David Cross Regrets Doing a Fifth Season of ‘Arrested Development’
It’s no secret that the Netflix-era of Arrested Development isn’t quite as well-regarded as the first three seasons. The climactic scene of the final episode literally finds the Bluth family stumbling upon Lucille II’s grinning corpse, immediately followed by Buster’s murder confession. In retrospect, it’s kind of surprising that AD viewers didn’t freak out and demand a do-over season, à la Game of Thrones fans.
It’s not just audiences who were displeased with the final season of the show, even David Cross, who, of course, played never nude and aspiring Blue Man Tobias Fünke, has expressed his regrets over the acclaimed series’ swan song.
In an interview with Entrepreneur.com to promote his new stand-up comedy tour, The End of the Beginning of the End, Cross fielded questions about the possible return of Tobias. When asked if he’d ever dust off the old denim cutoffs for a belated continuation of the belated continuation of Arrested Development, Cross immediately poured cold water on any hopes of a follow-up to Season Five. “I don’t think it’s a good idea," Cross bluntly stated. “I just don’t.”
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In particular, he pointed out that one of the show’s key cast members, Jessica Walter, passed away in 2021: “Jessica’s not with us anymore, so I don’t know how you do it without Lucille.”
He’s right, it’s nearly impossible to imagine a version of Arrested Development without Lucille Bluth.
But even before Walter’s death, Cross suggested that reviving the series likely wasn’t in the cards. When asked by People in 2019 if the show would ever come back, he responded, “I don’t think so.” When asked if he thought it should come back, Cross responded with the longest pause in human history.
Now Cross has stressed that he “loved” the show and continues to “love those guys,” but added, “I don’t think we should do it anymore.” He also argued that “ideally, we would have stopped after Season Four.”
Which is a tad surprising considering that Season Four was also kind of a train wreck, so much so that the entire batch of episodes was completely overhauled and “remixed” prior to the release of Season Five, with the new subtitle “Fateful Consequences.” It, too, had a lot of problems.
But Cross’ belief that the show should have wrapped up after Season Four may have less to do with the quality of the episodes, and more to do with the experience of actually making them. He’s previously admitted that the final season of Arrested Development was not an “easy shoot” plagued by last-minute rewrites and a notorious incident in which Jeffrey Tambor verbally harassed Walter.
At this point, Cross would probably sign up for more Alvin and the Chipmunks squeakquels before he’d agree to future seasons of Arrested Development.
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