5.13.2005

Hey! my prayers have been answered..
From E online's Kristin--

Development Resurrected!

Hallelujah! Arrested Development fans, brace yourselves. I have some good news and--well, you might want to sit down for this--some mind-blowing, earth-shattering, out-of-this-world, fantastic news.

Earlier this week, a friend here at E! interviewed Jason Bateman at a charity event with his good friend Ben Stiller. When asked the status of Arrested Development, he lit up like a banana stand: "Actually, great. Supergreat. There is a heartbeat. There is no flatline. And there may be twins. I'm going to let Kristin figure out what that means. I can't comment any further, but there will be an announcement next week."

After various calls to Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Pamela Anderson and Jennifer Garner's OB-GYN re "twins," I can tell you that Jason's little hint had nothing whatsoever to do with any of those things. And while there are 17 listings for a "J. Bateman" in the local Hollywood white pages, none of them know a damned thing about the fate of Arrested Development. But glory be, after much badgering and pestering, two rock-solid Fox sources, who have never failed me before, caved and gave me the lowdown.

Though they're still dotting I's and crossing T's on the final documents, I'm told Fox network and 20th Century Fox studio are "99.9 percent of the way there" to reaching an agreement on the new season. According to these highly placed sources, it looks very likely that Arrested Development will be coming back not only for a full season of 22 episodes but actually two full seasons of 22 episodes. How freaking fantastic is that?

At press time, I can tell you this is precisely where the show's fate stands. So, barring any last-minute switch-a-roonies or bad acts by Satan or Rupert Murdoch, we will get glorious "twin" seasons of the best damn comedy on TV.

According to these insiders, even though the ratings weren't exactly American Idol numbers, Fox's new prez, Peter Liguori, bless his perceptive little heart, has faith that the show will do well in a different time slot. He also wants to bring AD up to the magical episode number required for syndication and feels the show will do very well in repeats and also in DVD. Can I get a "Hell, yeah!"?