Arrested Development Arrested Indefinitely

The Chicken Dance Compilation

One of my favorite shows, one of the best on TV, very well written, thought out, great delivery, great slapstick, intelligent and laugh out loud funny shows, was canceled by FOX earlier this year: Arrested Development. I didn't accept it at first because I thought surely someone else would pick it up. It was so original, clever, funny, had a cult following and was critically acclaimed. It had won almost every award a television show could win. It couldn't be scrapped. There were rumors for awhile that Showtime would pick it up, but it didn't happen. And so now it looks like despite an outcry from fans, the show has gone. I have (or will have in a couple of days) all the episodes on DVD which I'll watch over and over again (it really is one of those shows that you discover something new every time: hear a joke you missed, see a subplot alluding to a later episode, etc). I know that not everyone loves the show. Many people aren't big fans. They watch a couple of episodes and just don't get into it. S says "It's too smart for it's own good". I wish though Fox would've taken a risk and pushed through with it for a couple more seasons, or at least move it to a different night if they thought it was bringing down viewership for other shows (Prison Break...really?).

The clip above is a collection of chicken dances done by the family. Most of the Bluths (the family) have a chicken dance. When they think someone is being a chicken, they bust it out. No one's dance comes close to resembling a real chicken but somehow everyone has developed a distinct and hilarious one and every now and then in an episode we get to see one. I'd also like to pay homage by listing some memorable quotes by some of my favorite characters (all the characters are great, it's hard to pick).

Narrator: Tobias listens to a day's worth of his own words, to see what Michael was referring to...
Tobias Fünke: [on tape] ... even if it means me taking a chubby, I will suck it up.
Tobias Fünke: Nothing wrong with that.
Tobias Fünke: [on tape] Oh, I've been in the film business for a while, but I just can't seem to get one in the can.
Tobias Fünke: It's out of context.
Tobias Fünke: [on tape] I wouldn't mind kissing that man between the cheeks, so to speak.
Narrator: ...and he realized there is something distinct about the way he speaks.
Tobias Fünke: Tobias, you blow hard!

Narrator: GOB had been a pageant judge for years.
GOB: You cannot believe what it does for your sex life.
Michael: I don't want to hear it.
GOB: I don't want to say it -- First place chick is hot, but has an atttitude; doesn't date magicians. Second place is someone weird usually, like a chinese girl or a geologist. But third place, although a little bit plain has super-low self-esteem, so I step in and, uh... lay her crown upon my sweet head.

Tobias: Okay, Lindsay, are you forgetting that I was a professional twice over — an analyst and a therapist. The world’s first analrapist.
Lindsay: Yes, and you were almost arrested for those business cards.
...
Tobias: You know Michael, if I may take off my acting pants for a moment, and pull my analrapist stocking over my head, George Michael has been acting strange lately. I think he may have developed what we in the soft sciences refer to as Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, or the O.C. Disorder.