Editing Arrested Development (section)

=== Season 1 (2003–04) ===
{{Main|Arrested Development season 1}}

George Bluth Sr., patriarch of the wealthy Bluth family, is the founder and former CEO of the successful Bluth Company which markets and builds [[McMansion|mini-mansions]] among many other activities. His son [[List of Arrested Development characters#Michael Bluth|Michael]] serves as manager of the company, and, after being passed over for a promotion, decides to leave both the company and his family. Just as he makes this decision, however, George Sr. is arrested by the [[United States Securities and Exchange Commission|Securities and Exchange Commission]] for defrauding investors and gross spending of the company's money for "[[embezzlement|personal expenses]]". His wife [[Lucille Bluth|Lucille]] becomes CEO, and immediately names as the new [[President (corporate title)|president]] her extremely sheltered youngest son [[Buster Bluth|Buster]], who proves ill-equipped, as his only experience with business is a class he took concerning 18th century agrarian business. Furious at being passed over again, Michael secures another job with a rival company and plans on leaving his family behind for good. Realizing that they need Michael, the family asks him to come back and run the company, which Michael scoffs at until he sees how much the family means to his teenaged son George Michael. To keep the family together, Michael asks his self-centered twin sister Lindsay, her husband Tobias and their daughter Maeby to live together in the Bluth [[model house|model home]] with him and George Michael.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.avclub.com/arrested-development-extended-pilot-top-banana-1798168461 |title=Extended Pilot/Top Banana |website=[[The A.V. Club]] |last=Murray |first=Noel |date=June 1, 2011 |access-date=July 29, 2012 |archive-date=November 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117001329/https://tv.avclub.com/arrested-development-extended-pilot-top-banana-1798168461 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Throughout the first season, different characters struggle to change their identities. Buster works to escape from his mother's control by bonding with brothers Michael and Gob as well as with love interest Lucille Austero, Lucille Bluth's neighbor and chief social rival.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.avclub.com/arrested-development-visiting-ours-charity-drive-1798168592 |title=Visiting Ours/Charity Drive |website=The A.V. Club |last=Murray |first=Noel |date=June 15, 2011 |access-date=July 29, 2012 |archive-date=November 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117001400/https://tv.avclub.com/arrested-development-visiting-ours-charity-drive-1798168592 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[George Michael Bluth|George Michael]] nurses a forbidden crush on his cousin [[Maeby Fünke|Maeby]], while continually trying to meet his father's expectations. Lindsay's husband [[Tobias Fünke|Tobias]] searches for work as an actor, with the aid of [[Carl Weathers]].<ref name="Eps 11 & 12">{{cite web |url=https://www.avclub.com/arrested-development-public-relations-marta-complex-1798168819 |title=Public Relations/Marta Complex |website=The A.V. Club |last=Murray |first=Noel |date=July 6, 2011 |access-date=July 29, 2012 |archive-date=November 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117001451/https://tv.avclub.com/arrested-development-public-relations-marta-complex-1798168819 |url-status=live }}</ref> Michael falls in love with his screw-up older brother [[Gob Bluth|Gob]]'s neglected girlfriend [[List of Arrested Development minor characters#Marta Estrella|Marta]], and is torn between being with her and putting "family first".<ref name="Eps 11 & 12" /> After seeing Michael physically fight with Gob, Marta realizes that they do not share the same family values and she leaves them both.<ref name="Eps 13 & 14">{{cite web |url=https://www.avclub.com/articles/beef-consommeshock-and-aww,59124/ |title=Beef Consommé/Shock and Aww |website=The A.V. Club |last=Murray |first=Noel |date=July 20, 2011 |access-date=July 29, 2012 |archive-date=November 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117001342/https://tv.avclub.com/arrested-development-beef-consomme-shock-and-aww-1798168971 |url-status=dead }}</ref> To spite Buster, Lucille [[Korean adoptee|adopts a Korean]] son whom she calls "Annyong" after she mistakes the Korean word for "hello" as his name.<ref name="Eps 13 & 14" /> Through an escalating series of dares, Gob marries a woman he just met, played by Will Arnett's then real-life wife [[Amy Poehler]], but cannot get an [[annulment]] because he refuses to admit that he did not consummate the marriage.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.avclub.com/articles/best-man-for-the-gobwhistlers-mother,60533/ |title=Best Man for the Gob/Whistler's Mother |website=The A.V. Club |last=Murray |first=Noel |date=August 17, 2011 |access-date=July 29, 2012 |archive-date=November 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117001338/https://tv.avclub.com/arrested-development-best-man-for-the-gob-whistler-1798169299 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Kitty Sanchez|Kitty]], George Sr.'s former assistant and mistress, tries to [[blackmail]] the company. She is caught in the Bluth family [[yacht]]'s explosion, as used in one of Gob's magic acts, but survives with a cooler full of damning evidence labeled [[Saddam Hussein|"H Maddas"]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.avclub.com/arrested-development-staff-infection-missing-kitty-1798169059 |title=Staff Infection/Missing Kitty |website=The A.V. Club |last=Murray |first=Noel |date=July 27, 2011 |access-date=July 29, 2012 |archive-date=November 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117001406/https://tv.avclub.com/arrested-development-staff-infection-missing-kitty-1798169059 |url-status=live }}</ref> After previous failed attempts, and a brief religious stint in Judaism, George Sr. finally escapes from prison by faking a heart attack. It is also revealed that George Sr. committed "light [[treason]]" by using the company to build mini-palaces for [[Saddam Hussein]] in Iraq.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.avclub.com/articles/not-without-my-daughterlet-em-eat-cake,60740/ |title=Not Without My Daughter/Let 'Em Eat Cake |website=The A.V. Club |last=Murray |first=Noel |date=August 24, 2011 |access-date=July 29, 2012 |archive-date=November 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117001422/https://tv.avclub.com/arrested-development-not-without-my-daughter-let-e-1798169367 |url-status=dead }}</ref>