Say it ain’t so! Just when it looked like top notch comedy Arrested Development would be saved by US cable channel Showtime, the Bluth banana stand has been torched. And this time, the man holding the flame is none other than creator Mitch Hurwitz.
If the opening reference meant nothing to you, then you don’t have to worry about the show coming back. But for fans, this is a crushing blow.
The show, starring Jason Bateman, Jeffrey Tambor and Will Arnett, which had been consistently critically successful but ratings-challenged during its three-year run, was finally ditched by the Fox network earlier this year. But then Showtime offered to pick it up, provided Hurwitz would sign on. He’s just said no.
"The fans have been so ardent in their devotion and in return ... I've given everything I can to the show in order to try to live up to their expectations," Hurwitz told Variety. "I finally reached a point where I felt I couldn't continue to deliver that on a weekly basis." And he was equally honest when it came to his other reason for stopping: “Of course, if there was enough money in it, I would have happily abandoned the fans' need for quality. But as it turns out, there wasn't.”
While it’s still too early to give up all hope (after all, Fox did bring back Family Guy), this is dark news for all Bluth supporters. It feel like we all just had our hands bitten off by a rampaging seal. The campaign for a movie starts here.