You've heard the rumors. Emmy for Best Comedy, Golden Globe for Best Actor, WGA Award for Best Episodic Comedy - all of that be damned, low ratings deserve to be punished. And so Fox is probably on the cusp of cancelling Arrested Development. After all, as David Cross helpfully pointed out on The Jimmy Kimmel Show last month, Rupert Murdoch could make a lot more money off of a hip reality show like America's Cutest Retards. Here at TV Squad, we have just one thing to say about that:"Good Riddance!"
Yeah, that's right. You heard me - we don't want shows like Arrested Development sullying our beloved network. Face it, FOX - nobody wants to watch a character-driven comedy. We want traditional sitcoms that take place in living rooms. With couches. And lazy husbands and hot wives and mean-spirited children. Either that, or procedural dramas. Lots of them. Anything with forensics, you just keep coming. Reality is good too - let's have more of those shows where attractive people eat bugs and poor people fight for prizes. In fact, just put those two shows together - make some hot bug-eating chicks fight over an unemployed factory worker, and then give the winning couple a makeover and a dream house. Then give us a shocking twist. Give us anything, as long as you take away Arrested Development.
We expected more from creator Mitchell Hurwitz - he is, after all, the man that brought us Golden Girls - and no one knows better than executive producer Ron Howard how well tried and true formula works. And yet, they expect us to watch a sitcom without a laugh track? It's like, every single line is potentially funny, and some of them are funny in three or four different ways - how are you suppossed to know when to laugh? They can't all be jokes ... right? And even if they are, what are you suppossed to do? Watch the thing over and over again to glean jokes that flew past you the first time? It sounds to us like Arrested Development wants to reward viewers who are smart enough to remember old details and have the tenacity to careful pay attention to new ones. That's elitist. We don't like that.
In addition, the "scenes from the next episode" that appear at the end of every Arrested Development installment never actually appear in the following week's episode. This is not only extremely unprofessional, but it's just plain rude to promise something that you have no intention of delivering. I have personal testimonials from dozens of viewers who have been seriously traumatized by this cruel ploy on the part of the producers of Arrested Development - they're trying to get people to tune in the following week for scenes that aren't even there! Why would they trick us like that? We here at TV Squad don't like to be tricked. We don't think you do, either.
Arrested Development is a non-traditional, genre-bending, richly layered and intellectually complex character-based comedy. Plus, there's a character named Job, but they spell it GOB - and that's just blasphemous. For all of these reasons and many more, we think Arrested Development must be cancelled. Shows like this make us work hard, and that makes our brains hurt, and we don't like that. We don't need Arrested Development, and we don't want it.
Join us, America, in mobilizing the effort to rid our television screens of such dangerous material. The sooner we get this thing off the air, the sooner we can all sit down, relax, pop open a cold one and bask in the soothing rhythms of America's Cutest Retards.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
6-16-2005 @ 4:13PM
Jason said...
Someone has to do something about this show, and I'm happy to see TV Squad taking a stand.
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I've been frustrated by that "next week on Arrested Development" issue for weeks.
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Also, it's very hard to get into a show if they don't tell you went to laugh.. i agree 100%.
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The biggest issue, of course, is that it's impossible to keep up with the jokes. I mean, what is the point of layering five jokes on top of each other? It only makes people confused... I don't want TV to be confused, I watch TV to be entertained.
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6-16-2005 @ 4:13PM
Jose said...
I'm going to assume that was all sarcastic
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6-16-2005 @ 4:13PM
Magiske said...
About time some one talked some sense into FOX.
Should have been done years ago.
Then maybe we would not have had to watch Firefly or even Wonderfalls. They could have been canceled before they were aired. Would have save me so much thinking and laughing. I really hate that, makes my head hurt..
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6-16-2005 @ 4:13PM
justin said...
This show is by far the only comedy that makes me laugh out loud. When Buster tried to zipline over to the other hotel room using his "army skills", and then the hook came off his stump, and he fell through the glass window... It's a good thing I have tivo, because I had to pause it for about 5 minutes!
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6-16-2005 @ 4:13PM
Misfit said...
Ricardo - http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=sarcasm
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6-16-2005 @ 4:13PM
Zach said...
Never watched it much on TV until I was given a season collection for christmas. Now I'm hooked. I enjoy seeing a company president turned prison gangsta so much more than seeing any "Watch these hot people eat gross stuff!" or "Pro-bmx rider hosts High School Drama". By advocating that this show be cancelled just goes to show how little people respect writers. Which do you think takes more skill? Selecting African insects for models to eat, or building a show layering joke upon joke that can be watched years from now and still be enjoyed. I think there was a little show called Seinfeld that layered joke upon joke and turned out just fine.
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6-16-2005 @ 4:13PM
Fear factor fan said...
Zach, Clearly you're some high-priced Hollywood writer feeling just a *little* threatened. Your position is so clearly biased it is laughable. The fact that you put reality TV shows *above* a "comedy" like Cancelled Development shows exactly how elitist YOU are.
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Selecting the tasks on Fear Factor takes a TON OF SKILL... that's why it's #1 in the ratings. You keep comparing your world view with the at Fear Factor doing some *truly* innovative like contests that make people TUNE IN. Do you realize more folks watch one episode then watched all of Cancelled Development last year!?!?! The stats don't lie... open up the ratings book you Hollywood Hills, Porche-driving liberal freak.
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Yeah Seinfeld... that show was just amazing... amazing to the folks who lived in the New York or LA bubble. The rest of the folks in the country were left scratching their head going "why is this funny?!"
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Perhaps you should step down from your ivory tower and spend some time in the fly over states and get to understand the heartland--we run the country now if you haven't noticed, and Condi Rice is going to run over Hillary Clinton just like Fear Factor has demolished Cancelled Development. Welcome to *our* world--we're taking the media back from you liberal freaks.
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6-16-2005 @ 4:13PM
Chris Fenison said...
Obviously, the author isn't serious here. Arrested Development is in fact the best show on TV. And, I have a hunch FOX will bring it back just so it can win more awards. I think it will end up like Family Guy did. Bad ratings, hugely loyal fan base, great DVD sales. Fox canceled Family Guy and is now bringing it back. Because of that mistake I think they are going to allow Arrested Development to flop around in bad ratings for a few years.
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6-16-2005 @ 4:13PM
karina said...
Seinfeld, huh? Never seen it ...
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6-16-2005 @ 4:13PM
katherine said...
It's like so obvious how the writers here at TVSquad totally don't appreciate any intellingent, sophisticated humor! Cancel Arrested Development??!!! Like, what is this crap, a fake editorial? Jeez.
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6-16-2005 @ 4:13PM
Joshua Stein said...
Wow - It is amazing how many people don't get sarcasm, especially people who enjoy Arrested Development. I think it is safe to say that the writers here at TV Squad aren't dim-witted mouth-breathers (although I can't say the same for some of the comment posters), so either I look for nuance in too many places, or this was the most obvious piece of sarcasm I have ever seen. Do people really think they want to watch America's Cutest Retards?
Oh, and Fear Factor Fan, relax. You know, it is possible to enjoy your own shows without trashing others. That is why there are different outlets for programming. You just sit there spanking it to twins eating roaches, and let us enjoy programming that requires thought and writing.
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6-16-2005 @ 4:13PM
Keem Ameer said...
its a joke article!!! This is why you should read and not scan...
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6-16-2005 @ 4:13PM
C David said...
Wow. Everyone here is agreeing but not smart enough to realize it.
Fascinating.
Cancel Arrested Development! 'Cause I need to save money and can't be spending it all on DVDs!
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6-16-2005 @ 4:13PM
Zach said...
Haha, I wish I drove a Porsche. Hell, I wish I wrote. Those people actually get paid more than a poor college student from Indiana. As far as skillfully picking out tasks for Fear Factor, the hardest part is picking something that they haven't already drove into the ground (eating bugs). But with doing something new its immediately interesting. When was the last time you saw a character driven comedy since the wave of Reality TV came over us? Its been a while. I actually liked growing up with shows like Full House, Family Matters, etc. Today kids grow up with shows that have no imagination. Don't base quality on ratings. Thats what TV networks do and it shows with all of the "QUALITY" reality tv we're given in return. I just like shows with a challenge. Shows that make you think about its jokes. Sorry that Arrested Development doesn't pass your quality bar which you've obviously placed very high. All the way up there with 'Eating Bugs For Money'.
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6-16-2005 @ 4:13PM
Mark Rabinowitz said...
My hovercraft is full of eels.
That is all I have to say on the subject.
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6-16-2005 @ 4:13PM
Marcus the Great said...
I personally liked wonderfalls, and arrested development, and family guy... I dont know why anybodt would cancel these shows... We need more shows like arrested development, somethnig fresh, something not "Reality TV"... (just my 2 cents)
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6-16-2005 @ 4:13PM
Is said...
Glasses off, hair up
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6-16-2005 @ 4:13PM
Andrea said...
Great article. I think the American public hasn't evolved enough to appreciate this type of humor. My favorite show on tv, ever. Oh, and I prefer glasses off, hair down. :)
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6-16-2005 @ 4:13PM
Gunnerz Rock said...
I think you are all crazy. Arrested development makes me crack up, TV squad think it's a problem for there to be "too many" jokes. Then whats the point of a comedy? They try to make out that "GOB" is somehow blasphemous because it is remotely close to "GOD". Why don't they jump on the backs of every person in the world who calls their canine "DOG"?
The way I see it, TV Squad needs a kill for they have been quiet for some time with the appearence of too many good shows. Stupidly they decided to take Arrested Develpoment on, which, as I believe is a stupid mistake.
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6-16-2005 @ 4:13PM
Brian said...
I don't know whats funnier.
The article itself, which is about as subtle as a breeze block, or the fact that some people clearly don't get it. But then again, americans are renowned not only for their charm and intelligence, but also their subtle sense of irony. Probably why so many of them actually like this show.
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