Literally
October 2, 2011 3:50 PM   Subscribe

Today, during a panel discussion for the New Yorker Festival featuring the entire cast of Arrested Development and creator Mitch Hurwitz, it was announced there would be another season, leading to a movie.

Commence chicken impressions.
posted by Potomac Avenue (103 comments total) 32 users marked this as a favorite
 
Jason Bateman just tweeted that they'd probably film it all next summer, with an eye to a release in early 2013.

That's if the Mayans aren't correct.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 3:52 PM on October 2, 2011 [2 favorites]


This is joyous news!
posted by silby at 3:53 PM on October 2, 2011 [4 favorites]


Right. The guy over at Fox in the $3000 suit is going to greenlight a show and movie that they cancelled five years ago. COME ON!
posted by nushustu at 3:53 PM on October 2, 2011 [45 favorites]


The "one character per episode" format they're talking about is just screaming WEBSERIES to me.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:56 PM on October 2, 2011 [3 favorites]


No touching.
posted by Cerulean at 3:57 PM on October 2, 2011


Fox TV just got upgraded to DONT BUY.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:57 PM on October 2, 2011 [23 favorites]


Sadly, this announcement was made by "Uncle Mitch". The real guy is in Mexico.
posted by Optamystic at 3:58 PM on October 2, 2011 [2 favorites]


Season Two, people...COME ON!
posted by Optamystic at 3:59 PM on October 2, 2011


Please, don't let this announcement be a huge mistake.
posted by ChuraChura at 4:00 PM on October 2, 2011 [3 favorites]


Damn, nushustu beat me to it.
posted by Optamystic at 4:00 PM on October 2, 2011


OH COME ON!! No way they can bring back AD and not Firefly! Thanks for nothing Obama, yet more Brownshirt punching, we shall see what President Perry has to say about more seasons of Firefly.
posted by Ad hominem at 4:04 PM on October 2, 2011 [4 favorites]


MARRY ME!
posted by rocket88 at 4:05 PM on October 2, 2011 [6 favorites]


I used to work at FOX (which is not Fox News, so save your vitriol), and really, no one was wearing $3000 suits. There was a lot of love for Arrested there, which is the only reason it lasted longer than a season, because reruns of COPS got better ratings.
posted by roger ackroyd at 4:05 PM on October 2, 2011 [8 favorites]


It'll take more than lousy ratings to stop that old bear.

Old Bear...he likes the honey!
posted by buzzv at 4:06 PM on October 2, 2011 [4 favorites]


OCCUPY WALL STREET WORKED!
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 4:06 PM on October 2, 2011 [42 favorites]


You can never go home again.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 4:07 PM on October 2, 2011


You can never go home again.

Let's try, shall we?
posted by Optamystic at 4:09 PM on October 2, 2011


All my life!
posted by Ad hominem at 4:11 PM on October 2, 2011


George Michael and Maebe are gonna be bitterly divorced by the time this damn thing actually happens.
posted by Optamystic at 4:11 PM on October 2, 2011 [6 favorites]


I dunno. It's been five years and the Good Stuff about AD has long pushed out the Bad Stuff. If they put together a series (and movie) now, there's no way they can compete against rosey-eyed nostalgia. Fans will be pissed and following the credits of the movie (31% Fresh Rating on Rotten Tomatoes) the One Armed Man will come onscreen and say THAT'S WHY YOU DON'T RESURRECT DEAD SERIES!

Seriously, though, prove me wrong, AD. Prove me wrong.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 4:12 PM on October 2, 2011 [16 favorites]


I agree with you, RIB. But everyone's on board, so YEAH!!!
posted by Optamystic at 4:16 PM on October 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


OH MY GOD THERE'S A FIRE sale.
posted by shakespeherian at 4:19 PM on October 2, 2011 [10 favorites]


I hope they bring back John Beard. It always tickled me to see him.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 4:23 PM on October 2, 2011 [2 favorites]


[Arrested Development reference]!
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:23 PM on October 2, 2011 [11 favorites]


Also, is it a normal thing that I actually didn't have much of a reaction to this news, because I don't expect it to wind up being true in the end?
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:23 PM on October 2, 2011


Right. The guy over at Fox in the $3000 suit is going to greenlight a show and movie that they cancelled five years ago.

Not being a suit-wearer, I'm curious. Is that a lot or a little for a good suit?
posted by bicyclefish at 4:24 PM on October 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


Boy, this Arrested Development is all anybody's ever talking about. So sick and tired of hearing about how brilliant Arrested Development is. Overrated.
posted by vidur at 4:27 PM on October 2, 2011 [10 favorites]


Somewhere Micheal Cera is having his very own BTAS "Baby Doll" moment right now.
posted by The Whelk at 4:29 PM on October 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


So sick and tired of hearing about how brilliant Arrested Development is. Overrated.

BLASPHEMER! STONE THE BLASPHEMER!

OR GET THE BLASPHEMER STONED!
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 4:29 PM on October 2, 2011 [2 favorites]


2013? Michael Cera will be of shaving age by then.
posted by sourwookie at 4:29 PM on October 2, 2011 [4 favorites]


So sick and tired of hearing about how brilliant Arrested Development is. Overrated.

If only we had minuses on this site.
posted by Optamystic at 4:31 PM on October 2, 2011


I can't imagine how one character per episode would work for AD. Color me excited anyway.
posted by pemberkins at 4:32 PM on October 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


Optamystic: "So sick and tired of hearing about how brilliant Arrested Development is. Overrated.

If only we had minuses on this site
"

sar•chasm, n. That which separates those who understand verbal irony from those who do not.
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:34 PM on October 2, 2011 [2 favorites]


You guys are obviously not real fans.

Tobias Fünke: That Funke is some kind of something. Boy, this Funke is all anybody's ever talking about. So sick and tired of hearing about how brilliant that Funke is. Overrated.
posted by vidur at 4:40 PM on October 2, 2011 [7 favorites]


STONE THE FUNKE!
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 4:42 PM on October 2, 2011


Ok, I'm stupid.
posted by Optamystic at 4:43 PM on October 2, 2011


That is the real beauty of this show. No matter how many times you see it, there will be some subtle, beautiful thing that you missed the first three hundred times. I hereby nominate Mitch Hurwitz for the Nobel Prize in irony, or bananas, or some damn thing.
posted by Optamystic at 4:48 PM on October 2, 2011 [3 favorites]


I can't imagine how one character per episode would work for AD. Color me excited anyway.
One each for Franklin, Annyong, Kitty Sanchez, Gene Parmesean, Steve Holt (STEVE HOLT!), Maggie Lizer, and Barry Zuckercorn, then a two-parter about the Bluths...
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 4:49 PM on October 2, 2011 [4 favorites]


I am analrapist tshirt as I write this.
posted by Razzle Bathbone at 4:54 PM on October 2, 2011 [2 favorites]


damn, make that - I am WEARING MY ...
posted by Razzle Bathbone at 4:55 PM on October 2, 2011


I liked it better the first time, Razzle.
posted by Optamystic at 4:56 PM on October 2, 2011 [2 favorites]


Oh, god, they have to bring back Barry. I love him. "I'm not exactly 'super prepared'."
posted by neuromodulator at 4:59 PM on October 2, 2011


HuzZZAH!
posted by COBRA! at 5:00 PM on October 2, 2011


sar•chasm, n. That which separates those who understand verbal irony from those who do not.An attempt at verbal wordplay over a textual medium derived from the word 'sarcasm'
posted by sleslie at 5:04 PM on October 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


STEVE HOLT is probably in graduate school.
posted by dixiecupdrinking at 5:15 PM on October 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


sleslie: "sar•chasm, n. That which separates those who understand verbal irony from those who do not.An attempt at verbal wordplay over a textual medium derived from the word 'sarcasm'"


I see what you did there.

posted by DoctorFedora at 5:24 PM on October 2, 2011


Fingers firmly crossed
posted by AzzaMcKazza at 5:24 PM on October 2, 2011


Wow, Obama will do anything to get re-elected, huh.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 5:31 PM on October 2, 2011 [9 favorites]


Yes!!
posted by porpoise at 5:33 PM on October 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


I guess there really is always money in the banana stand.
posted by chemoboy at 5:35 PM on October 2, 2011 [3 favorites]


This is my favorite show in history and yet, I really can't blame FOX for its demise. They greenlit it in the first place, marketed the living shit out of it out the gate, and kept it on despite untenable ratings. It just came out right before people started buying TV Seasons on DVD and everything was easily available on the web in order for people to catch up. Picture if it had premiered a season or two after the first season of Lost, and things could have been very different.

Excited for the chance to see everyone back again, particularly Tony Hale and most importantly Alia Shawkat, who haven't been as ubiquitous as the other cast members since cancellation.
posted by Navelgazer at 6:03 PM on October 2, 2011 [2 favorites]


I realized the other day that two years later, Sunny premiered on FX. Sunny is now in its 7th season. What could have been…
posted by silby at 6:14 PM on October 2, 2011


later = after the Arrested Development premiere.
posted by silby at 6:14 PM on October 2, 2011


I blue myself.
posted by subbes at 6:20 PM on October 2, 2011 [4 favorites]


Fans will be pissed and following the credits of the movie (31% Fresh Rating on Rotten Tomatoes) the One Armed Man will come onscreen and say THAT'S WHY YOU DON'T RESURRECT DEAD SERIES!


Holy shit, robocop. Whether or not the movie is good they should still do this. It would be brilliant.
posted by graventy at 6:21 PM on October 2, 2011 [2 favorites]


Hopefully they won't prematurely shoot their wad with the one-off episodes, which seem to be sort of a dry run if you will. That sure would leave a mess on their hands.

Besides, it may be too late. My mouth has been full of the taste of Archer's meaty, leading-man parts for some time now.
posted by PapaLobo at 6:25 PM on October 2, 2011 [4 favorites]


"Remember what we say about Aunt Lindsay?"
"That's not her real nose?"
posted by subbes at 6:30 PM on October 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


I encourage you to Google "Arrested Development movie confirmed."

Even Hurwitz says they're still working out the business side, which means there's no deal. Arnett is on an NBC series now. Nobody has apparently agreed to actually air this yet. Much remains to be worked out before somebody is going to finance new episodes of a show that never got many viewers in the first place so that they can then go on and finance a movie.

It's certainly possible, and I hope it happens, but there have been MULTIPLE "they confirm that there's going to be a movie" announcements that go back years, and until there's something more to this than a bunch of people who have said all along that they wanted to make a movie repeating that they still want to make a movie and adding that they also would like to make new episodes, I consider it very little in the way of news. Perhaps it will go the other way, but they've given up the benefit of the doubt.
posted by Linda_Holmes at 6:32 PM on October 2, 2011 [4 favorites]


YES WE DID
posted by schmod at 6:35 PM on October 2, 2011 [7 favorites]


It’s really happening. And it’s time for us to start creating some memories. You know, there’s been enough disappointment in this family.
posted by Thomas Tallis is my Homeboy at 6:36 PM on October 2, 2011 [2 favorites]


No way they can bring back AD and not Firefly!

Oh jesus, I wish Firefly fans would give it a rest already. It's been like a decade.
posted by Windigo at 6:51 PM on October 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


Huh? Give it a rest? We refuse to be marginalized! Kowtow to the big money AD lobby but tell us Firefly fans to shut up and take what we are given. Firefly is obviously one of those topics metafilter just does not do well.
posted by Ad hominem at 6:55 PM on October 2, 2011 [2 favorites]


We just don't it well after hearing about it for the eleventh-billionth time, is all.
posted by Windigo at 6:59 PM on October 2, 2011 [2 favorites]


I concur with Linda Holmes. I no longer believe ANYTHING about the continued arrested development of Arrested Development. The little boy has cried wolf way, way, way too many fucking times and NOTHING HAS HAPPENED. It does not matter how much Mitch Hurwitz and everyone but Michael Cera wants to make a movie, if the Fox suits don't wanna let them, it won't happen.* And there's no logical reason why any suit is gonna put more money into something that never made them enough money in the first place. The only way any dead series continues these days is in a comic book, NOT on film, and I won't believe any more wolf calls until someone shows me a damn video of new AD footage. Period.

* Whenever I think, "Dang, wouldn't it be cool to make a TV show," I think of stuff like this, Firefly, Veronica Mars, et al. and then remember that TV depends on making buttloads of money for suits, and never fucking mind.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:01 PM on October 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


Nobody should remain silent in the face of injustice. AD fan's voices were heard and the lamestream media capitulated. Our time will come as well.
posted by Ad hominem at 7:05 PM on October 2, 2011


Dude, Firefly isn't very good.
posted by silby at 7:09 PM on October 2, 2011 [5 favorites]


No way they can bring back AD and not Firefly!

It would be brilliant if they managed to get the entire cast of Firefly into the Arrested Development episodes, even just as cameos.

(I'm imagining Fillion as some kind of group therapist, delivering a monolog about the importance of crew family loyalty and not selling out one another.)
posted by quin at 7:18 PM on October 2, 2011 [7 favorites]


Oh god let's not fight , not tonight of all nights.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:18 PM on October 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


Did you know Citizen Cane was a commercial failure and panned by critics? Now it is acknowledged as a classic. Future generations will marvel at the accomplishement that is Firefly. To quote the visionary Joss Wheadon "Burn the land and boil the sea ,You can't take the sky from me". You can spit on us, but Firefly will live on forever in our hearts.

Oh god let's not fight , not tonight of all nights.

I'll put aside the fight for now, in solidarity with our brothers.
posted by Ad hominem at 7:23 PM on October 2, 2011


?!?! Who approved this idea? One of those 15 year-old movie executives?? I'll be going to see The Ocean Walker that day.
posted by Mael Oui at 7:59 PM on October 2, 2011


Dude, Firefly isn't very good.

Dude, your mom isn't very good.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 7:59 PM on October 2, 2011 [6 favorites]


I have difficulty criticizing Fox executives for any of the cancellations of my favorite shows. Futurama? Sure, it went from a good first season to a great second season to an unbelievably brilliant third and fourth season... but its viewership went from 89th place to 97th place to 115th place... so if Fox tells me that people's interest in TV is inversely proportional to quality, who am I to shoot the messenger?

With Arrested Development, especially: can anyone honestly recommend that their friends start watching that show at episode 10 after skipping the first 9? Of course not - to fully appreciate the running jokes and callbacks the audience had to be hooked in at once or not at all. Arrested Development is possibly the single best DVD set I own, but it's just not well suited for broadcast release in a world full of fickle audiences without DVRs or TV-over-IP. The executive who cancelled it was probably making a decent (if in the end short-sighted) business decision.

On the other hand, the executive who decided to show Firefly episodes out of order? There was no excuse for that. "You see this man, he does not do the job. I show you what I do with him and now, my reputation for you is fact, is...solid." I deserve a small refund.
posted by roystgnr at 8:03 PM on October 2, 2011 [4 favorites]


It's not Fox, it's Netflix and Showtime.

And fuck Firefly. That show sucks no matter what order you watch it in.
posted by dobbs at 8:31 PM on October 2, 2011 [3 favorites]


Firefly was actually exceptionally good, however I do recognize that it had a whole bunch of surface-level blemishes that can make one disinclined to look deeper. Not the least of which was that horrible, horrible title song.
posted by neuromodulator at 8:32 PM on October 2, 2011 [3 favorites]


Did you know Citizen Cane was a commercial failure and panned by critics? Now it is acknowledged as a classic.

What on earth are you talking about? Nearly every contemporary reviewer sang its praises, and it was nominated for nine Oscars. Also, it's spelled with a K.
posted by RogerB at 8:42 PM on October 2, 2011 [6 favorites]


Arrested Development is the Duke Nukem of television.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:44 PM on October 2, 2011


You guys are no fun. We are in a thread about Arrested Development,a marginal, but great absurdist TV show and you are fact checking me comparing Firefly to Citizen Cane.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:56 PM on October 2, 2011


I think this will get great ratings and box office. Arrested Development has only become more Internet-famous since it was last on the air.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 9:04 PM on October 2, 2011


What on earth are you talking about? Nearly every contemporary reviewer sang its praises, and it was nominated for nine Oscars. Also, it's spelled with a K.

No, no, that's not it. I told you, it was about this old newspaper tycoon, and he died, and everybody was telling stories about him...
posted by Spatch at 9:05 PM on October 2, 2011 [6 favorites]


It's Citizen Kane! It's Citizen Kane! It's Citizen Kane!
posted by dobbs at 9:11 PM on October 2, 2011 [9 favorites]


*Kitizen
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:14 PM on October 2, 2011 [2 favorites]


It's Citizen Kane! It's Citizen Kane! It's Citizen Kane!
It's TERRIFIC!
posted by CarlRossi at 10:19 PM on October 2, 2011 [2 favorites]


I just hope they bring back Bob Loblaw's Law Blog.
posted by gallois at 10:35 PM on October 2, 2011 [2 favorites]


Look at Kitizen, Michael!

Also--and this is because I've ultimately given Rupert Murdoch money of my own free will twice by buying two officially sanctioned Archer t-shirts which get no recognition when I wear them out in public--please please please watch Archer if you're in any small way a fan of AD. It's got all the things you love:

--Jessica Walter as a boozy matriarch spy master. But she aspires to be a theatrical matriarch. She's more protective of her son (the titular character of the show) so much so that she makes Buster Bluth look as well-adjusted as Neil Patrick Harris.
--Judy Greer as a seriously fucked up secretary. Whose last name is Tunt, and whose first name is ... fluid.
--Jeffrey Tambor (and now David Cross) contribute their vocal talents as well as guest stars.
Also Patrick Warburton.
--It doesn't have Portia Di Rossi, but that's more than compensated for with Aisha Tyler.
--It's got all the quote-worthy, impossible, bizarre, and more than slightly disturbing situational comedy full of callbacks, call-outs, metatexual contextual subtextual homosexual incestual that AD did.
--Just like AD, the writing staff takes the English language, bends it over a table and does things to it. Wonderful, horrifying, correct things to it. Sometimes in Portuguese.

The show's readily available from a number of places. Watch it. Or I'll be forced to strip down and post this all over again.
posted by PapaLobo at 10:36 PM on October 2, 2011 [12 favorites]


So sick and tired of hearing about how brilliant Arrested Development is. Overrated.

Downvoted! Oh wait, never mind.
posted by gallois at 10:36 PM on October 2, 2011


It's Citizen Kane! It's Citizen Kane! It's Citizen Kane!

YOU NEED A MORTICIAN! A MORTICIAN! MORTICIAN!
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 11:20 PM on October 2, 2011 [3 favorites]


"Dude, your mom isn't very good."

I can verify that silby's mom is excellent.
posted by Eideteker at 11:30 PM on October 2, 2011


"Why are you squeezing me with your body?"

“It’s a hug, Michael. I’m hugging you.”

“Well, why?”

“Because you need your mother right now.”

“But I don’t get along with m… Sorry, that was a knee jerk.”
posted by Sweetie Darling at 3:28 AM on October 3, 2011 [1 favorite]


So are we turning this into a Kids in the Hall thread now?

Oh, I'm not being sarcastic! I've talked this way my whole life! It's made things very difficult.
posted by shakespeherian at 5:32 AM on October 3, 2011


Guys, Citizen Cane. It is pretty old and obscure, I'm not surprised you guys haven't heard of it. It is like, in black and white even.
posted by Ad hominem at 6:16 AM on October 3, 2011 [1 favorite]


That's the one where the guy at the end looks at the camera and says, "That Citizen Cane, he just wants what we all want: somebody to love him."
posted by DoctorFedora at 6:23 AM on October 3, 2011


Right, it was really low budget. It might not be on the Internet because like I said, not many people Have seen it. I caught a screening at an experimental film and puppetry festival in 91. Many critics were put off by what they considered to be overuse of fiction effects, the first 30 minutes were actually shown backwards. It has been enjoying a bit of a renaissance recently, there have been several new screenings at experimental film festivals, most recently the Spokane ingernational experimental film festival. It is now considered a true classic of experimental cinema.

I am not talking about Citizen Kane, that was mainstream Hollywood crap. Way too much CGI. Rosebud was actually computer generated and inserted later by the studio against the director's wishes.
posted by Ad hominem at 6:44 AM on October 3, 2011


They do occasional AD references in Archer too. The most recent episode had Jessica Walter's character saying to someone over the phone, "Now look here, Buster!"
posted by SpiffyRob at 8:10 AM on October 3, 2011 [1 favorite]


I remain skeptical this will actually happen...they just can't seem to get one in the can.
posted by nowoutside at 9:03 AM on October 3, 2011


Will this be as disappointing as the new Futurama episodes?
posted by smackfu at 9:09 AM on October 3, 2011


I can't imagine how one character per episode would work for AD. Color me excited anyway.

(I was at the event) Mitch went on to say the focus of each episode would be one character, but allowing for other characters to appear in some form. E.g., gur Ohfgre rcvfbqr fubjvat uvz orvat va gurencl jvgu Gbovnf nf uvf gurencvfg/nanyencvfg - ROT13.

According to Mitch, as he was writing the film he found he needed to devote about 5 minutes per character just for backstory, leaving no time for the actual movie. Hence, the concept of another TV series leading up to the movie was born. The script for the movie itself is about half done.
posted by rmannion at 9:35 AM on October 3, 2011 [1 favorite]


They do occasional AD references in Archer too.

"You don't get along with your neighbors anywhere."
posted by pickinganameismuchharderthanihadanticipated at 9:40 AM on October 3, 2011


After Running Wilde I'm not sure I want Mitch Hurwitz involved with this.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 9:56 AM on October 3, 2011 [1 favorite]


HEY NOW!

Oops, wrong show.
posted by dobbs at 11:30 AM on October 3, 2011


Arrgh. Forgot to include the link to video of the talk: HEY NOW!
posted by dobbs at 11:31 AM on October 3, 2011


Wait, has no one posted this yet?

I'll show you who's a Chiclet!
posted by therewolf at 9:29 AM on October 4, 2011


Has anyone in this family ever even seen a chicken?
posted by Sweetie Darling at 11:29 AM on October 4, 2011


please please please watch Archer if you're in any small way a fan of AD

Thanks for bringing this show to my attention, I am now recommending it to everyone I know.
posted by Lorin at 5:08 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]


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