18 Reasons Arrested Development Is the Best Show of All Time

From nevernude to one-armed men: A tribute to the most brilliant episodes, the funniest quotes and the running gags that you hope never end.

After seven long years, the wait is finally over. This Sunday, Netflix will release new episodes of the classic, legendary, groundbreaking Arrested Development—the show that was meta before meta became a thing. So for you, the fans—those who may have already binge-watched all existing 53 episodes or those who may just need a little refresher—here are just a few of my picks for the best episodes, quotes, and running gags the show’s produced thus far. Here’s hoping more genius awaits us.

THE BEST EPISODES …

  • Pier Pressure, Season 1, Episode 10. The tenth, and possibly all-time best episode, involves a one-armed man, pot, and a fake drug bust involving male strippers.

  • Missing Kitty, Season 1, Episode 18. The episode that proves why Judy Greer is the go-to guest star for so many TV shows and movies.
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  • Good Grief, Season 2, Episode 4. One of the funniest scenes of the entire series: Buster (clad in a fake army uniform) assists GOB in a failed “illusion” at George, Sr.’s wake. Pure genius.


  • Motherboy XXX, Season 2, Episode 13. “Motherboy was the name of an annual dance promoting mother-son bonding. Lucille has gone with Buster over 30 times, and on many occasions, won cutest couple. But as one entered sexual maturity and the other one left it, it became increasingly difficult.”
  • Meat the Veals, Season 2, Episode 16. Egg, her family, Mrs. Featherbottom, and Franklin. “You must teach me the ways of the secular flesh.”

  • Forget-Me-Now, Season 3, Episode 3. The episode that features the greatest character name of all time, Bob Loblaw (played by Scott Baio). And the meta of all meta moments, Barry Zuckerkorn (Henry Winkler) jumps over a shark.

THE BEST QUOTES …

Tobias:  “Okay, Lindsay, are you forgetting that I was a professional twice over: An analyst and a therapist, the world’s first ‘analrapist’.”

GOB:  “I’m a failure. I can’t even fake the death of a stripper.”

Michael: “The only thing I found in the refrigerator was a dead dove in a bag.”
GOB:  “You didn’t eat that dove, did you? I only have a couple of days to return it.”


Lucille:  “What’s Spanish for ‘I know you speak English’?”

Buster:  Mom signed me up for the army just because the fat man dared her to.

Michael:  Get rid of the Seaward.
Lucille:  I’ll leave when I’m good and ready.

AND THE BEST RUNNING GAGS …

  • George Sr.’s foray into infomercials with the Cornballer was a scalding hot disaster. Eventually made illegal in every country. Specifically, Mexico.

  • Tobias, still struggling to make it in the “business of show,” longs to be in the Blue Man Group. In case he finally gets the call, he always stays in makeup. Leaving blue marks everywhere he goes.
  • The eventually banned 1990s psychiatric drug Teamocil was promoted by Tobias, Lyndsay, and Maeby—a.k.a. Dr. Funke’s 100% Natural Good-Time Family Band Solution. The drug is still used by the family, and Tobias longs to reunite the band once more.
  • Ah, the chicken dance.

  • After a loose seal bites off Buster’s hand, Buster’s hand-replacement hook creeps out his family. It also leads to him constantly screaming, “I’m a monster!”
  • Tobias lives his life unable to go completely nude. With cutoff jean shorts always on under his clothes, he is a nevernude.