Last month brought bad news for fans of the Bluth family and their ever-reliable (or not) banana stand: After years of having a home on Netflix, Arrested Development and its five seasons were leaving for unknown shores. Surely it would wind up somewhere else. But the days of being able to binge the show and Seinfeld in the same place would be no more. Anyway, now that’s not happening.
As per Vulture, Netflix has cut a complicated deal to not only retain all 84 episodes of the beloved, chaotic comedy, but also gain exclusive rights to the show. That means the three seasons currently living on Hulu will have to vamoose.
The reason for the near-deletion of Arrested Development from Netflix’s coffers of course involves rights issues. Those now belong to Disney’s Twentieth Century unit, as the show made its debut on Fox. (This was nearly two decades before Disney would absorb 20th Century Fox but ditch the Fox part. Corporations!) Netflix and Twentieth Century/Disney had to work out a new licensing deal, which, given that it’s exclusive, was surely not cheap. But work it out they evidently did.
When Netflix greenlit a fourth season for Arrested Development, it was one of the streamer’s first bouts of (semi-)original content. That season proved controversial, as it messed with the format, messing up the timeline and having many episodes focus on individual characters. That move so roiled some fans that Netflix recut it into a more traditional season. That fam renited one last time for a divided season, which premiered in 2018 and 2019. Anyway, ch-check it out on Netflix.
(Via Vulture)
