www.telechimp.comNov. 11, 2005, was a very dark day for fans of television comedy. In fact, it was a dark day for all of humanity. It was on this day that Fox decided to cut off “Arrested Development,” letting the show finish out its remaining episodes before disappearing. Technically, the show isn’t cancelled, but it is as good as cancelled. The show has always struggled to find an audience, but has never had any trouble with the critics, garnering all sorts of accolades and awards.
Fox has always had trouble with smart, witty shows. For whatever reason, Fox has a knack for finding great pieces of comedy, supporting them for the first four episodes or so, mismarketing them, underadvertising them and finally cancelling them half of a year into their run. Some shows have been so good that they survived most of these attempts on their life, only to get the axe slightly later. “Family Guy” was one such show, and “Arrested Development” is another.
“Arrested Development” is in its third season, which is much farther than shows of this caliber usually make it on Fox. It quickly won over a devoted fan base with its absurd, clever humor, lack of a laugh track and ability to amuse without insulting the intelligence of its audience. It is for these reasons that it has never found mass appeal. The standard plebe needs to be force-fed laughter. He feels stupid when clever wordplay is involved. He is in fact too stupid to realize that his intelligence is being insulted and, as such, doesn’t mind it.