Continuing Development
By Kelly Dickinson | Oct 4th, 2011
It sounds too good to possibly be true, but it has been confirmed by numerous sources: Arrested Development is continuing development. The news broke Sunday afternoon at the New Yorker Festival.
It was subsequently confirmed by cast-members.
This unleashed a netwide euphoria of moleperson proportions. And while it seemed too good to be true, it wasn’t: the news was subsequently confirmed by series creator Mitch Horowitz himself.
This comes after recent and fairly concrete rumors that a film script was in development. According to the conference, the series will consist of ten episodes, each of which will focus on what the members of the Bluth family have been doing to fill the past five years. The season will lead up to the promised film, in which the Bluths will all come together.
Any skepticism on the subject is perhaps understandable, as AD fans have been shouting for a movie since the show’s tragic and undeserved cancellation that left us all hungry for more. And some TV critics are still in pinch-me-I’m-dreaming mode.
Perhaps the uncertainty and unbelievability of it all is why it was kept so hush-hush on the internet for so long. Then again, creator Mitch Hurwitz is a man of few words.
The new season has been tentatively set to air in 2013, but it has not been confirmed which network will pick it up. Perhaps none will. While vocal fanbases have previously resurrected shows to lucrative ends for the networks (see: Family Guy), other attempts have been less successful. In 2007, Jericho, a show with a small but devoted fanbase, was canceled by CBS. This inspired a massive, internet-based grassroots movement to bring the show back. Expecting a positive ratings shift, CBS granted their wishes. But the show’s viewership was even smaller than before, and it was inevitably sent back to the grave.
However, a lot has changed since 2007. The networks are no longer blind to the fact that quirky, niche shows like Arrested Development attract many viewers through streaming services. (There have been whispers of Netflix picking up the new episodes, which would probably be a wise move.) Even more has changed since AD was given the boot in 2006 – the single-camera zany-family sitcom is now a staple on American TV. Shows like The Office, Community, and Modern Family have redefined how America likes its humor: firecracker-witty, well-produced, and sans laugh-track.
Of course, viewership numbers will mean something entirely different when the Bluths go to the big screen. It will have to appeal to a much wider audience than the show originally gathered. In 2005, when the much-loved Firefly was resurrected for theaters as Serenity, its viral campaign and post-cancellation vocal nerd fandom drew more viewers than then the series ever could, but it was still considered a box-office disappointment.
Hopefully the insane internet reaction will mean good things for this reemergence of a modern classic. Hopefully no network or streaming service is too chicken to take it. Otherwise we’ll all be blue.
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