It's not looking good for Arrested Development or frosh laffer Kitchen Confidential. Fox has cut back its episode order on the critically-admired Arrested to just 13 segs, down from 22. Producers of Kitchen, meanwhile, have been told the show won't be getting a full-season pickup. More worrisome: Fox is pulling both shows from the schedule, effective immediately. Arrested returned from a month-long hiatus this week, while Kitchen was slated to return Monday. Instead of the two laffers, Fox will air repeats of drama Prison Break in the 8-9 p.m. Monday slot for the rest of the November sweeps. It's presumed Arrested and Kitchen will return to finish out the remainder of their runs in December. Come January, net has long planned to move House into the Monday slot. Fox wasn't commenting Thursday morning, and for now, nobody's using the word cancellation. But in the case of Arrested, the handwriting appears to be on the wall. While numbers for Arrested were underwhelming this week, it's worth noting that a number of returning laffers -- including Fox's Stacked -- aren't doing much better.
What's particularly sad about this is that Monday's hour long special sparked more laughter than what most shows have in their entire run. Culminating in a hilarious sight gag Godzilla parody, the episode managed to subvert headlines like star "nanny snogging" and the issues over church and state, as well as referencing Alias, The Hours, Love Actually and Pretty Woman. Plus, it had the lovely as a summer evening Charlize Theron as an MRF.
The planned return date for the series is now December 5th. Most likely, it probably won't make it to 2006, thus destroying TV's strongest ensemble and making NBC's Tuesday night lineup of My Name Is Earl and The Office the official comedy night of preference. Before blaming Fox, know that they have done almost everything they can for this show. The only thing left is for people to tune in. Tell everyone you know to watch it during its next airing.
Nevertheless, please sign this petition to help keep it on the air for a little bit more. At least them get a proper full season to wrap up the plotlines and give Emmy a reason to give themselves a good kick in the ass over that Raymond debacle. There may be a slight possibility that a cable network could pick it up, but even that might be a shot in the dark now. Here's hoping.
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