\'Arrested Development\' cast kept guessing

By BILL BRIOUX - Toronto Sun

The funniest show on TV is about to be cancelled. No, not Martha Stewart\'s Apprentice. I\'m talking intentionally funny. I\'m talking Arrested Development.

For two-and-a-half seasons, the hilarious, Emmy-winning, Monday night original has struggled to find an audience. Fox has already yanked the series off its November sweeps schedule and declared that no more episodes past the 13 already in production will be ordered this season.

It looks bad for the Bluths. Star Jason Bateman (level-headed Michael Bluth) had to have emergency throat surgery, causing a two-week production shut down. The cast reassembled yesterday in L.A. for episode nine of this, the third season. There could be just five more to go.

The next episode -- the last to feature guest star Oscar-winner Charlize Theron -- will air Dec. 5 on Fox and Global.

You\'d think Brampton, Ont.-native Michael Cera --who plays Michael\'s innocent and overwhelmed son George Michael -- would be in full panic mode. When you\'re 17, the threat of losing a big U.S. gig has gotta hurt. But Cera was taking it all in stride when I spoke with him on the phone this week.

"It\'s nothing we haven\'t heard before," says Cera. "People have already been calling to comfort me that its been cancelled."


There is no official word. Cera says even creator/executive producer Mitch Hurwitz, whom he spoke with this week, doesn\'t know the ultimate fate of the series yet. "We\'re always guessing," says Cera.

He expects the 13th episode to wrap up the season, if not the series. Crazy storylines, like Tobias\' (David Cross) out of control hair implants ("it gets really insane -- the darkest thing we\'ve ever done," says Cera) will come to some sort of hairy conclusion. Then there\'s Uncle Oscar (Jeffrey Tambor), still in jail while George Sr. (also Tambor) eludes the cops.

Cera, who was home in Brampton last week where he even snuck in a little golf, has other things on his plate. This weekend is the premiere of Wayside (Saturday at 9 a.m., 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Teletoon), an hour-long animated special based on the comically absurd children\'s books.

Cera, who has done voice-over work before on series such as Braceface and Berenstain Bears, is the voice of Todd, one of the students in the quirky grammar school that was build on its side -- 30 storeys high instead of a regular long and flat school. Kathy Najimy also lends voice on the series.

Cartoon work is cool, says refreshingly frank and modest Cera. "Anyone can do it. You can feel awful. It\'s incredible. You\'re in and out in 15 minutes."

He\'s already got his next \'toon gig lined up: Cera will give voice to Howard Stern in an upcoming Spike TV animated series about the King Of All Media\'s teenage years.

Cera hasn\'t met the radio shock jock yet but he\'s listened to him -- for a few minutes. His mom, who is a Stern fan, is also a stern mom, switching off the King Of All Media when he got a little too vulgar for Cera\'s tender ears. "My mom\'s a big fan, though," says Cera. "She says he\'s hilarious."

He says Theron was "incredible, very sweet," treating the cast and crew by hiring a big coffee truck to back up to the set. "Nobody\'s ever done that before."

He\'s heard the rumours that FOX might hand off Arrested Development to their U.S. cable sister station FX. He doubts HBO, which likes to develop their own shows, will rescue the series.

If the series is kaput, Cera doubts that he will jump right into another sitcom. He\'s already figured out the terrible truth about television: "To last," he says, "it seems like you have to be lacking in heart."

Arrested Development (Mostly Likely) Will Return

But not to FOX (unless they wise up).

They had Brian Grazer (Glazer?) on the radio this morning. He said that they\'ve been shopping the show around and there is PLENTY of interest from networks and that it WILL be coming back. Didn\'t say when or who, but gave enough hints that suggest ABC.

Do you hold FOX accountable for what\'s going on?

I do, definitely. In my opinion FOX is known for being a network that just advertises, and that\'s pretty much how they get their viewers. Like with "The OC" and shows like that, there\'s billboards every 5 feet you go in LA. And with our show, the actual excuse for not publicizing us was, "We don\'t think it\'s going to help that kind of show." I don\'t see how getting the name out there is going to hurt our show with the ratings. A lot of people don\'t know about it, and if they do, they only see 1 episode, so they get confused. FOX needs to be showing marathons and re-runs so that people who haven\'t seen it can watch the whole first season and the second season. But they refuse. They think that we just have to do it on our own, and supposedly get 20 million people in one viewing, and no one\'s even heard of the show. So I don\'t really think that FOX is the best network for the show

because FOX has to make room for terrific shows like Dark Angel, Titus, Undeclared, Action, That 80?s Show, Wonderfalls, Fastlane, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Skin, Girl?s Club, Cracking Up, The Pitts, Firefly, Get Real, Freakylinks, Wanda at Large, Costello, The Lone Gunmen, A Minute with Stan Hooper, Normal Ohio, Pasadena, Harsh Realm, Keen Eddie, The Street, American Embassy, Cedric the Entertainer, The Tick, Louie, and Greg the Bunny.