Silly Michael, Trix Are For Whores

Michael Bluth: So this is the magic trick, huh?
Gob Bluth: Illusion, Michael. A trick is something a whore does for money... or candy!

(They're not tricks, Michael by Nathan Pyle, available for scoring at Threadless.)

Previously on Popped Culture...

It's The Final Countdown!

I Just Blue Myself!

Cereal Killers

And The One Son Who Had No Choice But To Keep Them All Together…

Kyle Hilton wraps his 10-part Arrested Development paper doll set with Michael Bluth, the glue that barely holds the clan together. Nice work, Klye. Damn impressive.

Previously on Popped Culture...

I Just Blue Myself!

Operation Hot Mother

It's The Final Countdown!

It's The Final Countdown!

Outside of Buster, George Oscar Bluth has to be the source of the Bluth clan's most ridiculous moments. Illustrator Kyle Hilton's latest Arrested Development paper doll, GOB Bluth.

Previously on Popped Culture...

I Don't Care About Lucille. She Lies

Operation Hot Mother

I Just Blue Myself!

Mr. Manager Of The Banana Stand

Tobias Fünke: The World's First Analrapist & Paper Doll

I Don't Care About Lucille. She Lies

Illustrator Kyle Hilton's latest Arrested Development paper doll is everything a Motherboy could hope for.

Previously on Popped Culture...

Operation Hot Mother

I Just Blue Myself!

Mr. Manager Of The Banana Stand

Tobias Fünke: The World's First Analrapist & Paper Doll

Operation Hot Mother

Buster: My Army training tells me... that this is going to be a hot mission.

Michael: What? A hot mission?

Buster: Yes. I create a diversion, and you grab George Michael and go. We need a name. Maybe "Operation Hot Mother".

Michael: No, le-let's try to top that.

Narrator: They never did, and later, "Operation Hot Mother" was underway.

Illustrator Kyle Hilton's latest Arrested Development paper doll, Buster Bluth.

Previously on Popped Culture...

Mr. Manager Of The Banana Stand

Tobias Fünke: The World's First Analrapist & Paper Doll

I Just Blue Myself!

Mr. Manager Of The Banana Stand

Illustrator Kyle Hilton has released his paper doll of George Michael Bluth. That's one fine banana mascot costume.

Previously on Popped Culture...

Tobias Fünke: The World's First Analrapist & Paper Doll

I Just Blue Myself!

Watch Out for Hop-Ons

I Just Blue Myself!

Illustrator Kyle Hilton has released his paper doll Blue Man version of Tobias Fünke and that of his loving wife, Lindsay Bluth Fünke. I can't wait for Gob's doll.

Previously on Popped Culture...

Stitch Wars

Extreme Crocheting

Knitsections & Feltidermy

Tobias Fünke: The World's First Analrapist & Paper Doll

I'm on an Arrested Development kick after I saw Gizmodo's Jason Cho tweet that Jersey Shore would have more seasons than Arrested Development. Sigh.

Illustrator Kyle Hilton is making paper dolls of the Arrested Development cast, which are awesome. So for he has Tobias Fünke and George Bluth, Sr. with more to come. Click through for a printable size.

Previously on Popped Culture...

Chickens Don't Clap!

Watch Out for Hop-Ons

Make Love In Your Own Hand, Mother

Make Love In Your Own Hand, Mother

You know that list of hand prosthetics in film from 1964 to the present you were looking for? No? Well here it is anyway. (Hand Prosthetics In Film by Scott Beale, via Laughing Squid)

Previously on Popped Culture...

Watch Out for Hop-Ons

The Trustworthiness Of Beards

Framework: The Eyes Have It

Watch Out for Hop-Ons

The cast of Arrested Development by way of Peanuts, from Bill Mudron. (Hat tip to Matt "Now this is one cartoon I would watch" Hartly)

Previously on Popped Culture...
Creation of Homer
Mario's Mass Grave
Chickens Don't Clap!

Chickens Don't Clap!

Arrested Development Chicken Dances - Watch more free videos
Has anyone in this family ever seen a chicken? (Video via Unreality)

Previously on Popped Culture...
Big Screen Envy
Before Robot Chicken
Robot Dance Contest

Bite My Shiny Metal Ass

I never realized how many similarities there were between Futurama and The Simpsons before seeing this comic spread. While the main cast have no direct counterpoints in either series (it is hardly The Simpsons in Space) there are a number of doppelgangers in the minor characters. The Mafia and the Robot Mafia; Kent Brockman and Morbo; Malfunctioning Eddie and Gil; Mr. Burns and Mom. (Click on the image for a much larger version)

Futurama recently resurfaced after being unceremoniously dumped by Fox in 2003 after a four-year run. Following the cancellation, obsessive fans like myself watched reruns over and over and snapped up all the DVDs until the network execs realized, a la Family Guy, that they may have pulled the plug too early.

Good news everybody, right? I'm not so sure. I love the show — it is densely weighted with pop culture references and sci-fi and parodies with depth of science knowledge that is astounding for a TV show, let alone a cartoon. Like The Simpsons, my years of absorbing science fiction was finally paying off. Wired recently ran an excellent piece on the show if you need to know more about how great it is.

The show is now back in DVD form, with four full-length films that will each be sliced into four 22-minute episodes, to be aired on Comedy Central. Voila, a new season of Futurama. I speculated at the time of the original announcement that it would be simple enough to catch up where they left of - the characters don't age - but worried if something would be missing after such a lengthy interruption.

At their peak, shows are more than the sum of their parts. They have an undefinable quality that comes from the assembled writers that I suspect would be difficult to recreate once all the pieces are scattered to the wind. And so it was with the first film, Bender's Big Score. The animation looked great, the voices were all the same, but something was just slightly off. It's like the show had crawled back to TV following a stint in the Pet Cemetery — I'm not saying it is evil, but the light had gone out of its eyes.

Now it was only the first one, so maybe I'm being too harsh and the show will find its groove again, but there isn't much time. You can usually tell by four episodes if you are going to enjoy a show or not, so that was four in one shot. It doesn't leave much room for improvement. But I shall remain hopeful.

Its fault was that it was nostalgic for itself — showing me familiar characters but not doing much with them. It makes me think that those getting excited about a potential Arrested Development movie should be careful about what they wish for. Some things are better off dead.

Big Screen Envy

Why do TV shows have such inferiority complexes? It seems when shows are cancelled fans are soon placated with talk of a movie, as if that makes up for the loss of the show.

When it was reported this week that Arrested Development’s creator Mitch Hurwitz was quitting – putting the final nail in the coffin of the cult comedy – a future feature film was hinted at.

Same goes with Futurama, which was also negotiating a comeback. There was some hope a week ago that the Matt Groening space satire could return for 26 episodes, but that news was dashed. Again, hope was held out for a movie.

Speaking of Groening, the long-rumoured Simpson movie will be coming to theaters on July 27, 2007 and a teaser trailer has been playing this weekend in front of Ice Age: The Meltdown (ah, another sequel).

I love all of these shows, but I have no desire to see them on the big screen or in long form. Take Arrested Development – each episode was tied together over the entire season whereas even a two-hour movie would only encompass five episodes worth of material. It was a great show. Let’s venerate it for what is was and let it go.

The Simpsons is in a different category and will have aired 18 seasons by the time the movie hits theatres. What more could possibly be covered? What would a larger budget achieve for a show that has already gone to foreign locales and outer space for the same cost of filming in Bart’s treehouse?

These shows have excelled in their medium and have nothing to prove by being shown in 35mm. But if seats can be filled and popcorn sold, I suppose it doesn’t really matter.

Is There Life In Arrested?

‘Ere, he says he's not dead.
Yes he is.
I'm not.

More evidence that Arrested Development hasn’t breathed its last breath. The New York Post’s Page Six said that U.S. network Showtime has not only picked up the (unofficially) canceled show but also ordered 26 more episodes. Meanwhile TV Squad has dug around a bit that they are just in negotiations – which is still better than being D.O.A.

So the question is, should it be allowed to enter the realm called Too Good For TV? It was a fantastic show and had three seasons of brilliance. Is it time to leave well enough alone?

Nah. Let’s have some more, stat! Sure there’s a worry that a show will survive beyond its time but there is no evidence that Arrested is anywhere near jumping the proverbial shark.

Arrested Development Goes Out Crazy

Bye, bye Bluths. The season and quite likely series finished up last night like they started – fast-paced, quick-witted and outrageous to the end.

It was billed only as the season finale, and Fox hasn’t officially cancelled the comedy, but the chances of the show cheating an early TV death are slim. What seems certain is its time on Fox has come to an end. The network burned off the last four episodes, back-to-back against the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, making room on its usual Monday slot for the inane Skating with Celebrities. Clearly there’s not much love lost.

While there is a glimmer of hope that Arrested Development could be revived on the U.S. cable network Showtime or, even less likely, on ABC, it appears destined to top the list of shows cancelled before its time, including Action, My So Called Life, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Futurama, Sports Night, among others.

I’m not doing well this season, as the networks keep shelving my favourites. Fox has put Prison Break in solitary confinement for so long I don’t know if I’ll recognize it when it gets out. Invasion is being put on the sidelines during March, just as the tension is building up to a fever pitch – there’s nothing like a month-long break to cool off a hot show. While Commander in Chief has not been must-see TV for me, I watched it whenever I came across it, but now that it is also in purgatory its ratings decline will likely become a self-fulfilling prophecy for the network.

Its not just semi-established shows that are suffering the vagaries of network programmers. Love Monkey, starring Canadians Tom Cavanagh and Jason Priestly, has been caged after just three episodes. I didn’t even get a chance to see it, let alone have time to cast judgment on it. Thee episodes! How do you build an audience in that time? I’d already had one friend tell me to check it out, perhaps indicating that there was word-of-mouth buzz growing, and it was even averaging 8.1 million viewers an episode, almost twice what Arrested was getting this season. There is just no patience anymore.

Fox Giveth and Fox Taketh Away

There may be a future for Futurama. Fox is reportedly in talks to bring the Matt Groening animated series back to TV, after its success on DVD and reruns.

Shades of the Griffins! Fox performed a similar resurrection on Family Guy in 2004, which they had killed off before its time. I always felt that Futurama was more deserving of a return and was a show that had been shuffled around, preempted and never allowed to find its audience.

Seems like the execs at Fox aren't above making complete u-turns on their programming decisions, so it really makes me wonder about Arrested Development. It has a cult following, is selling well on DVD and critics love it. Naturally, it is slated for cancellation. Perhaps it is a strange marketing plan to sell more DVDs and get tons of free ink, before bringing the show back.

I've never understood Fox. They program such trash, but they have also launched (and cancelled) more cutting edge comedies then most of the other networks combined -- Action and Andy Richter Controls the Universe, but to name two. Maybe they should put the people who develop the shows into the scheduling department.

Anyway, if Futurama can come back after a couple of years off the air, perhaps there is a chance for Arrested as well. Save Our Bluths!