Arrested Development: 10 Insane Details You Definitely Missed
4. The Show Parodied Friends A Lot Early On
Throughout Arrested Development's run, the show parodied several franchises as an homage (or ding) in various ways. Most viewers picked up on the allusions to The Peanuts, which included one scene where George Michael walks past a red doghouse with his head down just like Charlie Brown.
Other references to pop culture were less evident to the vast majority of viewers. There's one scene where the family's lawyer, Barry, jumps over a small shark as they are walking about a marina. Millennials probably didn't pay attention to this, but anyone who watched Happy Days laughed uncontrollably.
Other than that, there were references to shows that viewers likely didn't realize until they binged the series years after it originally aired. Friends was one of the most popular television shows of all time when Arrested Development aired. While the first season doesn't pay homage to it, the second does.
There are some interesting parallels between the two series, but it's nothing you see on the screen. The episode titles are all about the '90s sitcom with "The One Where Michael Leaves" and "The One Where They Build A House," mirroring Friends' naming convention. On top of that, one episode based in Mexico was simply titled "Amigos."