The sitcom Arrested Development enjoyed rave reviews since its premiere in 2003, but could not garner a large following during its first three seasons. It’s easy to see why the show, created by Mitchell Hurwitz, had trouble attracting viewers.
The series followed the rich and unlikable Bluth family, who experience a crisis when patriarch George (Jeffery Tambor) goes to prison for an accounting scandal, making trouble for his heartless wife Lucille (Jessica Walter), his oldest and youngest sons GOB (Will Arnett) and Buster (Tony Hale), and his daughter Lindsey (Portia de Rossi), who moves back home with her husband Tobias Fünke (David Cross) and daughter Maeby (Alia Shawkat). Only the middle son, widower Michael (Jason Bateman), and his son George Michael (Michael Cera) draw easy sympathy.
Although the series ended after three seasons, it became a cult hit on video, prompting two revival seasons, first in 2013 and then in 2019. Overall, the series produced 84 episodes, including these great entries. Meet the best Arrested Development episodes.
1. “Good Grief” (Season Two, Episode Four)
Written by John Levenstein and directed by Jeff Melman, “Good Grief” takes its name from Charlie Brown’s favorite expression, just one of several Peanuts references throughout the story. Believing that George has died, the Bluths hold a wake while keeping the sensitive doofus Buster from learning about his father’s fate.
However, George Michael knows that George is still alive and hiding in the attic, where he can continue manipulating his kids. When Michael notices his son’s strange behavior, he fears that George Michael is sneaking away with his dull girlfriend Anne (Mae Whitman), leading to one of the best lines of the show.
When George Michael confesses that he has his grandfather or “Pop Pop” in the attic, Michael responds, “The mere fact that you call making love “pop pop” tells me you’re not ready.”
2. “Pier Pressure” (Season One, Episode Ten)
“Pier Pressure” is the ideal Arrested Development episode. Written by Hurwitz and Jim Vallely and directed by Marvel filmmaker Joe Russo, “Pier Pressure” involves the adult Bluth children wrestling with one of George’s more unorthodox parenting methods, one involving a one-armed man called J. Walter Weatherman (Steve Ryan).
Whenever the Bluth kids did something George disliked, he would stage an elaborate prank that would end with Weatherman playing a guy who gets his arm ripped off by their mistakes. The grown Bluths try to prove that they have moved beyond their dad’s manipulations but instead repeat the same behaviors, leading to absurd extremes.
3. “The Ocean Walker” (Season Three, Episode Six)
Arrested Development’s third season began with a storyline involving Michael’s courtship with Rita (Charlize Theron), whose English accent distracts from her stunted intelligence. The arc highlighted the problems in Michael’s insistence on seeing what he wanted and almost married Rita without noticing her limited intelligence.
The arc ended with “The Ocean Walker,” which first closed on a very unusual note, in which Rita says goodbye to Michael by walking on the water of a nearby pool. Director Paul Feig and writers Jake Farrow and Sam Laybourne let viewers believe the sappy ending as the scene fades to the usual closing tag, in which narrator Ron Howard says, “On the next Arrested Development.”
But when the white screen dissolves back to the final scene, viewers learn the truth of the situation. Instead, the episode ends with one of GOB’s illusions gone wrong and Tobias’s fake hair catching fire, proving itself one of the classic Arrested Development episodes all the way through.
4. “Missing Kitty” (Season One, Episode Sixteen)
George’s former secretary/mistress Kitty (Judy Greer) is one of the best recurring characters in the series, a woman whose willingness to participate in her boss’s schemes intensifies her foolishness.
In “Missing Kitty,” directed by Russo and written by Hurwitz and John Levenstein, George forces Michael to keep Kitty on the payroll, so that she can destroy evidence for him while he’s prison. As Michael tries to resist his father’s meddling, Kitty responds in absurd ways, a problem complicated when GOB tries to make his father’s boat disappear to impress a camera crew filming Spring Break festivities.
5. “Top Banana” (Season One, Episode Two)
Although the pilot introduced viewers to the main characters of Arrested Development, the second episode, “Top Banana,” introduced one of the series’ most important locations: the banana stand.
Michael wants to use the banana stand as an example of his ability to manage without his father’s influence, but George has other intentions for the seaside snack bar. “There’s always money in the banana stand,” he says, a statement with a double meaning that Michael misses.
The script by Hurwitz and Levenstein, directed by Anthony Russo, has plenty of space for misunderstandings and foolish one-up-manship as Michael proves that he’s just as inept as the rest of his siblings.
6. “S.O.B.s” (Season Three, Episode Nine)
Arrested Development always had a knowing, metatextual element, but it came to the fore toward the end of season three, when fans hoped that other networks would save the acclaimed show when FOX canceled it. That real-world issue drives “S.O.B.s” in which the family tries to fund their company by hosting a Save Our Bluths (S.O.B.) telethon.
In between references to other possible networks (“The HBO’s not going to want us,” George says as they talk about the Home Builders Organization supporting them. “I think it’s show time.”), director Robert Berlinger and writers Richard Day and Vallely craft a celebration of the show’s unorthodox (and unprofitable) sense of humor.
7. “Ready Aim, Marry Me” (Season Two, Episode Ten)
Arrested Development fans disagree about “Ready, Aim, Marry Me.” Not because it continues Maeby’s movie studio subplot, in which she tricks executives into believing that she’s a Hollywood exec, nor because GOB steals Buster’s girlfriend Lucille 2 (Liza Minnelli).
Rather, viewers don’t know what to make of Uncle Jack, the excitable and elderly bodybuilder played by Martin Short. Short goes bigger than most of the series’ guest stars, but he fits both the ongoing plot about the Bluths’ financial difficulties and the show’s collection of off-putting characters. Director Fieg and writers Hurwitz and Vallely do get cartoonish in “Ready, Aim, Marry Me,” but they don’t lose sight of the show’s appeal.
8. “Staff Infection” (Season One, Episode Fifteen)
Even if “Staff Infection” didn’t introduce GOB’s chicken dance, one of the show’s best running gags, it would still make this list. Directed by John Fortenberry and written by Brad Copeland, “Staff Infection” layers multiple plots and meanings over a simple conflict between the Bluth company and the contractors they cannot pay until they sell the houses being built.
That plot mirrors Michael’s frustration with the family borrowing money against the company account. Somehow, the whole thing builds to a game of chicken between Buster and GOB, and viewers cannot help but laugh at the Bluth’s inability to care about anyone else.
9. “Spring Breakout” (Season Two, Episode Seventeen)
Another Spring Break episode means the return of Kitty, who figures out that George has been hiding in the attic, thanks to Tobias somehow giving a convincing performance on the true crime show Scandalmakers. That conceit gives Ron Howard time to shine, as his narrator continues to knock the “shoddy narration” on Scandlemakers.
In addition to Buster, who mistakes box wine for a giant juice box, the real star of “Spring Breakout” is Tobias, who finds an unlikely kindred spirit in guest star Zach Braff. Anthony Russo directs the episode, written by Barbie Adler and Abraham Higginbotham, with a zany energy, befitting its hard-partying setting.
10. “Sad Sack” (Season Two, Episode Five)
This post can’t go into details about the camera mishap that gives the episode its title, but writers Hurwitz and Barbie Adler and director Peter Lauer fill “Sad Sack” with enough other memorable gags.
The investigation into the missing George Sr. pits the super-serious Wayne Jarvis (John Michael Higgins) against the super-incompetent Barry Zuckerman (Henry Winkler). “Sad Sack” serves as one of the best examples of Arrested Development’s satirical edge, as it pokes fun at Bush-era politics in the most ridiculous way possible.
11. “The Cabin Show” (Season Three, Episode One)
The season three premiere, directed by Feig and written by Hurwitz and Vallely, features one of Lucille Bluth’s most cutting lines.
When Lucille tells Michael that she has post-partum depression, he reminds her that Buster was born 32 years ago. “And that’s how long I’ve been depressed about him,” she quips. That’s just one example of the acidic humor in “The Cabin Show,” in which the Sons And Dads (SAD) Reunion Project contacts GOB about his son, revealed as Maeby’s crush Steve Holt (Justin Grant Wade), meaning she once again gets involved in a romantic plot with her cousin.
All the while, Michael tries to get time at his family’s cabin without repeating the mistakes that George made as a father.
12. Pilot (Season One, Episode One)
The pilot of Arrested Development does everything one expects from a great first episode.
Focused on George’s retirement party, where Michael believes his hard work will be rewarded when he’s named the new company president, “Pilot” introduces all of the main characters with remarkable efficiency. In the span of minutes, directors Joe and Anthony Russo (who would go on to make Avengers movies at Marvel) and writer Hurwitz teach viewers about the over-educated and under-intelligent Buster, GOB’s distinction between tricks and illusions, and Michal’s frustration with his clan.
Moreover, the pilot makes use of the show’s documentary style and use of voice-over, setting up the first “On the next Arrested Development” gag.
13. “Switch Hitter” (Season Two, Episode Seven)
“Switch Hitter” emphasizes one of the best plots in Arrested Development, in which George pits his sons against one another, to ridiculous ends.
Director Feig and writer Adler put the company softball game between the Bluths and the rival Sitwell Housing, Inc. at the center of Michael and GOB’s feud. When GOB finds a father figure in Stan Sitwell (Ed Begley Jr.), he leaves the Bluths for the new company and its baseball team. The game lends itself to lots of great gags, none better than Ann using her low center of gravity to knock over opponents (“Way to plant, Ann!”).
14. “Righteous Brothers” (Season Two, Episode Eighteen)
At its heart, Arrested Development tells the story of generational conflict, played out between George and his twin brother Oscar (also played by Jeffrey Tambor), Michael and his siblings, and cousins Maeby and George Michael. All of these relations come together in the season two finale, “Righteous Brothers,” directed by Chuck Martin and written by Hurwitz and Vallely. While George Michael protests a movie produced by Maeby, in hopes of impressing Ann, GOB considers letting Michael take the fall for the Bluth company’s wrongdoing.
The only thing affecting GOB’s decision is his understanding of the way Michael responds to a gift he gave his brother, an ill-conceived album called Franklin Comes Alive, performed by GOB and his offensive puppet Franklin.
15. “Making a Stand” (Season Three, Episode Eight)
The season three episode “Making a Stand” sees the return of the banana stand, in which GOB and Steve Holt’s takeover of the snack bar mirrors Michael’s fumbles with George Michael. It also brings back J. Walter Weatherman, recruited by GOB and Michael to stop George, much to the chagrin of Buster.
But the best part of the episode, directed by Lauer and written by Hurwitz and Tatham, comes in a single line from Lucille. While arguing with her maid, Lucille asks, “What’s Spanish for ‘I know you speak English’?”
16. “Motherboy XXX” (Season Two, Episode Thirteen)
“Motherboy XXX” utilizes of one of the greatest joke structures in Arrested Development, the call forward. Several episodes earlier, characters made reference to a mother-son beauty pageant, but it wasn’t until “Motherboy XXX” that the audience saw the extent of the nonsense.
Director Joe Russo and writers Hurwitz and Vallely include plots about GOB and his reckless ex-wife (Amy Poehler) and Lucille forcing Buster back into her uncomfortable family contests. However, the most memorable jokes involve the many references to Burger King, a spoof of FOX’s attempts to push product placement into the show. When Carl Weathers, playing a down-on-his-luck version of himself, praises the chain’s free refill policy, Tobias enthuses, “It’s a wonderful restaurant!”
17. “Forget Me Now” (Season Three, Episode Three)
Much of “Forget Me Now” continues the romance between Michael and Rita, a plotline that doesn’t work until its aforementioned climax in “The Ocean Walker.” However, director John Amodeo and writer Tom Saunders get plenty of mileage out of the episode’s subplots, including those about the Bluths’ new lawyer, Bob Loblaw, played by Scott Baio (“Look, this is not the first time I’ve been brought in to replace Barry Zuckerman,” says Bob, making one of many references to the earlier series Happy Days).
Everything involving Loblaw is hilarious, from Lindsey’s inept attempts to flirt with him to jokes about his name, as when Michael says, “We’re not here to talk nonsense to Bob Loblaw.”
18. “Development Arrested” (Season Three, Episode Thirteen)
Although Arrested Development received two more seasons, director John Fortenberry and writers Day, Hurwitz, Tatham, and Vallely designed “Development Arrested” as a series finale. Thus, the episode features several callbacks to the pilot, including an inversion of Michael’s first conversation with George Michael and yet another Yacht party.
But the episode consists of more than just winks to previous episodes. Instead, it culminates in revealing a revenge plot by Annyong (Justin Lee), the Korean boy Lucille adopted to spite Buster. The plot pulls together many of the meta-jokes in the final season and ends on a satisfying note, making for a much better close to the series than either of the two finales that followed.
19. “Key Decisions” (Season One, Episode Four)
As the series progressed, Lindsey Bluth often served as a foil for Lucille or Tobias, with her own stories focused on her desperate attempts to pick up men. But the series first presented Lindsey as an airheaded liberal who saw activism as a way to get attention.
Such is the case in “Key Decisions,” directed by Anthony Russo and written by Brad Copeland. Hoping to recapture her old rebellious spirit, Lindsey joins a protest against the Bluth Company, which puts her in short-term cahoots with environmental activist Johnny Bark (Clint Howard). “Key Decisions” also sees the resolution of GOB’s attempts to escape from his father’s prison, which ends with one of the show’s best reoccurring lines, “I’ve made a huge mistake.”
20. “Bringing Up Buster” (Season One, Episode Three)
Like Lindsey, Buster Bluth began the series as a shallow-minded fool who took way too many narrow graduate courses. Writers also shifted course with him, focusing instead on his too-close relationship with Lucille, as demonstrated in “Bringing Up Buster,” directed by Joe Russo and written by Mitchell Hurwitz and Richard Rosenstock.
When Lucille asks him to take care of Buster, Michael worries that he’s short-changing George Michael, who relishes the free time to continue his pursuit of his cousin Maeby. But while Buster pretends to enjoy his newfound freedom, he in fact misses living with his mother, a strange motivation played with perfect uncomfortable timing by Tony Hale.
21. “Public Relations” (Season One, Episode Eleven)
Although many Arrested Development storylines involved Michael’s love life, they did not often take his relationship with George Michael into account.
Writer Courtney Lilly and director Lee Shallat-Chemel change that with “Public Relations,” in which Michael dates a PR specialist called Jessie (Jill Ritchie). This plot line leads to Ron Howard’s best moment in the show — when Jessie calls George Michael “Opie,” the narrator says, “Jessie had gone too far and she had best watch her mouth.”
Great as those moments are, the real joy of the episode involves the Milford School, a strict rich-person academy that believes children should neither be seen nor heard.
22. “Smashed” (Season Four, Episode Nine)
No episode from the two revival seasons from Netflix holds up with the original run, but the Tobias-centric entry “Smashed” from season four comes close. Directed by Mitch Hurwitz and Troy Miller and written by Dean Lorey and Richard Rosenstock, “Smashed” follows Tobias’s big acting break, when he gets cast as the Thing in Fantastic 4: An Action Musical, written by Desperate Housewives creator Mark Cherry.
The episode pokes plenty of fun at Tobias’s delusions and his romance with co-star Debrie Bordeaux (Maria Bamford), who plays the Invisible Woman. It also features more of Tobias’s accidental double entendres, which does repeat familiar ground, but is also really funny. Call it one of the strangest Arrested Development episodes.
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