Current Showtime president David Nevins used to work as an executive at Fox, dealing with all varieties of shows for their yearly lineup. His experience at both networks allows him the freedom to discuss one very popular former Fox property that came this close to shifting to the pay cable station: Arrested Development.
Over at The Wrap, Nevins’ recent appearance at the Paley Center for Media in L.A. gets the brief feature treatment and it includes details regarding Showtime’s pursuit of Arrested Development back when Fox put the cult series on the chopping block in 2006. Nevins told the assembled crowd that Showtime played things “really aggressive” in an attempt to get the half-hour sitcom, which resurfaced at Netflix in 2013, onto the premium cable network:
“They were offering all the freedom that we didn’t have,” Nevins said. “‘You can do 10 episodes one season. You can do 12 episodes another season. You can do 23 minutes. You can do 29 minutes…’ And for a variety of reasons – largely deal-driven – it never quite came to be.”
Too bad. Those seven years between chances to see Michael, Gob, Buster, Lindsay and the entire Bluth/Funke clan were a real slog. Luckily, we may not need to wait much longer to get back into the lives of these folks seeing as how executive producer Ron Howard confessed last week that the writing of season five has indeed begun. And I’m hoping to find out what the latest is with GOB’s bee venture:
(Via The Wrap)
