Posted in: Netflix, TV | Tagged: arrested development, bleeding cool, cable, Daily Beast, david cross, fox, Jeffrey Tambor, jessica walter, netflix, streaming, television, Tobias Fünke, tv
Arrested Development: David Cross Talks Turmoil, Says Series is Done
Arrested Development became one of the most ground and fourth-wall-breaking shows when it premiered on FOX in 2003 lasting three seasons before its cancelation in 2006 only to be revived on Netflix in 2013 for a fourth and fifth in 2019. In an interview with The Daily Beast's Last Laugh podcast star David Cross reflected on how the revival was anything but easy to shoot. Cross played Tobias Fünke, a closeted man who's married to Lindsay Bluth (Portia de Rossi) and shares a daughter Maeby (Alia Shawkat).
Chaos on Netflix's "Arrested Development" Set
"We didn't know what we were supposed to do, things weren't making sense to us," Cross said. "And we were doing reshoots on things because somebody thought of a joke three weeks later, so we had to reshoot something for a story thing that we had no concept of what was happening. It was a terrible way for actors to try to do what they do and there were a lot of frustrations early on, the shoot kept extending. And you know, you're asking a lot of people, and especially older people who just don't have the physical stamina that some younger cast and crew do. And it led to some tensions and it was a very bad way to work."
Arrested Development's fourth season largely split the cast and heavily relied on point-of-view from its characters into a greater main arc, which found scenes replayed numerous times in a format similar to Rashomon (1950). The fifth season saw a return to the more traditional ensemble format of its time during FOX. Aside from the difficulty shooting Arrested Development around the cast's busy schedules, the series also encountered controversy behind star Jeffrey Tambor and his outburst at co-star Jessica Walter in a 2018 New York Times interview.