the show wasn't too smart IMO, it was too intricate and costly. just watch the show you can easily notice that it must have been expensive to produce. each episodes follows four or five set-locations. fox has a reputation for being frugal with these sort of things, in spite of the massive appeal of the show (most of which has come post cancellation). i think fox didn't handle the promotion of the show well enough to bring it to the attention of the masses. it's now a cult phenomenon, and a foregone conclusions that fox lost out but IIRC at the time it was losing in ratings to some inferior shows (the names of which i cannot remember right now). i remember that fox ran the last four episodes in a block to compete with the winter olypmics. it's a shame they had no idea what gold they held. it was incredibly clever though, and i loved the writing's intertextuality and reflexiveness. so many of the jokes are throwbacks to previous dialogue or even previous episodes, and the subtlety of humor probably left most of the jokes uncaught. that's actually why i love it so dearly, because i can watch it now, even after four or five watches for the whole series, and still find new jokes/references that i hadn't noticed before. AD, at the very least, will go down in human history as scientific proof that david cross is god.
I don't think it was too smart. The running jokes and story line did make it difficult to pick up on in the middle of the show. The first episode I saw I thought was terrible, but after getting the DVD's and seeing the series from the start I think it's one of the best TV shows ever. The truth is most sitcoms (and TV shows in general) are made to be viewed in 30 minute increments with little relation to previous shows. If you sit down and watch a random Seinfeld episode you don't need to have seen every past episode for it to be funny. Sure knowing the characters can add to it, but it didn't totally rely on that. And that is what most people are used to and expect.
You are right, most american television viewers don't want to dig deep enough to grab the characters, they tend to want tangible 'family-guy' motions that grab them. However, it seems to me that popular television shows now are increasingly incorporating more rigid continuity from episode to episode (Lost, 24, Desperate Housewives, Reality Shows). I think viewers don't realize, or don't have the patience to see, that they love following the ups and downs of the characters they grow to love, so they tend to give up on shows because they don't feel connected with the characters. Makes me think that if AD was on a regular timeslot and re-run more often (more likely if it was produced by HBO/Showtime than networks) that its postmortem success would have been realized while in was on air, and maybe we would still have it.
"I blue myself." No, it wasn't too smart. Too serialized maybe. Not only was there an ongoing storyline over the course of all 3 seasons, but a lot of jokes from previous episodes were constantly referenced. People need to chill over this show being canceled. Given Fox's track record of dumping shows too soon without giving them a chance(just ask the fans of Firefly), we should be thankful it lasted 2 1/2 seasons. And IMO, it was starting to lose a little steam in that 3rd season.
One of the funniest shows of all time. Unfortunatley, like a lot of posters have already stated, if you don't watch it from the beginning, you don't get a lot of the jokes. So it's kind of a network TV nightmare.
i loved how the show would incorporate real life issues of it's own production into the bluth family's dilemma. such as: savethebluths.org (i think) referring the threat of the show being canceled. ron howard even says 'please tell your friends about this show' after jeffrey tambor lost best supporting actor to robert from everybody loves raymond, they included dialogue where michael says something like "yeah you're a regular brad garrett"
Funny that this should come up. While I can rotate shows like Seinfeld and Newsradio all week, I usually watch Arrested Development in spurts. Especially because of the jokes that reference previous episodes. I've just started Arrested Development up again in my DVD player this past weekend. People have already summed it up: you can watch Seinfeld and get a joke instantly. Many Arrested Development jokes don't pay off immediately. And some jokes are just not in your face. For example, Rita sits at a bus stop bench that reads 'Wee Britain'. When she sits in the middle and blocks out some letters, it reads 'Wee Brain'. I didn't pick this up until I listened to the commentary. Other times it's a somewhat obscure reference, again when Rita's father describes how ugly Rita used to be before plastic surgery, and then flashing a picture of Charlize Theron in Monster. The joke works on two different levels, one inside and one outside the premise of the show. How about coming up w/ the character name Bob Loblaw, which not only works as 'blah, blah, blah' but also for the great payoff episodes later w/ 'Bob Loblaw's law blog'. I'm sure everyone here could go on and on about all the little details, which is what really makes the show incredible.
As others said - not too smart at all. You had to watch from episode 1 and in order to get it. Most other sitcoms have a story that opens and wraps up in 30 minutes - and thereby allows anyone to watch at any point and get a complete story in 30 minutes without needing much of a frame or reference. AD shattered that norm... and for that it failed. I don't want it to go to Showtime, HBO, et al. It would ruin the greatness of the 3 year run for me - b/c i've built it up to "Best show ever" status in my head - I want it to remain that way for eternity.
I think people are more willing to follow a drama, like the ones you listed, than a comedy over time. Personally, I don't really watch any shows regularly on TV. I just don't want to schedule my life around it. I do have TIVO, but don't really bother keeping track of any certain shows with it. If there is a show I want to watch I just wait for the DVD and watch it whenever I want and don't have to wait a week until the next episode is on. The running story/jokes were probably the show's downfall, but also what made it so great.
Some episodes cracked me up. Sometimes it was boring. A few laughs weren't worth some episodes. Like the one where his dad got ran over by a car, and he acts like he lost his hand and has a fake hand. That was one or two of the laughs in the entire episode. I'm not asking for non-stop laughs, just make the boring parts less dry It just wasn't that good.
I understand some of you giving other explanations for why the show ultimately got cancelled, but how can you say it wasn't smart? Yes, many of the jokes required knowledge of previous dialogue/episodes, but on average they were simply much more witty than any other comedy I can recall. The way the jokes unravel one on top of the other is genius. Not necessarily saying you're wrong (it's your opinion afterall) to say that it wasn't smart. I just don't quite understand how you came to that conclusion.
I don't think anybody said it wasn't smart, but that it wasn't too smart. If you take the time to watch the episodes you would get the jokes. Yes, it was very well written, and it wasn't just a bunch of simple one liners, but it doesn't take some great level of intelligence to find it funny.
That's true...my fault. Nobody said it wasn't smart, but a couple of posts gave off that impression, in my opinion. How intelligent do you think it needs to be to go over the head of the average American viewer?
I think it was probably over some peoples heads, the type of comedy that doesn't beat you over the head with some of the subtle jokes, like some of the wonderful dialogue. God I miss that show. Gotta watch out for poppins in Wee Britan
Isn't the nature of TV (or music, books, or any media) that some people will find certain things entertaining, while others find other things entertaining? I don't understand the need to criticize others for not getting it or not being smart enough. Seems like a lot of self-aggrandizing statements to me.
