Arrested Development [Archive] - Absolute Write Water Cooler

kirstin_mccormack

03-17-2007, 08:06 AM

Anyone else like this show? I get a huge kick out of the irreverant humour and unpredictable plot lines.

Oh course, since I thought it was the best show on TV, it got cancelled...

Are there any similar shows out in TV land that could fill the void? :)

billythrilly7th

03-17-2007, 09:17 AM

I thought it was awful and was thrilled when it and we were finally put out of our misery with it's cancellation.

But that's just my opinion.

:Shrug:

PeeDee

03-17-2007, 09:42 AM

Fortunately, we don't listen to Billy. Because he has no taste.

Because it was hilarious. All the bizarre storylines, from going to POW camps, to the brother being a nevernude, to George Michael being...George Michael. It was strange and bizarre and as off-kilter as Seinfeld when it first aired.

billythrilly7th

03-17-2007, 10:03 AM

Fortunately, we don't listen to Billy. Because he has no taste.

Because it was hilarious.

I'll give you my stock answer....

So hilarious that no one watched it and was cancelled.

'Nuff said.

It was a stupid stupid pointless show.

Great comedy is based in truth. There wasn't a hint of truth or reality which made the show just one dumb gag after another and you could care less about the family, the characters, the storylines or the entire show in general.

And that's why no one watched. And that's why it got the axe.

IMO

Good riddance, AD.

PeeDee

03-17-2007, 10:12 AM

I agree with your definition of comedy...but I still enjoyed the show. So poo poo on you. :D

Anyway, it's a moot point since whether it was comedic gold or a waste of space...it's axed either way. So that takes care of that.

beezle

03-17-2007, 10:13 AM

Well, I watched it, and I laughed.

billythrilly7th

03-17-2007, 10:32 AM

I agree with your definition of comedy...but I still enjoyed the show. So poo poo on you. :D

Fair enough. I'll take that poo poo and run with it.

Thank you.
:)

PeeDee

03-17-2007, 11:20 AM

We just had, like, the wussiest fight ever on these forums. We're a disappointment. Good thing this isn't Pay per view.

David Erlewine

03-17-2007, 05:15 PM

BillyT, you sound like a big "According to Jim" fan. Good for you. I hope I'm wrong. What current comedies do meet your standards?

AD was a classic. I'll miss that "analrapist" Tobias of course. Jason Bateman, who never really impressed me before, was the perfect deadpan snarky protagonist. And, of course, George Michael was hilarious. A great classic that of course most people wouldn't find as funny as Jim Belushi mugging for the camera.

DVGuru

03-20-2007, 12:32 AM

Arrested Development had intelligent humor. Some of the jokes were so subtle you had to think about them. I've watched through the entire series three times now and I sometimes still pick up a joke or two I never realized was there. That's what I love about the show, and unfortunately, one of the reasons why I think it failed.

beezle

03-20-2007, 01:56 AM

Ahhh yes, it suffered the old "If there's no laugh track, how do we know what's funny?" syndrome.

PeeDee

03-20-2007, 01:58 AM

Ahhh yes, it suffered the old "If there's no laugh track, how do we know what's funny?" syndrome.

Just like ER. :)

Sarita

03-20-2007, 02:18 AM

I loved this show (and have the DVD's) Fox changed the days and times several times midseason and I had a hard time catching it (pre-dvr for me.)

I loved Buster and his Lucille 2. The mother often said things that, well... I could hear my mother saying. It always made my sisters and I laugh.

Shadow_Ferret

03-20-2007, 02:25 AM

I'm with Billy on this one. AD was absolute nonsense. I tried watching it but just found myself lost trying to figure out what the heck was going on or why anyone found it even remotely amusing.

jebedi

03-20-2007, 09:15 PM

AD is the only television series i ever bought the DVDs for. Even so, i still watch the reruns. The Office is the only other television show i watch, luckily it did well enough to start that they don't flip the times on me.

BottomlessCup

03-21-2007, 04:41 AM

The writers for this show blow my mind.

They'd spend three episodes carefully setting up gags, then let 'em all rip in some flawless rube-goldbergesque set piece that averages about 40 punchlines per minute. Never before has a show made me say "how the f*** did they come up with that?" so often.

Great show. Shame they couldn't find a way to keep it on.

BiggerBoat

03-21-2007, 07:53 AM

(Raised hand)

Arrested Development was awesome.

katiemac

03-21-2007, 09:36 AM

Agreed.

I think one of my favorite lines was when Buster lost his hand. "Watch out! There's a LOOSE SEAL!"

BiggerBoat

03-21-2007, 11:20 AM

Tobias Funke: I blue myself.
Michael Bluth: There has got to be a better way to say that.

P.H.Delarran

03-21-2007, 11:45 AM

Oh yes, this was one of the few shows in recent years that I sought out. Bizarre, yes, but it made me laugh.

merper

03-23-2007, 04:02 AM

I don't think it's a show you can start watching in the middle - there's too many inside jokes, especially in the later seasons.

If you watched it from the beginning and didn't like it, then I want nothing to do with you.

Shadow_Ferret

03-23-2007, 04:44 AM

If you watched it from the beginning and didn't like it, then I want nothing to do with you.

*shrugs and walks away*

billythrilly7th

03-23-2007, 05:57 AM

*shrugs and walks away*

Don't worry, Shadow, not many TV shows in American history were able to shed viewers at a faster rate than AD. Every year less and less people watched...7 million, to 6 million, to 4 million to adiosland....

People ran from this thing like ...uh...some metaphor for people running from something in a panic. Volcano or something. :Shrug:

Anyhooo...

R.I.P. AD

Better luck next time.

merper

03-23-2007, 07:17 AM

Cause we all know ratings are the only mark of a good show. Not like fox had a dozen other good shows that tanked in ratings, got cancelled and came back, because they were actually quite good. Shows with names like Family guy and Futurama and Firefly.

If only I had such examples to use!

Not that I'm saying AD is going to come back, but if every critic - and I'm not even talking high brow critics - were raving about it, there has to be a reason. Whatever, though, it's really your loss.

billythrilly7th

03-23-2007, 07:27 AM

Cause we all know ratings are the only mark of a good show.

Yes. Exactly.

Four seasons and shedding millions of viewers each season until you were left with practically nothing is a good sign the show stinks.

But art is subjective.

The show didn't stink for people who like it. That's fine.

There were just very few of those people by all historical TV standards.

LOSING VIEWERS year after year is just not good.

Maybe if it had maintained it's season 1 ratings or leveled off after season 2, I could say the show was okay and shoulda stuck around ...but people fled from this thing year after year. So, whatever the rarified few of you saw in this thing, the vast vast majority of people didn't.

The way this show lost viewers was the sign of a not very good show by all historical standards of measurement.

But at least you can watch the show on DVD to your hearts content.

Enjoy the gags.

Anthony P. Steerpike

03-23-2007, 07:44 AM

“ . . . even if it means me taking a chubby, I will suck it up . . . ”

How I miss Tobias.

Shadow_Ferret

03-23-2007, 08:32 AM

Shows with names like Family guy and Futurama and Firefly.

Family Guy and Futurama? I want nothing to do with someone who thinks those were good shows.

merper

03-23-2007, 09:32 AM

Family guy not so much. Futurama, very much.

And you can't have nothing to do with me - I had nothing to do with you first!

billythrilly7th

03-23-2007, 09:38 AM

Family Guy is brilliant and funny and rightfully still on the air.

And Arrested Development stunk, wasn't that funny, and is rightfully in it's grave and won't come back to life like Family Guy.

Lock Thread.

maxmordon

07-19-2007, 12:55 PM

I love Arrested Development to the point I was in a state of shock when I heard it was cancelled.

Personally, I didn't like the 3rd season without counting some exceptions. But the first two seasons are pure gold!

Christine N.

07-19-2007, 07:49 PM

I wasn't a diligent watcher, but the show was highly amusing. Whenever I did see it on, I'd stop to watch. It was the kind of show that not everyone would get right off the bat, but people with a dry sense of humor would love.

Billy hated it because nothing blew up and there wasn't a constant stream of low-brow toilet humor.

Which is why the Simpsons has lasted fifteen years...

merper

07-19-2007, 08:52 PM

"Illusions, Michael. Illusions. Tricks are something a whore does for money ... (notices children he's been performing for) or candy."

That's dry?

Christine N.

07-20-2007, 03:33 AM

It's dark, rather, not dry. Dark and with a great straight man - Jason Bateman rules.

I think most of America just didn't get it. I thought it was a riot.

zpeteman

07-20-2007, 08:52 AM

Any writer should be able to make a pretty solid case for AD being very near the pinnacle of the television medium (certainly the critics did). It's epic and inexplicable failure has elevated it to legendary status and is a perfectly ironic end to some of the greatest stuff ever written for the tube.

Saying AD stunk is like saying Apocalypse Now stunk, you may not have liked it, but it's a long way from stunk.

Q.Rious

07-20-2007, 09:05 AM

God, I loved that show.

It was the one family that made my own seem...well...normal. I may have done a lot of things, but making naked with my cousin was not one of them.

Imagine my sadness when I discovered that it wasn't really a docudrama, but instead all-pretend. Then my family went right back to the top of the list. Again.

Le sigh.

P.S. Billy, meet stake. Stake, meet Billy. I assume you know what to do with one another.

nancy02664

07-23-2007, 06:50 AM

I only started watching re-runs a few weeks ago, and I think it's hilarious. I wish I'd known about it when it was actually on...

Lady Esther

07-25-2007, 09:36 AM

Arrested Development is awesome. I love Gob. His best lines were "I've made a huge mistake." and "Come on!" lol. And George Michael having a crush on his cousin, lol. I love that show.

Ziljon

07-25-2007, 10:21 AM

Yeah, AD was great. But you must see "Flight of the Conchords" a new HBO series. It is even wackier! Here's a short clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RC0DdrHbGg&NR=1

billythrilly7th

07-25-2007, 08:37 PM

Billy hated it because nothing blew up and there wasn't a constant stream of low-brow toilet humor.

Yeah, that's why Seinfeld is my favorite show of all time.

All those explosions and low-brow humor.

R.I.P. AD

Christine N.

07-28-2007, 08:47 PM

No, but Seinfeld had a laugh track, so you knew what was funny. Lots of antics. Lemme guess, you liked Kramer best...

You like Family Guy, which was why I know you like toilet humor, the same jokes that amuse my four year old.

billythrilly7th

07-29-2007, 12:10 AM

No, but Seinfeld had a laugh track, so you knew what was funny. Lots of antics. Lemme guess, you liked Kramer best...

Yeah. That's what made Seinfeld the greatest TV show of all time. The laugh track telling us what was funny.

:rolleyes:

Seinfeld isn't about antics.

I like George the best.

So far, your analylzation of Seinfeld and my TV tastes is abominable.

Family Guy is not funny because of toilet humor. It's funny because of sharp satirical writing and pop culture references.

Your analyzation of Family Guy is abominable.

Don't become a TV critic.

You're so off, you're embaressing yourself.

billythrilly7th

07-29-2007, 12:15 AM

You like Family Guy, which was why I know you like toilet humor, the same jokes that amuse my four year old.

Yeah, I'm sure your 4 year old loves Seinfeld, Cheers, David Letterman, The HoneyMooners, Taxi, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Woody Allen, and Albert Brooks movies.

Amongst all the other toilet humor that I love.

You just have a hard time understanding how such a "great show" went off the air.

"It must be that I like smart humor and everyone else likes toilet humor. It can't be that the show actually wasn't funny and that NO ONE WATCHED because of that. it couldn't be that a TV show must have some comedy based in reality for people to care and not just have gags and gags that although might be witty, have no meaning to me, because I just don't care about this family or their ridiculousness."

R.I.P. AD

You're lucky you weren't cancelled after six episodes.

Christine N.

07-29-2007, 05:35 AM

I don't have a hard time understanding it. It was an underrated show, and FOX, like they do with all their great shows, doesn't give it a big enough push. I don't blame the show, which WAS good, I blame the network, who can't seem to promote any show where things don't blow up or people die every other minute. I half expected Bones to be cancelled, but it's hung in there.

Taxi...now that was a great show.

I hate Family Guy. It's stupid. Actually Stuey is a riot, the rest of it is stupid. I gave up on the Simpsons years ago, when I GREW UP.

clockwork

08-22-2007, 06:13 PM

billythrilly7th

08-22-2007, 10:02 PM

Arrested Development was superb. The show did not change tonally or in quality since the first episode so fleeing viewers is more likely due to network "interfering." For one theory, watch Tobias' off-camera rant on the Season 2 deleted scenes DVD. I hate to paraphrase but it's addressed to the Fox marketing geniuses and is along the lines of, "When a show has been nominated and won every award going and is hailed in the press as one of the best shows ever, maybe you need to consider that the reason the ratings are down is because you're not doing your f-ing jobs."

"Waaaaaaaaaaaa."
Artie Lange

Your show didn't connect with audiences Tobias no matter how many "critics" liked it.

People fled in droves.

They could have put Seinfeld on at 4AM on Sunday and I and millions of others would have found it.

That's such a cop out.

As if audiences are morons who can't figure out where their "favorite" show went to.

People watched and then stopped watching.

Not the fault of the network.

clockwork

08-23-2007, 12:28 AM

Shuffling shows is almost always the death toll.

I loved it. One of the best shows ever.

katiemac

07-01-2008, 03:15 AM

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT MOVIE!! ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT MOVIE!!

2009 Release (http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2008/06/jeffrey-tambor.html). :)

Jcomp

07-01-2008, 03:17 AM

Yeah, that's why Seinfeld is my favorite show of all time.

All those explosions and low-brow humor.

R.I.P. AD

Well... there was an exploding toilet gag in one episode...

crimsonlaw

07-02-2008, 03:49 AM

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT MOVIE!! ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT MOVIE!!

2009 Release (http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2008/06/jeffrey-tambor.html). :)

YES! I knew today would give me a reason to keep on living!