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Those regular viewers of Star World might have been aware of this insanely (yet intelligently) funny show that first aired in the US on Fox. Three seasons, tons of critical acclaim, cult fan base, 6 Emmy awards and one Golden Globe Award later, guess what happened? The show got pulled off by the scheming executives heading Fox. While Fox News was known for its largely laughable claim of providing ‘comprehensive and unbiased’ coverage of news, its entertainment arm was infamous for its atrocious program scheduling. Family Guy was spectacularly pulled off air twice (but brought back due to its huge fan base). Anyway, getting back to the show at hand, Arrested Development was a classic example of a show that was too intelligent for its own good.

It pains me when I realize that much of the good, intelligent works of humor tend to get lost on the general public. Having said that, a lot of humor is actually good because it doesn’t invite mass comprehension. But, after watching three seasons of AD, I was left craving for more. AD is about a very rich family that loses everything due some embezzlement on the part of George Bluth, the head of the family. It is the son, Michael’s job, (the protagonist, who by the way, is the most sane member in the family) to make things right and get the family back on track. The show charts Michael’s attempts at trying to balance his company’s books as well as his crazy family, while maintaining his sanity. His brother G.O.B (played by Will Arnett) is a failed magician who performs ‘magic’ while cavorting to Europe’s ‘Final Countdown’ track. His sister Lindsay (played by the gorgeous Portia De Rossi) is a thoroughly spoilt woman unhappily married to a psychotherapist Tobias, who quit his job to make a career out of acting. Michael’s son, George Michael is a lovable, uncertain kid who struggles to live with his emotions for his cousin Maeby. Michael’s job is made all the more difficult with his alcoholic mom, who spends more time drunk than sober, and his thoroughly pampered brother, Buster.

The show was shot in a documentary format without the usual laugh tracks that typifies sitcoms. So really, you need to laugh when it’s really funny and not wait for a laugh track to direct you to smile! The strength of the show came from the subtle interactions between the characters, their quick reactions to situations that are done so effortlessly by the cast that most of the episodes are a must for repeat viewing, for maximum laughs. The show grows on you and quite possibly one of the reasons the show didn’t achieve high ratings was because it was a show where you need to watch at least three to four episodes in one go to really appreciate the comic elements. The show was full of references to American pop culture like Charlie Brown and Star Wars, the workings of lawyers and television/movie executives, satire on real world issues such as the Iraq war, the controversial Patriot Act and so on. In fact the show made fun of the American desire for instant gratification… “Michael says, we Americans have low attention spans, we are in a state of Arrested Development.” Which says a lot about many things, quite possibly the fact that the public don’t have the attention spans to appreciate intelligent comedy, and that most successful American sitcoms these days are dumbed down.

Although they weren’t the pioneers of sitcoms that were shot (in what they call, single-camera setup), the trend has fast caught up with more recent sitcoms such as ‘My Name is Earl‘, ‘The Office‘ and ‘30 Rock‘ as well as drama such as ‘24′. The said comedy shows also employed the ‘no laugh track’ policy. I wouldn’t, of course, attribute AD for starting this trend. The show had the affable voice of Ron Howard (producer), who added to the fun of watching it, and he made many pleas towards the end of the third season, begging viewers to tell their friends about the show! Plenty of digs about Fox’s handling of good comedy were unabashedly on display. Rumours that AD will be brought back later, were soon quashed by the creator Mitch Hurwitz.

For those who missed out on the show, I would recommend either the DVD or a cheaper alternative. In fact the alternative is so cheap that it’s free! Microsoft has got the rights to syndicate the show on its site and since December last year it has been adding three new episodes every three weeks. At present the entire first season is on! So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and dive into the fun that you have been missing all these days. Click Here to go to the Arrested Development page on MSN, and yeah, like Ron Howard would say, “Tell your friends too!”