Arrested Development (TV series)/Fridge

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Fridge Brilliance

  • I can't say it radically changed my opinion of the show, because I already thought it was brilliant, but I became even more amazed at Arrested Development when I bought the DVD to re-watch it, with the very first episode. One of the plotlines in the third season is whether Lindsay was adopted, which would mean that George Michael and Maeby were not biological cousins, and free to pursue a romantic relationship. When this first aired on broadcast TV, naturally I had ceased to give too much thought to the names of the characters who had been around since the start of the show. Only upon re-watching on DVD did I realize they had been setting this up from the very first episode, when the narrator referred to "George Michael's cousin, Maeby" ("George Michael's cousin, maybe.") -- Devils Advocate
    • Something that started out as Fridge Logic was: how the hell did George Senior manage to get upgraded to house arrest after his numerous escapes/escape attempts? What judge in their right mind would let him out of jail? Then later, I remembered the setting for the show: Southern California. The same place that sentenced Lindsay Lohan, Khloe Kardashian, Paris Hilton, etc. Special treatment capital of the world. While still infuriating, it IS Truth in Television.
    • GOB is of course, short for George Oscar Bluth, a bizarre combination of nickname and monogram. Where could they have come up with this? Possibly from John Ellis Bush, better known to us as Jeb (once you see the parallels between the Bluths and the Bushes, you cannot unsee them). - Tropers/Wookie72
    • None of George's children use their real name. Michael is actually Nichael due to a typo on the birth certificate, Lindsay is Nelly, George Oscar always goes by G.O.B. and Byron is always called Buster.
      • Also Annyong, who's real name is Hel-loh.
    • So who is Buster's father? Although the last episode essentially reveals that it's Oscar, Buster will never know for sure because as twins, George and Oscar share the same DNA. Perhaps not brilliant, but I didn't think of it for awhile. - Tropers/Wookie72
    • The episode where Justine Bateman cameos, Michael is surprised and disturbed by her trying to seduce him (since shes a prostitute), thinking that they're related. Well of course, they are.
  • There are oh, oh so many hints dropped throughout the show that Lucille was really the one responsible for all the awful things the company did, the most blatant being her telling the press that George is "hardly a criminal mastermind" in the pilot episode. But the one that makes it the most obvious is that George, for all his schemes, manipulations and so forth, is the only one of the two consistently shown to actually care about his kids--from his distress at Michael and GOB falling off the balcony to his constant thanking of Michael for looking out for him to paying off his inmates so they won't sexually harass Lindsey when she visits him. (His complete disregard for Buster can be explained by the fact that Buster's not his son, and his resentment of Oscar over the affair could easily have trickled onto Buster, especially given that he was left to raise him after having already gotten three kids.) Any moment Lucille appears to have of genuine emotion, on the other hand, always turns out to be just another way of manipulating them. In fact, George Sr. taking the hit is easily explained by the fact that he seems to genuinely care for Lucille even if Lucille doesn't seem to reciprocate.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Arrested_Development_(TV_series)/Fridge?oldid=1447647"