I mourn the loss of Arrested Development

[Dafones]

I've said it before, and I'll probably say it again, but man did I love Arrested Development. Such an agonizingly short run - cut down in its prime. By now I hope all of you fans have picked up the Third Season DVD that was released yesterday. I've been glued to it since I got home from work, and the show still makes me howl. Such a shame that it never found the audience it needed to stay on the air, but then at least we got 2 and 2/3 of a season instead of nothing.

Ladies, gentlemen, if you haven't seen the show before, pick up the first season already. Buy it, rent it, borrow it - whatever. Just watch it. It's comedy gold.

[Nth Power]

It shall be missed... 
I just got my copy of Season 3 in the mail today and plan on watching it when I get home.

A couple of the funniest things from the series off the top of my head :

- "Operation Hotmother"
-  Analrapist


and the best name evar...Bob Loblaw.

[Devil]

Best Show Ever! 

[whiteboyskim]

I received both seasons one and two for Christmas last year but they remain unopened on my shelf. Why? Primarily because I wanted to finish off some other shows first in my Netflix queue, and also because I was waiting on the final season to hit disc so I could power through the whole thing. I might have to swing by Best Buy this weekend and pick it up now. Oh, and Fox?

[Eduardo X]

Whitey, get a watching!

*kicks whitey*

[Devil]

Why the hate for Fox? I don't remember any other network picking them up or giving them a chancen to begin with.

I thank Fox for the 3 seasons we got.

[th'FOOL]

Why the hate for Fox? I don't remember any other network picking them up or giving them a chancen to begin with.

I thank Fox for the 3 seasons we got.

They tried all of their usual tactics on shows they don't really want to air- change the night it comes on, replace it with crappier shows, play a couple of episodes, then nothing but reruns of prison break for 5 weeks then play 1 episode then baseball games for the next 3, etc.  The problem was it actually won some awards at one point and they couldn't just kill it quietly.

[CeeKay]

Why the hate for Fox?

obviously someone has forgotten Serenity Valley......

[Eduardo X]

Why the hate for Fox? I don't remember any other network picking them up or giving them a chancen to begin with.

I thank Fox for the 3 seasons we got.

Fox did some amazing PR for this show. They would advertise the day before the show came on that they were doing a marathon of 2 or 4 new episodes, or announce a show for a week or more and when Monday came around, we'd be treated to House instead.

[Zinfan]

I was watching an episode of Dead like Me on HDnet and they had a promo for Arrested Development being re-aired on the channel.  I'd love to re-watch this in HD so Tivo will be getting another season pass soon.

[Devil]

Yep - NBC/ABC/CBS/Showtime/HBO/Cinemax/WE/Spike/CNN/ESPN/Cartoon Network/A&E all stepped up to the plate to offer AD a great time slot, 'round the clock promotions and tons of money to move but Fox probably refused out of spite and just wanted the show to fail.

Come on people, do you really think that this show was going to be a money maker and Fox was holding it back for some stupid reason? They wanted a show that they paid for to fail?

I love the show as much, if not more than anyone in here, but nobody watched. It isn't Fox's fault that "According to Jim" draws more ratings.

I couldn't tell you how many people I got to watch and later said, "It was kinda funny, but I really didn't know what was going on" and they gave up right there. Scheduling means nothing to people with Tivo.

[stiffler]

I just bought seasons 1 and 2 last week.  I am going to order season 3 since my local Best Buy was sold out.

Still haven't watched any episodes beyond a few random nights.  From my brief look it appears this is one series that builds on past episodes.  As opposed to most crap TV shows you can just jump in and catch up with from any spot.  I was utterly lost and confused by all the stuff going on.

Finally hopping on board.  Still need to watch Firefly and the BSG bug is chirping in my ear.  I don't watch much TV, but I love TV on DVD!

[depward]

...Scheduling means nothing to people with Tivo.

I had problems finding when Arrested Development was on.  I always wanted to watch it, but sometimes it wouldn't be on when I thought it would be.  And I don't have Tivo or that kind of technology at my home and it looks as if many others don't either (to a tune of 109.6 million households having a tv and only 4.3 million having Tivo).

But I found some better numbers - 13 percent of households have digital video recording technology in their homes.  Scheduling means nothing to those who have Tivo, but if only 13% of households have the means to schedule and find when the show is actually on, then the 87% of us that don't and tune in to watch the show and get treated to House and such ultimately kind of just quit tuning in since we have no idea when the show is going to be shown.

So I am blaming Fox here.  Of course, I'm not blaming them entirely, since it's ultimately up to viewership.  But it's partly their fault.  And it does suck that people would rather watch sitcoms like According to Jim or that one awful, awful show George Lopez yes, but at least they know when to tune in consistently from week to week.

[Devil]

Dep - I was actually referring to the guys that I suggested to watch AD. They all had Tivo.

Still not willing to blame a network that gave the show the light of day and nobody watched.

Aways thought it would have been better as am HBO/Showtime series anyway.

[Eduardo X]

It was getting 6.18 million viewers, on average, which is as good as any top rated cable show. It isn't as good as a #1 hit show, so Fox pulled the plug.

[Devil]

Translation: It was losing money.

To the network's credit, the audience figures for "Arrested Development" would never have been enough to justify a renewal under other circumstances. Its average viewership was 6.18 million. That number ranks below such perceived freshman disasters as "The Brotherhood of Poland, N.H." (6.94 million) and "Threat Matrix" (6.46 million), which both aired against tougher time period competition.

[depward]

Haha, "Threat Matrix" - never even heard of it.  The title is amusing.

[EngineNo9]

I just honestly never found the show that funny and didn't like the narration at all.  Netflix keeps recommending the DVDs to me and insisting I would like the show, but I am resolute in my choice of "Not Interested".  This despite the fact that I'm a big David Cross fan and think Portia de Rossi is gorgeous. 

[Ralph-Wiggum]

I just honestly never found the show that funny and didn't like the narration at all.  Netflix keeps recommending the DVDs to me and insisting I would like the show, but I am resolute in my choice of "Not Interested".  This despite the fact that I'm a big David Cross fan and think Portia de Rossi is gorgeous. 

You have to watch it from the beginning. I tried catching an episode here and there and never understood it/found it funny. But then I rented the DVD's and it all came together. Best comedy since Seinfeld.

[Dafones]

I've always felt that Fox dicked the show around, and the only reason that it lasted for three seasons was because the die hard fans of the show were so supportive, not because Fox "really tried" to keep it going. It got jerked around from one time slot to another, had episodes postponed and clumped together. You can't build a show's viewership with average people if you do that. If Fox really wanted to have the show continue, they would have treated the show differently.

But at the same time, it's an odd show for a comedy. It is serial in nature, which seems to work better for dramas. (Though The Office and Curb seem to do just fine.) It's fairly smart humor. And it's not all that main stream. So it's a difficult show to want to maintain, and Fox weighed the pros and the cons and made a decision.

[JLu]

I watched a random episode somewhere along the line; it didn't do much for me (but I didn't like Seinfeld or Sopranos to start either and they became favorite shows).  I happened to notice that AD was starting to air with the pilot on some network thanks to my TiVo, so I set it up to start recording that (no clue what network, sorry).  I may be mourning with you guys when they finish airing all the episodes, or I may quietly not comment on the show again...

[Dafones]

You'll like it.

[JLu]

You'll like it.

I have definitely been liking it.  My wife loves it.

Not sure that I'll be in the 'mourning' camp once we've finished season 3, but it is surprising that this didn't get a bigger audience since it is without debate better than about 90% of the comedies on network television.

[Dafones]

... it is surprising that this didn't get a bigger audience since it is without debate better than about 90% of the comedies on network television.

Dude, you're preaching to the choir.

[whiteboyskim]

Picked up Season 3 this weekend at Best Buy so now I'm all set to sit down and burn through the show once I get through some more Netflixing. Looking forward to it.

[-Lord Ebonstone-]

The show tried to do something different, succeeded, and was punished for it.  Kind of goes along with the series' theme, really.

It's a fantastic show.  A shame it had to start on Fox -- it was too high-brow for basic cable, and WAY beyond air broadcast stuff.