This week\'s episode was another in a long line of gems. Fortunately, there has been somewhat of a media backlash against Fox for not initially renewing the show. Consequently, Arrested Development made the cover of the actual TV Guide this week, in addition to having this article written about it in the on-line TV Guide. My gut feeling: the show made virtually every critics\' Top 10 list for best program of this season. Even Fox can\'t be that stupid. Get ready for Season Two.
Still, this article does raise some interesting, and unfortunately negavite aspects, about the chances for AD\'s survival.
Pitch
By Matt Roush
Last night, I said goodbye to Fox\'s Arrested Development with quite a bit of apprehension. Not just because the network has yet to renew the show — that decision may not be made until late next month, when Fox announces more details of its evolving lineup on May 20 — but because the episode billed as its "season finale" wasn\'t really intended to be.
The first season ended one episode short because a recent schedule crunch following a presidential press conference shifted 24 to Sunday, pushing this struggling comedy off the lineup. (As one of my co-workers suggested to me, why didn\'t Fox just replace one of its umpteen Simpsons repeats with that week\'s Arrested Development? It would have made sense, while also giving the show a chance to see how well it could perform in the more hospitable post-Simpsons time period.)
The episode that aired April 25 was, as usual, very funny, with a running gag involving the annual "bring your daughter to work day" that illuminated many of the hilarious neuroses in the Bluth family. But there was supposed to be one more episode, intended as a cliffhanger of sorts, that is now in limbo, as Fox benches this brilliantly eccentric series in anticipation of the season\'s final sweeps period. I\'ve read the script of this unaired episode, and it\'s a doozy, involving a revelation of more malfeasance — this time international — on the part of patriarch George Bluth. (Fans many recall him telling his son Michael a while back, "There\'s a good chance I may have committed some light treason.")
Confronting his viperish mother, Michael (the excellent Jason Bateman) says, "There\'s been a lot of lying in this family." Her response: "And a lot of love." His comeback: "More lies."
That sort of waspish wit, combined with an anything-goes farcical sensibility, helped make Arrested Development the best new TV comedy too few people were watching all season long. While we wait anxiously to see if Fox will do the right thing and give this offbeat gem a chance to catch on — and, in the tradition of that other unique slow starter Seinfeld, maybe even flourish — we can also count the days until Fox finally airs the unseen episode. The current plan is for the actual season finale to air outside the regular season, on June 6.
While I\'m cautiously optimistic Fox will stand behind the show and renew it, this situation does give you pause. Why would a network give a series one more year when it can\'t find the time to schedule one more episode?
