Staff Infection
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- This is an article about a television show episode. For information about a staph infection, see Staphylococcus aureus.
| Arrested Development episode | |
| "Staff Infection" | |
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| Episode No | 1AJD14 |
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| Airdate | March 14, 2004 |
| Writer(s) | Brad Copeland |
| Director | John Fortenberry |
| On the next: | "Tobias gets an insight into fear, and the employees find a new direction |
| Guest star(s) | James Lipton as Stephan Gentiles Justin Lee as Annyong BW Gonzales as Lupe |
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Arrested Development Season 1 |
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| All Arrested Development episodes | |
"Staff Infection" was the fifteenth episode aired of TV comedy series Arrested Development.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
Michael Bluth had begun working weekends, which interfered with his weekly bike ride with his son George Michael. With George Michael riding his bike alongside, Michael drove the stair car. After receiving an emergency call from Lucille, Michael quickly turned the stair car around, narrowly missing George Michael.
Back at the model home, Lindsay awakes to find the house deserted. Tobias had recently been cast in a movie, playing the role of a frightened inmate. Seeing her husband find work, Lindsay felt challenged to find work of her own.
Lucille is growing closer to her adopted son Annyong. Lucille is especially pleased that Annyong will begin working at the Banana Stand. Michael arrives and asks Lucille about the emergency. She needs money because she did not receive her paycheck from the Bluth Company. Michael was unaware that she had been receiving a paycheck, but announces that from now on she will not be getting paychecks for doing nothing. Buster reveals that he too was receiving a paycheck, so Michael makes Buster come to the office to help out. Michael also tells Lupe that she can have the bus for her family reunion pick them up at the Bluth Company.
Lindsay shows up at the office, also wondering about her missing paycheck. Michael tells her that she must work if she is to get paid, and makes her answer phones while Kitty is gone. Lindsay immediately begins criticizing Michael’s management style, while Buster struggles with his responsibilities in the copy room.
George Michael is working at the Banana Stand with Maeby, who, out of boredom, is trying to make him feel bad because his father is choosing work over his son. Tobias tries to check into prison to research his role as Frightened Inmate #2. The warden, a lover of the arts, is eager to help him, even letting Tobias stay in the same cell as George Sr.
Michael takes Buster to the construction site, where he can work. Buster is eager to work, but not very effective. G.O.B. arrives to ask Michael why he hasn’t received his paycheck. Like Buster, G.O.B. is put to work at the construction site.
With Michael gone, Lindsay begins taking over. She first replaces all the fluorescent lights, and then takes the staff out for lunch. Michael returns just as the staff leaves. Lindsay convinces him that the company will be fine without him, so Michael goes to find George Michael. Meanwhile, the employees mistakenly board the bus Lupe had reserved for her family, thinking the bus would take them to lunch as Lindsay had promised. The empty building gave the surveillance team that had installed the lighting a chance to gather evidence.
At prison, George Sr. is converting fellow inmates to his newfound faith. White Power Bill, another inmate, threatens George Sr. to stop his teaching. He reluctantly agrees, but just then, Tobias arrives, hoping to learn from George Sr.
Back at the Banana Stand, Annyong had arrived for his first day of work with George Michael and Maeby. Maeby continues to tell George Michael that his father doesn’t love him, eventually convincing him to take some time off and go to the beach. However, George Michael does not go to the beach, but to the office to see Michael.
Lucille has just come home from shopping. With Lupe gone and her family working, she realizes she misses them, because there is no one to unload the car. Michael stops by the Banana Stand to see George Michael, but finds out he had gone to the beach so Michael heads to the beach to find him.
At the construction site, G.O.B. gives up on working and convinces the workers to strike. Buster, who is enjoying the work, disagrees. The other workers convince the brothers to settle their disagreement with a game of chicken using bulldozers.
Lindsay finds out about the work stoppage just as George Michael arrives, looking for his father. Not wanting Michael to find out about the work stoppage, Lindsay puts George Michael in charge of the office so she can go to the site to fix things. Finding Lupe’s stranded family in the parking lot, she loads them on the stair car and heads out.
At the beach, Michael is trying to figure out a zoning problem when he gets a call from George Michael. As George Michael tries to explain things, Michael figures out how to solve his zoning problem, and hangs up on his son. Upset that his father might really love his job more than him, George Michael notices a file in his father’s desk. The file contains a large selection of George Michael's school work, probably dating back to when he was in first or second grade. This is the first time George Michael has held proof that his father loves him, but at the same moment the investigators enter the office. With their cover blown, they grab the file and run out of the building.
Lindsay arrives at the work site with Lupe’s family. She tells the workers that if they refuse to work, she will replace them. Lupe’s family protests that Lindsay has made a mistake. Michael arrives and tells everyone they are stopping work. He explains the design change, and promises the workers a party as a reward. Lucille arrives with her car still full from shopping. Michael decides to have the party now, and shares the liquor that Lucille had just purchased.
[edit] Episode notes
- The “staff” in the title refers to the Bluth Company employees; and is a homophone for “staph.”
- This is the first episode in which the Bluth "stairway vehicle" is a seventh-generation Ford F-series (1980-1986) rather than a sixth-generation 1979 F-150.
[edit] References
- Footloose- The game of bulldozer chicken is a send-up of “Footloose”, which Lindsay referenced earlier in the episode.
[edit] Callbacks/running jokes
- Back Rub - Buster attempts to give his co-worker and Michael a backrub.
- Blendin - The Feds infiltrate the Bluth Company using “Blendin Electric Company” as a disguise.
- Chicken Dance - This is the first episode where G.O.B. does his notorious chicken dance. It would later return again in Season 2's Amigos, and eventually, several more Bluths would get their own chicken dances too.
- Hey - Buster greets a fellow employee with “Hey, co-worker.”
- Bluth Company Board/Coworkers are Incompetent
- They are ready to agree with Lindsay about the fluorescent lighting
- The staff get lost on Catalina Island as a result of them thinking they were going out to lunch
- Incest - G.O.B. comments that Kitty sounded "pretty damn sexy" over the phone, before an uncomfortable silence after Michael reveals it was Lindsay he was talking to.
- No excuses - Lucille doesn't let Lupe take the day off for her family reunion.
- In other episodes she doesn't let her housekeepers take off time, such as to take their children to the hospital.
- Rosa - Lucille mentions Rosa, who we later find out in Good Grief was a maid that Lucille had employed when the Bluths were young.
- No touching - White Power Bill stops George Sr. from teaching his newfound Jewish faith in prison. George Sr. backs up to the fence saying, over and over, "No teaching! No teaching!". This is a twist on the "no touching" rule enforced in the prison visitor lounge.
- Tobias is Gay
- Lindsay's attempts to scare Tobias by saying "(bleep) me".
- Tobias refers to the prison as a "men’s penal colony".
- White Power Bill says that Tobias will be "Sleeping under me".
[edit] Hidden/background jokes
- Annyong - The subtitle "hello" can be seen in a small text next to Annyong's head when Michael approaches the banana stand looking for George Michael.
- Bathroom - When the Bluth employees are taking a break, they can be seen lined up at the bathroom, waiting. Buster then exits the bathroom. This is a callback to Lucille's earlier comments about Buster "playing with himself".
- Leaving a note – Tobias leaves a note to Lindsay, in which he crossed out “the desk of Dr.” in “From the desk of Dr. Tobias Fünke.” The note is signed “-T (Tobias).”
- Lindsay later calls Tobias "T" in Family Ties.
- Like Father, Like Son - Michael's comments during the meeting on how the employees should "keep [their] heads down and power through" directly mirror George Michael's words from later in the episode at the banana stand.
- When the Warden looks for an empty cell for Tobias, he mentions one cell won't be open until midnight, insinuating an execution to take place on that date.
- Safety - When Lindsay arrives at the construction site, a member of Lupe’s family standing on top of the stair car hits his head on a sign reading “Drive safely.”
- Sheep - Bluth Company employees, identified by Michael as sheep, mistakenly take a bus labeled, “Church of the Good Shepherd”, the same church Ann Veal's father is a Pastor at. In every scene there is always one employee dressed in black tailing behind (black sheep).
- When George Michael pulls out his crafts, the top craft is a cotton ball sheep.
- The employees are playing with sheep on Catalina island.
- They get back by being loaded into a sheep transporting trailer.
- The employees' calls of 'Bob?' are overlayed with sounds of sheep bleating.
- Tyke - White Power Bill says "Who's this little *bleep*?" about Tobias, to which Tobias says "It's been a while since anyone's called me a tyke." White Power Bill was actually calling Tobias a "kike," as he thought he was Jewish.
- When Lucille states that she needs to "keep up the image of her lifestyle" Michael corrects her by saying, "illusion." This is a take off of GOB always correcting Michael whenever Michael calls GOB's illusions "tricks"
[edit] Character cameos
- This is James Lipton's first appearance as Stephan Gentiles, the new warden. He would later appear in Altar Egos and Prison Break-In.
- White Power Bill appears in this episode, and would later be seen again in Switch Hitter, in the form of flashback footage from Key Decisions, and in Missing Kitty.
[edit] Foreshadowing/Future References
- Mole – At the banana stand, Annyong reveals that he speaks English, suggesting there may be more to him than it seems.
[edit] Goofs
- A boom mic clearly drops into shot when Lindsay compares the Bluth company office to the tiny town from Footloose.
- The end of a boom mic can also be seen in shot when Ted asks Lindsay about lunch.
[edit] Fourth Wall
- The 'boom mic goof' is a partial breaking of the fourth wall as it is mentioned that someone has been listening in on the Bluths at which point the boom mic purposefully comes into the frame.
