Still under Development
Arrested Development creator not finished with the Bluths yet,
MONTREAL Arrested Development creator Mitchell Hurwitz isn’t finished yet with the dysfunctional Bluth family.
He’s not exactly sure what will happen next, which is oddly appropriate for such an unpredictable comedy.
“We’re trying to figure that out,” he said in an interview at the Just For Laughs comedy festival where he addressed members of the entertainment industry.
“The next thing that might happen, it’s not wholly up to me, but I’d like to get the whole cast together, do some sort of movie to finish the story that we’ve told. We already have the way that would go into another season on Netflix.”
The current season was originally conceived as a series of webisodes, which eventually developed into 15 shows of around 30 minutes each. Hurwitz compared the way the story unfolds to the way a novel does — “one big story that will slowly come together.”
Arrested Development follows the bumbling Bluths, whose levels of self-absorption veer into the bizarre for rib-tickling results.
It had a short, three-season run on network television before being cancelled in 2006 and replaced by the largely now-forgotten Pamela Anderson comedy Stacked.
Arrested Development, however, had developed a rabid and vocal fan following even if it didn’t immediately translate into ratings. Other people engaged with the show on DVD and demands for more episodes followed.
It is one of the few instances of a show being brought back from the dead because of fan demand, the other most notable examples being the crude cartoon The Family Guy, which was spurred by DVD sales, and the rebooting of the Star Trek franchise after the show’s initial run faltered.
Hurwitz said the cast is open to continuing the Bluths’ story.
“Everybody’s game,” he said. “It’s their show too. Everybody feels very proprietary about it and that’s a fortune too, that I don’t have to feel that I’m asking for a favour. It’s fun for all of us.” In the meantime, he said he believed it is likely that 20th Century Fox will release a DVD of the fourth season.
“I’m going to do some fun things to that,” said Hurwitz, who is also receiving an award at the Montreal festival as comedy writer of the year.
Arrested Development, which has been known for breaking ground with its innovative ways of telling its stories, scored another innovation recently when it and the Netflix political drama House of Cards were nominated for Emmys in major categories.
It was the first time that’s happened since web content was allowed into contention in 2008.
Star Jason Bateman, who plays the hapless Michael Bluth, was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. Other nominations are for outstanding music composition for a series and outstanding single-camera editing for a comedy series.
“We were so happy that Jason got acknowledged for his great work and really that the Emmys considered Netflix at all,” Hurwitz said, adding the production isn’t in it for the awards. “We’re doing it for the fans.” Hurwitz, who has The Ellen Show, Ellen DeGeneres’s sitcom, and The Golden Girls among his network TV credits, was effusive in his praise of Netflix for its support of the show.
“They really made this a great experience because they’re risk-takers and they’re trying to do business differently. They’re trying to give the audience what they want directly.”
He acknowledged that the Netflix system can absorb some risk and doesn’t necessarily have to cater to the perfect demographic. Viewers can also watch what they want when they want to and even watch a whole season of a TV show at once if that’s what they desire.
“It feels like you’ve got some free will in the matter,” Hurwitz said.
The producer said he realized, as he got further into the Arrested Development return, that there was an increasing level of fan expectations. However, he said, by that point he was too excited about putting the show together and twisting the story to worry about the reaction.
“In many ways, I felt like ‘I hope this even makes sense, much less pleases the fans’ so it was an interesting experience,” he said.
Hurwitz said he knows the show has its critics but says at the end of the day you have to tune that out. People who liked the show liked what was done, he said.
The producer said the feeling that Arrested Development is somewhat of a pop-culture phenomenon escaped him initially because he was so immersed in getting the show’s return approved and then making the episodes.
“With a little distance, I can see it that way a little more, that this was something that happened because of a movement,” he said. “This is a privilege.
“It’s not a failed show. It connected with an audience. It made people laugh. What could be better than that?”