Fox released Arrested Development in 2003, which set itself apart from other sitcoms due to its innovative production techniques along with its clever writing combined with its outstanding group of performers. The plot of the show follows a formerly rich family, the Bluths, who find themselves in financial and legal trouble.
The character at the center of this dysfunctional family is Michael Bluth, played by Jason Bateman, who tries to keep his relatives together while he deals with his own problems. The ensemble cast includes Michael Cera, Will Arnett, Jessica Walter, Jeffrey Tambor, Tony Hale, Portia de Rossi, David Cross, and Alia Shawkat, who have contributed with very memorable performances.
Moreover, at times, it does seem as if Arrested Development was documenting real-life events, making its fans often wonder whether the Bluths happen to be inspired by a real family. Let’s take a look at how much of Arrested Development is based on reality.
Real inspirations behind Arrested Development
Arrested Development was created by Mitchell Hurwitz, and the discussions regarding the show took place beginning in the summer of 2002. The idea was originally pitched to Ron Howard, who thought of the series as a comic production shot with handheld cameras and somehow using elements from reality TV with elaborately funny scripts.
Although Arrested Development cannot claim to be a true story, it draws heavily upon actual corporate scandals for its inspiration. The corrupt business practices and legal troubles of the Bluth family are written to parallel genuine cases of white-collar crime and financial corruption.
Through its mockumentary technique, the production maintains a flow that keeps the viewers wondering about what elements exist as true facts and which do not. This feeling is also achieved through their handheld camera work along with Ron Howard’s narrations and documentary-style editing methods.
Coupled with brilliant yet flawed characterizations of the cast make their characters feel like real people, despite their exaggerated nature which brings a level of realism that very few other comedy series have accomplished.
Interestingly, Hurwitz shared that the Bluth family was originally based on his own wife’s family. During an interview with The New Yorker, when asked if there was any ambiguity with respect to the family’s religion, he said, “It started, it had a real Gentile vibe to it, but it got more Jewish.”
Why Arrested Development was canceled and revived again
Despite all its acclaim and its well-deserved wins at multiple Emmy Award functions, Arrested Development was canceled after three seasons by Fox. The major reason was consistently poor ratings throughout its original airing. With the show’s viewership declining through each passing season, Fox reduced the number of episodes while frequently changing the time slot to find an audience.
Poor advertisement efforts from Fox could possibly account for the low viewership for the show. To make matters worse, a lawsuit was filed by a band, also named ‘Arrested Development’. When the network scheduled the last run of four episodes of season three against the Winter Olympics, the show had its lowest viewership, which marked its exit.
However, after being canceled, Arrested Development gained a cult following. Many insiders said it was simply ahead of its time. While comedies in the early 2000s catered to The Office style, modern-day sitcoms have chosen to experiment with the narrative structure and joke-telling format that Arrested Development first introduced.
With the growing popularity and critical reputation of the show, Netflix revived Arrested Development for its fourth season, which came out in May 2013. This became one of Netflix’s early steps into original programming and showed that the company was putting considerable effort behind the idea of resurrecting canceled shows with committed fan bases.
Netflix released the fifth season five years later in 2018, completing the revival arc. However, many found it to be underwhelming, with the general opinion being that the show had perhaps run its natural course by then.
Matt Damon’s interest in Arrested Development
Quite surprisingly, Jason Bateman recently revealed on Conan O’Brien’s podcast that Matt Damon had once pitched himself for a role in the potential Arrested Development movie. Bateman recalls running into Damon at an awards show, probably the Golden Globes, in which Damon had praised the show.
According to him, Matt Damon was interested in playing Michael Bluth, Bateman’s character. Bateman said,
I remember Matt Damon coming up to me at — I think it was like a Golden Globes or something — and I was so excited to meet him and, and he was a huge fan of Arrested Development. And he was saying, ‘You know, I really think I could play, because I hear you guys are doing the movie, I think I could… can I play you?’
Although this might sound unusual, Damon’s request came at a time when the creator, Mitchell Hurwitz, had been considering an Arrested Development film adaptation. Bateman said,
[Hurwitz] was thinking the story of the Arrested Development movie would be that in the show, Hollywood wanted to make a movie about [the Bluth family], and we certainly couldn’t play ourselves, because we’re not actors.
Such a meta approach would work perfectly because it aligned with the show’s style of self-referential humor, which also broke the fourth wall. However, the possibility of an Arrested Development film in the future was rejected when O’Brien asked Bateman about it. “I don’t think anybody gives a sh*t. I think it’s done,” he stated.
Mitchell Hurwitz’s real-life family experiences with his in-laws and actual corporate scandals from real events made Arrested Development feel like it was based on real-life events even though the series was fiction. Although we might never see Matt Damon as Michael Bluth, the series continues to shape modern television comedy.
Arrested Development is available to stream on Netflix.
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