Here are 11 of the best times when “Arrested Development” makes a reference to an actor’s real life or past roles.

Henry Winkler making the Fonz pose and jumping a shark.

Henry Winkler playing against type as the incompetent, foul-mouthed, bi-curious family lawyer was one of the great casting coups of “Arrested Development”. Also, if any show deserved to have Winkler recreate both his classic Fonzie pose AND his infamous shark jumping, it was this one. 

Amy Poehler cast as GOB’s wife.

Amy Poehler and Will Arnett are married in real life, so it was logical to cast Amy Poehler as GOB’s unnamed seal-dealing wife. (Although I’m going to go with GOB’s theory that his super-hot wife with huge cans is named Crindy.)

Charlize Theron in “Monster” as her “pre-plastic surgery” photo.

This was a really strong one. When it’s revealed that Charlize Theron’s character Rita has a lot of money (she owns all of Wee Britain AND the Wee Britain in Cleveland), her uncle talks about how she had plastic surgery to look like she does now. Then they flash up the photo of Charlize from “Monster”… where she gained a ton of weight and took every possible measure to make herself look terrible. It’s a laugh-out-loud shout out, because  you never, ever see it coming… but afterward it makes so much sense.

Bob Odenkirk doing role playing with Tobias.

It was extraordinarily unsurprising when David Cross’s “Mr. Show” partner Bob Odenkirk showed up as a therapist just a handful of episodes into the first season of “Arrested”. It was like when Adam Carolla was a guest on the first week of “Jimmy Kimmel Live”, or Kyle Gass had a cameo in “School of Rock”. Some comedy duos are just attached at the hip, even when one goes on to become a little (or a lot) bigger.

Tony Hale referencing his Volkswagen Mr. Roboto commercial.

Turns out, before Tony Hale was Buster, he was in a Volkswagen commercial where he danced to Styx’s “Mr. Roboto” in the car. (It’s one of those commercials that makes you say, “Oh, yeah, I think I might kinda remember that.”) 

So when they had him doing the robot to “Mr. Roboto” on the show, it was a direct reference to that… just with a hook for a hand and some stairs for a car. (Buster’s hand situation [avoiding a spoiler there] stands as the most foreshadowed joke in the show — if you go back through and watch “Arrested” from the beginning, you’ll see they’re making references to Buster and hands from the very beginning. It’s stunning how much foresight it took. You watch it and truly believe the writers had a long-term, multi-season plan all along.

Scott Baio brought in to replace Henry Winkler.

Scott Baio plays the character Bob Loblaw, a lawyer who’s, in many ways, the antithesis of Winkler’s Barry Zuckerkorn. (Though not as much of an antithesis as Wayne Jarvis.) 

When the Bluths fire Barry and hire Bob, Scott Baio says, “This isn’t the first time I’ve been brought in to replace Barry Zuckerkorn” — a reference to when  he was cast as Chachi on “Happy Days”, ostensibly as a replacement “cool guy” for Winkler’s fading Fonz.

Justine Bateman cast as Michael’s possible sister.

When they brought Justine Bateman in as Nellie, a prostitute who was potentially Michael’s sister, it cast a perfectly comedic, awkward shadow over the whole episode. Plus, with the show’s love of casual incest — they carried the cousins-in-love storyline for all three seasons — you never quite knew how far things were going to go before either Michael or Nellie put up the stop sign. 

Ron Howard angry over an “Opie” reference and promising they weren’t mocking Andy Griffith.

Ron Howard’s narration drives the show perfectly — the way they use narration to both advance the story AND simultaneously deliver jokes is groundbreaking. And while Henry Winkler gets most of the “Happy Days” references (though Howard does correct GOB for incorrectly saying “Donnie Host”)… Ron Howard gets the “Andy Griffith” references. 

The first one is when Jessie, the publicist, calls George Michael “Opie”… and Howard gets angry in the narration and says she best watch her mouth. The second one happens after the Bluths try to hire Andy Griffith to be their fake lawyer but he leaves, offended that they presented him a log cabin as a trailer… and Howard clears up that “no one was making fun of Andy Griffith.”

Jeffrey Tambor’s acting being compared to Brad Garrett’s.

In 2005, Brad Garrett won the Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy… beating out Jeffrey Tambor. So when Michael Bluth thought his father (Tambor) was lying convincingly, he compared the strong acting to Brad Garrett. It was a very cathartic moment for the fans who couldn’t believe an “Everybody Loves Raymond” actor got deemed to be funnier/stronger/better than an “Arrested Development” actor.

Liza Minnelli upset over “New York, New York” karaoke.

In the episode “Queen For A Day”, Liza’s Lucille Two character goes into Tobais’s nightclub and hears him singing “New York, New York”. She exasperatedly says, “Everybody thinks he’s Frank Sinatra.” 

Turns out this was addressing a long-standing beef of Liza’s. She actually recorded “New York, New York” a few years BEFORE Sinatra… but he’s the one who’s associated with the song. I like it for two reasons: One, it’s a solid reference… and two, this scene put Liza in a gay/drag club and managed to show some restraint with the joke they went for.

Andy Richter cast as quintuplets.

Andy Richter playing quintuplets was a reference to one of his Fox sitcoms, “Quintuplets”, that had been canceled a year earlier. “Quintuplets” was the 180-degree opposite of “Arrested” — laugh track, corny jokes, “sitcom” family problems, generic characters, zero comedy street cred. All it did was make you feel really bad for Andy Richter. 

[Source: 11Points]