Writing was on the wall in season 2, when Fox cut the order back from 22 to 18 episodes (prompting an insanely clever inside joke in one of the episodes). That season finale was very intentionally written to wrap things up if that was going to be it. This season wrapped up things but also opened tons of new doors (Lucille in jail instead of George, Maybee and G.M.'s secret marriage, GOB chasing Lindsay, the movie hint, etc). The writing was in 72 font in midseason this past year when FOX pulled them from the lineup, chainsawed the budget, and aired the remaining episodes during suicide slots (final four during the winter Olympics opening ceremony). Evan
I realize I'm way late on this. But RM95 let me borrow his DVD set of this show. Wow! Man, that's good television. Of course, good television can't stay on television because we gotta have more Fear Factor. Seriously...what a freaking hilarious show. Amazing characters...great acting...great scripts. I'm really impressed.
I guess that given comments by the writers it is best that we just appreciate the show for what it was. They were saying that it couldn't have kept going at that level and was already slipping. Keeping it on the air would have only deteriorated the quality. My heart wants to say that they are wrong, and if they just tried extra super duper hard they could keep it up. But they are right. The last season wasn't as consistently good, and I would for something as great as Arrested Development to end up being tarnished.
