Netflix announced Thursday that it will debut 15 episodes of "Arrested Development" on May 26, reuniting viewers with the Bluth family for the first time since Fox canceled the acclaimed show in 2006.
The number of episodes is a welcome surprise for "Arrested" fans: The show was originally going to return for 10 episodes. That was then revised upward to 14.
The new episodes — the show has stressed that they do not amount to a fourth season of the series — will be available to all Netflix members instantly at 12:01 a.m. PT.
"'Arrested Development' is now widely viewed as one of the top TV comedies of all time and Mitch Hurwitz is bringing it to Netflix in a brand new way, crafted for the on-demand generation that has come to discover the show in the years since it last appeared on TV," said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix. "The highly anticipated return of this show is sure to make history all over again."
"Ted said that? Wow. Well don't print this obviously, but he's going to be immensely disappointed," said series creator and executive producer Mitch Hurwitz. "In truth, we are doing something very ambitious that can only be done with Netflix as partners and on their platform. Finally my simple wish for the show is coming true: that it be broadcast every second around the clock to every television, computer or mobile device in existence."
Viewers will be able to watch all the episodes immediately, though Hurwitz and the cast have said in the past that viewers will be given a recommended sequence.
The show centers around Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) and his eccentric family, including his son George Michael (Michael Cera), his father George Bluth Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor), his mother Lucille (Jessica Walter), his brothers George Oscar Bluth II (Will Arnett) and Buster Bluth (Tony Hale) and sister Lindsay Funke (Portia de Rossi), and Lindsay's husband Tobias (David Cross) and their daughter Maeby (Alia Shawkat).
Mitchell Hurwitz, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Jim Vallely and Troy Miller are executive producers. The show is produced by Imagine TV and 20th Century Fox Television for Netflix.
