The TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour can feel like a pretty stuffy event sometimes, but you could feel the excitement in the air as the time approached for the Arrested Development panel today. The beloved comedy is making an amazing comeback, via new episodes – 14 to be precise, a number confirmed by Netflix today as they officially announced the show would debut in May (exact date TBA), with all the episodes being released at once.

There were a few quick glimpses of Arrested in a clip montage of upcoming Netflix series earlier in the day, including Michael and Gob running into one another and Gob up on a crucifix. The panel itself began without any clips though, as creator Mitch Hurwitz revealed, “One of the challenges of the show was to be surprising and that was easier to do when no one was watching.” With Arrested having gained more fans in the years since it went off the air, “We’ve started really guarding the material, just to make it fun for the audience.”Hurwitz described the new episodes as “a very different form that emerged really organically. The family grew apart and everybody kind of grew up and [the actors] went on other shows and had other contracts.” That being the case, they approached these new episodes as “An anthology or a series where you kind of dedicate a different episode to different characters’ point of view. It was really fun challenge. We started seeing that the stories would intersect.”Hurwitz noted that an event might happen in one episode and then, “You’ll see it from a different perspective and get all his other information. “ The closest thing we got to a story spoiler was de Rossi saying in her episode there’s a scene where Lucille is telling her something and Lindsey thinks she is being totally sarcastic, but Lucille’s episode will show you that’s not the case at all. It should be noted that Hurwitz, in the manner of Matthew Weiner, J.J. Abrams and other great secret keepers, felt de Rossi was saying too much even there!Because the episodes all overlap and link up like this, Jason Bateman described it as, “One giant Arrested Development,” saying they treated it like act one of a larger story, “We hope to conclude in a movie, which would be act two and act three.”Bateman said he wouldn’t even describe the new episodes -- which will slightly vary in length somewhere within thirty minutes each -- as “Season 4”, though he added, “There certainly is a satisfying conclusion if the movie doesn’t happen, but they are all meant to work together.”Bateman said that he really felt the new episodes should not be compared to what came before, describing it as, “Something that is completely different on purpose,” and meant to work with the format of Netflix and the way all the episodes will be released at the same time.Originally, it was reported that there would be 10 new episodes, and then rumors there could be more. Said Hurwitz, “We always knew there were going to be 14. We decided, ‘Let’s say there’s 10 and then the fans will be so happy when we say there’s more.’”While the Netflix release means people could watch them in any order, Hurwitz noted, “There is an order that we have put together to create the maximum amount of surprises.” As for those worried about spoilers getting out, Hurwitz remarked, “There are going to be surprises that are going to be ruined by spoilers but that was going to happen anyway. So it’s happening in one day for hardcore fans, but the stuff exists. It’s just out there.”Bateman described Arrested Development as “pleasantly dense,” with all of its callbacks and jokes that build upon each other. Remarking why it failed initially, he said, “I just don’t think that’s necessarily conducive to something that has commercials in it.”I asked Hurwitz if, given the format this time out, and the cast availability, they had to have the 14 scripts totally set before production. Said Hurwitz, “We got very locked in on the story. It was so incredibly, incredibly complicated.” Arrested was in “second position” for almost the entire cast contractually, meaning the other films and series they were on were their first priority. Hurwitz said that meant, “We have this actor, we don’t have this actor. It’s a complicated story that jumps around in time, with all these intersections, and we’re shooting way out of order.” Initially, they started writing the shows in order, but that would change depending on actor availability, with Hurwitz giving the example of, “We have Tony Hale today, we have Jessica Walter, we have to shot that stuff for Jessica’s episode!”Jeffrey Tambor said that on his second week back on the show, there was a scene with the entire cast, “All nine of us in the living room.,” and that while "We're not a sentimental group,” it was pretty emotional. Said Walter, “It was surreal. There we were nine years later…”As the panel ended, Hurwitz revealed he did have a clip from us. And because he wanted to keep secrets, it was a deleted scene – though he added that if we laughed, maybe he’d put it back in.And perhaps he will put it back in, as everyone cracked up at the clip, which was a long, single take in which Lucille, under house arrest and unable to go out on her balcony – and forbidden from smoking – used her son Buster to get away with her vice. And in typical Arrested Development manner, it was oh-so wrong, fairly incestuous and hysterical, as Buster tried to tell her a story while she smoked – and each time she exhaled, he’d put his mouth right in front of hers, for her to exhale into his mouth, run out onto the balcony and blow the smoke out. Buster keeps trying to tell his story while this occurs, while coughing, wheezing, and adding things like, “I can’t breathe!” When Lucille finishes one cigarette only to light up a new one, he begs, “Please mother, please,” but she doesn’t care (and never speaks a word in the scene), continuing to exhale into his mouth… until he finally collapses on the ground.More Bluth awesomeness awaits in May!