Arrested Development (TV series)/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Acting for Two: All of the Richter Quintuplets are played by Andy Richter.
  • Actor Allusion:
    • Several regarding the narrator, Ron Howard's career, as well as his former costars brought in for recurring roles:
      • One of Michael's love interests tells George Michael that he's ruining his happiness, punctuating it by calling him "Opie".

Narrator: Jessie had gone too far, and she had best watch her mouth.

      • An attempt to hire Andy Griffith to appear in court dressed as Matlock met with failure when he was offered a rustic cabin on a moving truck as a dressing room and thought he was being made fun of.

Narrator: No one was making fun of Andy Griffith. I can't emphasize that enough.

    • Several allusions to Happy Days are also made through Henry Winkler's character of Barry Zuckercorn
      • Bob Loblaw, played by Scott Baio, on Barry Zuckercorn, played by Henry Winkler:

"This isn't the first time I've been brought on to replace Barry Zuckercorn."

      • Zuckercorn himself, discussing a toy shark on a pier, ends the scene by jumping over it.
      • In the first season there is a brief shot of Winkler combing his hair in the mirror after which he does iconic Fonzie open arm gesture
    • A "pre-cosmetic surgery" photo of Rita was one of Charlize Theron in Monster.
    • Richard Belzer has a cameo in one episode as "Professor" Munch (the character was, of course, a COP).
    • Dan Castellaneta cast as a bumbling doctor. D'oh!
  • Channel Hop: Jossed:

George Bluth, Sr.: Well, I don't think the Home Builders Organization is going to be supporting us.
Michael Bluth: No, the HBO's not gonna want us. What do we do now?
George Sr.: Well, I think it's Showtime- ...we have to have a show during dinner.

  • Dawson Casting: Averted in the original run, but becomes jarring in flashbacks in Season 4. Events that took place right after Season 3's finale have characters looking much older than they looked even hours before. Even Michael Cera is not immune looking years older when confronting Gob after the Yacht party than he did when he confronted him not long earlier.
  • Dueling Shows: "Obsessive Compulsive disorder, or... The OC Disorder."
    • "Don't call it that."
    • The OC is mentioned a few other times earlier in Season 3, which always prompts the same response from Michael (and once by Bob Loblaw when Michael isn't present).
      • Another connection to this is that Michael's wife died from Ovarian Cancer.
    • After Arrested lost it's Monday night prime time slot, they had an episode called "Prison Break-in".
  • Fake American: Michael Cera is Canadian, and it often shows from his accent (particularly his pronunciation of "sorry").
    • Will Arnett is also Canadian but has no discernible accent.
      • His use of the word "guy", however, is more telling.
    • Portia de Rossi is Australian, and it rarely if ever shows (although once you've noticed her distinctive way of saying "anything", "Mama" and "stupid", you'll never miss it again).
    • In the reverse of this, Rita says ironically "You can always tell when they choose an American to play a Brit."
  • Fake Brit: Rita is a British character played by white South African actress Charlize Theron.
    • Her uncle Trevor is played by Canadian Dave Thomas.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!:
  • Hey, It's That Voice!:
    • The Nondescript Ann Veal was played (after her first appearance) by Mae Whitman, AKA Katara.
      • Mae Whitman plays Roxy Richter in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, who is about as different from Ann as is possible. Michael Cera (George Michael Bluth) plays Scott.
    • Jessica Walter (Lucille Bluth) and Judy Grier (Kitty) both voice main characters on Archer.
    • Plus, you know, Ron Howard.
  • Incestuous Casting: Justine Bateman, sister of Jason Bateman, plays a character who falls in love with Jason's character. It's also played with, where Jason's character believes that Justine's character is his sister (which turns out to be false).
    • "Marry me!" (Pause) "That's weird on so many levels."
  • The Other Darrin:
    • At least three different actresses played Gob's girlfriend, Marta. It doesn't help that one spoke perfect English while another had an accent...
    • Two different actresses played George Michael's girlfriend, Ann, though it was harder to tell.
    • There's also T-Bone, whose actors had completely different body-types...
    • While in earlier seasons, the young George Sr. was portrayed by Jeffrey Tambor with a toupee, in Season 4, young George and Lucille are played by Kristin Wiig and Seth Rogen.
  • Reality Subtext: A number of examples. Besides several Actor Allusion(s), there's the fact that Portia di Rossi is a lesbian and her character on the show is married to Transparent Closet resident Tobias. There's also frequent references to the show's declining ratings coupled with Biting the Hand Humor toward Fox. The episode "S.O.B.s" is one of the more blatant examples. Finally, the character Nellie, whom Michael apparently erroneously believes is his long-lost sister, is played by Jason Bateman's sister Justine.
    • More examples: the Season 2 subplot about the development being cut from 22 houses to 18 refers to the second season order being cut to 18 episodes, and the several references to musicians having rights to certain titles ("Motherboy", "Use Your Illusion", etc) is in regards to a lawsuit from the band Arrested Development.
  • Uncanceled: Season 4 was created for and by Netflix... although the show technically wasn't cancelled in the first place.
  • Unintentional Period Piece: The constant references to the Enron accounting scandal and the Iraq War date the first three seasons to the Turn of the Millennium.
  • What Could Have Been: Mitch Hurwitz planned for Ann to be played by someone new each episode.


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