Arrested Development continues to live up to its name
by Helen Williams and Ryan Kelly
Contributing Staff and Co-Executive Editor
This article will appear on Thursday in The Scarlet, the official student newspaper of Clark University in Worcester, Mass.
The battlefield of sitcoms is littered with the bodies of cancelled ventures. With the exception of those few great shows that go out on top, these bodies are almost all victims of the cancer of their industry – the ratings decline. Most are deserving of their fate as they melt away quietly into obscurity. But a small corner of the battlefield is reserved for those who died young, their glory unrecognized and life cut short. These unfortunate victims of the sitcom world will be joined on Friday by the latest great to pass too soon: Arrested Development.
The final four episodes will be aired back-to-back on Friday, Feb. 10 at 8 p.m.
Beloved by critics, Arrested Development’s death can be difficult to explain. On the face of it, the show ought to have been a hit. The cast is brilliant, the writing is consistently hilarious and practically flawless, the premise is sustainable and the guest stars are both talented and plentiful. The show’s depth and nuance is something that is unmatched anywhere else on television.
Arrested originally aired between The Simpsons and Malcolm in the Middle, two highly successful shows that should have supported it in the ratings. Yet ratings were low.
And so critics were the only ones to really pay attention to Arrested Development in the beginning.
Arrested Development has been part of a new generation of sitcoms with the likes of Scrubs, The Office and My Name is Earl. The earmarks of this new breed include the omission of several sitcom standards which have been around for years – the shows do not use a laugh track or live audience, and do not use the sitcom-standard four stationary cameras to shoot on a closed set.
The new genre also tends to reinvent components of the standard form, such as the traditional self-contained episode. Situation comedies were traditionally based on one-episode easily resolvable situations, but these “new” sitcoms are willing to let a story arc over several episodes, and they ask their audience to remember details.
Arrested is perhaps a victim of its format and innovation. Its self-referential humor could be asking too much of a popular audience. The toggling between multiple storylines and the heavy reliance on inside jokes that refer to previous episodes leave many casual or passing viewers confused.
This explanation is hard for fans to swallow, however, since, despite being one of the more brilliant examples of this new genre, it has not flourished like its counterparts, which share the same features.
The truth is that Arrested’s death is not due to an internal cancer, but rather to homicidal caretakers.
Despite love and affection from almost every TV critic known to man, viewership has continuously lagged. This season the show has consistently pulled in only about 4 million viewers per night.
If anyone should be blamed for the low ratings of Arrested Development, it is the executives at Fox. A string of obscenely poor scheduling decisions on their part makes you wonder how Fox gets any viewers at all.
Following three well-deserved Emmy wins after its first season, including Outstanding Comedy Series, the show was surrounded by buzz in September 2004. Fox, which should have rushed the show onto the air to take advantage, instead waited almost two months before airing new episodes. By then the buzz had died. Ratings continued to decline, Fox cut their episode order for the second season from 22 to 18 and by April of the following year no one was sure Arrested would be back at all.
By some miracle, fans of the show (who are as dedicated as they come) helped ensure its return for a third season, but they couldn’t prevent the next gaffe – Fox decided to move Arrested from its Sunday night slot to Monday night, a known television wasteland.
Add a lack of promotion to the mix, and you can hear the death knell from miles away.
This season’s episode order was cut from an original 22 episodes to 18, then finally down to 13. While Fox has not yet officially cancelled the show, these episode cuts practically ensure Fox will not bring Arrested back for a fourth season.
Fox hammered the final nail in Arrested’s coffin when they decided to move its last hurrah to Friday night, when it will air against the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Olympic Games. The Opening Ceremonies traditionally receive extremely high ratings, meaning that Arrested will most likely die a quiet death.
There is some hope for fans, however. Rumors abound that Showtime and ABC have both shown an interest in picking up the show.
Yet Arrested Development fans have learned to live with disappointment, and they aren’t too optimistic about their chances. A resurrection will only come after lengthy negotiations with potential networks and only if show creator Mitch Hurwitz agrees to continue contributing (another uncertainty because of personal problems).
In the meantime, fans will have to content themselves with the first two seasons of the show on DVD. And they’ll be enjoying the last hurrah on Friday, a bittersweet funeral as they celebrate Arrested’s life while mourning its premature death.
Fox’s final scheduling decision may have been poor management, but in a way it is quite appropriate. As most of America looks the other way as it has always done, Arrested will find its final resting place surrounded only by those who love it best – its dedicated fans.
Contributing Staff and Co-Executive Editor
This article will appear on Thursday in The Scarlet, the official student newspaper of Clark University in Worcester, Mass.
The battlefield of sitcoms is littered with the bodies of cancelled ventures. With the exception of those few great shows that go out on top, these bodies are almost all victims of the cancer of their industry – the ratings decline. Most are deserving of their fate as they melt away quietly into obscurity. But a small corner of the battlefield is reserved for those who died young, their glory unrecognized and life cut short. These unfortunate victims of the sitcom world will be joined on Friday by the latest great to pass too soon: Arrested Development.
The final four episodes will be aired back-to-back on Friday, Feb. 10 at 8 p.m.
Beloved by critics, Arrested Development’s death can be difficult to explain. On the face of it, the show ought to have been a hit. The cast is brilliant, the writing is consistently hilarious and practically flawless, the premise is sustainable and the guest stars are both talented and plentiful. The show’s depth and nuance is something that is unmatched anywhere else on television.
Arrested originally aired between The Simpsons and Malcolm in the Middle, two highly successful shows that should have supported it in the ratings. Yet ratings were low.
And so critics were the only ones to really pay attention to Arrested Development in the beginning.
Arrested Development has been part of a new generation of sitcoms with the likes of Scrubs, The Office and My Name is Earl. The earmarks of this new breed include the omission of several sitcom standards which have been around for years – the shows do not use a laugh track or live audience, and do not use the sitcom-standard four stationary cameras to shoot on a closed set.
The new genre also tends to reinvent components of the standard form, such as the traditional self-contained episode. Situation comedies were traditionally based on one-episode easily resolvable situations, but these “new” sitcoms are willing to let a story arc over several episodes, and they ask their audience to remember details.
Arrested is perhaps a victim of its format and innovation. Its self-referential humor could be asking too much of a popular audience. The toggling between multiple storylines and the heavy reliance on inside jokes that refer to previous episodes leave many casual or passing viewers confused.
This explanation is hard for fans to swallow, however, since, despite being one of the more brilliant examples of this new genre, it has not flourished like its counterparts, which share the same features.
The truth is that Arrested’s death is not due to an internal cancer, but rather to homicidal caretakers.
Despite love and affection from almost every TV critic known to man, viewership has continuously lagged. This season the show has consistently pulled in only about 4 million viewers per night.
If anyone should be blamed for the low ratings of Arrested Development, it is the executives at Fox. A string of obscenely poor scheduling decisions on their part makes you wonder how Fox gets any viewers at all.
Following three well-deserved Emmy wins after its first season, including Outstanding Comedy Series, the show was surrounded by buzz in September 2004. Fox, which should have rushed the show onto the air to take advantage, instead waited almost two months before airing new episodes. By then the buzz had died. Ratings continued to decline, Fox cut their episode order for the second season from 22 to 18 and by April of the following year no one was sure Arrested would be back at all.
By some miracle, fans of the show (who are as dedicated as they come) helped ensure its return for a third season, but they couldn’t prevent the next gaffe – Fox decided to move Arrested from its Sunday night slot to Monday night, a known television wasteland.
Add a lack of promotion to the mix, and you can hear the death knell from miles away.
This season’s episode order was cut from an original 22 episodes to 18, then finally down to 13. While Fox has not yet officially cancelled the show, these episode cuts practically ensure Fox will not bring Arrested back for a fourth season.
Fox hammered the final nail in Arrested’s coffin when they decided to move its last hurrah to Friday night, when it will air against the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Olympic Games. The Opening Ceremonies traditionally receive extremely high ratings, meaning that Arrested will most likely die a quiet death.
There is some hope for fans, however. Rumors abound that Showtime and ABC have both shown an interest in picking up the show.
Yet Arrested Development fans have learned to live with disappointment, and they aren’t too optimistic about their chances. A resurrection will only come after lengthy negotiations with potential networks and only if show creator Mitch Hurwitz agrees to continue contributing (another uncertainty because of personal problems).
In the meantime, fans will have to content themselves with the first two seasons of the show on DVD. And they’ll be enjoying the last hurrah on Friday, a bittersweet funeral as they celebrate Arrested’s life while mourning its premature death.
Fox’s final scheduling decision may have been poor management, but in a way it is quite appropriate. As most of America looks the other way as it has always done, Arrested will find its final resting place surrounded only by those who love it best – its dedicated fans.
posted by rtkelly at 11:42 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home