Unfortunate Development for “Arrested”
A new development may keep Arrested Development off the air for good.
Series creator Mitch Hurwitz announced his decision to quit the Emmy-winning comedy Monday, dealing a blow to fans still holding out hope that the canceled Fox show might be revived on another network, Daily Variety reports.
The move by Hurwitz was not entirely unexpected. E! Online’s TV columnist Kristin Veitch reported last month that the executive producer was “hesitant” about sticking with the series, despite a tentative deal in place to move it to Showtime.
Though series producers 20th Century Fox TV and Imagine Television had hammered out an agreement with the cable network, it was forged on the understanding that Hurwitz would be continuing to script the various misadventures of the Bluth family.
However, the writer told Variety he had reached the end of the line as far as Arrested Development was concerned.
“I’ve given everything I can to the show in order to try to live up to [the fans’] expectations,” Hurwitz told the trade. “I finally reached a point where I felt I couldn’t continue to deliver that on a weekly basis.”
He said he held off on making a final decision to give 20th Century Fox and Showtime time to reach a potential deal but ultimately had to move on due to a combination of creative and financial concerns.
“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,” he said.
Hurwitz said he had briefed most of the show’s cast and writers about his decision. He said executive producer Ron Howard asked him to consider serving as a consultant on the show if 20th Century Fox and Imagine figured out a way to continue it without him.
“I said I’d be happy to do that, but that as showrunner, I’ve gone as far as I can go,” he told Variety.
The tragically underrated series about a dysfunctional Orange County, California, family debuted in 2003 to critical acclaim but never registered with viewers, despite winning the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2004.
Last month, only 3.3 million viewers tuned in for what Fox billed as a season finale, but what was most likely the series finale for Arrested Development.
Despite his defection from the show, Hurwitz left fans with one final straw to grasp, hinting to Variety that he may still be interested in adapting the series to the big screen.
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