Arrested Development (TV series)

Arrested Development is a character-driven comedy television series about a wealthy and dysfunctional family. The show is presented like a documentary, complete with narration, archival photos, and historical footage. Although set in Newport Beach, California and Balboa Island, it is primarily filmed on location around Culver City and Marina Del Rey.

Trivia

• Michael Bluth's (Jason Bateman) first name is a sly reference to Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) of The Godfather movies. Like Corleone, Michael Bluth is the son of a wealthy and powerful family who is (somewhat reluctantly) forced to take over the family business due to the incapacity of the family's patriarch. The parallel extends to the order of birth, as Michael Corleone is the third born, after Santino and Fredo, and Michael Bluth is the third born after GOB and Lindsay (Lindsay is the older twin of Michael). However, after assuming power, both are subsequently surrounded by brothers and sisters who constantly ask for money or scheme behind their backs. There is even a scene in which the eldest Bluth son GOB confronts Michael, claiming that, because he is older, he should have control of the company and is tired of not getting respect, a dialog nearly identical to Fredo's conversation with Michael Corleone over the same thing in The Godfather Part II. Equivocation is a recurring theme throughout the series.
• In "The Immaculate Election," it is revealed that Steve Holt is GOB's son. This means that both of the men that Maeby is interested in are her cousins. She may have a third cousin in the works as well, since her uncle Michael was intimate with the compulsively-lying shyster Maggie Lizer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who first feigned blindness, then pretended to be pregnant by him, later confessed after her ruse was exposed, and then learned she had actually concieved a child and Michael may be the father.
• Alia Shawkat and Mae Whitman play Mae 'Maeby' Fünke and Ann Veal respectively. George Michael Bluth is attracted to both characters. Shawkat and Witman are friends in real life and played friends in the short lived show "State of Grace".
• The episode "The Immaculate Election" pays homage to the movie Star Wars in several ways: When George Michael tapes his lightsaber moves, he is paying homage to/mocking the internet fad Star Wars Kid in which he emulates the awkward lightsaber combat. Steve Holt is revealed as being GOB's son, and in Buster's footage, which foreshadowed his missing hand.
• In the episode "Motherboy XXX," Barry Zuckerkorn (Henry Winkler, the Fonz on Happy Days) hops over a dead shark, in a reference to the now-infamous jumping of the shark from Happy Days. In the third season, the role of the Bluth family lawyer will be taken over by Scott Baio, who costarred with Winkler on Happy Days.
• In the episode "Altar Egos", Barry Zuckerkorn does the Fonz pose in the bathroom mirror.
• The program has aspects of a documentary (tripping cameramen, not filming inside a courtroom), but it isn't confirmed as a mockumentary.
• Since the show airs on network television and aims to resemble a documentary, all swearing must be bleeped out. However, the producers must find ways to obscure the mouths of the characters who are swearing so that their mouths don't also have to be blurred out. This is often accomplished by cutting to a shot of another character reacting to the swearing, or by blocking the mouths with objects. Sometimes the characters resort to just covering their mouths with their hands.
• George Sr. and Tobias were never meant to be regulars, but positive test reponses kept them in the cast.
• David Cross improvises a large percentage of his character's dialogue.
• Lindsay's cell phone ringtone is the Arrested Development theme.
• GOB's cell phone ringtone is Europe's The Final Countdown, his magic act song.
• Lucille's adopted son from Korea, AnnYong, was shipped away to boarding school and was never seen again.
• As the narrator, Ron Howard makes several references to both The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days (on which he played Opie and Richie Cunningham, respectively).
• In the episode "Public Relations", Jessie calls George Michael ?Opie.? The Narrator says "Jessie had gone too far and had best watch her mouth."
• In the episode "For British Eyes Only", George Bluth schemes to get Andy Griffith to appear with him at his trial, hoping that his role as Matlock might sway the jury. Griffith never shows up at the court, because he believed they were making fun of him. The narrator adds, "No one was making fun of Andy Griffith. I can?t emphasize that enough."