Arrested Development

Its a show about a family in turmoil after some enron/haliburtonesque business deals sink the patriarch and force the only "normal" son to take charge of the family and company. But its really about so much more.

This show has smooth delivery, witty writing, phenomenal control of irony as a humor device, and memorable characters. But its those memorable characters that have ultimately sunk (or sinked?) the show. I'd venture to say that 30-40% of "minor" jokes in the program are allusions to past character experiences. Every now and then Ron Howard (i.e the narrator, aka Opie or that guy from Happy Days) will key us in on a flashback, but only to setup important slap-stick humor later. But when a person first watches the show, they ultimately miss out on the better half of the jokes going on. Why? Because they don't know the characters. I've heard this reasoning from multiple people.

The result of this complication is that the show gets fewer repeat viewer than the average or run of the mill sitcom. I haven't seen any sort of marketing numbers, but I'd be willing to bet that 70-80% of their viewers on a given week are religious or serial viewers. Kinda like those who watch West Wing, or The OC, or Housewives. The problem is that they don't have a strong enough viewing base to make the show (which is expensive to produce for various reasons) financially viable.

What would/could change this scenario is the DVD sales/viewership. Again on pure assumption, I'm willing to bet that people who've seen 3 or 4 consecutive episodes are significantly more likely to tune in/TiVo the show each week. Basically, this show is ahead of its times and needs an unconventional marketing plan to make it successful. Like a new venture, this show should be viewed as an investment that will lose money for three or four (or five years) only to be a cash-cow later.

The Network television industry, like the recording industry, is suffering because they're locked into formulaic formats and outdated business models. Unlike the newspaper industry, the medium is flexible enough to establish new formats and new norms. Newspapers will be forced to fully embrace the digital age. Papa Rupert has already signalled as much by liquidating a good portion of his print publishers from his portfoil and buying Intermix, better known as Myspace.

So TV will do two things. (1) Start trying radical programming experiments which challenge the format norm and (2) embracing wholeheartedly the digital age. The second is already coming, the first is in the works.

In the meantime, Save Arrested Development