Top 5 Arrested Development Eps

I love how everyone acts like Bob Bradley has a tough job. Oh harsh... he has to narrow his squad down to 23. Twenty three!!! The poor guy.

Let's just see him try to distill the best of Michael, George Michael, Buster, George Sr., GOB, Lucille, Lindsay, Tobias, Maeby and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Bluth down to five choices.

I sure wish they'd hurry up with that movie!!!

Honorable mentions: Amigos, Beef Consommé, Best Man For The GOB, Forget-Me-Now, Good Grief, Hand To God, Let 'Em Eat Cake, Meet The Veals, Mr. F, My Mother The Car, Not Without My Daughter, Righteous Brothers, S.O.B.s, Switch-Hitter, The Cabin Show, The Pilot, Top Banana

#5 (tie) - Pier Pressure

This show taught us all a lesson about medical marijuana (Buster is not S-ing around, man!), Hot Cops (who, as pros, will push the tension to the last possible moment before they strip), punishment by family time, phony receipt gathering and teaching lessons. And that's why you always leave a note.

#4 - Motherboy XXX

This is AD at it's absolute wackiest, and I fail to to come up with another live-action show that could have pulled off this much sheer insanity so smoothly.

Not only do we get a comeback Buster zip-lining with his hook like they taught him in Army, a gaggle of utterly squeamish stage mom types (boy's choice? where?), several costume changes and Tobias doing his best George Sr. act for ScandalMakers and Lindsay, but this ep is also crammed with a ton of subtle inside Hollywood jokes about the show (not to be confused with the band).

Yep, this is one hot mission indeed!

#3 - Out On A Limb

I could have easily included Hand To God to make this a double ep cheat, but decided to stay pure. The first half of the return of Maggie Lizer-Her-Ass-Off narrowly beats the closer because we also get GOB duping himself time and again in legal proceeding with his ex-wife (Krindy? Saul Zentsmann? Blamy?). You should have saved it for the stand, Tom Jane.

Of course, the main dish revolves around Michael and (a pregnant?) Maggie, by extension Lindsay and Tobias, and a Skip's Scramble - at least until a fake Michael Moore encounter leads to the defiant Buster getting his hand bitten off by one of Krindy's seals near the end.

Raiding someone's house for urine has never been so fun.

#2 - Afternoon Delight

Oh man... where to start?

We have Michael trying to enjoy a company party for once, complete with a stunningly oblivious karaoke duet with niece Maeby. We have Lucille learning to enjoy being alone (though not like George Sr. in the hole). We have a Tobias getting blown by a rape horn, missing his big Blue Man Group chance and then being run over by his mother-in-law. We have George playing Oscar, Oscar putting it in her brownie, Ann's creepy family on Bethlehem time and an armload of Army medals for Buster (the gorilla is for sand racing, ya know).

Not only that, the ep is a GOB tour-de-force. From the boss' expensive pants (C'mon!) to his overly filthy lecture warning employees to stay away from an overly horny Lindsay (funniest use of the censorship beep ever) to his aggressive party opening speech (Dance!) to his roast reactions to his rescue from a pantless banana suit jam. Sadly, Buster's newfound mechanical prize grab skills do not include lowering gently.



#1 - Bringing Up Buster

I doubt this will top anyone else's list, but it has always been my dear favorite. It seems a bit insulting to name the third episode of the entire run as the high point, but even so, we all know the numerous "also-rans" were only incrementally behind.

This most bitchingly funny 22 minutes of the series features much ado about gender roles with George Michael, Maeby and Steve Holt (!!) thanks to debutant stage di-rec-tor Tobias and a listless GOB searching for shelter (hey, if he can’t find a horny immigrant in three days, then he don't deserve to stay here), but the Man of the Match is clearly Buster Bluth.

The baby brother is sent to make cornholes with his siblings, discussed family-style in front of a non-family audience (priceless every time), zips through nap time, experiences both triumph (relatively speaking) and defeat with a bike, and tries out his best foul-mouthed mocking rants to fit in, all the while learning to stand on his own two feet - even if he still can't find his way down from the clubhouse roof.


- Greg Seltzer