The original concept for Arrested Development came about in 2002 when Ron Howard had the idea to make a comedy series using handheld cameras so it would have the look and feel of reality TV, but with an elaborate script resulting from repeated rewrites and rehearsals. Mitch Hurwitz was brought on board and came up with the idea of a riches-to-rags family story, inspired by recent corporate accounting scandals, such as Enron and Adelphia. The show was a massive hit with the critics. The first season won 5 Emmy Awards and the show frequently appears on lists of the best TV shows of all time. If you haven't seen it, then do so immediately. Then re-watch it several times. Chances are you'll miss a ton of clever jokes and references the first time. Despite the critical acclaim, the show failed to gain a sizeable audience. In November 2005 Fox announced that they had cut the episode order from 22 down to just 13. There were rumours of the show moving to another network but Hurwitz decided not to do so. In 2006 he said: "If there's a way to continue this in a form that's not weekly episodic series television, I'd be up for it" Enter Netflix. Six years after the series was cancelled, filming began for a fourth season with 15 episodes later released simultaneously on Netflix. There are also plans for a film.
Created in a petri dish in an underground lab, I was originally designed by scientists to carry out high-profile assassinations for the CIA. Unfortunately, something went wrong and my only skill was writing list-based articles. So now I do that instead.
