There are two groups of people in this world; those that have seen Arrested Development and those that have yet to see it which the first group would like to bunch in the face for being so behind the times. To say the return of Arrested Development's dysfunctional Bluth family is anxiously anticipated by it's followers is like saying World War 2 was just a little misunderstanding over cheese. Unless you lived under a bus for the last 5+ years, you should have heard of how intelligent and amazing this American sit-com was even if you didn't want to.
From it's not-so-subtle references to itself, to it's now common documentary-style filming and the outstanding comedic ensemble from unseen narrator Ron Howard down to guest stars such as Charlize Theron and Scott Baio as Bluth love interests and Carl Weathers and Judge Reinhold as themselves, Arrested Development was put in the same league as the original Star Trek after it's cancellation; too smart for it's time and cancelled because of it. Most of it's current fan base have come from word of mouth after the release of it's 3 scaled down seasons on dvd and it's return on Netflix.
It is considered a victory by many on the internet that the Bluths have finally returned after a prolonged fight to get the cast all on the same timetable, a problem that resolved itself after Michael Cera, who was one of the more active actors immediately after the cancellation of the series, finally found his calendar free of upcoming film commitments thanks to his plummeting stock at the box office (despite some quality cult flicks in Scott Pilgrim and Year One) and the rising stock of the 'other Michael Cera', Jesse Eisenberg.
While Cera's shooting star film career had at times been blamed for the delay of AD to be truthful nearly all the main leads, including creator Mitch Hurwitz, have been pretty busy with other work in the intervening years. Thanks to Netflix, a one season exclusive distribution deal and feature film slated to hit direct viewing later this month will either finally shut a lot of people up or just increase the cult of Bluth, following the lead of other non-commerical break shows like Game of Thrones, House of Cards and Boardwalk Empire. The future is looking good for non-commercial interrupted television viewing.
It's impossible to formulate a 50 best Arrested Development jokes because all we would be doing is skimming the top of a veritable mountain of comedy. All this list should do for those awaiting AD's return is remind them of other jokes upon the other jokes, a hallmark of the show, an unending rabbit hole of amusement. Most of the one-liners are missed on first viewing because they are just a continuation of another joke that may have started episodes ago. Much of the comedy in AD comes from in-jokes, continual story-lines, comments on (then) current events, visual cues and cut-away inserts. The ability to stop and zoom in on those inserts are an Egg hunters dream. If you are able, I highly recommend it. For example; the sign in Wee Britain about Mary Poppuns (note spelling) states; “Caution: Please stay off my landing port... I’m not the tourist killing sort... But if you have a working girl to kill, please let her stay while I do my will.”
Impossible to read during normal viewing but just a quick example of the care taken in the commitment of the show to entertain.
Here are 50 pleasant memories to get us prepared for the return of Arrested Development and the subjects they address.
50 Yearbook pictures
In particular Steve Holt!'s yearbook pictures. This is an example of just one of the many Easter Eggs awaiting closer viewing. Although the pictures go too fast to actually read the captions, if you pause and scroll, you will see that each one is a set up to the next,
They read, in order: (1) “Nickname: Steve Holt!, Activities: Football, I’m out of here!” (2) “Nickname: Steve Holt! Activities: Drama, Quote: ‘See ya, suckers!’ (3) Nickname: Steve Holt! Activities: Food Services, Quote: ‘Study hard, guys — trust me.’
His mother's name was 'Eve Holt' (naturally) and as Gob just mentioned that he banged her, thereby opening up the possibility Steve Holt(!) is his son, her caption reads "What have I done?" which was also one of Gob's catchphrases.
