Come on! We could listen to Gob say that all day and after a neverending string of rumors, updates and promises, the fourth season of "Arrested Development" is actually happening and gearing up to shoot this summer. After the news broke that this was indeed in the works last fall, Netflix moved quickly and snapped up the rights to the show, a major coup for the rental service who are dipping their toes in the waters of broadcasting. And now, more good news. Instead of parcelling out the ten new episodes in 2013 in a weekly format spreading out over a couple of months — we're going to be getting them all at once. The plan is drop all the shows on a single day sometime next year. Awesome.
Vulture was on hand at the National Association of Broadcasters convention where Netflix honcho Ted Sarandos broke the news. But there is even more as Mitch Hurwitz revealed that though the intial concept, as discussed last year, was to make character-based episodes revolving around each member of the ensemble cast, it looks like as development has continued (ha) we'll be getting programs more in the vein of the classic show instead. More ambitiously, Hurwitz says that there will be various things for fans to look out for that will be linked through the episodes, perhaps with an interactive element as well. "There's going to be some mystery sprinkled throughout this [but] instead of watching one a week and try to get ahead of it, the hope is [fans] will watch them all together and then go back and look for clues and connections," Hurwitz explained. "We'd also like to use the technology to provide additional material, where you might be able to access another part of the story."
And it gets better. While there is still no word if Steve Holt will be asked back (though fans are petitioning), Hurwitz did say that Bob Loblaw (played by Scott Baio), our favorite TV lawyer next to Lionel Hutz, is returning. "We will bring him back," Hurwitz said. "It's kind of a one-joke thing. But if you guys don't mind bringing it back, we'll give it to you."
Finally, the show's creator states, "We would love this to be the first first of many visits," perhaps keeping the door open for even more seasons, but let's get this one locked down first, okay? Still no word on the movie, though Will Arnett did recently say, "We're about to start making the 'Arrested Development' miniseries and then right into the movie this summer." One step at a time guys, let's not jinx this.
