George Bluth, Sr. The patriarch of the Bluth family, his “creative accounting” practices while running the Bluth Company land him in prison at the start of the series. He also invented the infamous Cornballer.		Lucille Bluth The Bluth family matriarch, Lucille is an alcoholic narcissist who enjoys manipulating her children and mishandling Bluth company funds to support her decadent lifestyle.
	G.O.B. Bluth A self-proclaimed womanizer and mediocre magician, the eldest Bluth sibling is notorious for his self-destructive temper tantrums and terrible “illusions.” He often makes huge mistakes and his mother does not care for him.		Michael Bluth The only (semi)responsible adult in this selfish, childish family, Michael is constantly weighed down the by the responsibility of his own mantra: the most important thing is family.
	Lindsay Bluth Michael’s “twin” sister, Lindsay is a self-absorbed philanthropist with devastatingly low self-esteem resulting from her mother’s taunts and husband’s questionable sexuality.		Buster Bluth The youngest Bluth sibling, Buster is a momma’s boy with an unhealthy Oedipus complex who is terrified of just about everything.
	George Michael Bluth Michael’s sweet but awkward son, George Michael trusts his father completely and values their close bond. His fierce crush on his cousin, Maeby, is a source of constant guilt.		Maeby Fünke A sarcastic troublemaker, Maeby is always crafting her latest con in the hopes of shocking her neglectful parents.
	Tobias Fünke Lindsay’s husband, Tobias is a socially inept former doctor turned actor. He is also a never-nude.		The Narrator The omniscient voice of the show, Ron Howard occasionally shows narrative bias.

The maniacal matriarch of our favorite dysfunctional family, Lucille is the secret brains behind the Bluth family (mis)fortune. A master manipulator, if we pull the curtain back far enough, we find that every dastardly devilish Bluth behavior can somehow be traced back to this loose seal of a woman.

Lucille Bluth is based off of Mitch Hurwitz’s mother, also named Lucille. G.O.B.’s name is inspired by one of Hurwitz’s relatives who goes by his initials G.E.K. (pronounced “jeek”.)

George Sr. mismanages company money? He needs to keep up with his cheating wife’s decadent lifestyle. G.O.B. is a friendless misogynist with shockingly low self-esteem? His mother openly loathes him. Lindsay can’t communicate with her daughter and is in constant need of outside validation? Lucille has spent her entire life taunting her. Buster has the social IQ of a four year-old? His mother coddles him into stupidity.

And yet, these very reasons are why we love Lucille Bluth: she holds the show together. Where would be without a miserable G.O.B. and an immature Buster? What if Lindsay and Michael had a mother who loved and supported them? As One Direction would say, you don’t know you’re beautiful, and your incredibly low self esteem is what makes you beautiful. We love Lucille for her wit and her greed, her style and her lack of grace. So no, she won’t be winning any ‘Mother of the Year’ awards any time soon, but she’s already won over our hearts.

A nearly perfect pilot, the first episode of Arrested Development manages to fully flesh out each of the main characters, while still maintaining what will become the traditional Arrested Development story arc, all within the span of twenty-two delightfully hilarious minutes.

When the Bluth family reunites for George Sr.’s retirement boat party, the family’s financial crisis is revealed as Pop-Pop gets carted off to prison by the po-po. Left in familial disgrace and financial ruin, the Bluth’s are forced to turn to their buzzkill of a brother, Michael, for help.

“No hard feelings? I’ll see you when the first parent dies.” “Well, I’d rather be dead in California than alive in Arizona.””

And even though Michael’s fed up with his unappreciative family, he can’t help but hope that with a little guidance, the Bluth’s can become the family that his son deserves to have.

Fascinatingly funny from the start, Arrested Development delights it’s audience because it is a series built upon the element of surprise. Just when we are sure we know what’s coming, we’re thrown for a loop and left in awe of our own upturned expectations. There’s always money in the banana stand? Oh. There’s actually money in the banana stand. And we find ourselves even more impressed as we realize the clues were laid out for us all along.

But behind the farce and “illusions,” we find ourselves, perhaps against our better judgment, caring for these terrible people– even in the first episode. Because at the end of the day, we realize that they recognize that they are a family. A dysfunctional, greedy, selfish family– but a family, nonetheless. And the thing that makes them likeable through all the misanthropic adventures of arson and money laundering is that through it all, they never really seem to forget that.

Turn to page 2 for the funniest ‘Arrested Development’ moments!

As the ratings got lower and cancellation became inevitable, the inside jokes got funnier as the show finally embraced full absurdity and stopped pretending to care about the bottom line. Nowhere is this more evident than in the series finale, ‘Development Arrested’– an ode to fans who have been watching since the very beginning.

Rap group “Arrested Development” sued Fox for copyright infringement on their name. The show later joked about this incident with the Motherboy competition: “Motherboy was also a heavymetal band. We are legally obligated to make this distinction.”

While always funny in its own right, Arrested Development has become beloved for its devotion to continuity, and the surprising way in which it uses absurd comedy to keep the narrative story going. This storytelling method climaxes at the finale, as every network television taboo that Arrested Development ever dabbled with is pushed even further, and seemingly dropped plotlines finally get paid back.

From naming a boat the ‘C-Word,’ to an uncle dating his nephew’s teenage girlfriend, to a sister straddling her twin brother as she demands he marry her (wow. The Bluths are kind of like the 21st century Lannister equivalent, huh?), ‘Development Arrested’ wasn’t afraid to go out with a bang.

The callbacks this episode is ripe with are pretty satisfying for the loyal viewer, too. We finally find out (as we had always sort of suspected) that Lucille is actually the family mastermind and bringer of misfortune as she’s manipulated everyone into doing her bidding throughout the years. It seems she’s finally met her match with her youngest “son” Annyong though, which to our delight and surprise had all along been a spy sent in to bring down the Bluth family.

“I don’t understand the question, and I won’t respond to it.”

BIGGEST TWIST

It was the twist nobody (well, okay, we kind of all) saw coming: seven years after the original show left the air, Netflix brought Arrested Development back as an original Netflix series for the fourth season. And after months of anticipation and a stellar Banana Stand ad campaign, all fifteen of the fresh season 4 episodes dropped on May 26, 2013.

Neither George Sr. nor Tobias were originally intended to be permanent characters on the show.

Season 4 debuted to mixed reviews, once again proving that Arrested Development always brings the unexpected. Unlike the first three seasons, due to filming constraints with the very busy actors, the fourth season aired the storylines out of continuity. Because each episode featured and was developed around one specific member of the Bluth family, this meant that scenes between episodes were intersected and missing, making much of the first part of the season confusing, as it led to its own payoff in later episodes.

While the first three seasons took place with the Bluth family mostly together in Orange County, the fourth season had everyone spread out throughout the world trying to find their own identity away from the Bluth name. Everything that we had come to expect out the show as an audience had been turned on its head: sweet, innocent George Michael became manipulative, and Michael, who had always been the reasonable member of his family, was now the biggest chump of all.

Season 4 left us with quite the cliffhanger as we saw the father/son relationship that was once the backbone of the series be shattered before our eyes, but the good news is, our devastatingly devious family can only go up from here.

WATCH NOW

All four seasons of ‘Arrested Development’ can now be found on Netflix instant streaming! The first three seasons can also be found on Hulu and as a DVD set.

POLL

We adore each of our beloved Bluths, but everyone has that one favorite that holds a special place in our hearts. Which Bluth family member is your personal favorite?

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Why do you love ‘Arrested Development’?