AAAAGGGHHH!!!!! FOX Pulls Plug on "Arrested Development"

Okay, THIS right here is what is wrong with network television! There is one show on TV that evokes laughter literally in every scene, practically with every line, and the creative vanguard at FOX are halting its production.

Can anybody name a funnier program on television in the last five years than "Arrested Development?" Seriously. Is there anything on ABC, CBS, NBC or FOX that even comes close? What, "Yes, Dear?" "Two and a Half Men?" "Will & Grace?" What about (the) WB or UPN? What, "Girlfriends?" Is that even still on? If so, why?

Even the last season of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" was a shadow of its former self.

"Arrested Development" is consistently hilarious. This show and its fans deserve much, much more consideration from these tin-eared corporate suits.

The AP reports:

Worthy shows have come and gone many times before, but the irony is acute for the latest endangered pair. "Arrested Development," which is ferociously clever and daringly breaks the laugh-track, multicamera sitcom mold, arrived as the genre cried out for rejuvenation.

With the passing of "Friends," "Sex and the City" and (at the end of this season) "Everybody Loves Raymond," observers have lamented the mostly uninspired retreads that are left.

"Arrested Development" wasn't entirely startling — "Seinfeld" reveled in the crassness of its characters; "Curb Your Enthusiasm" saw its cynicism and raised it.

But the Fox show was asking a sitcom family to be received as something other than inherently warm and loving, and derived its dry humor from the characters' odd, morally suspect behavior.

That audiences would take awhile to adapt was understandable, Bateman said.

"If anybody says this show is not accessible, which I think is not really accurate or fair or deserved, perhaps that's what they're talking about," the actor said. "It's around the side door for laughter. You have to watch two episodes to understand what our joke is. Then, if you're in that gear, it delivers nonstop."

Try to remember how long it took for "Seinfeld" to become a bona fide hit. That show didn't take off until halfway through its third season! "Arrested Development" isn't even finished with season two, and the geniuses at FOX are putting it down. I tell ya.

Well, at least there's still "The Simpsons."