Taste the happy: "Arrested Development" doc on the way

While I expressed reservations about an "Arrested Development" movie based solely on one episode of Mitchell Hurwitz's now canceled "Sit Down, Shut Up," it's not like that misfire is going to stop me from going ga-ga over his previous genius.

Which is why a fan documentary about "Arrested Development" is so brilliant, so obviously a great idea, I'm really, really upset I didn't think of it first.

After all, "AD" fans are an obsessed lot.

A "Save the Bluths" campaign kicked up four years ago after Fox placed the show on one of its many death watches, and one of the first columns I ever wrote for the Press-Gazette was about how "AD" needed to be watched by the masses.

Obviously it didn't work. But organizers sent me a yellow foam banana inscribed with "There's always money in the banana stand" as a thank you for taking up the grassroots cause. It's a cherished item that sits proudly with my DVD collection in the basement.

For "AD" fans, there's always been a severe inferiority complex in play because of how the show was treated by Fox. But looking back, it was given three seasons -- albeit at varied time slots -- and really, reveled in such cerebral, obscure humor with its pyramid of jokes, was probably never destined to reach a huge audience like, say, "Seinfeld" (itself, a network anomaly that caught fire relatively late.)

So Fox did what it had to do. The show enjoys a second life on DVD and in G4 reruns. The entire cast knows how brilliant the work was. And I think "AD" fans are mostly comfortable with the show garnering cult status and staying a well-kept secret.

Still, that didn't stop two superfans named Neil and Jeff from making their own movie about the unappreciated brilliance of the show. According to ArrestedDevelopmentDoc.com, a quotefest at Yosemite led to the idea that more people needed to know about never-nudes, Tony Wonder's Hanukkah cookie, hot ham water and the intimidating wonder that is White Power Bill. So the two Bluth-heads got a camera out -- and what do you know, Will Arnett, Portia de Rossi, Tony Hale, David Cross, Ron Howard, Henry Winkler, Andy Richter, Scott Baio (who memorably played Bob Loblaw) and even "AD" uber-fan, Keith Olbermann, apparently took time to sit in the interview chair.

To paraphrase Carl Weathers, now that's how you get a stew goin'.

The clip below looks to be fun and totally in the spirit of the show. No hard release date has been set, but "AD" fans should be happier than Buster at an open juice bar when this lovefest gets released.

Now leave your best "AD" quotes below. I'll start.

George Michael: Ann just called. They had a pre-dawn mass. Then they were going to mass, so ...

Michael: Ann’s got a great deal of mass.



-- Thomas Rozwadowski, trozwado@greenbaypressgazette.com