Arrested Big Screen Development? No Touching!
By Craig Kennedy - February 6th, 2008; 1:45 pm
I would’ve run this sooner, but I don’t like to repeat speculative rumors about potential future movies especially when there is a strike on and the rumor is probably based on a celebrity talking out of his ass.
On the other hand, the idea that Arrested Development might be turned into a feature makes me want to do the chicken dance in order to taunt studio executives into submission. Also, it’s an excuse for me to run this clip. If you’ve never seen the show, this is going to be pricelessly unfunny, but it serves you right for letting the show get cancelled in the first place.
Filed under: Miscellaneous
Heh heh…the chicken dance, the banana shack, AND the Segway in one scene. I think I just hurt myself from laughing.
See, sometimes pointless speculation is your friend.
I can imagine this would only work as a direct-to-DVD thing, which would still be great.
I’m kind of glad the show got cancelled when it did, though, because it kept it from really jumping the shark as it easily could have (and maybe did anyway).
I agree that it was best to leave while the show was still good, but I wish they’d known going into the last season just how long they had so they could’ve wrapped it up right.
I think more American shows should follow the British model that has limited runs of fewer episodes.
It’s a nice model, but I don’t understand how it could possibly be profitable, at least in this country where it takes at least a full 20-episode season before a show can be called succesful. Is it through some BBC subsidy?
Yeah, TV would be a lot better (in my opinion) if they didn’t have to fill so many hours of TV every season and shows weren’t required to run for 5+ seasons just for the sake of syndication.
HBO followed the British model…shocker, it works pretty well.
I have no idea how it works Jeff, but there’s no reason TV shows couldn’t have shorter seasons and there was simply a Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer season. Your series could run during one season and skip the other. They have so much reality running now that it would be easy to fill the gaps left by fewer long-running series. Christ, you could just re-run the series in it’s entirety during its “off-season” and get twice the bang for the buck.
It’s pretty much just a streamlined version of what some of the networks toy with now, like Fox running the OC during the summer months. It just takes a smart TV exec with nothing to lose and some balls to try it out.
“Why go to the Banana Stand… when you can make YOUR banana stand?”
Oh man, love this show. I only wish the clip continued until Lucille joined in the chicken dancing as well.
Perhaps Joel it all boils down to syndication. The networks count on that 100th episode so they can resell the show. Are American TV shows that much more expensive or are the networks just that much more greedy? I’m surprised that DVD sales of shows hasn’t changed the model already.
Paul. That’s right! I forgot Lucille did it too. Good times.
Speaking of TV DVDs, I know what I’m watching tonight…
I’m sure TV on DVD has somewhat altered the profits for standard syndication rights on TV but since all the networks are losing money these days on scripted dramas to some extent, it’s not surprising that they would be bent on maximizing their income as much as possible.
All I’m saying is that I think the current model that broadcast networks are following is dying a quick death. They may not be suffering the pain of the record companies but they’re bailing out the same sinking ship. Someone needs to try something different soon that brings down the price of scripted shows, makes them draw a larger and more significant audience, and increases profits.
Audiences have shown they will tune in for engrossing shows. Audiences have shown they will tune out of repeats, clips shows, and filler. Audiences have shown they’ll migrate to pay cable for better drama.
I’m just waiting for the networks to get off the rotting crutches they’ve been propping themselves up with for the last few years and try something truly different.
I won’t be holding my breath.
It works on HBO because that’s a subscriber-based model. How does it work in Britain?
Did you really believe DVD would make networks less money-grubbing? Let’s not forget that the last season of 30 ROCK got split in two for its DVD release.
Less money-grubbing? No. But they have to do something different. More reality TV isn’t going to cut it.