http://www.getarrested.com/

Every one of you pledge by signing your name to it. It looks like this is FOX's own online petition. This show needs to stay on the air. Anything less and we can bomb FOX HQ.

Sorry if this has already been posted but I didnt see anything about it.

Well this certainly removes any confidence even the strongest Arrested supporter had in Fox's hollow remarks regarding the shows security. I'm sorry, you don't create a site like that for one of your shows if it's renewal is guaranteed. Not a chance in hell.

"To make sure Arrested stays in our lives"? Who knows if Gail was lying or not when she said the shows was safe. Maybe she was being truthful and she was the only reason the show was going to be brought back.

At this point, considering their cutting back on the episodes this season, the key supporter of the show leaving Fox, and God knows all they've done to other quality shows... I hope they do cancel the show. If Fox cancels it, there is absolutely no way another network wouldn't pick it up, and I have to imagine HBO would be at the top of the list.

Let it get picked up by HBO, adding another award winning show to their lineup so we don't have to worry with this bullshit Fox pulls when a show doesn't draw 20 million viewers. Hell, then we can get some cursing, nudity and more R-rated jokes.

True, there'd only be 13 episodes a season, but seriously, fuck Fox.

I would not like it to go to HBO. Much of the funny comes from the show skirting around what can't be said. The bleeping is also hilarious, don't think I'd want to hear them say the actual words(Tony Hale supposedly is opposed to actual cursing).

But for Fox to start their own "save the show" website just seems to me as a way for them to shift blame.

Then again...this could just be a tongue in cheek(april fool) page and simply another way to get people to sign up their rights to be sent promotional emails etc.

I think you're reading way too much into it. I get the impression it's strictly for publicity and to try to get some more eyeballs through word-of-mouth.

I just don't get the attraction to this show at all. I know it's a forum darling around here, and I've never gone into a show discussion thread to diss it cause I don't want to thread crap. But I feel it's a somewhat different case here.
I have tried three times to watch AR in an attempt to see what the big deal is, but it is simply awful to me. I looked at last week's episode and nothing; I never laughed once.
And just for the record, I really like Scrubs, which I take it is a similar type of show.
If AR is indeed in danger of not having another season, then so be it. IMO it's not worth saving.

I've come to the conclusion that the only similarity between Scrubs and AD is quirky humor. It ends there. They have different ways of presenting their respective humor. With AD(second season punctuates it for me) you have to know the characters...in other words...you have to watch it from the get go to get the humor as it is meant. Obviously there will be things here and there that are funny regardless of knowing the show. But to feel attached to the show you have to know what is going on with everyone.
Scrubs can be picked up on the fly and most will get the humor as the majority is free standing. Of course there are running jokes and gags that can be appreciated with continued watching(World's most giant doctor, brown bear, Turkelton, *thumbs up* Bob Kelso).

I think the downfall of AD will be that the second season's jokes are so ingrained in season 1 happenings. This will deter but the most hardened of tv viewers.

I'm not much of an AD fan. I bought the 1st season due to comments here and just couldn't get into it. Parts were funny but it just had too much stuff that I thought was just plain stupid and at times irritating.

If what you say is true, then the show is doomed. In order to build an audience you have to give new viewers a way into the show - particularly a comedy. If someone hears good things, decides to check the show out and it is filled with a bunch of in-jokes that only long time viewers will get, then new viewers will tune out and tell their friends who have never seen it not to bother. Sounds to me that unless they change their approach then AD will never be more than a cult show if it survives at all.

And therein lies the reason why the ratings are not growing even with the countless accolades.

...and Arrested Development does that. Every time the show comes back from reruns and a new batch starts to air, the first of those is invariably more expository to help fill viewers in. Not every episode is easily accessible to a new viewer, but at the same time, the way everything's so intertangled is a huge part of the appeal of the show to me, and it wouldn't be the same without it.

I started watching at the beginning of season two and hadn't seen most of the season one episodes until the past month or so, and I didn't feel lost or overwhelmed.

I watched half of an episode once on television and couldn't get into it. When the DVDs came out, though, I ended up watching the entire thing in a weekend. It takes a bit to get into, but when you're hooked, AD becomes maddingly addictive.

I think the people who say that you need to watch a bunch of episodes before it's funny are full of it. Yes, there are a few in jokes and running gags, but you didn't ever hear people complaining when Friends made a reference to Ross and Rachel's history, or to the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Gellar love Ross but don't really like Monica. Arrested Development's continuity is no more complicated.

The real problem with Arrested Development is that it's unlike most sitcoms. Most sitcoms feature regular people (albeit regular people who are quick with a quip or a comeback). Arrested Development (and the Office, which is suffering from similar complaints that "it's not funny") features exagerated people who don't behave in a realistic way. You might expect to meet a Roseanne Conner or a Alex P. Keaton or a Murphy Brown in real life (assuming you ran in those circles). They act like funny, somewhat exaggerated, but otherwise realistic versions of a blue collar mom, a Young Republican, or a reporter for a newsmagazine. Gob Bluth doesn't act like a somewhat exaggrerated but otherwise realistic diletante magician; Tobias doesn't act like a somewhat exagerated but otherwise realistic psychiatrist-turned-actor; and so on. I think the people who don't like the show can't get past that (whether they realize it or not).

Not to discount your psychoanalysis of TV viewers...but maybe they just don't find it funny.

Comedy is intensely subjective...there is no universal "funny."

On the opposite side of the coin I think it is BS that someone can judge a show on 3 viewings out of 40+ episodes.

I also think it is BS when someone says that you can't jump into the middle of it. People are just lazy. EVERY episode re-caps a lot of what went on before it so that not only do you see the previous gag, it sets it up for the next joke. Not only that, the voice over(Ron Howard) recaps a lot as you are watching. I tivo'd the final 6 episodes of the first season before season 2 started. It took a couple of episodes to get used to the characters and what was going on, but it really wasn't all that difficult. Once you know the tiniest bit about each character, you are in.

Quick rundown for the uninitiated:
Gob is a hack magician
Buster is a mamma's boy trying to make that break from mom.
George Sr. is on the run for building houses for Saddam
George Michael is a mamma's boy without a mamma & infatuated with cousin Maebe.
Lindsey & Tobias are married to each other for the sole purpose of their child Maebe. Lindsey can't keep a job, Tobias is a struggling wannabe actor and also a never-nude.
Maebe(age 14) was mistaken for a movie producer and is now filming Moby Dick
Michael like the narrator says, is the normal one trying to keep them all together. Father of George michael.
Lucille is the controlling mother secretly seeing George Sr.'s twin brother Oscar.
Barry Zuckerkorn is the inept family lawyer.

That is basically all you need to know. The jokes stem from the characters. Pretty basic when you think about it.

Count me as one who thinks the page is more of a publicity stunt to generate buzz and get the word out to friends and family.

I thought Maebe was filming "Young Man and The Sea/Beach".

The first part is kinda answered by the second part. AD does not deal with your run of the mill situations. The examples you give of Friends are pretty universal and straightforward. AD goes about in a roundabout way of bringing the funny. I don't think the recaps help someone who has not watched the show very much. They more than anything bring about more questions. As for the running jokes....AD has many more than a typical sitcom. Just about every character has a running joke. The Ann joke for instance is not funny on it's own. Standing on it's own of late, Michael just comes across as rude, it's not even funny for the most part. "I've made a huge mistake" is not usually funny unless you realize Gob said it after most every amorous decision. Blue spots on the wall. Denim shorts(someone watching last week's episode with Dave Attel(sp?) would not know what the hell that was about). Kitty's weird wink. And the list goes on and on.

The show doesn't become a bore without watching the entire series but you most definitely do not get near the full effect of the show as it was meant. Heck you won't read a thread here without someone mentioning how they had to watch it a couple of times to get missed jokes....and this is from regular viewers. So you can't say people are full of it.

I disagree that Scrubs can be picked up on the fly. I tried the show (when they moved it after Friends, at the beginning of their second season). Almost all the jokes were nods to previous epiosdes, and I didn't laugh at all...simply because I didn't know what was going on. So I never watched again.

Well, I signed it and I'll try to sign it again if the website will let me. I love this show and it needs to stay on the air. It looks like almost 10,000 people have signed it thus far. Hopefully more will.
The fact that they reduced the episode number and set up their own save site isn't promissing, but hopefully we'll see season 3.

I definately love this show, and will watch it on any network (if HBO were to pick it up, I would order HBO just for this show alone). To me, the humor is the best of any sitcom, and definately the best in the last 10 years. The fact that I grew up in Orange County helps quite a bit, as there is a legitimate amount of OC humor in this show, that is close to home, and thus even more funny. I will check out the site, and definately pick up the DVD of S2 if/when it comes out.

why is everyone mentioning HBO for whatever reason?

I mean shit, when's the last time a fox produced show go to HBO? FX is the dumping ground for these sorts of things. Now that FX's head was moved to take gail's place and he knows quality shows, AD is pretty safe for next season.

Also, to clarify further, a never-nude is exactly what it sounds like.

I would hate for the show to go to HBO (if that was even possible), since it would mean the DVDs would cost a lot more.

Why is that? Fox would still release the dvds since it is their production. HBO dvds are so expensive because they are HBO productions.

Curb Your Enthusiasm can't cost more to make than Arrested Development, but it's $35-$40 for two discs.

(*Quietly*)

Why can't they go out on an undisputed creative high note and just end the series here? British shows manage to pull it off all the time.

If they were to continue, it would only a matter of time before they have one mis-step of a run and the entire internet fanbase/foundation turns on the show (and don't you pretend it won't.)

You definietly have to watch more than a few episodes to get into it... I've watched from the beginning and always loved it, but only after the first season came out on DVD did I really become completely addicted to this show. I just got my friend addicted too. We've watched the first two discs and he keeps asking when we're going to be able to finish the first season. He loves it now too.

And in keeping with the AD spirit of in-jokes and continuity....
Shouldn't that be "hacked" magician?