Arrested Development's xx Most Meta Meta-Moments

The unveiling of the fourth season of Arrested Development is less than a calendar week away. It's piece of cake to movie the first episode starting off with a flash at the show's long hiatus and cancellation, because that kind of cocky-knowing joke is what the testify always did: Arrested Development was not afraid to admit it was a Goggle box series and its characters were actually just actors. So in anticipation of the upcoming season we looked back at the series' 20 most meta meta-moments. D'oh!

Throughout the Serial
John F. Beard plays the local Fox news anchor on the prove. In real life, Beard is the Fox evening anchor for the L.A. and Orange County affiliate, KTTV, meaning Arrested Development used the bodily ballast the real-life Bluths would've had. Even stranger is during the first season, when the show aired at 9:30 on Sundays, the evening news would follow Arrested Development, so Beard would be seen reading the fake news and so the real news only a few minutes afterwards.

Flavour One, Episode 11
Jessie, the publicist, calls George Michael "Opie." Ron Howard, who played Opie on The Andy Griffith Show, comes in as the narrator: "Jessie had gone also far and she had best lookout man her mouth."

Season One, Episode Thirteen
Estimate Ping says, "I'd like to remind you there are no cameras immune in my courtroom," looking directly into the camera when he says "no cameras." The rest of the scene is shot from behind the door.

Season I, Episode 15
Tobias asks the warden of his father-in-law's jail if he will lock upwards Tobias so he can do enquiry for his role as "Frightened Inmate No. 2." Warden Gentiles is played by Inside the Actors Studio host James Lipton, and he approves the request. As Ron Howard narrates: "Fortunately, the new warden was an appreciator of the arts."

Season I, Episode Seventeen
Henry Winkler, as Barry Zuckerkorn, looks into the mirror and does the "no comb necessary" Fonzie pose (encounter above).

Flavour Two, Episode Eight
An annoyed Lucille 2 (Liza Minnelli) hears Tobias showtime singing "New York, New York" and says, "Everybody thinks they're Frank Sinatra." This is a nod to the fact that while Minnelli first sang the song for the movie New York, New York, everyone associates it with Sinatra'due south later version.

Flavour Ii, Episode Thirteen
The narrator explains that other than a competition, Motherboy is also the name of a heavy-metal ring from the seventies, calculation: "Nosotros're legally obligated to make the distinction." Which is a reference to the show being sued by the rap band Arrested Development.

Flavour Two, Episode Thirteen
Their Burger King production placement, which was so over the top, it could only accept been more than meta if Tobias said, "That would've been a slap-up product placement, Carl":

Season Two, Episode Xiii
Barry Zuckerkorn jumps over a shark on his fashion to Burger King, which is a reference to him jumping over a shark in Happy Days and its subsequent symbol as the moment when shows go incorrect, which the Burger Rex product placement represented.

Season Two, Episode Fifteen
As Dr. Stein, Dan Castellaneta, best known equally the voice behind Homer Simpson, says, "The functioning went pretty smoothly. Merely one time I got in there, the appendix wasn't and then inflamed. D'oh!"

Flavour 3, Episode Two
Michael tells George Sr., "That's a wonderful performance, Dad. Yous're a regular Brad Garrett," a reference to Garrett chirapsia Jeffrey Tambor for the previous year's Outstanding Supporting Actor Emmy.

Flavor Iii, Episode 2
When confronted about coming together with Saddam Hussein, George Sr. makes the alibi, "I thought that was the guy who played the Soup Nazi." 10 episodes later, Larry Thomas, the actor who played the Soup Nazi on Seinfeld, plays a Saddam Hussein look-akin.

Season 3, Episode Three
Scott Baio, as the Bluths' new lawyer Bob Loblaw, tells them: "Look, this is non the first time I've been brought in to supplant Barry Zuckerkorn. I think I can do for you everything he did. Plus, I skew younger. With juries and so forth." Which is a nod to Happy Days, where he was brought on every bit Chachi, to be a new teen idol as Henry Winkler got older.

Flavor Iii, Episode Five
Larry Middleman, speaking on behalf of George Sr., tells Gob, "Another brilliant idea, Einstein." The actor who plays Larry Middleman is Bob Einstein.

Season Iii, Episode Five
Bob Loblaw says, "This room or someone in it, might even exist wired with a listening device." The camera cuts to each thespian's face, so to a wide shot, where we can see the boom mic.

Season Three, Episode Six
Buster gets his hook caught in the stair auto's dashboard while dancing to Styx'south "Mr. Roboto." This is alluding to Hale'southward function in the 1999 Volkswagen commercial in which he dances to that vocal.

Season Three, Episode Half-dozen
Information technology's revealed that Charlize Theron's character (Rita) had a lot of plastic surgery. The show cuts to a "earlier" picture, which is Theron in the makeup she wore in Monster.

Season Three, Episode Nine
We learn that Andy Richter is i of five quintuplets, a reference to Richter's curt-lived sitcom Quintuplets.

Season Three, Episode Eleven
Justine Bateman, Jason Bateman'southward real sister, guest stars as Nellie, a prostitute Michael thinks is his own long-lost sister. (The episode is titled "Family Ties," a nod to Justine's quondam sitcom.) The episode ends with Michael saying to her: "Marry me! That is weird on and so many levels."

Season Three, Episode Twelve
Michael and Tobias are arguing because Tobias wants to bring the prosecution cloak-and-dagger family files, as he thinks information technology's actually a CBS procedural called The Prosecution. When Michael asks why would they want the files, Tobias responds: "For set up dressing, featherbrained. Those Hollywood shows are and so incredibly detailed." At that moment, Tobias opens a chiffonier in the kitchen and we see a lone Starbucks cup.

Arrested Development's 20 About Meta Meta-Moments