Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Arrested Development
This past weekend we found out that Arrested Development will return to television in a nine- or ten-episode limited-run series, set to film next summer, with each episode focusing on a single member of the Bluth clan. And series creator Mitchell Hurwitz said that he is halfway through the screenplay for a reunion film and is “eighty per cent” sure it will happen.
Among the other revelations shared over the ninety-minute program at the New Yorker Festival were the following:
9.The pilot scripts came with a cover letter which warned cast members that there would be no fancy trailers and no tolerance for diva-like behavior.
8. David Cross had to fight for the mustache worn by his character, Tobias Funke, because Fox executive Gail Berman had a standing rule for men in comedies: no hats, no mustaches, no fluffy shirts.
7. The character of Oscar Bluth was born one day “on the fly” when Jeffrey Tambor walked into the writer’s room wearing a wig. “The next day, Oscar was born,” he said.
6. According to Will Arnett, nobody made other cast members “break” (i.e. crack up in the middle of a take) more than Tony Hale.
5. Alia Shawkat shared her first kiss onscreen with Michael Cera. “It’s changed me for the rest of my life,” she joked.
4. “Arrested Development” was cancelled before Nielsen began measuring DVR viewership, which Bateman thinks was the show’s natural format. “I think people quickly realized, ‘Well, I’m better served to watch this show after I’ve recorded it,’” he said.
3. When asked about the Bluth family’s ambiguous religious identity, Hurwitz said they were originally based on his wife’s family: “It started, it had a real Gentile vibe to it, but it got more Jewish.”
2. Hurwitz and executives at Fox were reluctant to cast Jason Bateman because of his sitcom past, but were instantly won over by his audition.
1. The fake teasers at the end of each episode began, as Hurwitz put it, as “a craven way to get the pilot picked up. Anything to create that promise of ‘You’ve got to come back!’”
(Via: The New Yorker Blog)
Source: newyorker.com
