Save Our Bluths
No longer arrested: A new Arrested Development season is officially confirmed atThe New Yorker Festival
This is the story of a critically acclaimed cult comedy series that lost everything, and the one writer who had no choice but to bring back the cast for one last hurrah...
Yesterday at The New Yorker Festival, press and fans witnessed the first reunion of the original Arrested Development cast since the series’ cancelation more than five years ago. It was expected that there would be talk about the elusive big-screen adaptation, which was teased in the series finale but has been stuck in development hell since then. Now that the cast was finally back together and had cleared their schedules, chances seemed better than ever.
But buzz quickly spread across the Internet when series creator Mitch Hurwitz announced plans to bring the selfish and conniving-yet-lovable Bluth family back to the small screen as a segue into the movie adaptation.
Hurwitz told fans we can expect a limited season of 10 episodes, which will detail what each member of the Bluth family has been up to for the past five years. According to Hurwitz, he discovered that “even if I just gave five minutes per character to that backstory, we were halfway through the movie before the characters got together.”
News spread even more quickly after castmember Will Arnett sent out a Tweet mentioning a personal conversation he had with fellow castmember and on-screen brother Jason Bateman confirming their support.
So what did the big news really give fans? So far it seems to be optimistic, yet cautious, hope. Many Bluth supporters had become tired with having the promised film adaptation dangled in front of them like the proverbial frozen banana on a stick. But one of the main hurdles for the film has been organizing the original cast’s schedules. Now that all nine Bluths have given their full commitment, the next step is getting the studios and networks to give the green light.
That may seem daunting, but hope can already be found in the talks that the FOX network, the broadcaster of the original series, is reportedly holding over broadcast rights. According to Deadline, Netflix is looking into offering the limited season through its streaming service, while Showtime has also shown interest in airing the new episodes. The Showtime deal seems particularly promising, considering that former Arrested Development producer David Nevins is now the head of the cable network.
So although the return of the Bluths isn’t set in stone yet, fans of what IGN called "the funniest TV series ever" can still hold on to some shred of hope.
Besides, if Fox falls through on this deal, the entire network will come across as a bunch of chickens.
