TVSquad

With Arrested Development, Mitchell Hurwitz went through the ringer with critical support, winning awards, and grassroots campaigns to convince Fox to keep the show on the air that ultimately failed. So what does Hurwitz do for a follow-up? He takes some of the same cast (Will Arnett, Jason Bateman), goes back to the same network (Fox), and back to an idea he had before Arrested hit the airwaves.

The new show is Sit Down, Shut Up, an animated series that debuts April 19th at 8:30 PM, in between The Simpsons and Family Guy.

"It's funny, this is a show that I actually wrote in the year 2000, and it was an adaptation of a live-action show from Australia," Hurwitz said in a recent conference call. "I kind of kept it in the drawer for a long time, and finally brought it out, mostly because I needed money, which - I enjoy money, and I also use it for all sorts of different things in my life, but mostly for food and shelter."

So why go back to Fox, the network that canceled Arrested Development? "I was glad they were willing to make another show with me," said Hurwitz. "And they're kind of the only game in town when it comes to animation, which we decided early on to do with this."

Sit Down centers on the faculty of a small town school in Florida where no one seems to care about the kids or teaching. The exception is Larry Littlejunk, voiced by Bateman, who is relegated to teaching gym. Arnett voices Ennis Hofftard, a wannabe jock who teaches English. They join Will Forte, Henry Winkler, Kristin Chenoweth, Cheri Oteri, Tom Kenny, Nick Kroll, and Kenan Thompson in the cast.

"There's an element of it that's kind of like Peanuts for adults," said Hurwitz. "The kids in the school are almost nonexistent. They're as integral to the show as the paper products are to the show The Office. It really is just about these unbelievably immature adults."

Hurwitz is thrilled to be working with Forte, who was also on the conference call. He compares having Forte on the show to working with Jim Carrey before he did Ace Ventura, putting Forte in pretty good comic company. "I remember that with Steve Carell too, thinking, like, this guy is going to be huge, right?" said Hurwitz. "And I feel that way about Forte."

Forte is equally impressed with Hurwitz, especially the scripts for Sit Down. "Each one, they're better and better and better, and they're just so rich with jokes," said Forte. "Sometimes I'll go through - there are just so many jokes in there that I can't process them all, and you're constantly like rereading and you're finding new things. It's just such a joy."

That rapid-fire style was the main difference Hurwitz noted between writing for live action and writing for animation. "I have noticed that writing for animation is much more joke-intensive and much more about the comedy, and more specifically, much less about grounding a character's drive," he said.

And what of the much rumored Arrested Development movie? Hurwitz said there is no script yet, but the ideas are coming together (he asked Forte during the conference call if he would be part of the movie, and the two joked about what his role would be - Forte would be happy with Kraft services).

"You know what, we have a lot of little pieces," said Hurwitz. "I'm writing it with Jim Vallely, and we have all these little ideas and everything. But with the show, it's always been about tying all the pieces together, so - none of them alone quite make a movie yet. We're still assembling the pieces."