The story
When property developer George Bluth Sr. is hauled off to prison, his level-headed son Michael is left trying to hold together the family firm and the pampered, scheming relatives who depend on it. Narrated with dry detachment by Ron Howard and shot in a handheld, documentary style, the show crams callbacks, running gags and archive clips into a breakneck satire of a rich Newport Beach clan that has lost its money but none of its entitlement.
Why it matters
Arrested Development was among Netflix's very first original programmes and an early sign that streaming could revive a cancelled cult comedy years later. Its 2013 season dropped all at once, with episodes built around single characters; when the reception cooled, Netflix had it re-edited into a chronological cut in 2018.
How it was rescued
Fox cancelled the critically adored but low-rated sitcom in 2006 after three seasons. In 2011 Netflix licensed new episodes, and all 15 episodes of the revival season arrived at once on 26 May 2013; a fifth Netflix season followed in two halves in 2018 and 2019.
Filed under: Cancelled, then revived online
Notable facts
- After the cancellation, its original 53-episode run was syndicated first to Microsoft's streaming service MSN Video, a first of its kind. (source)
- Each episode of the 2013 Netflix season focuses on a different character across roughly the same stretch of time. (source)
- A 22-episode chronological recut, Season 4 Remix: Fateful Consequences, was released on Netflix in May 2018. (source)
- Across its run it won six Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe. (source)