'Arrested' unlikely to continue despite critical enthusiasm

From the beginning, "Arrested Development" failed to attract a large audience despite its critical acclaim. In the 2004 and 2005 seasons, the show won six Emmys, one Golden Globe and numerous other awards and nominations. Even hard-to-please critics who love to hate praised the show. Entertainment Weekly asked, "Is it beating a dead horse to once again state that this under-appreciated gem is the best sitcom on TV? Too bad. 'Arrested Development' is the best sitcom on TV."

The New York Daily News said, "It's the sort of show that truly deserves to be watched uninterrupted, several episodes at a time, for maximum enjoyment. The laughs-per-minutes quotient here is insanely high."

But more importantly, fans, though scarce, are diehard in their passion for the show. As testimony to their dedication, over 125,000 people have signed Fox's official online petition (www.getarrested.com) to convince the network to keep "Arrested" on the air. In addition, there are at least two other fan-created online petitions with the same goal -- saveourbluths.com and www.petitionspot.com/petitions/arresteddev -- both with tens of thousands of signatures. With their signatures, loyal fans have often added angry comments and pleas to Fox.

On saveourbluths.com one exclaimed: "I love this show! If it's cancelled, I'll never watch Fox again." A more verbose fan wrote: "This is the best series ever created. The TV was invented so a show such as ['Arrested Development'] may one day be aired. The words that come to mind when I hear talks of its cancellation are blasphemy, heresy, profanity, sacrilege, vituperation ..."

To give those of you who have never watched "Arrested Development" a taste of why viewers feel so strongly about the show, here's a brief summary of Fox's own summary on its website: the show centers on Michael Bluth, a normal man who struggles to run the failing family real estate business while trying to keep his dysfunctional family functioning and be a good father to his awkward 14-year-old son, George Michael, who happens to have a crush on his cousin Maeby. And that's just the beginning. "Arrested Development" relies on an ensemble cast that plays Michael Bluth's assorted family members and acquaintances.

Each character has his or her own quirks, and all of the characters, save Michael Bluth, are enormously self-centered. Their individual aims often come into conflict, with extremely comic results. The documentary style cinematography only adds to the hilarity; what we see, in a sense, is not some pre-recorded TV show, but simply a fly-on-the-wall account of a ridiculous family's life.

In a behind-the-scenes interview viewable at tv.com, Jason Bateman, who plays Michael Bluth, gives further insight as to why "Arrested Development" is so funny. "[Creator Mitchell Hurwitz's] job," Bateman said, "is to write these characters as unlikable as possible. Our job is to make them as likeable as possible. ... And I guess you could go further and say that they also write us as crazy as possible, and we have to play it as sane as possible."

Unfortunately, the show's uniformly excellent writing has not caught on with viewers outside of its core, cult audience. More to the point, Fox, like any studio, cares about ratings, and the ratings for "Arrested" have been quite low.

Consequently, for the third and most recent season, Fox moved the show to 8 p.m. Monday nights, in hopes of raising the viewership. However, the mindless "Skating with Celebrities" replaced it midway through the season. Apparently, Fox executives were right in assuming people prefer inane reality series to witty comedy. "Skating with Celebrities" posted a 183 percent improvement in total numbers of viewers, according to Media Life Magazine.

As a further indication that "Arrested" was ending, Fox shortened the second season episode count from 22 to 18, and the third season from 22 to 13, bundling the last four episodes into one two-hour extravaganza on Friday, Feb. 10. Even so, Fox has not officially canceled "Arrested," though one executive, Peter Ligouri, called its return "highly unlikely."

There may still be some chance of "Arrested" remaining on the air, since both ABC and Showtime have expressed interest in acquiring the show. Even if neither network does pick it up, however, the past seasons are available for endless watching on DVD. But, hopefully, the American public will come to recognize the true genius that is "Arrested Development," and convince Fox that they should continue to support it.