Arrested Development Television Program

Showtime wants the acclaimed comedy "Arrested Development" should Fox decide to cancel it, but only on one condition: creator Mitch Hurwitz must come with it. "If only a small fraction of the loyal audience that [watches it] on Fox came to Showtime, it would be one of our highest-rated shows," Robert Greenblatt, Showtime's president of entertainment, told the Television Critics Assn. Thursday evening.

News Corp.'s Fox Entertainment Group Inc. said Wednesday that it had sold the syndication rights to its quirky-but-canceled sitcom, "Arrested Development" to Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Internet portal. The three-year deal marks the first time that a major Hollywood production studio has turned to the Internet for a bona-fide buyer of syndicated shows.

The whole dream of watching television, it seems to me, is that you don't have to do anything but sit there to receive it. So I'm having trouble adapting to this trend of watching TV on DVD, which feels too close to buying a cabinet at IKEA and knowing that some kind of assembly will be required. Watching TV is supposed to promote a certain robust laziness.

To regular viewers of Fox's "Arrested Development," blue paint has special meaning. It furnishes one of the many running jokes that have helped make the comedy about a loopy Orange County clan a long-standing favorite among critics and select fans. Make that very select fans.

IF a set designer's mission is to capture characters' personalities, then imagine trying to decorate for the fictional Bluth family of "Arrested Development" -- some of the most neurotic, self-centered, financially and morally bankrupt, emotionally stunted and clinically lazy characters on television. Take Lucille, the family's martini-swilling matriarch. Her need to control her grown children is so unrelenting, she adopted a Korean orphan just to alienate her biological son. And that numskull?

"Arrested Development" wasn't in the Fox lineup Monday night and won't be on for the rest of the November ratings sweeps, a sign that the network apparently has finally given up on the low-rated but critically lauded comedy series. A network spokesman said the show would return to prime time in December but that its future beyond that had not been decided.

Fans of Fox's "Arrested Development" take heart: While it remains unclear if the critically acclaimed but low-rated comedy will return to the network for a fourth season next year, the show with Jason Bateman and Jeffrey Tambor may find a home somewhere else. Showtime and ABC have both expressed interest in picking up the program, confirmed Chris Alexander, a spokesman for 20th Century Fox Television, which produces "Arrested Development."

Afew weeks ago, sitcom writer Mitchell Hurwitz had a brief Sally Field moment. His offbeat freshman show, "Arrested Development," was nominated for seven Emmys, including best comedy, on the heels of taking top honors from the Television Critics Assn. He said his first happy thoughts ("Wow. They really like us.") were followed by mild panic ("What do you think they like? What should we do now ...?").

It ranked 116th in the ratings last season, but Fox's underdog satire "Arrested Development" walked away with more Emmys than "The Sopranos" on Sunday night -- five, including honors for outstanding comedy series. Its other awards included nods for direction and writing. Mitchell Hurwitz, who won for outstanding writing in a comedy for the show, quipped that the voters must have made a mistake: "It doesn't seem like they got together and got this all right," he said.