or it's out of sync.

They all kind of
fall into place.

The running jokes were used
in so many different contexts,

that they really didn't have
a chance to get old.

Some of them are so far
ahead, like, you're like,

"Okay, where is that going?"

And when you get there,
it's such, like, a payoff.

To write a sitcom and put in
jokes that you're gonna payoff

four episodes later...

That's really, you gotta
really have stones to do that.

Sitcoms traditionally

work in a fairly
methodical way.

ANTHONY: Television
is typically sort of
a less focused

format as far as
an audience goes.

You know, you can be
a little distracted,

you can be checking to see if
your kid's done the homework,

or, you know,
you can pay bills.

And for the most part,
you could not do that

with Arrested Development.

It really required
your full attention.

That is not the average way
that people watch television.

It was hell to make because
each one's kinda like a movie.

I knew it was
completely different,
than anything that...

That we'd really seen on
American television.

We wanted to feel like
The Osbournes, like

a reality show, a camera guy,
and a sound guy

walking around
following people.

We didn't want it to
feel very produced.

Basically, it was
a handheld show.

Serve low production value,
simple cameras...

We were shooting
fast and furious,

especially at first. Uh,
no lighting to speak of.

We were just shooting
off the hip.

Mitch didn't like to limit
the show by having to shoot

all of it in the house...

So every episode we were out
in a car, driving around...

But it drew you in too.

It's like you were actually following these guys.

BATEMAN: There was a style
to shooting it

that was supposed
to be very real.

In fact, I think that was
sort of

the motto in the first year
you'd come to shoot.

No, no, no horse [BLEEP].

We even put on the breakdown

that goes out
to actor's agents
when actors are auditioning,

"This is how we're gonna
make it, so you better be

"comfortable with it.
You're not gonna have
a giant trailer,

"we'll try to have decent
hair and makeup

"so you don't
look like [BLEEP].

"But other than that,
you gotta be in tune

"with the kind of, very loose
filmmaking style."

They would say
"Do a chicken dance."

And you would have to do
your chicken dance.

You know, [CLUCKS] I mean...

You know, and everybody...
I think Will's chicken dance

was the best.

I was always encouraging
everybody to shoot
with two cameras.

We'd come up with all these
rules for the cameras,

and how the cameras
were to act, and

have their own personality.

ANTHONY: And so we wanted to kind of capitalize on that,

and sort of play to the idea
that we were sort of

flies on the wall,
watching this family's
travails unfold.

You by yourself a lot of time
to experiment.

Actors could improvise,
comedy writers could rewrite.

We'd send operators onto
the set without seeing

a rehearsal and they'd end
up banging into each other

but they would get
the most amazing stuff.

We were able to move
very quickly in keeping with

the whole
psuedo-documentary style.

I remember Joe Russo turning
to me one time and saying

"Jimmy, can you believe

"they're letting us
do this [BLEEP]?"

I knew that we were following
the beat of our own drummer,

and that it was gonna feel
very different than
any other show.

And secretly I was always
wishing I could direct

an episode...
But I never had a chance to.

Nowadays in television
it's not surprising,
because a lot of

shows look like this now,
but at the time,

for a scripted show,
it was unconventional

to look as bad as
Arrested Developmentlooked.

[BIRDS CHIRPING]

WOMAN: Franklin. Do you
remember one of his sayings?

It ain't easy being white.

BOTH: ♪ It ain't easy being white! ♪

Franklin is one of
the greatest characters
on the show.

♪ It ain't easy being brown ♪

This is Gob's big idea

for racial harmony.

♪ All the pressure
to be bright ♪

MAN: It's this puppet
that sings

this highly offensive song.

♪ I got children
all over town! ♪

That was used in an act that,
that Whitey wasn't quite

ready for and...

My name is Justin Grant Wade,

and I played Steve Holt.

-Steve Holt!
-Steve Holt!

BOTH: Steve Holt!

He's just a, uh, fun guy.
Uh, definitely likes himself.

My name is Mae Whitman.
I played Anne Paul Veal.

Nobody could figure out why
George Michael liked her.

You know "her?"

WHITMAN: She's sort of, plain.

And let me just add
that I was wearing a fat suit
on the show.

People always come up to me
and they're like,

"God, you look great!
Jeez, you've lost
a bunch of weight."

You know, we had just
fabulous guest stars

on the show.

My name is Justin Lee,
and the character I played

is, uh, Annyong Bluth.

Lucille adopts a son
from Korea. [GIGGLES]

"Annyong"in Korean
means "Hello."

And the only thing that I ever say for the next few episodes

is"Annyong."

They keep saying annyongto
him and so he just keeps

saying it back to them...

Then, that... That became
my name, Annyong.

My wife and I use it
all the time.

We just go [MOCK VOICE]
Annyong!

-Annyong!
-Annyong.

-Annyong.
-Annyong?

Annyong!

My name is David Reynolds,
I got to play the, uh,

character of White Power Bill.

I would like to say that
he's like probably
a retarded racist

because like the only person
he attacks in the film

are like, white people.

[GRUMBLING] White Power!

[CREW MEMBER CHUCKLES]

The first big get was
Liza Minnelli.

I was able to hear that
somebody was interested in

doing the show and then
write it right for them.

-Julia Louis-Dreyfus
-Zach Braff.

Amy Poehler.

We all knew it was pretty
special when they got some

heavy hitters.

-Charlize Theron.
-Ben Stiller.

-Carl Weathers.
-Carl Weathers!

When you have
people of that caliber,

it just, as a writer, it just
forces you to do better.

We gotta do better,
we gotta do better.

And then there were people
we were never able to get in

that said they'd be
willing to do it.

Ricky Gervais said he'd be
willing to do it.

Sacha Baron Cohen
I desperately wanted.

We also heard at one point
that Christopher Walken

was willing to be in the show.

I'm Ed Begley
and I played Stan Sitwell.

He has physical
characteristics that are

quite unusual.

Stan Sitwell couldn't grow
his own hair because

-he had, what?
-BOTH: Alopecia?

So he doesn't want to go
au naturel,

doesn't want to go
for the bald look.

He's got different eyebrows
that he moves around.

Well, he doesn't intend
to move them around,
but they do.

It is a disturbing character
that he ended up creating.

My name is Andy Richter...

I remember we had Andy
play himself...

But the guy on set started to
really push me and be like,

no, no, no. I want you
to do it as if you're like,
you know...

You're a big fat guy
that just wants to eat.

And I said "Oh, you mean the
old fatty loves to eat joke?

"You want me to be
a big fat [BLEEP] loser

"who just wants to [BLEEP]
fill his fat [BLEEP] face?"

And the guy went
"Yeah, that's what I want."

Andy had just done a show
for Fox called Quintuplets.

Google it.

And I don't know if it was
his idea, but a writer

on the show, Jim Vallely...

There was something about
me being on the show

that he found
endlessly amusing.

I called up Mitch Hurwitz,

and he goes "Well, we
already had him on the show,

"as Andy Richter." I go,
"But what if the teacher's

"Andy Richter's twin brother?"

I do remember one of them's
name's was Chareth.

And then Mitch goes,
"What if he's one of

"Andy Richter's
quintuplet brothers?"

But Quintupletsfailed too,
I dunno maybe it's just me.

Maybe I'm, you know,
showbiz cancer.

I like Barry Zuckerkorn.

Barry Zuckerkorn the
complete idiot attorney.

He's very good.

I just want to say,
I am in a shirt and tie,

because Barry was
very well-dressed.

When I heard that Henry was
going to be on the show,

I was in heaven.

WINKLER: The best part of playing Barry was his ties.

I got to keep some of them.

This is not it... But...

He's clearly the worst
lawyer ever.

He's so gross and creepy.

He has no idea how
the judicial system works.

His character is so unlike
what he's known for.

And for him to have been,
at one point,

the coolest guy in the world
as The Fonz...

The biggest problem he's got
is he has no idea

what his sexuality is.

Probably next to the Fonz,

I think, I bet
it's his favorite character.

He believes he might have a
vagina, but he's actually

never said that to anybody.

The weirder his guy got,
the happier Henry was.

Mitch and the writers
paid homage to

Happy Days,
or the Fonz, twice.

'Cause, you know, the episode
where he's in the bathroom,

and they're having a
conversation in the bathroom,

and he turns to the mirror
and he's like,

"Hey." And I looked
at my hair, and went,

"Pfft, I don't have
to comb it."

You're like [BLEEP]
that is so brilliant!

Then the second is I am
the only actor

in the world

who has
jumped the shark twice.

The history of jump the shark
is, there was a scene

in Happy Days where Fonzie,
played by Henry Winkler,

was in a leather jacket

on water skis, going to
jump over a shark,

and Ron Howard,
Richard Cunningham

was driving the boat.

And that's the quintessential
point where it's like,
"Come on!"

'Cause that's what
jump the shark is.

Jump the shark is that
the producers have sold out.

And it gave birth, really,
to the phrase. And so

you take that metaphor,

and you apply it
to any television show...

AMODEO: We did
a cross promotional episode
with Burger King

which is just sort of
absurd for a show like

Arrested Development.

When you talk about
Arrested Development,

with respect to
jumping the shark,

I could talk for hours.

Buster gets his hand
bitten off by a seal.

We made it a seal 'cause that
rhymed with Lucille's name.

They eventually find, um,
a shark who they think

ate the seal...

Okay, now we gotta get
Henry Winkler down there...

And I jumped over it.

If you didn't know that
that's where the term

came from, it would
totally be lost on you.

And I was like... "Oh, my God,

"did they really just do that?
Oh... Wow."

Without having to say a word,
just the subtle look

at the shark... jump over it.

But the joke's not done yet,

because there's no other
meaning of jump the shark.

It should be in an episode
where we jump the shark.

So we actually shot a scene
in a Burger King.

We all got commitment
to Burger King.

'Cause they put our name
on their little table tents.

And then the punctuation point
on it was Henry's line,

"Going off to Burger King
and jumping the shark."

I don't think
Arrested Development

ever jumped the shark.
I don't think

it was on long enough.
I think they got out,

whether they wanted to
or not, they got out at

the right time.

Sometimes, like that
whole thing came

together for that joke.

I knew that Winkler
was the attorney,

and you know it was
one of those things I just

didn't quite do the math.

I am Scott Baio and I pay...
[CHUCKLES]

I am Scott Baio and I play
Bob Loblaw.

It was a good choice after
having Barry Zuckerkorn.

I was sort of the, um,
younger Fonzie?

You know, in retrospect it
seemed natural that I would

just take his place.

I actually liked a guest
character solely for his name.

And that of course would be
Scott Baio.

Well, uh, first of all,

when they sent me
the script, and...

I'm from New York,
and my accent

got in the way of the names.

So I looked at it and said
Bob Loblaw. And...

I was doing the scene
with Bateman,

and he said, "Here's our
attorney Bob Loblaw."

And I went, "That's the name?"

I was so completely thrown
out of the scene by

him saying that.

Why would you name
a character Bob Loblaw?

Simply so you could say,
"Blah, blah, blah."

-Bob Loblaw.
-Bob Loblaw.

So I think in the end
they agreed to

Bob Loblaw.

No. Bob Loblaw.

Yeah.

It just became a,
just a big joke.

And without him
there would be no

-Bob Loblaw's Law Blog.
-Bob Loblaw's Law Blog.

Bob Loblaw's Law Blog.

But I knew going in that
it would be, uh,

just nuts. And it was.

It almost seems very improv'd.

I don't know how much improv
they did on the actual show...

We heard that a lot, uh.
Pretty consistently.

And there's no better
testament to the writers,

uh, than... The fact
that people think that.

They didn't need to improvise.
They didn't want to improvise.

The writing was so good.

It was supposed to sound
like we were improvising.

The show looks spontaneous.

But it's so unbelievably
not spontaneous.

The words were very good.

You don't want to fix
something that isn't broken.

It was such a, uh, a dense
show as well,

in terms of just pure volume
of script-age.

That you knew that if you
improvised too much

most of it wouldn't get
in the show anyway.

Although, we weren't
discouraged.

Once we would get a scene
done, as written,

sometimes we would
say different stuff.

Different jokes.

The comedy was very specific.

The dialogue had to be
delivered pretty much on book.

A lot of improv took place
on the set.

HALE: We would improv
some stuff and Mitch would

be like "What do you think?"
And just, it wasn't as funny

as what's in the script.

The cameras were
connected to Mitch's office.

And if he didn't hear
what he wanted to hear,

if I thought I was being
funny [CHUCKLES]
off the script,

he would all of a sudden
appear in front of me,

like a genie.

When all of production
and all the guys
are not sitting around

and hanging out outside
in their trucks,

and they're all on stage,

watching the action,

You know that
there was something going on.

-But the only time that we
would improv...
-[SIRENS WAILING]

would be... [BLEEP]
ambulance, right?

[BLEEP] people dying.

When you've got guys
like David Cross,

and Will Arnett and all
these guys going for it,

you're gonna get
hilarious stuff.

It's something I can't
even help, it's almost

like a form of Tourette's,
where you just can't shut up.

Let well enough be...

I wonder what kind of show
you could put together

with all the cut footage.

Find that.

Find that footage.
You know how you do that?

Follow the money.

Follow the money.

[CHUCKLES] One of my
favorite moments was

Michael Cera walking
the Red Carpet

and all you can hear is
"Michael, Cera, Michael Cera.

"Michael, Cera." And he's like
"What the [BLEEP]?"

And then he realizes that
he's right in between

Michael Douglas and
Sarah Jessica Parker.

And so [LAUGHING] the
photographers are

yelling "Michael, Sarah!"

-CREWMAN: Is that for real?
-Yeah, that's a true story.

No, I lied.

They won the Best Comedy
first year, out of the box.

And I was elated,
'cause I thought, you know,

-That's it!
-And it was

really like, out of nowhere.

They were clearly
all surprised.

Wasn't that incredible?

That Emmy?

When the show won the Emmys...

...it was gratifying
and sort of, uh,
encouraging and affirming.

That was an awesome night.

That was an awesome night.

It was like
the craziest sensation.

The craziest victory.

I don't think we'll ever have
an experience like that night.

It was such
an incredible feeling.

And hey, I've won tons
of Emmys

before, but that Emmy.
No, I haven't...

I remember Ellen DeGeneres
saying it, and the words

came out, and
I remember jumping up!

It was a great moment
for Mitch.

It was a great moment
for the writing staff.

It was a great validation.

Mitch Hurwitz and those
speeches at the Emmys...

We found out that Hurwitz
is actually one of the best

Emmy speech givers
in Emmy history.

It was probably the best
acceptance speech

I've ever heard.

HOWARD: You know,
kind of as funny
as anything you'd ever see

on the show.

He was like "All right, great!
Now watch it!"

He was kind of brilliant,
wasn't he?

I'll get myself
in trouble here.

Hmm...

The night we won the Emmy,

I saw Gail Berman, and she was then the president of Fox Entertainment,

and she showed me an email
that, on her BlackBerry,

that she had gotten
from Peter Chernin, her boss.

She had texted him
"Arrested Development

"just won." And what he wrote
back was "Oh, [BLEEP]."

As sort of the way that the
awards and nominations

kind of went out in the
schedule, it would often

coincide with the schedule of
having to give producers

notice of whether they need
to write more scripts.

And she said
"Can you believe it?"

I said, "Gail, that's not...
Holy [BLEEP]!"

"Oh, sure it is!"
"No, he's... He's

"blown away." said no,
that's "Oh, [BLEEP]."

WOMAN: Are you more apt
to watch a comedy

if it won an Emmy for
a Best Comedy?

No, I don't think so.

I don't really care
about like, awards
and stuff like that.

It's not like, oh, well,
that won the Emmy so

I need to watch it.

Those Emmys were like,
"Oh, are we finally

"transitioning into some
sort of popular acceptance?"

And unfortunately, it never
materialized after that point.

All of America was supposed
to say "Man, that show won

"an Emmy,
I've got to check it out."

[FART NOISE]

I think it gave us
more credibility.

And it kept it on.

But I don't really know if
it actually, honestly,

improved the ratings.
[LAUGHING]

We sort of thought, "What
show is that... That won?"

And that we're not really
gonna spike audience-wise
from it.

It turned out to be true.

I think that each time
it got nominated,

and won, it was just like
a little sphincter pinch
for everybody

at Fox. Like "Mmm, damn it."

"There's another eight shows
we have to do."

It's really what kept us
on the air.

Jim actually told me
a funny story about it,

that after the Emmys,
that next show

there was an anticipation
of a ratings bump.

So that gave us, uh,
a little injection
of hope and optimism.

Uh, before that came
crashing down, of course.

The day after,
we pulled up to Fox...

CROSS: You know, when you
drive onto the Fox lot,

there's massive billboards.
They have those huge

crazy big, big billboards.
And there was like...

...a huge billboard in the
front for like Jamie Kennedy's

new movie, and then we drive
around the corner,

and there was a tiny little
banner on the inside

of the studio.

The kind of thing you get for
like, "We're raising money

"for the firehouse, come to
our barbecue chicken night."

Congratulations Arrested,
for five Emmys.

That banner was up
for a few days, and then

the morning after

that much anticipated airing
of the next show,

that banner changed
to something like
really depressing.

Like that, you know,
show where they blew up cars

and showed a lot of [BLEEP].

[CHUCKLES]
It was like that thing.

Like, "Coming up,
exploding [BLEEP]!

Check it out this Fall.

On Fox.

Well, and that show did seem
to be written they day before

it was shot.

Our scripts were
notoriously late.

Yeah, the script
definitely did come in late.

We used to get the scripts
on Wednesday, or sometimes

even Thursday morning.

Mitch is notorious
for not having scripts.

He can be
a little infuriating,
'cause he'll be re-writing

to the last second.

I think Mitch was a bit
of the kid who

would write his report
the night before it was due.

I really did feel like,
I wanted more time with it.

On Arrested,it reached
the point of absurdity.

It was probably not terribly
disciplined in terms of

when you got the scripts.

And the scripts came in late
because I was putting my

creative expression ahead of

the studio's
creative expression.

I mean, he always came
through, and he came through

with A-level material
obviously, but it was...
It was incredible...

You know, instead of seeking
the counsel of the studio

and the network, I kind of
took my own counsel

and said let's just keep going
and try to make this better.

The poor directors really
had nothing to prep with.

By Mitch and the gang kind of
getting these scripts

and always sort of
right at the nick of time...

It just created this extra
bit of energy.

If something wasn't working,

um, I couldn't sleep.
I couldn't [STUTTERS]
you know? I couldn't

eat. It just bothered me.

And that created
the style of it.

It... To me when I see
it now, it's clearly
the work of, um,

a maniac.

I think it was probably
more difficult for

the production. 'Cause they
had to pull things together

really quickly.

The writers would write,
write, write, write, write,
up until

the very last minute that they
had to turn the script over
to us...

Wonderful crew. They had
very little prep time.

I... I... [STUTTERS]
I don't know what went on
in Mitch's head

most of the time.
It was a mystery.

Everyone on the crew
had to be fairly creative,

because you had to do stuff
without it really being

on the page, often.

I remember once
at a Christmas party

we called up John Amodeo,
our producer, and asked him

if he could get us
the Queen Mary.

[FOGHORN BLOWING]

[LAUGHS] "When?" "For Monday!"

It's like, Saturday night.
[LAUGHING]

In the middle of
Christmas season.

"Can you get us
the Queen Mary?"

He calls us up Sunday
"Hey, I got the Queen Mary!"

[CHUCKLING]

Oh, I love Mitch, and we have
a great relationship,

but I think it's fair to use
the word insanity.

The double-edged sword
of being Mitch is the

fun of working with the staff
and the cast, but...

You know, he also had this
real heavy lifting to do,

which is supervise
the editing.

The editing room
was just another phase
of the writing stage.

He didn't edit
in a timely manner.

He didn't do anything
in a timely manner.

I know Mitch would go
into the editing room and...

When they would edit, would
basically re-write the show...

...and try to make things,
you know, funnier.

Not go the other direction.
'Cause you're losing jokes.

But instead,
how do you scrunch it?

He could come up
with new lines,
and I know he'd actually

sit at the edit bay
with a microphone,

and temp in lines.

So you would see shots
of people's shoulders

or backs.

If you watch it, there's
dialogue on people's backs...

He'd put different words in.

So in effect,
he was re-writing
beyond last possible moment.

So he didn't get it done
to start with,

he did it on set,
and then he did it after.

I do love that they were
able to insert some

political aspects
into the show.

We did get a note early on,
from the network,

'cause we had all this stuff
about the Iraq War.

The whole Iraq War thing
was really genius.

The concern was, you know,
"Won't the Iraq War be over

"by the time this airs?"

"Aren't you a little worried
it will be outdated?"

[CHUCKLES] I was like,
"No, no, no."

Our grandkids will
be part of that.

Bush, if he did give this
country one thing,

it really was a deep sense
of shame and irony

that was not lost on our,
um, our writing staff.

It was... It was
generous of him.

We got away with murder.

Yeah. You don't see a lot
of people throwing themselves

under buses. You know?

The subject matter
was kind of risque.

With the war, and Bush,
and, I mean,

it wasn't that subtle.

One of my favorite lines is
when the newscaster

comes out and goes
"WMDs found in Iraq.

"What this means for your
weekend, tonight at 10:00."

When they're driving through
Iraq they talk about

Halliburton Way,
and Cheney Drive.

In the background, during one
of the scenes they have the

"Mission Accomplished"
banner. [CHUCKLES]

[SINGING TUNE]
Solid as a rock!

One of my favorite subplots
was the, you know,

Saddam Hussein, [LAUGHING]
as a client.

TAMBOR: I actually was made up as Saddam when they buried me,

which was hysterically funny.

On these kind of major issues
that are going on at the time,

they magically weaved them
into the show.

But it wasn't the show. It
didn't supersede the comedy.

I kind of hate
political satire,
but this show approached it

in a way that was funny,
and topical but wasn't

bashing you in the head
stupid about it.

These guys had balls.

When you see the copyright
dates of some of those

episodes, and the things
that they were suggesting...

This is 2003, 2004, we've just
invaded Iraq,

and someone had the balls
to go in and to
poke fun at it?

And put it on the Fox network
of all places!

These guys... These guys have
to go through those doors

sideways. You know?
Those are some balls.

You kind of feel like

we slipped it past them
somehow. You know? [LAUGHS]

It's great to make, uh, humor
out of something bad, y'know?

If you don't have that,
what do you got?

It's a money laundering
scheme...

It's corrupt businesses...

It's a fine line to be able
to write political satire

that works as humor

even if you don't carry
the politics into it.

And very, very perceptive
vision in advance.

Um, by Mitch.
This was a con job.

They just take things that

you should not even
broach the subject

and they turn it into gold.

It's a little startling
at first.

Like if you try
and tell someone,

you know you kind of
get some weird looks.

"What the hell are you
watching?" You know?

It kind of shows you a
microcosm of the risk

that this show took.

He's so cute and innocent,

but yet he has this, um,
little dark secret.

He's just this classic 14, 15
year old guy,

with some crazy crush. And it
just happens to be his cousin.

Ultimately at the heart of the

George Michael-Maeby
relationship, were,

you know, two kids
that were really lonely.

It was actually my first kiss
ever, that kiss with Michael.

And I remember one of the
execs from Fox was there,

and I was like, "You know,
I'm really nervous, actually,

"'cause I've never
kissed anyone."

It was not
a salacious relationship

between the two of them.

It was a boy
who needed a sister.

And then wanted
to see his sister naked.

-Ew!
-Ah!

What the [BLEEP]?

-That's rad.
-Yeah, yeah,
incest is just a riot.

Especially on network TV
It takes a special touch

to do incest. I think. To make
it accessible to the masses.

I like the fact that he was
constantly chasing her.

Which could be
really offensive
to a lot of people.

But there's such
a fundamental sweetness to it.

You didn't think of them
in terms of cousins.

You didn't care, because he
was just so in love with her.

Their relationship and
non-relationship as the case

may be, is probably
one of the best conflicts
in the entire show.

It's not gross, they don't
do anything

that's necessarily wrong.
You know? But it's just

kind of there.

But are they cousins?
Is this my cousin, Maeby?

So maybe it's not.

[CARS BUSTLING]

[LIGHTNING STRIKES,
THUNDER RUMBLES]

CREWMAN: A lot of the fans
have talked about your rant.

Can you speak to that?

Um, I don't know exactly
what triggered it,

but I do remember that we
had just gotten,

I mean literally maybe
15 minutes ago,

or 10 minutes prior to that,
we had just gotten a...

Yet another piece of bad news.
I don't remember what it was,

it was, you know, we're gonna
go on a break,

we're gonna shut down,
or one of those things.

Jeffrey and I were talking
about something and I just...

You know. You get angry.
And you...

I wasn't doing it
for the camera but I mean,
I stand by it, you know.

I kind of knew that we just
weren't gonna make it at Fox.

Fox gets so much bashing
I guess for however they

you know, promoted
or marketed the show.

This show is a weird animal.
It was always very hard

for them to figure out
what to do with it.

I do think they
tried to market it.

There was a lot
of support for the show.

And some people would
disagree with me...

Fox didn't advertise.
That was a big problem.

Yeah, I mean maybe
they could have marketed

a little bit different.

They didn't have

the backing to aggressively
promote the show.

There's a lot of power
in marketing.

And they really can change
the outcome of something.

I think they...
I think did everything
that they knew how to do.

I don't want to comment
on how well they did it,

I know that they
[BLEEP] tried.

Hard.

They were held responsible
for my belief,

which was that if you try to
make every single part of it

funny, an audience will come.

And that really was my belief.

I felt that
they didn't get it.

It's difficult for a network
to promote to its viewers

a show that really doesn't
resemble anything

that's out there.

I don't think they knew
what it was, or knew

who the audience was.

And obviously Fox
has had a really hard time

breaking any comedy hits.
Other than animation.

Period.

I wasn't trying to do
something that was

so obscure that people
didn't get it.

I was trying to create
something that people

had to make an effort for.

They didn't have
a lot of great time slots,

and the whole Sunday night
at 9:30pm, you know,

was a death slot.

Their network at the time was Simpsonsand King of the Hill,

and Family Guy
on Sunday night.

And this didn't fit into
either of those boxes...

They had a difficult task.

And I think
it lasted longer than

anybody at Fox really
would have wanted it to.

I think it was a sore point
for them.

Mitch told us once that he had
actually gone to someone

in the network, and I swear to
God they said to him:

"Do you mind dumbing it down
just a little bit? Come on."

Many times people wanted
to reshape the show,

or try to find a single focus
as opposed to the

several stories
that the show has.

And he just, would
always resist it.

The only things they
could give notes on,

were the scripts.

The note was,
"Can you do 15% less?"

You know, "Does it have to
be so complicated?"

There was a time I thought
there were too many stories.

You know, it's hard to follow
that many stories...

Not a bad note. Actually.

Probably, if we had taken it,

um, I wouldn't be in this
[BLEEP]!

[LAUGHING]

HURWITZ: They were
very respectful.

And they were very worried.
You know, they...

They put a lot of money
into this thing.

I mean, they probably
put over 50 million dollars

into making this.

What people tend to forget
though, is that they did give

us two and a half years,
and they didn't have to.

They didn't feel it was worth
the extra step of

also spending a lot of money
on promotion, and that's

just an equation that studios
have to make.

We also thought that

the country would catch on.

That's what I don't get.

For the most part,

the heart of the country
did not watch the show.

And

by the heart I mean

the middle.

Like the Midwest.

They're to blame.

In every definition of the
word "missed", uh,
America missed it.

America Ferrara?
The girl who plays Ugly Betty?

I don't know if she
ever watched it!

Huh...

Every critic at every
newspaper says,

"This is the best
sitcom on TV."

But for some reason,
America says,

"Oh, I've never heard of it."

Unfortunately a lot
of the really good shows
that are critically

acclaimed, they don't...
People don't watch them.

The audience has been
systematically taught

over the generations,

"Just sit there! We'll
throw this stuff at you!

"If it hits you in
the forehead, you'll enjoy it!

"If not, we'll cancel it and
throw something else

"at you."

I mean most people don't even
know it existed, really.

We sure did our part. We told
everybody we knew about it.

[SCOFFS] I don't know, people
just didn't watch it.

I'd hear her talking about it,

"Yeah it's one of
my favorite shows..."

Nothing.

I would call my family,
who lives in different parts

of the country and say,
"Did you see my show?"

And most of them would say,
"Yeah, I didn't like it."

I wouldn't watch the show,
'cause I don't watch shows.

Uh, and I don't like when
I'm filming to watch the show.

And Jason would get really
mad at me. He would go,

"You know, we'd all...
We'd all like a little help!"

I would guess that half the
people that saw the show

saw the show on a digital
video recorder, you know,

like a TiVo. Or on, um,
on DVD.

And as soon as you do that,
you're off the ratings grid.

We also just missed, you know,

like the Nielsen Rating Group
started following you know,
college dorms.

And that was a big part
of our, uh, fan base.

We would have it on the TV
in the background

to get ratings, you know.
Like on every TV in the house.

But I don't think

we had Nielsen, so it was
probably useless.

I think Arrestedreally
believed in its audience.

More so than maybe any other
show I've ever worked on.

In a way I think it's good
that it never had
that mass appeal.

I know it doesn't help
everybody's pocketbook

at the end of the day,
but it was never gonna

appeal to the, uh,
the entire country.

It required some work
as a viewer, where as

most shows are like

warm gruel that gets

spoon-fed to you while
you lay on the couch,

calcifying.

You kind of lose hope
in people.

You know, we need to be
hit over the head with a joke.

People need to be reminded,
Oh, guess what? That's funny!

Laugh!

And the fact that this show
did not have a laugh track,

and didn't telegraph the areas

where the audience should
laugh, I think

hurt it with the vast majority
of people.

How sad is that?

I think America missed this
show by six months.

Over at NBC, uh, when
The Officecame out,

they knew that they were,
even though they weren't

getting big ratings,
uh, they were...

People were downloading it,
people were paying for it...

You know, maybe it's a good
show to be downloaded.

Easy to stop and start,
go back and catch
that joke again...

Because then they would
have been able to go

over to Rupert Murdoch and
say "No, you don't understand,

"Rupert. It's making money."

Money!

I think that maybe America
wasn't ready for this show.

The part of America that
did miss this show,

is the same America that
watches reality TV

It's better than 95%
of the [BLEEP] that's on now.

When shows like
Dancing with the Stars

and American Idolare the
most popular TV shows...

I don't know. I think there's
something wrong with that.

'Cause reality TV is just...

It's just awful. [LAUGHS]
It's just [STUTTERS] It's...

-Yeah.
-There's no writing.

Look at all the crap
we have on TV!

-Crap.
-It's all crap.

You just kind of want
to tell people,

"What the [BLEEP] is the
matter with you? Why are you

"watching stuff like this?"

I don't know how else
to put it really.

America, what were
you thinking?

God, you should...

I'm not mad. I'm just
disappointed, America.

I'm a great parent
to America, by the way.

Anyway, go ahead America.
You're fine.

I hate to say this, but when
I started watching the show

even from the first season,
I always kind of thought

it was doomed.

I was at the, um,

Vanity Fairafter party
for the Oscars one year.

And, um, Rupert Murdoch
was there...

We really were
a ratings fiasco.

He was very excited about
talking about 24,

which is a Fox show.

And I said "Yeah, 24.
That's great.

"And I'm really... I love
Arrested Development."

No matter how brilliant
a show is,

it does not mean that it's
gonna stay on the air.

And he said,

"That's a cable show. That
shouldn't be on the networks."

And I just kind of went
"Ha. Eh, ah, we're [BLEEP]."

[CHUCKLES] We are [BLEEP] now.

Basically a show gets
canceled for one reason,

it doesn't get ratings.

You know? It's not
that complicated.

[CREWMAN SPEAKING]

Canceled!

I do want to say I was
a little surprised

that it lasted as long
as it did.

I never got involved when
a TV show was canceled.

I, you know,
they come and they go.

But when that show
got canceled it really

bothered me deep down.

I felt the need to like,
sign petitions.

You know? For a TV show.
I never did that before
in my life.

When I finally read the news
that they'd canceled
the show,

it was like
a punch in the gut.

I wanted to cry.

We weren't canceled.
We were taken into an alley

and shot in the back
of the head.

This show had

lymph node cancer
and was diagnosed with

multiple compound fractures,
contusions, internal bleeding,

from the beginning.

No one expected the pilot
to get picked up.

I thought I had the way
to make it a hit.

I was wrong.

No one expected to get
the second season...

It was just like,

"When are they gonna
cancel it?"

That was all we ever said.

"When are they gonna
cancel it? When?"

And no one expected
to get the last half.

Every time we'd do
a section of 13 episodes,

we really didn't know if
we were coming back.

We never really felt like

a ton of people were
watching it.

Turned out to be true.

We really did a cable show
on network television.

You know, you just can't have
a show on network TV

and not get the numbers
that make sense for them.

It's all about advertising
and all these crazy things

that have nothing to do
with creativity.

This sounds so odd,

in a way I was glad
we were canceled,

because I was...
I was just sick of the fight.

And sick of the, that, that
hanging on the ledge,

Oh, our numbers?

I don't know if the ratings
ever really changed. [LAUGHS]

We felt like
the ratings changed.

It had to do with the
18-49 audience,

which is, you know, the
audience everybody wants,

because of advertising.

And, um, we didn't
get the numbers, as they say.

You know? That's what...
That's what happened.

It wasn't that much
of a shock.

You know, we...
we kind of saw it coming.

We didn't know week to week

whether we were
going back to work.

For a long time.

Maybe all along it really
needed to be a cable show.

You know? Who knows.

So I don't mean to be
sour grapes about it

but the one thing that was
slightly amusing in retrospect

was they had heavily, heavily
promoted their new

Pamela Anderson show
called Stacked.

And I just thought that was
hilarious that like, a show

about Pamela Anderson being
some kind of like...

In a bookstore?
Or something like that?

It was like, you know,
Desperate Housewives

was a hit...

And they have breasts.

We'll just call it [BLEEP]!

[CHUCKLES] You know? Stacked!

Ah, it's the biggest hit
that's ever been
on TV, Stacked!

I just couldn't understand it.

You know, and then it did
less numbers than we did.

It was just
really disappointing

that Fox put the last
four episodes in a row,

two hours, back-to-back.

Right up against
the Winter Olympics.

And the airing was ridiculous.

What a way to end the show.

That was kind of, you know.

"Guys! What are you doing
to us?" You know.

"We don't even have a chance."

Felt like, "You guys
don't have anywhere
you can put this

"to get some ratings?"

It was indicative, again,
of how the show was sorta...

Treated.

You know,
corporate is corporate.

There's nothing better than to
watch, you know, your blood

and sweat and tears
thrown away.

I don't know. When a network
cancels a show,

they no longer give a shit.

I think at that point I just,
it was like totally

made for the fans.

I kind of thought, "Well,
maybe it will be easier.

"You know maybe I'll just be
able to do anything I want."

And I realized, no. It's...

"It's gonna be just as hard,

and we have to
make it all fit.

It was frustrating. But having
been a network executive

I... I know the rules
of the game. And

once they cancel you and they
say there's not a future,

you know, they just
throw you out there.

I do think they tried.

At the Iowa caucuses,

my wife Cheryl
and my kids all went.

At this point, Cheryl and I
were working on behalf

of Hillary Clinton.

And there were these two
guys... These young guys.

I eventually went over
and sidled up to these guys,

and all they wanted
to talk about was

Arrested Development.

And I turned
and I started to go.

And, um...

The tall guy said "Ron!"

"I'll make a deal with you.

"If we're asked to choose
another candidate

"we'll go with Hillary.

"But you have to promise me

"you make the
Arrested Developmentmovie."

No matter where I go
in the world,

the question is...

"Is there gonna be a film?
Is there gonna be a film?"

"Hey, when's the movie
coming out?"

-Movie.
-Movie!

Movie, movie, movie!

I think it would really lend
itself to the big screen.

Just as a fan, I pray
that the rumors are true.

I think it'd be the best
thing in the world.

I think everybody wants to see
that team back together again

and then they really could
pick up where they left off.

The principle element
to it is,

an opportunity for all of us
to enjoy them. Again.

I don't know what the status
of the movie is, to be honest.

CREWMAN: Can you say that
without the glass?

I don't know what the status
of the movie is. I... Um...

I'm not entirely sure what the
status of the movie is.

I think the movie is gonna
happen, you know. I know

Mitch has been
talking about it.

We, uh, we have been talking
about doing this movie.

That's why he ended that last
episode saying, you know,

"Maybe a movie."

I know that Jason has been
talking about it in the press.

A lot.

We've all really been very
honest with the media. I mean,

almost to a fault.

Mitch is supposedly
writing it.

A script could be written.
It may not be written.

It may never get written.

We'll see how much
they zoom, and...

And make the audience
seasick on the big screen.

The movie has been rumored
ever since the show

first got canceled.

We were talking
about the movie

as early as the first season.

I remember talking
to Mitch about it.

I think about doing the movie.
I have some plot ideas.

I think they had a lot more to
say, and a lot more to do.

I read stuff on the internet
that people are like, "Enough

"already with the movie
rumors." You know?

It's like "Guys, either do it,
or don't."

Do you think I should do it?

And then Mitch started making
phone calls around to us

finding out who would be
on board, and who wouldn't.

He was just pretty much like
"So, if we do make it,

"would you be a part of it?"
And I was like...

"All right. Sure."

I mean, the fact is I think
we would all love to do it.

They all want to.

I certainly would welcome it.
I love it.

I've talked to Bateman,
I've talked to Will,

everybody wants to do it.

It seems like a pretty simple
question for me.

I mean even when we were
being canceled,

he took advantage of
the cancellation and

wrote it in. So I know he'll
write whatever is going on

or whatever stories are going
on, who's on board, who's not

on board... Whatever.
It's all gonna be in there.

It's very possible.

Whether or not they call me,
I don't know if there's gonna

be room for all the many
characters who came to visit.

Maybe I'll come back
as a twin brother.

You want to know...

You know, "Where the [BLEEP]
is Maeby gonna be
in five years?

"What happens to Buster?"

Maybe his hand becomes bionic!

There's got to be
an Arrestedmovie.

You know, come on!

There's obviously been a lot
of talk about it,

you know. And I hope that
happens, I wouldn't bet

on that one either.

For some reason,
Arrested Development

and money have
never been friends.

[CHUCKLES] Maybe 'cause
the show ultimately

makes fun of people
who had money.

Maybe we actually did try
to say something.

Maybe we change the world.

Just a little bit.

You know, the other side of
that is that you have

Ron Howard, who can
get movies done.

Look, it's happening.

By all accounts.

I was in the bathroom
at the DGA

and I look up
and Ron Howard is

in the, um, the urinal.

There were a lot of rumors
flying around.

I'm not the kind of guy
who approaches guys

at a urinal...

I'd, by God, be the narrator.

They can't give anybody else
that microphone!

He was a big fan of the show.

So I mean, maybe...

We're now no longer talking
about who's in, who's out,

what's it gonna be,
when's it coming out?

He says they have the money
to make that movie.

-[CHUCKLES]
-CREWMAN: So I can't...

You can ask anything you want.

[LAUGHING HEARTILY] Ask away!

I think everyone needs
closure, although I don't

know how he's gonna
wrap this thing up.

Well, at the very least
a Christmas special,

where they sing songs.

[CREWMAN SPEAKING]

Not happening.

[CREWMAN SPEAKING]

The show is not coming back.

It's gotten a lot bigger
on DVD, a lot more fans...

Nothing likeFamily Guy.

WOMAN: Would you watch it?

-Yeah, yeah totally.
-Yeah.

I would definitely watch it.

WOMAN: So you would
watch it today?

Yes, sure.

I'd probably give it a shot.

Yeah, I'd probably watch it.

Yes, I would. Yes, I would.

Oh, yeah, of course.

Tomorrow, the next day,
and the next day on.

-Yeah.
-Yeah.

Yeah!

-Yeah.
-Yeah.

-Yeah.
-I'd probably be interested.

I would.

-WOMAN: Tomorrow?
-Tomorrow.

-The next day?
-Exactly.

Historically it will be
viewed as one of

the most important shows
in television.

If more shows like
Arrested Development

were on television, then TV
would be good, and not just

a guilty pleasure.

It really was lightning
in a bottle.

This combination of

a brilliant cast,

a really original idea,

it's such a rare convergence.

It's a god [BLEEP] shame.
I really feel bad for anybody

who's a big fan of TV who

hasn't seen
Arrested Development.

Arrested Development
was the show

that could have
changed the face of

American television.

It just never got the chance.

And, um, I think it will be
viewed as such

in the annals of
television history.

I hate the words
"ground-breaking,"

but really, I mean. Come on.

It was ground-breaking.

I'm really proud to say
I have any involvement

in Arrested Development.

It was pretty damn funny
if I do say so.

I think Peter Chernin once
called it, uh, us, a

a noble experiment.
Or, you know, even he said

"We're proud of the show,
it was worth...
It was worth it."

You know, it was just a
[BLEEP] [BLEEP] pleasure.

CREWMAN: Describe
the show in one word.

Oh... [SIGHS]

Phew.

Threw a curveball there.

Smart.

Insane.

Hilarious.

-Brilliant.
-Visionary.

-Perfect.
-Complex.

The song Tennessee.

I mean, I wish it wasn't so.

But they were first.

Family.

Rest in peace.

Good evening.

The end.

I love the fans of
Arrested Development.

There really is something
about the kind of people

who love the show.

The Aztec tomb,
saw this on eBay,
and this is

sort of the first
big purchase I made.

As you can see, the revolving
door does work.

It's a tight squeeze.

I've never met a person who
said "Hey, I love that show"

that I didn't like. And it's
not an ego thing, because

I have met people who have
liked Golden Girlswho I just

wanna punch in the face.

I have this water bottle
from Army.

The infamous
Girls with High Self Esteem.

And then I have
Kitty's sunglasses.

Up here, Michael.

This one old lady couldn't
shut up about it
the other day.

I was like "God, you smell
like death!"

The Cornballer is a culinary
wonder machine.

It's something like
a deep fryer,

and, uh, it's very dangerous.

So I would always enjoy these
conversations that I'd have

with the fans. Because
you know, they got it.

They got it.

Arrested fans rarely
smell like death.

[CLAPPING, HOLLERING]

[MAKING CHICKEN NOISES]

[MAKING CHICKEN NOISES]