And now, the story of a team of superfans who researched every single recurring joke in Arrested Development and the one website that had no choice but to visualize them together. It's…

Annyong! What is this thing?

Recurring Developments is an interactive visualization of the running jokes in Arrested Development, the uniquely hilarious and self-referential television comedy created by Mitchell Hurwitz and available on Netflix. It was created by Beutler Ink and programmed by Red Edge.

From whence did this come?

Recurring Developments first launched with the arrival of Season 4 on Netflix in May 2013. It was conceived by longtime fan Chris Doty, designed by the digital marketing company Beutler Ink, and coded by digital advocacy firm Red Edge. In May 2018, Recurring Developments received its first major update to coincide with the launch of Season 5.

How does it work?

On the desktop version: More than 100 of the show's memorable recurring jokes occupy the left-hand column of the website. The show's 70+ episodes are found on the right. Clicking on a joke reveals all episodes where it occurs. Clicking on an episode reveals all of the jokes contained within it. All jokes have some kind of description and they are scene-specific where possible. Some episodes contain additional information about one-time callbacks and other fun things, including notable cameos. On the mobile version: all the same information, but different navigation. Episodes and jokes are presented as lists, and clicking on one will reveal the other.

What's new this time around?

New jokes for Season 5, more than 300 new joke instances across all five seasons, a mobile version that works better on touch-based devices, a refresh of the site design, and timestamps for almost every single joke in the whole series to date.

How did you pull off this research?

Original research was led by Chris Doty, with Beutler Ink team members filling in as needed. For the Season 5 update, we tapped into a network of Arrested Development superfans to help us find jokes we'd missed, correct ones we'd botched, and identify timestamps for the rest. Please join us in thanking our Recurring Developments Research Fellows. There are dozens of them!

Jesika Akhavein

Arika Amricachi

Tim Anderson

Meredith Baku

Tiffany Baxi

Catherine Born

Michael Boucher

Joanie Caudillo

Leyla Cruz

Hannah Debacker

Jennifer Edwards

Shelby Edwards

Allie Garcia

Katie Gilmartin

Mallory Gray

Livia Greenbacker

Erin Grossmann

Tom Hamlin

Seth Hardiman

Summer Hoppenworth

Daniel Johns

Keenan Kunst

Logan Kunst

Molly Kunst

Mary LeClerc

Jonathan LoTempio

Katie Loubier

Lauren Lumm

Emily Meloche

Dustin Morris

Mary O'Sullivan

Rachel Oakes

Mary Paul

Christopher Perkins

Heather Piegza

Danielia Donohue Reidy

Tess Rewick

Gabriella Ripoll

Andrew Russo

Emily Schatzle

Brit Schlude

Jestin Sheely

Michelle Smith

Mason Spencer

Hanna Stout

Nathaniel Todd

Sarah Todd

Laura Trulli

Um, I think you have some episodes out of order?

From airing on Fox, to release on DVD, to its new permanent home on Netflix, Arrested Development's episode order has never quite agreed with itself. Our episode order is the one that makes the most sense to us. Hey, maybe someday we'll be canon!

What about the "Season 4 Remix"?

Speaking of canon, consider us a little perplexed by Mitchell Hurwitz recutting season 4 and Netflix positioning it as the only one that matters, burying the "Original Cut" in a menu labeled "Trailers & More". This complicates things, but we're working on an update to let you decide which is the right way to watch.

Anything I can do to help?

No touching! But actually, this thing is huge and still in a state of… ah, development, and we're sure improvements can be made. Think we've missed a joke, butchered a description, or muffed a timestamp? Send us an email at teamocil@beutlerink.com and we'll look into it.

Wow, this makes me want to buy something! Can I?

Actually, we're working on a poster that will be released after the second set of episodes drops later in 2018. It won't be a freebie, but it will be worth checking out. Sign up to get an email update when this becomes available.

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Amazing, and what can you tell me about the licensing and software?

This work is released under a Creative Commons license (CC-BY-SA), copyright Beutler Ink. Data visualization JavaScript heavily based on datamovin JavaScript Library by Carlo Zapponi (@littleark).