Was 'Arrested Development' A Remake of a 70s Sitcom?
After completing the first three installments of Notes from the Internet Apocalypse, I decided to take a week off and do what I do best: daydream about how much I love Arrested Development. And although quantifying subjective artistic achievements is pointless, I think I'm ready to call Arrested Development the greatest sitcom of all time. Better than all my other favorites like Seinfeld, Fawlty Towers, The Odd Couple, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Simpsons, and Soap.
Yes, Soap. For the uninitiated, Soap ran from 1977 to 1981 and told the story of two sisters and their respective Connecticut families: the Tates, a wealthy clan, headed by a corrupt, womanizing patriarch, and the Campbells, an incredibly eccentric blue collar family composed of children from Burt and Mary Campbell's prior marriages. Soap has long been credited for shattering sitcom taboos and being wildly ahead of its time, but what it has not been credited for is providing the inspiration and a template for so many things that were later done on Arrested Development.
Does that mean Arrested Development was a remake of Soap? No, of course not. That's going way too far. What gave you that idea? Oh, the title. Yeah, well "14 Similarities Between Arrested Development And A Show You Never Heard Of" just wasn't catchy enough. But I have to believe Soap played a major influence. Do I have any proof? Not directly, no. Have I researched the issue to see if any or the creative forces of the show from creator Mitchell Hurwitz to directors like Joe Russo have cited Soap as an influence? No. Why? Because that's hard work, and I write lists for the internet. But I hope to convince you just by the sheer volume of overlaps and similarities. And if I fail, well at least we got to spend this time together talking about Arrested Development.
#1.
Intro/Outro Narration
Both shows start with narration explaining that this is a show about a family or families, and end with the narrator discussing what will happen on the next episode. Sure, that might seem minor, but we're just getting started it's a cumulative effect I'm going for here. But seriously, I can't think of a lot of other shows or any other shows that have both those things in common. Can you? (If so, please write those shows in the comments section below for all of us to not read later).
#2.
Adult Children
Although at least half of all shows in sitcom history are about families, AD and Soap have a really important distinction: all the children in these families are just about grown. They are families of adults still interacting daily with their parents and living either at home or inexplicably near home. The youngest kids in both families are high school age, but other than that, these kids have jobs (or are supposed to) and are dealing with marriage, divorce, jobs, unemployment, and sex. It's the main reason neither show has an episode about why Bobby Simmons won't ask Sally to the big dance or a hilarious episode where something wacky happens to little Tommy's science project. The AD/Soap characters are too busy exploring open marriages and sex change operations to worry about such story lines.
#3- 10.
Corrupt Patriarch
The next seven similarities all come from the storylines generated by the family patriarchs: Chester Tate from Soap and George Bluth from AD. Sure, I could have broken them up into separate categories and tried to pad my argument, but instead I opted to wow you with my incredible Microsoft table creation skills. Check out all the similarities between these two men and their storylines:
Still not impressed? What if I said it in non-chart form? Both shows have womanizing older men who have embezzled funds, been blackmailed by their secretaries who want a baby, been investigated by the SEC, subsequently arrested and jailed, leading to poorly attended funerals and a return to the house, but in seclusion set apart from the family.
Still not impressed? What if I use my nonexistent photoshop skills to put George Bluth's head onto the body of the Robert Mandan (the actor who played Chester Tate) when that actor appeared on the Match Game T.V. show?
See? No? Well, now you're just being a dick.
I just discovered soap, and thought of arrested development as well.
ReplyI loved Soap. I loved Arrested Development. But I think the main similarity is that they both dropped insane plots onto their seemingly normal suburban characters.
ReplyBeyond that, I think that the only reason you can find so many similarities between them is because there was just so much *stuff* in the show Soap that you could find similarities between anything and Soap.
When you actually list the "core" elements of Soap, you don't list how Corinne turned out to be adopted (she did?), or how Chester lived in a pool house (he did?). I watched about every episode back then and I don't remember those things.
(And, again, this was a fun, pleasant article to read, so I'm not really complaining.)
What really comes to mind when I think of Soap is "This is a story about two sisters..." and how much the sisters cared about each other, and how despite how crazy they were, how all the family members cared about each other, and how sweet they actually were, the gay guy who briefly falls for one woman, and his brother who ends up being forced into a mob marriage, and how both of those stories broke your heart a little bit.
I remember laughing hysterically at Soap, but sometimes finding myself about to cry, and then laughing again. Those families were full of (crazy) human beings, whereas the finale of Arrested Development kind of summed it up: Michael and maybe his son are the only human beings, and the best way for him to take care of his son is just to get him the hell away from these other nuts!
Also, Soap was a straight laughtrack-enhanced sitcom, while AD has its whole "filmed like some kind of reality show" format.
All soap operas used to start with the voice-over narration, a long time ago, back before VCRs, which is why Soap did it, because it was parodying soap operas. According to my mother, even though by the time I was old enough to remember it (the 1970s), actual soaps had gotten a lot less melodramatic in delivery, the old radio soap operas, and early TV soaps really did have over-the-top delivery just like the show Soap, and it was one of those things you didn't even have to exaggerate to parody-- Soap pretty much delivered those voice-overs just like the old soaps did.
ReplyI've never heard one myself, and since they used to go out live, I don't know that I ever will, but much mother isn't given to exaggeration, herself.
I remembered Arrested Development. I preferred malcolm in the middle.
ReplyYOU WHAT NOW
I only just disovered AD tonight and loved it but soon after thought to google Arrested Development Soap to find your article confirming my suspicion more than I even suspected. Another site does make a distinction though: "It's much like SOAP, just a faster pace (as everything else seems to be these days)"
ReplySee the thing about Tobias was that the main joke was that he wasn't just merely closeted. He was completely oblivious to the fact that everything he said had unintentional gay undertones to it. Some choice quotes:
Reply Hide All See All 3 Replies"Who wants a banger in the mouth?"
"Even if it means me taking a chubby, I will suck it up."
"Tobias you blow hard."
"Oh I got blown."
"I think I just blue myself."
"I'm sort of a mix of a therapist and an analyst. I like to call myself an analrapist"
Not the quote, Lennon. You're on the internet. Look it up first.
Wait, my argument works against me. It's the interenet, I shouldn't expect so much.
You sir, are a mouth full.
Look at the similarities between AD and The Godfather, that's a lot more interesting and surprising to me. Both shows revolve around a son of a patriarch named Michael who does his best to get out of the family business before being sucked in. Both have older siblings who are incompetent, are passed over for head of the family and therefore feel resentment to their younger brothers (Fredo, Gob). Both families are involved with illegal dealings. There's more if you dig deeper.
ReplyAh, but does SOAP have cleverly written plots about how the characters screw each other over whether they realize it or not? If yes, I think I'll have to check it out then.
ReplyOr does Soap have cleverly written subtleties aimed at the network executives who continually screwed with the show's time slot rendering it unable to find it's true audience?
I have all the SOAP dvds, have watched them a bunch. I was convinced to watch some AD and after just a couple episodes I thought 'heh, this is kinda like SOAP'. Glad to see there's others who appreciate both of these great shows.
ReplyAD - not just the best sitcom ever on TV, the best SHOW ever on TV. It's undeniably one of the greatest shows ever, but it goes far beyond what anybody can comprehend for great TV.
ReplyOh, and my history teacher is good friends with the creator. So that's just interesting to note.
f**k arrested development
Replyf**k you! AD is great! The plot might be a lot like Soap, but the jokes are original and hilarious!
Trust me. If I could f**k Arrested Development, I would. Hard.
I've never seen AD, but will now check it out - Soap is my single all time favorite show!
ReplyI just had to comment because SOAP is like one of the best shows of all time and I never EVER saw the connection with AD! AWESOME! Go Gladstone!
ReplySame here - I remember I got into Soap when Comedy Central got into showing the show hardcore in the mid to late 90's (starting with a New Year's marathon of every episode, I think) and was immediately hooked. As much as I love Arrested, I hadn't noticed the similarities, but Gladstone is right, they are there.
The biggest similarity is that they were both brilliantly funny, and I wish both had been able to stick around longer.
To be fair there are almost no live action and/or adult shows that use the intro and preview, but it's pretty much a standard thing for kids show and cartoons to pad their playtime.
Reply"Both shows start with narration explaining that this is a show about a family or families, and end with the narrator discussing what will happen on the next episode."
Reply Hide All See All 3 RepliesActually the end of each episode of Arrested Development featured things that don't actually happen in the next episode (except for a few times but was usually twisted and worked into the story), it was kind of a running gag.
Yeah...that was hilarious. Especially watching them back to back.
I'll always be ashamed of how long it took me to figure out that the next episode WASN'T going to feature anything they showed in the outro...
Soap did a similar thing. I especially liked when it asked questions about what characters would do and then asked if anyone would care. "Will Jodie get a sex change? Does Chester escape from jail. Will Corrinne find a boyfriend? If she does, will anyone care? All this and more, next time on Soap" (by the way, this isn't a quote, just my attempt to copycat)
Isn't 3 to 10 actually eight points?
ReplyGladstone I don't know why i read your articles. Maybe I like to disappoint myself, I don't know. But your writing style bored me beyond the point of reading the rest of this article. In the end all I found interesting was your bullet points. Next time please tell it to some one who can write worth a half a s**t. That being said I am of to hunt for episodes of soap.
ReplyIf you have Netflix, all seasons of SOAP can be streamed. I watched SOAP reruns when I was kid in the 80s. I loved that show. As soon as Franklin was introduced on ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, I started tallying all of the similarities between Soap and AD.
This wasn't that great an article, but it still made me want to go watch AD. Off to netflix.
ReplyI think I just blue myself.
ReplyAD is/was a brilliant show. I have honestly never heard of Soap. I may just have to check it out.
ReplyGood article.