The fourth season of Arrested Development is premiering this Sunday, just seven years after season three ended. It’ll be one of the longest gap between season for a US show, breaking records of shows like Family Guy (three years) and Futurama (five years). It’s also the only of those three that’s not a cartoon. Unless you count the banana grabber cartoon.
Here are some things you may not know about the show:
Liza Minnelli took the role of Lucille 2 because Ron Howard asked her to do it. Ms. Minnelli was Mr. Howard’s babysitter when he was a kid.
If you need an example of how much thought went into writing this show, listen to this: Even though Buster didn’t lose his left hand until the 11th episode of season two, it was foreshadowed as early as the very first episode of season one. In that episode Lucile’s fox pelt is missing it’s left paw.
The season one episode, “Whistler’s Mother” contains a reference to Freaks and Geeks, another low rated yet critically acclaimed canceled-to-soon show. In the episode an activist played by Dave “Gruber” Allen tells Lindsay Funke, “Face it Linsay, they’ve won”. He’s said the exact same thing to Lindsay Weir in Freaks and Geeks, in which he was a regular.
The “Save The Bluths” (officially titles S.O.B.s) episode was a parody of efforts by the fans to save the show from cancellation. The episode was written and aired shortly after FOX had cut the season three episode count to 13 from the original 22 it ordered.
Besides specifically mentioning Save Our Bluths, an actual website setup to help petition for another season of the show, the episode also make several other references to it’s desperation to stay on the air. This includes 3-D segments and numerous celebrity appearances.
A joke in the episode also made reference to rumors that Shotime was interested in picking up the series. George Sr. mention the group joining the “Home Builders’ Organization” to which Michael responds ‘H.B.O. doesn’t want us.” So George then declares, “Then it’s Showtime:.
An inside joke about the show’s fate was also in a season two episode when Michael complains that an order of houses was cut from 22 to 18. FOX had cut the number of season two’s episodes by the same number.
Even though we know Netflix will debut all 15 season four episodes this Sunday, it is still unknown at what exact time. But it has been said it’ll be the same moment in United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latin America, Brazil and the Nordics.
If you want to know the exact minute when the show hit’s Netflix, you can try texting ANN to (619) 344-8325. You will supposably receive a text as soon the show is ready to watch. Also, feel free to call the number to help pump you up for the new episodes.
To help you get prepared, click here for a handy chart of running gags on the show from NPR.
