Arrested Development type TV Show network Fox

Netflix

Done deal: Netflix is bringing back cult classic Arrested Development.

The Bluth family’s new comedy adventures will be available exclusively through the video service starting in the first half of 2013. Why, that’s like getting unlimited juice.

“After a long hiatus, I’m dying to finally get back to the narrator’s microphone,” said executive producer and series narrator Ron Howard. “Of all the projects we’ve been involved with over the years, we probably get more questions about Mitch Hurtwitz’s brilliant Arrested Development than any other — everyone, ourselves included, seems to feel like the Bluths left the party a bit too soon. Bringing a series back from cancellation almost never happens, but then, Arrested always was about as unconventional as they get, so it seems totally appropriate that this show that broke the mold is smashing it to pieces once again.”

Netflix has been muscling into the “TV” space this past year, also picking up a BBC drama for 2012 called House of Cards. For the Arrested Development deal, the DVD delivery and video streaming service bested another top bidder, Showtime, in contention for the acclaimed series, with Hulu also rumored to have been in the running.

Twentieth Century Fox Television and Imagine Television will produce the new episodes of the show. How many episodes? That’s not been announced yet.

Will all the cast members return? That’s not been announced either — no contracts have been finalized, we’re told. But certainly previous statements by the producers and cast indicate that everybody is, in theory, on board.

Will there still be the long-rumored movie? Also unclear. But if you’re getting the show back, and on service like Netflix that won’t presumably have any content restrictions anyway (unlike during the show’s original three-season run on Fox) — do we even need a movie?

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