Someone had to get the family back together.
Original title
Arrested Development
Released
11/2/2003
Origin country
US
Genre
Comedy
Production companies
20th Century Fox Television, Imagine Television Studios, Dakota Pictures, The Hurwitz Company
Status
Ended
Number of seasons
5
Number of episodes
84
The story of a wealthy family that lost everything, and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together.
Behind the scenes look at Arrested Development
Cast members talk about what it means to get the TV Land Future Classic award in their first year
Meet the suddenly penniless, and equally clueless, Bluth family. Accustomed to their wildly affluent lifestyle, they can't seem to grasp the fact that the head of the family is now in the slammer for shifty accounting practices — and he's loving every minute of it. Even worse, since the family assets have been frozen, they may actually have to go out and get jobs! The only one who understands the seriousness of their predicament is Michael, who realizes it's up to him to guide his eccentric family into this new chapter of their lives: Chapter 11.
Meet the Bluths. In the pilot, Michael decides to take a job in Arizona after being passed over by George Sr. for head of the Bluth Company. George Sr. is jailed, and the family realizes they need Michael.
Michael puts George Michael in charge of the Bluth Bannana Stand, and his son subsequently burns down the stand. Elsewhere, Tobias auditions for a commercial, and Lindsay inadvertantly gets the part.
Michael spends quality time with Buster. George Michael auditions for a school play to get closer to Maeby. Gob breaks up with his girlfriend and has nowhere to go.
Gob decides to lock himself in his father's prison for 24 hours to get back in with the alliance, and to spend quality time with his father. Michael takes Gob's girlfriend to an awards show, and Buster inadvertently flirts with his mother's rival.
Michael and Lindsay try to prove their charitable sides to each other. Gob demands George Michael's respect, and Buster continues avoiding Lucille 2.
Michael sets up an "intimate conjugal visit" for his parents, while it is revealed that George Sr. had an affair with Kitty, his secretary who recently slept with Gob. Tobias and Lindsay see a marriage counselor.
Michael attempts to fire the family's incompetent, but likeable attorney. George Michael impresses Maeby with a muscle suit for a "Living Classics" pagent. Tobias has a psychological affliction where he is unable to take off his clothes.
Michael loses his short-term memory, which Lucille uses to her advantage. Gob attempts to use the family yacht before Michael sells it. George Michael and Maeby attempt to see an R-rated movie about cousins having an affair. Buster and Lucille 2 take "the next step".
Michael cannot go through with his plan to break up Gob and Marta. A thug magician wants to take Gob's "legs". Maeby wears all leather to get back at her mother, and Lucille decides to confront Buster's relationship with Lucille 2.
Buster realizes that medical marijuana will help cure Lucille 2's vertigo, and pays George Michael to get it for him from Gob. Lindsay sends Maeby to spend a day with Lucille to punish her for bad grades. Michael thinks George Michael is on drugs and attempts to teach him a lesson.
When George Michael is a rejected by a private school due to the family's reputation, Michael hires a publicist from his gym who he's been flirting with to change the public perspective of the Bluths. Meanwhile, Tobias is sent to Boston to reclaim his medical license.
When Lucille throws an anniversary party for Tobias and Lindsay on Valentine's Day, Michael gives an impassioned speech about love. This makes Marta realize she has feelings for him and Lindsay realize she wants a divorce. Meanwhile, Buster decides to move out of the penthouse and Lucille revels in living alone for the first time.
After learning that Marta has feelings for him, Michael goes to her and they decide to get permission from Gob before taking things to the next level. Meanwhile, Lindsay and Tobias finally get to the heart of his "never-nude" problem and George Sr. faces his first hearing.
Michael falls for his George Michael's ethics teacher, whom his son also has a crush on. Meanwhile, Lucille adopts a 14-year old Korean boy, and George Sr.'s "Caged Wisdom" tapes have given him a new admirer.
When Michael discovers his family has been receiving paychecks without working, he forces them all to get jobs within the company. Lindsay questions his management skills, and Tobias checks himself in at George Sr.'s prison to research a film role.
Michael attempts to have a one-night stand with an attorney whom he doesn't know is not only blind, but the prosecutor who is trying to put his father in jail. Also, Gob gets married on a dare, Maeby pretends to be a girl with a made up disease, and George Sr.'s admirer turns out to be an undercover SEC agent who has truly fallen for him.
Gob steals a file on the government's case against the Bluth Company that Maggie had given to Michael. Tobias is sent to Maggie's house to get evidence, George Michael tries to prove Maeby's fraud, and Lindsay fights to remove the Ten Commandments from the courthouse lawn.
Gob attempts to make good on his promise to make the family yacht disappear. Meanwhile, Lindsay and Maeby try to track down Lindsay's grandmother, Tobias seeks George Sr.'s respect, and Michael attempts to fire Kitty, who claims to have information that could bring down the company.
George Sr. uses Gob's bachelor party as an opportunity to set up his accountant in a compromising position so that he can blackmail him. Meanwhile, Michael tries to prove he's a fun guy, and the Funkes reunite their family folk-music band.
Michael deals with numerous requests for some unfrozen money, and chastises Lucille for being too coddling with Buster. Lindsay decides to protest the war to boost her self esteem while Tobias and Gob decide to start a coffee company.
Michael takes Maeby to work with him on Take Your Daughter to Work Day. After being slighted by Michael, Tobias, George-Michael and Gob all go to the mall to prove that they are just manly. Oscar takes Lucille and Buster to Annyong's soccer game.
In the first season finale, George Sr. has a heart attack, and Maeby is jealous when George Michael likes another girl. Meanwhile, Lindsay decides to leave Tobias until a book he wrote a long time ago becomes a gay bestseller, and Buster and Annyong compete over women.
Michael Bluth, once again determined to be free of his dysfunctional family, packs up the car and his son George-Michael and heads for Arizona. But he's soon pulled over by the police who tell him that his father, George Sr., has broken out of prison. Due to the company's shady business deal with Iraq, Michael could face prison time, so he returns home to clear his name even as George Sr. secretly flees to Mexico, Tobias decides to be an understudy for the Blue Man Group, and Lucille begins a torrid affair with her husband's twin brother Oscar.
Michael and George Michael leave for Phoenix but go back to ensure the family misses them. Lindsay wants to have an open marriage, which causes Tobias to try to join the Blue Man Group under the impression that they are a support group for depressed men. Lucille signs Buster up for the Army after being goaded by a Michael Moore look-alike. Gob becomes president of the Bluth Company.
Michael is driven crazy by Gob when he impresses the board as the new company figurehead due to Michael's legal troubles. Meanwhile, George Sr. is arrested in Mexico for a crime Oscar committed, and Buster witnesses something that utterly shocks him.
Michael is increasingly frustrated over being abandoned by the family, and when the staircar is found in Mexico, Michael vows to find his father and give him a piece of his mind. Also, Buster spends time with Lupe's family and thinks he's in Mexico.
Lucille hires a bounty hunter, Ice, to find George Sr., who may be closer than everyone thinks. Gob tries to pull off an elaborate illusion, Maeby tries to set Lindsay up with Ice, and Michael tries to mend George Michael's broken relationship.
George Sr. fears he's losing Lucille to Oscar. Gob motivates Buster for the Army while Lindsay spends more time with Maeby to get closer to Steve Holt and Tobias starts working out.
Gob stages mass firings after being inadvertently roasted at the Bluth Company Christmas party. Michael is forced to rebuild the Banana Stand, and Buster plays hooky from the Army at an arcade game.
The Bluths rival development company hires Gob, who finds the company president a father figure, in preparation for the Bluth-Sitwell softball game; Lindsay hallucinates from taking anti-depressants.
Michael sells a portion of his stock in the Bluth company to buy a car, and Lucille 2 returns, only to discover that Buster is dating the company secretary Starla.
Michael reunites with his long, lost love Sally Sitwell, but faces interference from parents. Meanwhile, the two Lucilles need someone to bid on them at the bachelorette auction with Buster already in a relationship.
With the company in dire financial straits and the Bluths no longer the primary shareholders, Michael must turn to old family friend "Uncle" Jack Dorso for financial assistance. Uncle Jack, however, wants something in return.
Just as Michael's relationship with Sally starts to flourish, Maggie Lizer returns nine months pregnant, and Michael immediately assumes he's the father. George Michael attempts to break up with Ann, and Buster learns he's being deployed to Iraq.
Michael tries to find out who's the father of Maggie's baby, or if it's just another of her lies; Gob tries to find out whether he was responsible for Buster's accident.
Lucille abducts George Michael for a mother-son dance, Buster adjusts to having a hook for a hand and Gob reunites with his estranged wife. Also, Tobias stars as George Sr. in a biopic about the Bluth family, which causes Lindsay to become more attracted to him.
George Michael runs for student body president, which Gob manages to ruin. Buster has an affair with Lupe, who is being sought after by Lindsay and Tobias attempts to move out of the model home, then develops a new persona when he regrets his decision.
Gob and Buster team up for some magic tricks with the help of Buster's fake hand, but when Tony Wonder, a rival magician, starts to mentor them, somebody gets the finger. Meanwhile, Michael is forced to delegate some work when he's hospitalized and Lindsay teaches George Michael how to drive using the staircar.
George Sr. tries to find a way to attend an anniversary dinner for Lucille while Michael deliberately offends Ann's devout Christian parents. Tobias goes overboard performing his "Mrs. Featherbottom" persona.
Gob confronts the editor of the videos that showcased his magic mistakes. Michael tricks Lucille in to rehab, and then attempts to get her out after George Sr. is kidnapped.
Gob hides George Sr. while the model home's plumbing is checked; George Michael helps Ann protest Maeby's new movie; Tobias takes a liking to Kitty after Michael asks him to keep an eye on her.
Michael Bluth finally realizes that it's his Uncle Oscar serving time in prison, not his father. Reluctant to spring Oscar due to the effect it may have on the family business, Michael decides that the only fair thing to do is to find his father and place him under house arrest. Yet once found, George Sr. insists he was tricked into working with the Iraqis, leaving Michael no choice but to investigate his father's outrageous claim. But it isn't until Michael and Buster go to Iraq on a rescue mission to save Gob that the depth of the devious plot is revealed — and Michael learns which family member is the real brains behind all the madness.
Michael learns that it's actually George Sr.'s twin brother Oscar serving time in prison, not George. After getting a tip from Barry, Michael heads to Reno to find George, but that costs him a camping trip he promised his son.
Investigating his father's claim that a British group set him up, Michael goes to "Wee Britain" and is smitten with a beautiful woman named Rita. Lindsay attempts to seduce the new family attorney, and Gob goes to extremes to avoid his newly discovered son.
George Sr. is placed under house arrest by the family's new attorney Bob Loblaw, and finds that it's not exactly a walk in the park. Michael sets up his first date with Rita, but Rita has an unfortunate encounter with the family beforehand.
To prove he's a man to Rita, Michael and his nephew Steve Holt compete in the Church And State Fair's annual triathlon. George Sr. tries to scare some at-risk youth, and Tobias tries to help George-Michael's girlfriend Ann to compete in the fairs' "inner beauty" pageant.
Michael must deal with a huge mole problem in order to salvage a major real estate deal with Japanese investors. In an effort to help Michael, Gob and Buster team up with George Sr.'s surrogate, Larry, to devise a plan and save the deal, but their plan falls apart in a big way. Meanwhile, Tobias mistakes a CIA agent for a CAA agent and inadvertently betrays the family, and Michael makes Rita a proposal she can't refuse. Frankie Muniz makes a cameo as himself.
After Michael announces he's marrying Rita, George Sr. worries that she's after the family's money. But when Rita's Uncle Trevor tries to stop the wedding by revealing some surprising information about Rita, Michael must decide if he wants to walk down the aisle.
The family plans their annual fund raiser, and they actually have a cause this time. Tobias is ailing due to his transplanted hair plugs, which appear to be rejecting him. Lindsay uses the illness as her ticket back into high society, and Michael learns of the prison warden's true intentions with his mother after reading the warden's screenplay.
Michael is tired of his father always having Gob compete with him, so Michael gets Gob his own banana stand franchise, only to find that Gob has set it up 20 feet from the old one. After the two compete, they decide to teach their father an elaborate lesson, and Buster refuses to use his handicap to scare kids. Meanwhile, Maeby uses Lucille's surgery in a horror film.
George Sr. suggests a last-ditch effort to save the family by holding a fund raiser to raise money to pay their legal expenses. Michael suggests to Lindsay that she take over the house work, and he sends George-Michael to an expensive boarding school. Meanwhile, Maeby has trouble with a snowboarding film and Tobias tries to be a "discipline daddy".
George, Sr. hires a new attorney who asks the Bluths to participate in a mock trial to help prepare them for the real thing. The attorney gets actor Judge Reinhold to preside over the mock case. Meanwhile, Buster fakes a coma to get out of testifying, and George Michael and Maeby participate in a mock wedding to entertain hospital patients. Back at the office, Michael discovers that he may have a long-lost sister named Nellie Bluth.
In an effort to get to the bottom of things, Michael tracks Nellie down and hires her as a consultant for the Bluth Co. Unfortunately, Michael discovers Nellie's hands-on approach is more than he bargained for.
Gob goes to Iraq to perform his Christian magic act on the USO tour and ends up incarcerated. Michael learns George, Sr. sent Gob to Iraq to burn down the model home he built there, so Michael and Buster fly to Iraq to spring their brother from prison.
After returning home from Iraq, George Sr. is finally cleared of all charges, and Michael is relieved to be the head of a successful company for a change. The real brains behind the madness is revealed, and just as the family begins to celebrate their victory, a whole new set of problems emerge.
The dysfunctional Bluths embark on separate journeys -- but always find a way back into each other's lives.
Michael says goodbye to the family business and starts his own. And the life of the family is turned upside down when their mail man Pete dies.
George Sr. comes up with a get rich quick scam after his family falls apart.
Lindsay tries to reclaim her sense of self while traveling and getting back to her political activist roots.
Michael is presented with a new business opportunity that could change his life, but unfortunately, he needs his family to sign off.
Tobias searches for meaning after splitting with Lindsay, only to find that old habits die hard.
George Sr.'s new business hits a rough patch, and he must bribe a politician to get his scam back on track.
Gob finds a new group of friends after his relationship falls apart and his family abandons him.
Lindsay continues to push away from being a Bluth by embracing a relationship and finding a new career.
Tobias returns to his roots and reunites with his leading lady after a rough few weeks.
Lucille finds that her children have started dividing up her things, and adjusts to her new home.
Gob accepts a job from his brother, but is distracted by a scheme of his own.
Maeby moves out on her own and reconnects with her cousin George-Michael.
At UC Irvine things get steamy when George-Michael finds himself in a love triangle with his best friend Ray and his girlfriend Becky.
Buster struggles to make it on his own and break away from his overbearing mother.
George-Michael tries to reconnect with his father, but is finding himself overwhelmed by the responsibility of running his business.
As the Bluths continue to make a mess of their personal and professional lives, Michael again can't quite abandon the family that makes him miserable.
Surprises greet Michael at the penthouse and Sudden Valley. George-Michael confides in Maeby, who's trying to avoid Sudden Valley.
For varying reasons, most of the Bluths (even Steve Holt) feel compelled to run off to Mexico. Michael tries to convince Buster to go to the police.
The family unites behind Lindsay’s campaign, but Michael senses that something is amiss. Maeby has an idea that George-Michael likes a little too much.
Gob acquires a new office for the company with a "premium view." Michael gets a shock when he returns to a place that holds a lot of memories.
The Bluths receive/present their award, but it weighs on George Sr. and creates new problems. Michael and George-Michael have a deep conversation.
Michael attempts to bail out Buster. George-Michael finally meets the Howards, and Ron informs Michael that his plans for the movie have changed.
George-Michael thinks he's being lied to by Michael, who thinks he's being lied to by George Sr. Gob hires guys to help with his "closet conversion."
As the Second of July parade approaches, Sally steps up her campaign against Lindsay while the Bluths again struggle to keep their stories straight.
Buster fails to show for his own prison release party. Michael examines company financial records. George-Michael seeks Anonymous help to deceive Rebel.
Michael jumps at a chance to spend more time with George-Michael, who seeks a clueless president for Fakeblock. Tobias relocates his makeshift family.
As George Sr. attempts to win back Lucille, Michael assembles a mold of their scheme. Meanwhile, Buster gets caught up in Tobias and Gob's business.
George Sr., Lucille and Maeby give honesty a try. Good news becomes bad for George-Michael. Michael remembers there's always money ... somewhere.
Buster's brief appearance in a TV weather report puts the Bluths back in hot water, but Michael has a plan involving his son's definitely real company.
As the trial kicks off, the Guilty Guys throw the family for a loop. Lucille learns surprising news about Dusty. George-Michael plots a distraction.
George and Lucille overestimate their new lawyer's expertise in the courtroom. Two familiar faces testify, and a video sheds more light on the case.
As the Bluths come together to unveil a wall, they once again discover that they deserve nothing more than to be saddled with each other forever.
This website uses TMDB and the TMDB APIs but is not endorsed, certified, or otherwise approved by TMDB.
