The following is a list of the characters from the Fox television comedy series Arrested Development. The main characters are made up of the Bluth ( /ˈbluːθ/ blooth) and Fünke ( /ˈfjuːŋkeɪ/ fewng-kay) families.
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George Bluth Sr. |
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Lucille Bluth |
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Oscar Bluth |
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| Eve Holt |
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George Oscar 'Gob' Bluth Jr. |
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Tracey Bluth (deceased) |
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Michael Bluth |
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Lindsay Fünke |
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Tobias Fünke |
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Byron 'Buster' Bluth | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Steve Holt |
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Hel-loh "Annyong" |
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George-Michael Bluth |
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Maeby Fünke | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"----"= adoption
Michael Bluth (born December 14, 1967) is the second oldest Bluth son and the main protagonist of Arrested Development. He is the father of George Michael Bluth. In season 3, it is revealed that there is a typo on his birth certificate, which reads Nichael Bluth. Michael's wife Tracey died of ovarian cancer two years prior to the first season. Possibly as a result of this, he is very close to his son, George Michael, which is shown partly because, whenever an opportunity to spend more time with his son presents itself to him, he will jump at it (although this time is almost always immediately interrupted). His role in the story is that he is the one son who has no choice but to keep the family together, and he serves as the straight man in the comedy series.
When his father George Sr. goes to jail, Michael becomes head of the family and president of the Bluth Company (and later CEO in Development Arrested). His authority, however, is constantly undermined by his family. Often, when agreeing to something before thinking (trying to be "a good guy"), he mouths behind the person's back, "What's wrong with me?" (e.g., with Maggie Lizer). He remained the president throughout season 1, but was replaced by Gob in season 2. As vice president, Michael was the Bluth Company's de facto head, doing all the work of the president while being scrutinized by the SEC for his father's crimes. During season 2, Michael regains his position as president when the Bluth company security throws Gob out of the building. In season 3, Michael was firmly in charge again, though the sibling rivalry and family interference did not completely recede. In the series finale, he escapes with his son (and, unknowingly, his father) to Cabo, leaving most of the family to fend for themselves.
Michael is generally the straight man in the series. However, creator Mitch Hurwitz says that in some respects Michael is "the craziest one" in that he cannot see much of what happens around him.[1]
Michael is portrayed by actor Jason Bateman. Hurwitz did not know if Bateman was right for the part, as he seemed associated with more conventional sitcoms, but Hurwitz said that in trying out for the part, Bateman "gave this dry, confident performance."[2] Bateman also explained his performance by saying he could be "naturally... dickish" like his character.[3] Bateman said of his part, "it's the best job I've ever had, hands down," and it may have also been his most famous one.[4] Bateman and his character were also well received by critic Robert Bianco, who wrote "the key to the show's success is the hilariously deadpan Bateman."[5] Bateman won a Golden Globe for the role in 2005, and was nominated for several other awards, including an Emmy.[6]
Michael Bartel plays Michael Bluth as a young man in six episodes. Ryan Slough plays Michael in an episode. In a flashback in the series finale, Brandon Killham plays young Michael Bluth.
Michael was named the #8 Top TV Dad by SocialTechPop[7].
Lindsay Bluth Fünke (born 1965 to unknown parents) is the adopted daughter of George Sr. and Lucille Bluth, who raised her and Michael to believe they are twins. She is married to Tobias Fünke and they are the parents of Mae, better known as "Maeby".
Lindsay never finished college, opting to "work" full time for the Bluth Company instead when her father offers her a job. She believes herself to be a dedicated activist, but she's actually shallow and superficial, mainly supporting current trendy causes for the social status and regularly holding extravagant charity drives–which it is implied raise most of their money from the Bluth Company itself. These causes have included but are not limited to opposing circumcision, anti-war protests, the removal of the 10 Commandments from a courthouse, the right to die (specifically her brother Buster's), and "Graft Vs. Host" (which her husband was afflicted with). Despite her outward confidence, Lindsay has rather low self-esteem, a result of her mother's constant verbal abuse and her husband's lack of sexual interest in her. She is portrayed as extremely resentful towards her husband Tobias, to the point of allowing him to fall asleep even though he 'might die' if he does in the episode Afternoon Delight.
After agreeing to an open marriage Lindsay is portrayed as attempting promiscuity–flirting with and pursuing relationships with men–usually with little or no success. During the series she becomes interested in and dates characters such as Moses Taylor (star of TV's Wrench) and Tom Jane (star of Homeless Dad and Junk). In season 3, Lindsay becomes interested in the family's new lawyer Bob Loblaw, taking a position as nanny to his daughter Hope in an attempt to gain his interest.
In the last episode of season 3, it is revealed that Lindsay is not actually Michael's twin sister, or even a Bluth at all. She also discovers that she is 40 years old, three years older than she had previously believed herself to be. Feeling that her youthful allure has now escaped her, she becomes desperate to marry a successful man, and divulges to Michael that they are not biological siblings and reveals her wish to divorce Tobias and marry Michael. Michael rejects her offer of marriage--he "is not that into older women."
Creator Mitchell Hurwitz came up with Lindsay as the family's liberal figure, but Lindsay is also meant to represent a liberal who benefited from her politics more than she sacrificed, due to the image she built.[1] The final episode of the series reveals that had Lindsay been adopted by Stan Sitwell, she would have been named Nellie.
Lindsay was portrayed by actress Portia de Rossi. Having previously appeared in Ally McBeal, she said that she was looking for a new series like it.[8] De Rossi was also attracted to Arrested Development for what she thought was a "fresh new perspective on comedy."[9] She played Lindsay as someone who "doesn't have much of a clue but... has a pretty good heart."[1] She explained her approach by saying that, "with Ally McBeal, we were very rehearsed and staged. But this is a lot looser."[10] Hurwitz felt that de Rossi made the character somewhat similar to Lucille.[1]
George Oscar Bluth, Jr. (known by his initials "GOB", /ˈdʒoʊb/[11] pronounced like the Biblical figure Job), is the oldest Bluth son and the father of Steve Holt.
By trade a part-time magician, he is a founding member of the "Magicians' Alliance", a group that was formed to preserve magicians' secrets; he was later blacklisted by them for unwittingly revealing how one of his illusions was performed. He is known for incorporating over-the-top theatrics into his magic shows, including pyrotechnics, dance routines, and wind machines. Gob's illusions rarely work and he often shoots lighter fluid accidentally from his shirt sleeve or collar. He plays Europe's "The Final Countdown" before almost all of his major illusions. In the second season, he became president of the Bluth Company; however, he is little more than a figurehead, as he wields no real power while his brother Michael is still in charge.
George Sr. paid little attention to Gob as a child and has no respect for him as an adult. Gob's mother openly loathes him. On several occasions, Gob and Michael realized that their rivalry has been nurtured by their father and mother's manipulations. Gob is known to be the womanizer of the Bluth family. Eventually, Gob discovers that he is the father of the teenage jock Steve Holt. Toward the end of season 1, Gob marries a dealer of trained seals, played by real-life wife Amy Poehler, in a series of escalating dares. She later becomes infatuated with Tobias Fünke, Gob's brother-in-law, and joins the army in the hopes of avoiding her attraction.
When his confidence is shattered or challenged, he will burst into tears and cry with self-loathing or take extreme measures to cease the disgust he feels in himself. Examples of this include the time when he attempted to hang himself with his belt after being questioned about topics he was ignorant in, or when he ingested a 'forget-me-now' pill in order to forget that he has a son. When upset or excited, Gob often fails to use articles or prepositions in his sentences, saying things like "Look at Banner!" and "Still mad me, Michael?" He also has difficulty pronouncing words that begin with the letter "c," such as circumvent ("ser-sum-vrent"), capability ("crapability") and consummate ("son-summate").
Despite Gob's "womanizing" abilities, he has no real friends; his closest friends are the Hot Cops, a group of strippers that Gob once worked with before almost getting his head blown off while on the job. He uses the Hot Cops in many situations, including a fake drug bust and for fake friends at a bachelor party. His best friend is Michael, though he denies it. He desperately desires to be liked but his habits of treating people poorly and lack of any real self awareness prevent him from ever forming bonds. He wants to be looked to for decisions but is completely unwilling to accept any responsibility and most of his family regard him as an idiot.
He is also the original creator and inspiration for the Mr. Bananagrabber character. Although he retains most of the rights to the character, he gave away the animation rights to Michael. It was later made into an animated television series that became an infrequent background joke. He also briefly had a ventriloquist act with a stereotyped African-American doll named Franklin Delano Bluth. Gob and Franklin produce an album together named, "Franklin Comes Alive". He is frequently seen throughout the series getting around on a Segway which has a pouch that says "Gob" on it. Gob's often repeated lines are "Come on!" and, "I've made a huge mistake" which are also used in various forms by himself and other characters.
Gob is portrayed by Will Arnett.
George Michael Bluth (born March 2, 1990) is the teenage son of Michael Bluth. He is a student, and he works at the family frozen banana stand, where he is "Mister Manager." He is straight-laced and obedient.
He is reunited with his cousin Maeby in the first episode, and develops a crush on her after she forcibly kisses him (to teach their parents a lesson for not letting them spend more time together, although it fails because their parents are entirely oblivious to it). His nervousness around Maeby and his wrestling with his emotions becomes one of the recurring themes surrounding George Michael. In the second season, he starts dating a girl named Ann, a devout Christian whom his father and Maeby dislike. Season 2 ends with George Michael and Maeby kissing, to his delight. After the incident, the two try to avoid each other for much of the third season. Later in the season, he and Maeby accidentally get married during what they believed was a fake wedding for Alzheimer's patients in hospital.
They also kiss passionately when George Michael, suspecting Maeby may be adopted, tells her they might not be related by blood. When his uncle Tobias, oblivious to their secret, proves to them both that Maeby was their naturally born daughter it becomes more cause for consternation to George Michael for the remainder of the series until the final episode when it is revealed his aunt Lindsay was herself adopted, thus eliminating any blood ties between the two erstwhile cousins. He ultimately decides to escape to Newport by stealing his uncle Gob's boat, feeling he doesn't belong there anymore. Upon learning of Lindsay's origins, he reconciles with his father and finally reveals his feelings for Maeby. Both realizing that further contact with their dysfunctional family is more trouble than it's worth, they escape to Cabo with $500,000 and a house waiting for them, not knowing that George Senior has escaped to the same destination with the same plan.
Besides his crush on his cousin, George Michael is also shown to be extremely close to his father, Michael, presumably as a result of the death of his mother.
George Michael is portrayed by Michael Cera, and in flashback sequences by Christian Lavery.
Mae "Maeby" Fünke (born September 22, 1990) is the teenage daughter of Lindsay and Tobias. Maeby's conception is an unanswered question and running joke throughout the series. In the first season, Lucille hints that Maeby is a test-tube baby; this is again implied by Tobias in "Out on a Limb" in season 2. In the penultimate episode, Tobias confirms that Lindsay had Maeby, showing a graphic baby photo album; the final episode reveals that Maeby is biologically related to neither Steve Holt nor George Michael because her mother, Lindsay, was adopted by the Bluths. Maeby attended a progressive school before her parents moved in with Michael. When she enters the public school system, her grades plummet. She loses interest in school and looks for new ways to shock her woefully neglectful parents. In one instance, Maeby swindles her peers out of charity money by pretending to be a wheelchair-using girl named "Surely" who suffers from a rare, debilitating illness called "B.S." Maeby also cons her way into a job as a movie executive and maintains the charade (with increasing professional success) for several months. She gets fired when George Michael sends invitations to her sixteenth birthday party to all the other studio executives in her address book, but her boss wants her back when he realizes what a celebrity she's become.
Maeby and George Michael spend most of the series battling mutual feelings of romantic love for each other. Because the model home is so cramped, Maeby and George Michael share a bedroom. Forced proximity and the American remake of "Les Cousins Dangereux" lead to their first real kiss, after which the mortified kids start avoiding each other. Maeby legally marries George Michael when a "fake" wedding ceremony to entertain Alzheimer's patients goes wrong. In the penultimate episode, everyone except George Michael forgets Maeby's sixteenth birthday, and he spends most of the episode attempting to arrange a celebration for her. Maeby is touched by the kindness George Michael has shown her; when George Michael explains how she may not be related to the Bluths at all, the two share a passionate kiss (and, it is mentioned, reach Second Base). In the final episode, "Development Arrested", the two, upon discovering from Tobias that they really are related, have a brief conflict over their relationship - George Michael would like it to return to normal, but Maeby would like it to remain romantic. In the end, she pitches her life story, as an idea for a new television show, to her boss Ron Howard, who says that her story may be better as a movie.
Maeby's knack for stumbling into incestuous relationships unwittingly is a running joke throughout the series. In the second season, she sings an unintentionally provocative duet with her uncle Michael and kisses George Michael in a futile attempt to shock her parents. During her estrangement from George Michael, Maeby distracts herself by dating Steve Holt, who turns out to be Gob's son and Maeby's first cousin. Maeby ends up slipping Steve one of Gob's "forget-me-nows" to avoid having sex while tricking Steve into thinking they had.
Creator Mitchell Hurwitz named the character after his daughters Maisy and Phoebe.[3] Hurwitz acknowledged the peculiar result of this blending, saying "It just seemed like crazy extra fun to think of weird names. I don't want us to become too self-conscious about it but, yes, we do have some strange names."[12] Incidentally, she is often described as George Michael's "Cousin Maeby," a play on words making reference to the fact that they may not be related. Maeby was initially imagined as a pseudo-conservative, to be a deliberate foil to her activist mother Lindsay, but eventually re-imagined to be a troublemaker in other ways.[3] In making Maeby an opposite to George Michael (she is bolder and not at all reverent towards her father), Hurwitz thought this also contributed to the idea of George Michael and Maeby developing a romance.[1]
Maeby is portrayed by Alia Shawkat. Shawkat tried out for the part with Michael Cera, who plays George Michael, in Los Angeles, and the creators thought they both did well. The two were the first to join the cast.[13] For her role as Maeby, Shawkat won a Young Artist Award in 2005 and was nominated for Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2005 and 2006.[14]
Byron "Buster" Bluth is the youngest son of George Sr. and Lucille, though it is later revealed that his biological father is actually George Sr.'s identical twin brother, Oscar. (The two share obvious personality traits and a mutual habit for awkwardly giving people shoulder massages).
Buster is a professional student, having completed coursework in cartography, Native American tribal ceremonies, 18th century agrarian business principles and archaeology. Archival footage indicates his participation in various university medical studies, such as sleep deprivation studies. As the baby of the family, he idolizes his brothers, Gob and Michael. In the second season premiere, Lucille enlists Buster in the United States Army, although his training is unsuccessful.
Buster is immature and socially inept; but, as indicated by the narrator in Season 2, he is more intelligent than his siblings Gob and Lindsay. He has frequent panic attacks, hates both closed and open spaces, is terrified of sheep, seals and birds and is wrathful towards his Korean-born adopted brother, Annyong. Buster demonstrates various childlike nutritional sensitivities: for instance, he becomes hyper from the sugar in juice and irritable after eating cheese; he also takes frequent naps. He has an unhealthy attachment to his domineering mother Lucille; one of the running gags throughout the series is his quasi-incestuous, Oedipal complex. For her part, Lucille won't let him go in the sun, swim in the ocean, or stand on their balcony in windy weather. George Sr. makes reference to the "claw marks" left on Lucille's womb after she gave birth to Buster. He sometimes tries to assert his independence by defying his mother's orders, as when he dates her rival, Lucille Austero. He has an alienating habit of greeting people with shoulder massages, and commonly addresses his relatives by their relation to him (for example, Gob and Michael are greeted with "Hey, brother" and Oscar is greeted with "Hey, uncle-father Oscar." Steve Holt is greeted with "Hey, possible nephew"). In Season 2, Buster's left hand is bitten off by a "loose seal" (note the pun on "Lucille"), and in subsequent episodes he wears a trans-radial prosthetic on his left arm, first a hook and later a prosthetic hand. Despite his obvious personality flaws, Buster does care about the rest of his family more than many of the other Bluths, shown when he, unlike the rest of his siblings, does not sell the company stocks, because of Michael's request.
Buster is portrayed by Tony Hale. Entertainment Weekly selected Buster as the uncle for "The Perfect TV Family".[15]
Tobias Fünke is the husband of Lindsay Bluth and the father of Maeby Fünke. He was the chief resident of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital until he lost his license for giving CPR to a man who was not actually having a heart attack. At one point, he was licensed as both an analyst and a therapist, supposedly making him the first licensed "analrapist" (pronounced ə-nal-rə-pist). Tobias is very fond of awkwardly rolling or somersaulting into and out of certain situations mainly to show his dexterity and balance though this often backfires. Indeed, Fünke claims to command "cat-like reflexes."
At the beginning of the series, Tobias decides that his destiny is to become an actor, and he pursues this career throughout the series without any success. Highlights of his "career" include: being turned down for the role of 'Dr. House'; landing the part of "frightened inmate number two" in a prison film, only to get fired for not being able to do the shower scene due to his condition (see below); and attempting to join the Blue Man Group as a standby understudy and, as a consequence, spending part of the second season covered in blue make-up. In a move inspired by the film Mrs. Doubtfire, Tobias masquerades as a British housekeeper/nanny named "Mrs. Featherbottom" in an attempt to spend time with his wife and daughter after Lindsay kicks him out of the model house. While the disguise fools no one, the family humors him since this gets the housework done.
Tobias suffers from "never-nude" syndrome (which, as the narrator states, is "exactly what it sounds like") and wears denim cut-off shorts at all times in order to avoid anyone (including himself and his wife) seeing his pelvic area. The condition is similar to severe gymnophobia, although it is portrayed humorously. He conquers this for a time in the middle of Season 1, but after a close-up picture of his genitalia is shown on the evening news (where it has been mistaken for a photo showing evidence of WMDs in Iraq), he is driven back to the cut-offs.
Although never formally admitted, he has said many things that make people question his sexuality. The hints come in the form of subtle innuendos and sexual double-entendres, to which he seems completely oblivious. Michael advises him to record himself saying these clearly homosexual statements, and after doing so Tobias acknowledges that he is a "blowhard", further showing his propensity to be completely ignorant of the implications of his utterances, (in Ready, Aim, Marry Me.) Lindsay, who married Tobias to spite her parents, is convinced that her husband is a homosexual. His book, The Man Inside Me, is a cult gay hit, as Tobias wrote on the topic of romantic relationships with only male pronouns, to avoid confusion. He has experienced sexual difficulties with his wife. This leads to their joint decision to try an "open" marriage, even though Tobias himself acknowledges that this path never works. Tobias doesn't really follow through with the "open relationship", and often stalks his wife covered in blue paint, following her around on her attempted dates hiding in areas that are blue in color in order to remain unseen. Although he continually takes very expensive acting lessons from Carl Weathers, the actor who is mostly known from his portrayal of Apollo Creed in the Rocky franchise as well as a CIA agent in Predator, he mainly gets tips on frugality from Mr. Weathers. Lindsay continually pokes fun at Tobias' desperation to become an actor, and they split up and reconcile many times over the course of the series.
Tobias is played by David Cross.
George Oscar Bluth, Sr., called "Pop-Pop" by his grandchildren, is the head of the Bluth family and the husband of Lucille Bluth. George Sr. was the CEO of the Bluth Company, which he founded. However, after years of "creative accounting" practices, he became the subject of an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and was imprisoned. While in prison, George Sr. continues to try to exert control over the company, often using Gob to undermine Michael's authority.
George Sr. escapes to Mexico with a briefcase filled with evidence of his dealings with Saddam Hussein. In season 2, George Sr. fakes his death in Mexico and returns to America to hide in the attic of the Bluth model home. Early in the third season, after being discovered among the Blue Man Group in Reno, Nevada, he is placed under house arrest. He told Michael that he had been set up to build homes in Iraq by a group of British contractors operating out of "Wee Britain", and admits that he may be guilty of "light treason." By the end of the series, however, it is revealed that he is under the control of his wife, Lucille. He escapes to Cabo with Michael and George Michael following the party.
George Sr. is also the inventor of The Cornballer, a faulty product which has been banned in numerous countries. He has a religious awakening twice on the show, once becoming Jewish after a period of isolation and selling a video series entitled "Caged Wisdom", and once becoming a devout Christian after reading a pamphlet in a garbage bag while hiding in the attic. George Sr. was born in Cleveland, Ohio on 5 August 1947.
George Sr. is portrayed by Jeffrey Tambor.
Lucille Bluth is the matriarch of the Bluth family. She is the mother of Gob, Michael, Buster, and the adoptive mother of Lindsay and Hel-loh "Annyong" Bluth, as well as wife to George Sr. Her grandchildren are George Michael Bluth, Steve Holt (Gob's son) and Maeby Fünke and they call her "Gangy" ( /ˈɡeɪŋɡi/). She carried on an affair with George, Sr.'s twin brother Oscar.
Lucille is accustomed to an opulent and decadent lifestyle, which she funds with misappropriated Bluth Company money. She treats herself to repeated spa treatments and face lifts, and is known to abuse alcohol and prescription drugs and to mistreat her housekeepers. According to the narrator, she has never made eye contact with a waiter. Lucille is extremely manipulative, narcissistic, amoral, domineering, and emotionally abusive to her children. She furtively wrests control of the Bluth Company board from Michael. She has a tight grip on her youngest son Buster, who, as a result of his mother's dominance and sheltering, is unstable, socially inept, and prone to panic attacks. She also insinuates that her daughter Lindsay is fat and lazy. She has also admitted that she never cared for Gob. In the finale, it is revealed that she is the mastermind behind the Bluth Company's illegal actions.
Lucille is last seen making a run from the SEC on board the Queen Mary, after Annyong turns in evidence against her.
Lucille is played by Jessica Walter.
The narrator, voiced by an uncredited Ron Howard, the executive producer of Arrested Development, narrates much of the Bluth family's lives, and often interjects quick comments while characters speak. He frequently brings up past footage to illustrate his points, and along with the cameramen can be excluded from the events of the story at times, in the style of a documentary narrator. The Narrator's personal feelings often inform his narration, for example in the episode "Spring Breakout", the narrator repeatedly criticizes the narrator of the television show Scandalmakers for having no talent and paying no heed to facts. Likewise, Howard's own career is occasionally referenced. In the season 1 episode "Public Relations", the publicist Jessie insultingly calls George Michael "Opie" (Howard's character on The Andy Griffith Show) to which the Narrator responds "Jessie had gone too far, and had best watch her mouth." In the season 3 episode "S.O.B.s", he begs the audience to "please tell your friends about this show" after George says that begging is "sometimes… the only way to stay in the game." The narrator has implied that he knows Maeby from her time as a studio executive. Indeed, in his only on-screen appearance at the end of the final episode, Howard informs Maeby, with a hint of irony, that her life story would be better off being made into a movie as opposed to a TV series.
Ann Paul Veal[16] is the on-again/off-again girlfriend of George Michael Bluth, even though their relationship is little more than his means of distracting himself from Maeby. Her first appearance was in the episode "Let 'Em Eat Cake", where she was played by Alessandra Torresani.[17] In every subsequent appearance, she has been portrayed by Mae Whitman.[18][19]
She comes from an extremely religious family, and her father (played by Alan Tudyk) is a pastor.[20] Ann and her mother are often mistaken to be sisters. In "Meat the Veals", Ann's mother (played by Ione Skye) kisses Michael, which she believes to be making love to him. The kiss leads to a brawl between Michael and her husband at the end of the episode.[20]
None of the Bluths with the exception of George Michael can remember Ann's name. In the Year Book she is listed as "Not Pictured" under her photograph, although they did print a retraction in the spring supplement.[18][19] Michael refers to her variously (and always accidentally) as "Bland," "Egg," "Annabel," "Yam," "Plant," "Plain," and "Ann Hog." He once abandons her in Mexico accidentally.[21] Maeby takes pleasure in referring to Ann as "Bland".[22] George Michael tells Maeby that Ann is "not bland" when forced to defend his love interest.[22]
Ann is attracted to George Michael's Star Wars kid-like lightsaber demonstration,[23] which led to their reconciliation after a breakup midway through the second season.[18] George Michael wanted to get pre-engaged to Ann at the end of the second season, lost his resolve at the last moment, and was then asked by Ann to teach her his secular ways.[18]
Ann's strict conservatism serves as a foil for Maeby's commitment to rebellion. Ann leads the protest at Maeby's premiere of the English remake of Dangerous Cousins, originally a French movie about a sexual relationship between two cousins.[24]
Ann moved on from George Michael after coming in third place in an "Inner Beauty" pageant.[25] Gob, who admitted a penchant for third place pageant winners, later revealed that he was dating a Christian girl, who eventually turned out to be Ann.[26]
Appears In:
Hel-loh "Annyong" Bluth (Justin Lee) is the adopted Korean son of Lucille and George Sr.
"Hel-loh" claims his name is the Korean word for "One day", a name given to him by his grandfather, whose idea for a frozen banana cart was stolen by George Sr. and used as inspiration for the banana stand that launched the Bluth empire; his grandfather vowed to one day get even for his stolen banana stand and ensuing deportation. Lucille adopts him midway through the first season. Apparently knowing no English, the youth greets his adoptive family by saying "annyong" (안녕), the Korean word for "hello." When they repeat the word, so does he. This causes Lucille to assume his name is "Annyong". Annyong becomes an articulate member of the household who often finds himself in disagreement with Buster. He also develops a crush on Maeby in the season one finale after she kisses him to make George Michael jealous. He is apparently sent to the Milford School by Lucille, who is attempting to teach him a lesson (though she forgets what). Annyong is found to be hiding in the walls of Lucille's apartment. In the third season finale it is revealed that Hel-loh (who finally reveals his name after his usual greeting of "Annyong", prompting ironic confusion among the Bluths) orchestrated the second U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) raid on the family as revenge for himself and his grandfather.
At the end of the episode "Motherboy XXX", an Asian actor cast to play Annyong in the Scandalmakers' documentary passes by Lindsay as she visits an actor's trailer.
His actual name, "Hel-loh" (하루), means "a single day" in Korean. The pronunciation of the word can be twisted slightly to sound like "hello."
Appears In: "Shock and Aww", "Staff Infection", "Justice Is Blind", "Missing Kitty", "Best Man for the GOB", "Not Without My Daughter", "Let 'Em Eat Cake", "The One Where Michael Leaves", "¡Amigos!", "Mr. F", "Development Arrested"
Barry Zuckerkorn (Henry Winkler) is the sluggish attorney for the Bluth family.
Zuckerkorn represents George Sr., the family patriarch, who has been arrested and charged with defrauding investors, and light treason (George Bluth Sr., had built homes in Iraq with Saddam Hussein.) Zuckerkorn often appears languid and distracted in his handling of the case. He does not seem particularly adept in the courtroom and multiple references have been made to him being a bad lawyer. For years, he took credit for getting Michael out of his marriage before Michael reminded him that his wife died. He also believed that a husband and wife cannot be arrested for the same crime, which led George Sr. to put Lucille in charge of the Bluth Company when George Sr. thought the SEC was coming for him. Despite his incompetence, an advertisement on a bench for his services reads "He's very good", which was a quote Lucille Bluth had previously said.
He is inevitably ill-prepared, which he usually blames on long meetings the night before. In fact, most of his nights are spent hanging out at rest stops, a behavior that is frequently mentioned and accompanied by a fast cut to an establishing shot of a dark, shady rest-stop facility.
His sexual leanings are ambiguous although it appears that he may prefer the company of male transvestite hookers and may be a tranny chaser; it is possible that he is outwardly homophobic (often making mildly negative references and comments about "the homosexuals" and then regretting his comments) while secretly homosexual. Like Tobias Fünke, Barry makes many colorful references that seem to allude to his exclusive attraction to men. They aren't explicit enough, however, to be conclusive. He has been with the Bluths for a long time and was kept only because Lucille considers him to be "part of the family." His reputation is stronger with the elder Bluths than with the children.
Despite his parents' dependence on Barry, Michael Bluth fired him on the first episode of the third season, which ended his law career, as the Bluths were his only clients. Since then, he has been acting as a transvestite prostitute, and Lindsay seeing her husband Tobias retaining Barry's "services" has prompted her to seek a divorce. Zuckerkorn was replaced as the Bluths' attorney by Bob Loblaw. He was never seen again.
Appears In: "In God We Trust", "Beef Consommé", "Altar Egos", "Justice Is Blind", "Not Without My Daughter", "Let 'Em Eat Cake", "The One Where Michael Leaves", "Good Grief", "Sad Sack", "Queen for a Day", "Out on a Limb", "Hand to God", "Motherboy XXX", "Righteous Brothers", "The Cabin Show"
Kitty Sanchez (Judy Greer) is George Bluth Sr.'s fiercely loyal and independent assistant. She has herpes, as Gob reveals in "Righteous Brothers".
Kitty maintained a long term affair with George Sr. and a fevered yet brief liaison with Gob, despite the fact he is disgusted by her. After George Sr. was imprisoned, Kitty stayed on to work for Michael.
Despite her intense loyalty to George Sr., she did not demonstrate the same toward Michael. Michael finally got fed up and fired her, but Kitty and Michael's father both insisted he didn't have that power, the latter of whom insisting, upon Michael's observation on her sanity, that, "You don't fire crazy." Michael attempted to rehire Kitty, but her obstinacy forced him to immediately fire her again. Kitty subsequently vanished with potentially damaging information, considering her sexual history with her boss. In actuality, she did not disappear, but was working with the police in an effort to gain control of the Bluth company. After arranging a meeting with Michael, she inadvertently admitted that she had proof that George Sr. had built homes overseas without paying taxes. Michael downplayed the importance of the revelation and Kitty dropped out of sight.
Kitty re-emerged in "Let 'Em Eat Cake" to rescue George Sr. from the hospital. They escaped to Mexico together but were separated again when he was pronounced dead. Kitty caught up with him in "Spring Breakout" and blackmailed him into staying with her, and giving her the son he had promised her (prompting George, Sr. to comment, "Never promise crazy a baby"). Michael and Gob managed to rescue their father while Lucille had a showdown with her rival. The Bluth matriarch put her years of alcohol abuse to good use by besting Kitty in a drinking contest. Seemingly defeated, the hung over mistress returned to her hotel room to discover the Bluths had inadvertently left behind the ransom she'd been asking for: 250cc's of "George Sr." in a cooler.
Kitty returned later, claiming she had reformed, gotten into AA, and even has a famous sponsor. She won't say who it is, but she drops some pretty obvious hints of it being an ex-Night Court star; ("It's not Bull. It's not Harry Anderson. And he's white."), a reference to actor John Larroquette as show creator Mitchell Hurwitz was once a writer for The John Larroquette Show, and Larroquette himself is a recovering alcoholic. At the end of Season 2 she and Tobias, the state of his marriage still up in the air, had jetted off to Reno, Nevada so he could pursue a plum spot in the Blue Man Group. As we learn in Season 3, the part has already been taken by George Bluth who then proceeds to steal Kitty from his son-in-law as well. A final reference to Kitty is made when Tobias masquerades as her in an effort to win back Lindsay's affection.
The one constant in meetings between Michael and Kitty is that she reveals her breasts to him, usually with the comment, "Take a good look, 'cuz it's the last time you're gonna see these" or "say goodbye to these, Michael." Michael's reaction tends to be one of vague horror.
Appears In: "Charity Drive", "Visiting Ours", "Missing Kitty", "Not Without My Daughter", "Let 'Em Eat Cake", "The One Where They Build a House", "¡Amigos!", "Spring Breakout", "Righteous Brothers", "The Cabin Show"
Lucille Austero (Liza Minnelli), often referred to as "Lucille Two", is the friend, neighbor, and chief social rival of Lucille Bluth.
Lucille Austero lives in the apartment next to Lucille and Buster Bluth in the Balboa Towers. In Season 1, she and Buster end up dating after an incident at a country club auction when Buster bids on the wrong Lucille. Their relationship is looked down upon by the other Bluths. Her chronic case of vertigo often causes some difficulty for the klutzy Buster.
In Season 2, she becomes the majority shareholder of the Bluth company after the family members sell their shares. To ensure the company's safety, Gob romances Lucille, who in turn names Gob the president of the Bluth Company in place of Michael. Although continuously stating that he is disgusted by her, it is seen in various clips that he is in fact infatuated with Lucille 2. Buster at the time is dating Starla, the Bluth Company receptionist. After learning his older brother is dating his ex-girlfriend, Buster leaves Starla to pursue Lucille. Eventually, Lucille leaves both of them for Stan Sitwell.
Appears In: "Key Decisions", "Charity Drive", "My Mother, The Car", "In God We Trust", "Storming the Castle", "Pier Pressure", "Marta Complex", "Queen for a Day", "Burning Love", "Ready, Aim, Marry Me"
Lupe (BW Gonzalez) is Lucille Bluth's Hispanic housekeeper. Lucille is frequently abusive towards her. Lupe, and at one time the rest of her family, have been tricked into working for other members of the Bluth family (specifically Lindsay) on a number of occasions. In the second season, Lucille fires Lupe when she catches her in bed with Buster (whom Lupe refers to as "retardo" in "¡Amigos!"), comforting him about the loss of his hand. Lupe is replaced by a robotic vacuum cleaner (specifically a Roomba), which is also caught in bed with Buster.
Lupe returns as the family housekeeper without explanation in Season Three, and appears very briefly as one of the women posing as Lucille and Lindsay in rehab.
Lupe is the sister of Luz (played by Lillian Hurst), Lucille's original maid who was fired for supposedly taking a day off to take her daughter to the hospital.
In the Season 3 episode "For British Eyes Only" when Tobias reveals he had 4000 hair plugs inserted in his head, Lupe refers to Tobias as "Mr Gay".
Appears In: "Charity Drive", "In God We Trust", "Public Relations", "Marta Complex", "Staff Infection", "Missing Kitty", "Best Man for the GOB", "¡Amigos!", "The Immaculate Election", "For British Eyes Only", "Exit Strategy"
Oscar George Bluth (Jeffrey Tambor) is George Sr.'s air-headed identical twin.
Oscar can be distinguished from the balding George by his flowing "lion's mane" hair, due to lack of stress in his life. He is a frequent user of marijuana. He served as a "croc spotter" on a swift boat in the Vietnam War (yelling out "Croc!" whenever he saw a crocodile), and once wrote a song for David Cassidy, "All You Need Are Smiles", that made Joan Baez call him "the shallowest man in the world." After numerous hints, in Season 2 it is revealed that he is Buster's father.
Oscar resides most often in a trailer outside Camp Pendleton. He owns about 200 acres (81 ha) of lemon groves and sells lemonade to the troops when their maneuvers pass by. He sells the land to Michael, who is unaware that the government has an easement on it so they can drive their tanks through it. Lucille takes advantage of Oscar's feelings for her and convinces him to buy the land back.
According to Michael, Oscar has lived on handouts all his life. According to his brother, he has never had to work for a living, leading to his full head of shoulder-length hair that Lucille finds irresistible. Oscar's persistence with Lucille - whom he met when she was working a USO tour - leads to a rekindling of their once torrid romance. This disturbs Buster, who discovers the adulterous pair in flagrante delicto multiple times.
After George Sr. escapes confinement, Oscar is arrested because police assume he is George. The police also impound Oscar's trailer, leaving him even more indigent than usual. Lucille allows him to live with her and Buster. Oscar's presence allows Buster to develop the many talents he'd discovered with Lucille. He lovingly brushes Oscar's hair, a ritual once reserved for Lucille. In return, Buster is treated to several uncomfortable silences upon witnessing Oscar's penchant for living loose and literally, "letting it all hang out."
Oscar's shameless exhibitionism is a product of the proximity he shares with his dream woman. Once confined to a single residence, the illicit pair revive the past.
In the second season finale, to clear up his legal difficulties and punish his brother for cuckolding him, George Sr. shaves Oscar's head and turns him in. The stress of being imprisoned and mistaken for George Sr. causes Oscar's hair to not grow back. This, paired with the fact that his fingerprints have been burned off by the family Cornballer, prevents him from establishing his identity.
To convince the world of his true identity, Oscar sets up www.imoscar.com, a blog of sorts that details his life in prison while continually asserting that he is Oscar. A real-life version of the site was maintained by Fox Broadcasting until mid-2006 .
In the third season, Oscar manages to get out of prison when George Sr. is placed under house arrest and leaves town. He returns occasionally, but these visits are usually ended when George Sr. knocks him out and switches places so he can escape again. In the series finale, George invites Oscar to the Bluth Company function to unwittingly take his place, a fact Oscar learns as soon as Lucille refers to him as George ("Oh God Oscar! When are you going to learn there's no such thing as free shrimp!")
Appears In: "Whistler's Mother", "Not Without My Daughter", "The One Where Michael Leaves", "The One Where They Build a House", "¡Amigos!", "Good Grief", "Sad Sack", "Afternoon Delight", "Switch Hitter", "Queen for a Day", "Burning Love", "Out on a Limb", "Hand to God", "Sword of Destiny", "Meat the Veals", "Spring Breakout", "Righteous Brothers", "The Cabin Show", "Prison Break-In", "Development Arrested"
Steve Holt (Justin Grant Wade) is a senior (taking the year for the third time) and football star at the high school George Michael and Maeby attend, who often shouts his name, "Steve Holt!", while pumping his fists in the air.
Described as a "moron jock" by George Michael and "basically a young Gob" by Michael, Steve Holt portrays Beatrice in the school's production of Much Ado About Nothing, dates Lindsay (after Maeby convinces him that Lindsay is a transsexual), and is student body president for four years (he declines a fifth term in order to concentrate on finding his real father). His campaign posters often read "Volt for Steve Holt." The crowd at his re-election rally can be heard chanting "Four more years."
In the Season 2 episode "The Immaculate Election", it is revealed that Steve Holt is the illegitimate son of Gob and Eve Holt (Charleigh Harmon), the product of one of Gob's many one-night stands in high school. Before realizing that she is supposedly a blood-relation, Steve has a brief relationship with his cousin, Maeby, which results in his being given a roofie to avoid any kind of intimacy. After learning of his parentage, he bonds with both his father and "Uncle Mike". He has worked as a gift-basket delivery-boy, a Bluth Banana Stand employee, and cameraman for his father's magic act.
Appears In: "Bringing Up Buster", "Shock And Aww", "Sad Sack", "Burning Love", "The Immaculate Election", "The Cabin Show", "For British Eyes Only", "Forget-Me-Now", "Notapusy", "Making a Stand"
Bob Loblaw (Scott Baio) is the new family attorney, replacing Barry Zuckerkorn.
Bob Loblaw first appears in the third episode of Season 3, claiming this isn't the first time he's been brought in to replace Barry, and that he can do anything Barry can do, plus skew younger, alluding to Baio's experience with Henry Winkler (Zuckerkorn) on the 1970s sitcom Happy Days. Contrasting Zuckerkorn's incompetence, Loblaw is a no-nonsense attorney who is always in the company of his stenographer, who records all of his meetings.
He advertises his services with slogans such as "Why should you go to jail for a crime someone else noticed?" and "You don't need double talk; you need Bob Loblaw." As is evidenced by this, his name is meant to sound like "blah-blah-blah". Underneath his commercial advertisement is the phrase "Bob Loblaw No Habla Español".
Adding to the tongue twister-like aspect of the character's name, the third season episode "S.O.B.s" includes a newspaper headline that reads "Bob Loblaw Lobs Law Bomb" and later in the season "Bob Loblaw Launches Law Blog" (viz. The Bob Loblaw Law Blog).
He has a daughter named Hope.
Appears In: "Forget-Me-Now", "Notapusy", "Mr. F", "Making a Stand"
Actor Carl Weathers portrays himself as a thrifty, mooching Hollywood movie star whom Tobias hires to teach him his craft.
Tobias meets Carl Weathers on an air porter destined for Los Angeles International Airport. Tobias once traveled to San Francisco to attend Carl Weathers' stage-fighting workshop. The actor failed to show because, as he informed Tobias, he was bumped from the flight. However, he discovered that they pay $300 to people who are inconvenienced in this manner. Carl Weathers called this "a crazy loophole in the system that the wrong guy discovered." Ever since then, Carl Weathers has been getting himself deliberately bumped from flights and subsequently cashing in.
Carl Weathers does not enjoy paying very much for anything. He is obsessed with thrift, exemplified by his claims that he acquires all of his cars from police auctions and his seeming obsession with "getting a stew going" using leftover pieces of food. He takes Tobias on as a client and is thereby introduced to the Bluth experience. Lucille Bluth uses Carl Weathers to get back at her youngest son, Buster, who has become involved romantically with her chief rival, Lucille Austero. She simply introduces Carl Weathers to Lucille 2. and suggests that they should have dinner together with Buster. Buster, however, reminds his mother that he has class that day. Lucille suggests that Carl Weathers and Lucille II would just have to dine alone, in that case. When Buster finally decides to move in with Lucille II, he discovers her and Carl Weathers "getting a stew going" and is greatly disturbed.
In the episode "Motherboy XXX", Weathers meets with Tobias at Burger King, and explains he is directing an episode of Scandalmakers and needs Tobias to sign over the rights for the story of his family. The whole scene satirizes product placement (Burger King is a major sponsor of both the real Arrested Development and fictitious Scandalmakers), with Weathers joyfully remarking that all soft drink refills at Burger King are totally free. At one point, Weathers appears dressed to play the role of ICE in the Scandalmakers documentary.
Appears In: "Public Relations", "Marta Complex", "Motherboy XXX"
Doctor Fishman (also called Doctor "Wordsmith" and the Literal Doctor; played by Ian Roberts) is a doctor who has a tendency to be too literal. He has, for example, said that Buster would be "all right," when he lost his left hand. Also, that "it looks like he's dead," when he in fact means that Tobias literally looks as if he is dead, but is in fact alive, and that it "looked like they'd lost" George, Sr. when he actually escaped through the window.
Appears In: "Let 'Em Eat Cake", "The One Where Michael Leaves", "Hand to God", "Sword of Destiny"
Gene Parmesan (Martin Mull) is a mediocre private detective and master of quick-change occasionally hired by Lucille Bluth. She hires him to find George Sr. in the second season episode, "¡Amigos!". Parmesan always reports to Lucille by approaching her in a disguise and then dramatically revealing himself; Lucille invariably screams in delight every time. He is highly regarded as one of the best detectives by Lucille but is said in the narration, however, to be "far from the best."
The episode "Out on a Limb" has Michael talking briefly to Gene on his cellphone, having hired him to investigate Maggie.
Appears In: "¡Amigos!"
James Buck (Rocky McMurray) is warden of George's prison until he is replaced by Stefan Gentles. Buck is aggressive and unappreciative of the Bluths, though he allows Gob to try to perform an escape act from the prison, which largely fails, leading Gob to write a "strongly worded letter" to Buck, for which he is detained against the trailer George Sr. and Lucille are having sex in.
Appears In: "Key Decisions", "Visiting Ours"
Officers Taylor (Jay Johnston) and Carter (Jerry Minor), are two police officers (white and black, respectively) who frequently appear, memorably at George Bluth's hearings, and at the Bluth Company in search of Kitty Sanchez after her disappearance. They, like Michael Bluth, practice bring-your-daughter-to-work day, mentioning their daughters as named Tammy and Monica who are unseen, having apparently run off (demonstrating their lack of good attention, implying their incompetence in their search mission for Kitty). They are revealed to be a gay couple in the episode "Hand to God", in which lawyer Maggie Lizer pretends to be pregnant, having hired her to have their baby. The baby is in fact carried by Maggie's pregnant client, who gives birth to the child later in the episode.
Appears In: "The One Where Michael Leaves", "Not Without My Daughter", "Missing Kitty", "Out on a Limb", "Hand to God"
J. Walter Weatherman (Steve Ryan) is a one-armed man used by George Bluth to frighten his children into good behavior.
Weatherman, a former employee of George Sr.'s who lost his arm in a Bluth Company construction accident, is recruited by George Sr. to fake accidents and appear to have lost his arm as a result of the Bluth children's misbehavior. The lesson ends with J. Walter turning to the children and saying "and that's why you don't...", finishing the sentence with whatever action George Sr. is trying to stop. Examples include: not leaving notes and yelling. When Michael asks his father put him in touch with Weatherman to teach George Michael a lesson, George Sr. tells him that he "killed him when he left the door open with the air conditioner on." (a reference to an unseen 'lesson') This is shown to be untrue when George Sr. hires Weatherman back to teach Michael a lesson about teaching lessons to his son. Buster later uses the same trick on both Michael and George Sr. as well as Gob, using his fake hand, to teach them a lesson about not using amputees to teach lessons.
Appears In: "Pier Pressure", "Motherboy XXX", "Making a Stand"
John Beard is the news anchor for the fictional Fox 6 news station, which often covers the Bluth family's problems on the news, and in one case ("Missing Kitty") almost became "part of the story." His announcements of news stories often end with "what that means for your weekend," regardless of whether the story would actually affect the general public's weekend. Played by John Beard, who is a real life news anchor (now at WGRZ in Buffalo).
Appears In: "Pilot", "Extended Pilot", "Top Banana", "Key Decisions", "Public Relations", "Missing Kitty", "Let 'Em Eat Cake", "The One Where Michael Leaves", "The One Where They Build a House", "Sad Sack", "Burning Love", "Sword of Destiny", "The Cabin Show", "For British Eyes Only", "Mr. F", "S.O.B.s"
Mort Meyers (Jeff Garlin) is a studio executive who works with Maeby. Although he has a wife, Mort often hits on Maeby, believing that she is older than she really is.
Appears In: "Switch Hitter", "Queen for a Day", "Sword of Destiny", "Spring Breakout", "Righteous Brothers", "Mr. F", "Making a Stand", "Development Arrested"
Phillip Litt (Zach Braff) is the director of the film series Girls With Low Self-Esteem (a parody of Girls Gone Wild); while the series is often referenced in the show, Litt only appears after Gob's failed magic act is included in the newest release. He, along with Tobias, is a never-nude. Braff was likely cast due to his resemblance to Girls Gone Wild creator Joe Francis.
Appears In: "Spring Breakout", "S.O.B.s"
Stan Sitwell (Ed Begley, Jr.) is a real estate tycoon who runs the company Sitwell Enterprises, which competes with the Bluth Company.
He has a disease that prevents him from growing hair on his body, alopecia universalis. Lucille incorrectly refers to him as an alpaca. Stan Sitwell begins dating Lucille Austero. His outlandish wigs and fake facial hair are a bit of an inside joke, since in real life Ed Begley Jr. is known for his mane of thick blonde hair. Because of his condition he can't actually drive the Corvette that Michael Bluth gave him in return of making a bid on his daughter Sally Sitwell at the Country Club auction because it is a convertible, which causes him to lose his wig and fake eyebrows. When Stan Sitwell fires Gob Bluth from his company, Gob gets revenge on Sitwell by stealing his fake dressy eyebrows. He runs his business in a very straight forward, professional manner in contrast to the lying and manipulation of the Bluths. He is also a generous philanthropist and contributes to numerous charities, contrary to the Bluths as well.
Appears In: "Switch Hitter", "Queen for a Day", "Burning Love", "Ready, Aim, Marry Me", "Development Arrested"
Starla (Mo Collins) is the Bluth company secretary that Gob hires as his "business model" in season two after seeing her at a boat show. Starla often proves to be quite incompetent as a secretary, and claims that she had an affair with producer Quincy Jones, a claim backed up with the display of several of his gold records along the walls of Starla's house but disputed by spokespersons for Mr. Jones. On trying to gain entrance to his grounds, she is supposedly attacked by guard dogs, and is subsequently treated for rabies. Near the end of Season 2, Buster and Starla have a brief relationship, which abruptly ends when Buster misses his old flame Lucille Austero.
Appears In: "The One Where They Build a House", "¡Amigos!", "Switch Hitter", "Queen for a Day", "Ready, Aim, Marry Me", "Sword of Destiny"
Stefan Gentles (James Lipton) takes over as the prison warden where George is being detained after the previous warden, James Buck, leaves. He is less strict (though one of his favorite punishments involve beating people with a pillowcase full of batteries), and is a lover of the arts. Gentles showed this by not only allowing Tobias to research his role as Frightened Inmate Number 2, but enthusiastically encouraging it, suggesting that shadowing feared prisoner White Power Bill would help Tobias find the inspiration for the role. He writes a screenplay called The New Warden, which is rejected by everyone including Maeby while she works as a film executive. With some editing by Lucille Bluth, he is able to get an elementary school to perform the adult-themed story as a school play.
Appears In: "Staff Infection", "Altar Egos", "Missing Kitty", "Prison Break-In"
Tom Saunders (Tom Saunders) is an employee of the Bluth Company. His sad-sack personality and downtrodden looks are frequently the butt of jokes.
Appears In: "Afternoon Delight", "The Cabin Show", "Making a Stand", "Family Ties"
Tony Wonder (Ben Stiller) is a professional magician who commonly works at the Gothic Castle and is known for baking himself into a loaf of bread and emerging. Many of his "illusions" are direct mocking references to David Blaine.
Gob idolizes Wonder, but he believes that he came up with the idea for being baked into food first (he had the idea of being boiled into a bisque ten months earlier). Tony Wonder has a "W" for a goatee, and seems to specialize in illusions featuring food. He is also producing a DVD, which he dubbed "Use Your Allusion" after discovering his preferred title, Use Your Illusion, was unavailable due to copyright issues.
He also becomes quite taken by Buster's act during the "Sword of Destiny" illusion where Buster acted as the magician with Gob as the assistant (on account of Gob's banishment from the Magician's Alliance).
Gob reveals in Season 3 that Tony Wonder lost a testicle to a live dove in his pants.
Appears In: "Good Grief" (photo only), "Sword of Destiny", "S.O.B.s"
Trisha Thoon (Stacey Grenrock-Woods) is the field reporter for Fox 6 news throughout season one. She often covers stories pertaining to the Bluth family.
Appears In: "Pilot", "Key Decisions", "Public Relations", "Let 'Em Eat Cake", "Extended Pilot"
Wayne Jarvis (John Michael Higgins) is a lawyer who can describe himself in one word: "professional." Michael tries to hire Wayne to replace Barry Zuckerkorn but Wayne refuses once Michael and Lindsay try to use him to get back at their mother. Later Wayne becomes the prosecutor of the Bluth Company; when confronted with an accusation of a conflict of interest he replies, "It's called the PATRIOT Act, read it." Wayne Jarvis is "almost always" serious, a fact that caused him to once be called "the worst audience participant Cirque du Soleil ever had" because he "did not find their buffoonery amusing."
Appears In: "In God We Trust", "Sad Sack", "Righteous Brothers", "Fakin' It", "Exit Strategy"
Wife of Gob (Amy Poehler; the fact that Gob does not know her name is a running joke) is a certified seal salesperson who married Gob as part of an evening of escalating dares (meant to be a one-night stand). She is portrayed by Amy Poehler, who in real life is married to Will Arnett, who plays Gob. Poehler's real name is used in a scene where Gob talks about the fact that he doesn't know her name and, when he learns it, he will mock it: "Bad example, if her name is Amy, I'll call her Blamey." He guesses her name as "Crindy" and "Saul Zentsman" (the latter turning out to be her lawyer), and when he meets her again misreads the "U.S. Army" label on her uniform as being her name, calling her "Usarmy". She sells trained seals (selling sick ones to third-world countries) and convinces Gob to wear bright, colorful sweaters. Possibly the only fan of Dr. Fünke's 100% Natural Good-Time Family Band Solution, she saw their show in the late '90s and was comforted by the fact that they sang about every side effect she was going through. When she realizes she is in love with Tobias, she decides to end her marriage to Gob to join the United States Army to make use of her propensity for daring behavior. She frequently takes photos while smoking and pointing at crotches, a clear parody of Lynndie England, a central figure in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. She is seen in season one and does not appear again until the 13th episode of season two in her final appearance. In this appearance, she returns to break up with Gob and to reclaim the seals that she "gave" to him while in the army but is told that he does not have them because he set them free. One of the loose seals recently bit off Buster's left hand. She and Gob finally consummate their marriage just minutes before signing the divorce papers.
Appears In: "Altar Egos", "Justice Is Blind", "Best Man for the GOB", "Whistler's Mother", "Motherboy XXX"
Jim appears on the show a few times talking about the Bluth company stock. He increases the Bluth company stock from "sell" to "Don't buy". Eventually he increases their company stock to "risky". The Bluth family is very excited by these increases in stock outlook because the family is finally starting to run a decent company.
Adelaide (Bronwen Masters) falls in love with Buster Bluth for his "limp form," while he is pretending to be in a coma in Season 3. She has an Australian accent and has fallen in love with other male coma and paralyzed patients in the past. Adelaide appears in the earlier Season 3 episode "Notapusy" where she and Tony Hale are shown in a scene from the 1941 fake British wartime film "A Thoroughly Polite Dustup". The film is used to explain that, in Britain, calling someone a "Pussy" is a term of endearment, and therefore differs in context to its American use as an insult. The word "Fag" is also used in the film short, which means "cigarette" in the UK. This film is also later parodied in the episode "Exit Strategy" with both actors playing the main characters, Nurse Adelaide and Buster Bluth.
Appears In: "Notapusy" (as 1941 wartime Nurse), "Fakin' It", "Family Ties", "Exit Strategy"
Cindi Lightballoon (Jane Lynch) is an undercover agent working for the federal government to uncover George's secret dealings. Posing as a fan of his Torah videos (which she actually is), she eventually falls in love with George, who only enjoys tweaking her nipples.
Appears In: "Shock and Aww", "Altar Egos"
Ice (Malik Yoba) is a bounty hunter and professional caterer.
Ice is initially employed by Gob to follow Michael, although a recurring joke is that Gob views Ice as his friend. (Michael later pays Ice to spend the weekend with Gob).
Ice commits a series of blunders and is easily persuaded by money. He first follows Michael to Mexico while under the employment of Gob, and then is hired by Michael to find George Sr. Ice is given a blueprint with a picture of George Sr. on it, but is confused and tackles Tobias because he is wearing blue paint, and thus resembles the blue tint of the picture. ICE then returns to tracking Michael until Michael finally pays him to spend time with Gob and resume the search for George Sr. In the following episode, Ice ascertains that George Sr. was killed by a prison guard in Mexico.
Throughout these events, Ice consistently ignores or is oblivious to Lindsay's attempts to attract him. At one point, Lindsay pretends to be talking to George Sr. on the phone so that Ice will follow her to get to George Sr., but this plan proves futile.
When Ice notifies the family of George Sr.'s plight, he displays his party-planning talents by catering the event and leaves a business card with them to help jumpstart his alternate career of party-planning, referred to as his "first love."
Carl Weathers mentions to Tobias in Season 2 that, in a show called Scandal Makers that he was directing to portray the Bluths, he had decided to play Ice.
Appears In: "¡Amigos!", "Good Grief"
Larry Middleman (Bob Einstein) is a professional surrogate, hired by George Sr. to act as his eyes and ears so that he can continue influencing the family's dealings while under house arrest. "The Surrogate", as Larry is called, is always on the job, wearing a suit and tie at all times, with a baseball cap displaying the word "Surrogate". The cap carries a small camera and microphone, which transmit audio and video feeds in real-time to George Sr's computer and/or television. George Sr. has a voice feed back to the surrogate, so that he can tell Larry what to do, what to say on his behalf, where to go, etc. At one point, he also misinterprets George Sr.'s sarcasm as a compliment ("Another brilliant idea, Einstein").
Larry is a consummate professional, never allowing his own persona to come through except on rare occasion, such as when he sometimes inserts self-promoting comments ("He's worth every penny") among George Sr.'s actual words, and another occasion where he hit G.O.B. for insulting him. Larry does occasionally misinterpret George Sr.'s instructions, usually with amusing consequences.
Larry appeared at the beginning of season three, and stayed on for several episodes before being fired remotely in front of a mirror by George Sr. after a very poor judgement call regarding what was meant to have been a sotto voce comment, or perhaps unspoken altogether. He reappeared in "S.O.B.s" as a surrogate for a business associate of George Sr.
Appears In: "Forget-Me-Now", "Notapusy", "Mr. F", "The Ocean Walker", "S.O.B.s"
Maggie Lizer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is considered to be the most feared prosecuting attorney in all of Orange County.
Michael Bluth meets Maggie in a bar. When she introduces herself, she says her name is Maggie Lizer, as in Maggie Lies-her ass off. After she mistakes Michael for an attorney, he says his name is Chareth Cutestory and that he practices maritime law, a reference to a role as a lawyer that Michael held in a school musical, The Trial of Captain Hook. Maggie and Michael return to her home after drinking at the bar. He spends the night and wakes up perplexed as how to proceed. When he realizes she is blind, Michael decides to continue seeing her out of guilt.
Maggie is prosecuting the government's case against the Bluths; Maggie knew who Michael was but chose not to reveal this. Instead she gave him what she described as "a summary of everything the government has against the Bluths so far", which was actually a wish list, in an attempt to manipulate him. Michael continues seeing her despite the conflict of interest, until he learns that she is not blind, but had used this as a manipulation technique to pass her law school exams and gain sympathy during trials. As a result of the deception, Maggie is taken off the case. Her guide dog, "Justice," is revealed to be actually blind.
Maggie returns for two episodes in season 2, eight and a half months pregnant--eight and a half months after her relationship with Michael. She later admits the child is not Michael's, having volunteered to be a surrogate for two homosexual police officers - though this also turns out to be a deception, as she "outsourced" the pregnancy to a client who was suing a restaurant for making her fat. Realizing that the two of them cannot be in a relationship as they crave complications in their lives, they decide to part ways after a final fling. Ironically, a throwaway gag at the end of the episode reveals Maggie became pregnant as a result.
Appears In: "Altar Egos", "Justice Is Blind", "Out on a Limb", "Hand to God"
Marta Estrella is the Colombian soap opera star of El Amor Prohibido that Gob dates in season one. In her first two appearances, Marta was played by Leonor Varela. She was played by Patricia Velásquez for all following episodes with one minor exception: during a flashback in the episode "Forget-Me-Now" of Michael's past experiences with women, she is played by a third actress. She has two sons: Amable (played by Oliver Patrick Sandino) and Cortesio (played by Casey Sandino). Marta is attractive, moral, and holds family to be very important. Although Marta was dating Gob, she and Michael Bluth soon develop feelings for each other. Marta eventually chooses Michael over Gob, but she ends up leaving both of them after she catches them fighting over her.
Appears In:
Rita Leeds (Charlize Theron) is an English woman to whom Michael Bluth was attracted and briefly engaged.
Rita first appeared in the second episode of Season 3, "For British Eyes Only".
There are a number of somewhat subtle indications that she may have some sort of mental or learning disability throughout episodes 2 and 3 of Season 3; however, Michael either misinterprets this as charming eccentricity (attributing certain behavior to her being British) or does not seem to have noticed. Some of these indications might be the fact she goes to pre-school and also carries around various stuffed animal shaped backpacks, including a duck and a seal. In "Forget-Me-Now" Rita is drugged by Gob and left on a bus bench. The bench had an advert for Wee Britain, and the letters covered up by Rita's body leaves the clue that she has a "Wee Brain".
Rita wears a bracelet that says "MR F", and unintentionally implies to Michael that Mr. F is her uncle Trevor, who Michael believes is stalking him. Meanwhile, the Bluth Company also notifies him of a suspected mole, apparently going by the name of "Mr. F". Later on, it is revealed that MR F is an abbreviation for "mentally-retarded female", and that Tobias actually was a mole, the Mr. F in question — though he himself thought it was an audition.
In "Mr. F", Rita was confirmed to be mentally handicapped. She also was given a proposal of marriage by Michael Bluth.
In "The Ocean Walker", Michael, upon discovering Rita's mental handicap, ends his relationship with her. In the same episode, Trevor tells Rita, "It's not your fault your parents were cousins, but here we are. I’ve been charged with taking care of you, and I’m bloody well gonna do it."
It is later revealed that Rita finds a job at a competing movie-studio from Maeby's, producing a project called "The Ocean Walker" (she thinks that people can walk to England, and walked across a pool not knowing that Gob had rigged the pool with clear platforms for one of his illusions), although the film's development status is arrested.
She was last seen in the series finale on the cover of a newspaper.
Appears In: "For British Eyes Only", "Forget-Me-Now", "Notapusy", "Mr. F", "The Ocean Walker"
Sally Sitwell (Christine Taylor) is Stan Sitwell's daughter and Michael's childhood sweetheart. In adulthood, she is briefly Michael's girlfriend.
Appears In: "Burning Love", "Out on a Limb"
Uncle Trevor (Dave Thomas) is an English man and the uncle of Rita Leeds. He helped raise Rita, whose parents were cousins, which he implied might be a cause for her retardation.
Uncle Trevor first appeared in the second episode of Season 3, "For British Eyes Only", in which he is first seen not letting Michael access legal files which are "for British eyes only". After Michael meets Rita, he is seen swerving his Austin-Healey into the Bluth's staircar, threatening Michael with regard to his prior interaction with Rita. Michael misinterprets the threat, thinking it has to do with the search for information regarding his father, and that Trevor has been stalking him.
He is last seen in "The Ocean Walker", the sixth episode of Season 3. In this episode, after learning of Rita's intention to attend a "sleepover" with Michael, he visits the Bluth residence and informs them of Rita's "millions" and her ownership of Wee Britain. He later leaves for England with Rita at the end of the episode.
He also appears to be a fan of cricket, having apparently collected cricket magazines and even being in possession of a cricket bat, which was also seen in the cover of his secret magazine, Bumpaddle.
Appears In: "For British Eyes Only", "Forget-Me-Now", "Notapusy", "Mr. F", "The Ocean Walker"
White Power Bill (David Reynolds) is a massive, bald, white supremacist inmate with George Bluth Sr. at the Orange County Prison. The character is based on Harold Blum, an acquaintance of Mitchell Hurwitz.
White Power Bill is incensed when confronted with George's jailhouse conversion to Judaism. He is particularly upset at George's gesture of giving Little Justice, an inmate of the prison, a kippah for protection and giving him the new name, David Ben-Avram. He responds by hitting Little Justice with a pipe, knocking off his kippa. George diplomatically states that ."..both of our religions have a lot to offer. There's the Jewish notion of heaven, and that it can be obtained here on earth, and there is your belief in the cleansing power of the pipe."
When Gob incarcerates himself in Orange County Prison (to break out as his greatest trick) he performs an "illusion" on Bill and pulls a quarter out of Bill's ear, thus giving him his new nickname: "Dirty Ears" Bill. Bill becomes furious and later stabs Gob (right after he is finally able to have a game of catch with his father in a prison yard), yelling "White Power," which gets the necessary response of, ."..but...I'm white..." from Gob.
Upon meeting Tobias, Bill refers to him as a "little kike." Tobias, oblivious ("It's been quite a while since anyone called me a tyke!"), is at the prison researching the role of "Frightened Inmate #2" in a prison drama. He leads Bill in a counseling session which unintentionally culminates in Bill's suicide after Tobias suggests that Bill's inner rage stems from a hatred of himself ("You hate White Power Bill"); Bill jumps from the cell-block landing and dies saying "I hate White Power Bill..."
Appears In: "Key Decisions", "Staff Infection", "Missing Kitty"
Franklin Delano Bluth is Gob's black puppet.
The character is first introduced in the Season 2 episode "Meat the Veals", in a flashback to a Bluth family gathering years before. In an effort to hip-up his act, Gob briefly introduced the puppet in a poorly executed ventriloquist act (Gob's mouth moves every time Franklin speaks, even once Gob abandons actual ventriloquism in favor of an audio recorder hidden in Franklin's mouth). Franklin is a fiery-tempered, adulterous, obscenity-spewing, street-wise puppet.
Gob discarded Franklin up in the attic, most likely due to the severe beating Gob received in a night club in Torrance after performing a show with Franklin. During "Meat the Veals", Gob digs up his old friend and uses Franklin in a kidnapping plot with George Sr. Gob soaks Franklin's lips with ether, so that a kiss will incapacitate his mother, and any witnesses (in this case, Buster). Franklin is again soaked in ether two episodes later in "Righteous Brothers" in order to incapacitate George Sr. It's also revealed in "Meat the Veals" that whoever is in possession of Franklin begins speaking like him (cf. when George Sr. finds Franklin in the attic, he blurts, "Hey, man, you're gonna get your sorry white ass thrown in jail!" and "Get your loser hand out of my ass!" when Gob finds Franklin, and when Buster uses Franklin as a hook replacement and Lucille tells him he can't take Franklin to the country club). This phenomenon appears to be involuntary, and surprises the person holding Franklin as much as those around them, evidenced by the quizzical stare which Buster directs at the puppet following the aforementioned outburst by the usually reserved Buster.
Then Gob records a music CD with Franklin called "Franklin Comes Alive", a spoof of Frampton Comes Alive by Peter Frampton. Gob hoped that the CD would "break down racial barriers and maybe be a crossover hit." The song tracks include "It Ain't Easy Bein' White" and Gob's cover of Bryan Adams' song "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" which Gob performed especially for Michael. Unfortunately Franklin's musical career is cut short during "Righteous Brothers" when a laundry accident results in Franklin getting bleached. Franklin says, in what is now a stiff, slightly British accent, "You've ruined the act, Gob," and as Gob later tells Michael, Franklin has become "all puckered and white."
Franklin returns in some season 3 episodes, most prominently in "Fakin' It", after he is re-dyed and rested; as a publicity stunt, Gob manages to get Franklin on the witness list for George Sr.'s trial. (A deleted scene reveals that Gob legally adopted Franklin as his son to achieve this.) Gob also finds a way to give Franklin a voice without moving his lips by using voice promos from a magazine advertisement for Mock Trial with J. Reinhold. At the end of the episode, Franklin's dramatic testimonial on the witness stand effectively ends the prosecution's case against the Bluths. Franklin also appears in the next episode "Family Ties" as "Frank", a pimp for whom Nellie works.
Franklin is a portrayal of the 1950s-1980s stereotype of blacks. As part of the political satire, Franklin also wears a "George Bush doesn't care about black puppets" t-shirt in "Fakin' It", a reference to Kanye West's "George Bush doesn't care about black people" remark. No matter who is controlling him, Franklin often curses and uses racial slurs to describe others in the Bluth Family.
The name Franklin Delano Bluth borrows from the 32nd President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but the reason for this is that in the 1970s Sesame Street introduced what some claimed to be an "insultingly stereotypical African-American" puppet named Roosevelt Franklin (though the puppet's actual intended ethnicity was ambiguous and its 'skin' was purple); the character was eventually dropped from the show's line-up. Franklin could also be another tribute to the Peanuts cartoons, as this show also featured an African American character named Franklin. It is also probable Franklin is inspired at least in some way by Chuck's dummy Bob on the television show Soap shown on ABC from 1977 to 1981.
The running gag with Franklin is that despite being a mere puppet, he is actually treated as a real person. This can be seen in "Meat the Veals", where the Security Guard treats him with respect and the police regarded him as threat despite being immobile at the vehicle in the same episode.
Appears In: "Meat the Veals", "Spring Breakout", "Righteous Brothers", "Forget-Me-Now", "Prison Break-In", "Fakin' It", "Family Ties"
Mr. Bananagrabber is a Hamburglar-inspired character invented by Gob.
Mr. Bananagrabber was conceived by Gob after his brother, Michael Bluth, told him that he could not have a free Bluth Banana. Dejected, Gob decides to get a candy apple at one of the other shops on the boardwalk. When Gob bites into the candy apple, it breaks his tooth and Gob develops a whistle anytime he says a word with an "s" in it (a key characteristic of Bananagrabber). Gob and Michael then meet again, and Michael says Gob can have a free Bluth Banana and in exchange, Gob gives Michael the animation rights to Mr. Bananagrabber (Michael makes Mr. Banana Grabber look a lot like Gob from his hair, to his missing-tooth whistle, to his Segway. When Gob sees the commercial, he says "I never should have given up animation rights.").
Mr. Bananagrabber appeared on the 5/3/09 episode of Sit Down, Shut up! in a nightmare/flashback sequence.
Michael Bluth discussing the Mr. Bananagrabber character: "I guess it would just be a guy who, you know, grabs bananas and runs. Or a banana that grabs things. I don't know. Why would a banana grab another banana? I mean those are the kind of questions I don't want to answer."
Mr. Bananagrabber's first appearance was in "Charity Drive". At the end of the episode, we see the first incarnation of Mr. Bananagrabber as an animated character. The short animation clip scene was designed and animated by Evan Spiridellis, one half of the animation duo JibJab. Mr. Bananagrabber also appears briefly in the episodes "Whistler's Mother", "The Immaculate Election" and "Spring Breakout". Although images do not exist, a Mrs. and Baby-Bananagrabber are mentioned by Gob.
Like Gob, Mr. Bananagrabber rides around on a Segway human transporter, which is referred to as "Gob's scooter" on the show.
Appears In: "Charity Drive", "Whistler's Mother", "The Immaculate Election", "Spring Breakout"
Phylidia Featherbottom is an alter-ego of Tobias Fünke, dressed in drag and speaking in falsetto with an English accent.
Tobias, having moved out of the model home due to his marital problems with Lindsay, returns (poorly) disguised as a British nanny to spend time with his daughter and prove to his wife that he has what it takes to become an actor. The disguise fools no one, but the Bluths play along with the charade because Mrs. Featherbottom is an excellent cleaner, working for free.
Narration explains that the idea behind Mrs. Featherbottom is lifted directly from the film, Mrs. Doubtfire, with elements of Mary Poppins. She comes from the fictional Blackstool (a play on the English town Blackpool, Lancashire) and has previously worked for "the Roger Moore's." Mrs. Featherbottom's faux-British speech combines with Tobias’ penchant for homosexual innuendo: "Would you like a banger in the mouth?"
Mrs. Featherbottom is introduced in "The Immaculate Election" and is seen additionally working for Lucille at her home at the end of this episode. At the beginning of "Sword of Destiny", Tobias's "desire to be discovered as himself was becoming bothersome," and he was pretending to be Mrs. Featherbottom while unshaven and without makeup. However, Lindsay is still reluctant to expose him, because Mrs Featherbottom "is the only one who can hand-wash [her] delicates." In "Meat the Veals", Mrs. Featherbottom injures her ankle by "attempting an entrance that he hoped would enchant his daughter," jumping from the halfway down the staircase to the ground floor with an umbrella in his hand, collapsing and destroying the coffee table. Mrs. Featherbottom loses her wig and is finally exposed at the conclusion of "Meat the Veals", to no one's surprise.
Appears In: "The Immaculate Election", "Sword of Destiny", "Meat the Veals"
Surely Fünke is Maeby Fünke's imaginary twin and second identity that she uses to raise sympathy from the public and thus swindle money from them at fraudulent fundraising events.
In Maeby's many schemes she often uses the alter-ego, Surely (the word being an antonym of maybe), to fool schoolmates and the community, in an attempt to make money from fundraisers for Surely, who Maeby presents as wheelchair-bound and ill, suffering from the imaginary rare, debilitating illness, "B.S." Posters are seen at the school in episode "Shock and Aww", but it isn't until several episodes later that Maeby's grift is revealed. In "Altar Egos," George Michael attends the fundraiser for Surely Fünke, where he discovers that Maeby has been posing as the fictional dying girl.
In "Notapusy", Maeby pretends to be Surely Woolfbeak and enters an inner beauty pageant to prove there really is no such thing as a true inner beauty pageant. Surely Woolfbeak was essentially the same as Surely Fünke (who was apparently "killed off" two seasons earlier, as per Maeby's plan). The only real difference between them was that as Woolfbeak, Maeby wore the ugly prosthetic nose worn by Nicole Kidman in "The Hours" that actor Jamie Kennedy had purchased for her at an auction, in hopes that she would use him in a remake of a film she was producing.
Frank Wrench is the protagonist of Wrench, a fictional television series about a rule-abiding police detective. He is played by actor Moses Taylor, who is also a vocal gun activist, frequently brandishing a realistic prop gun that shoots out a flag imprinted with the Second Amendment. Lindsay briefly begins an affair with Taylor which is interrupted when she is shot by a tranquilizer dart. From the perspective of a group of onlookers, Taylor, who is holding his prop gun, looks like he has murdered her; he quickly carries her to a bench where he leaves her and flees the scene. His voice is later heard outside the door to the bathroom on the set of Wrench, which Tobias has entered, believing it to have a real, functioning toilet. On Arrested Development, Moses Taylor and his character-within-a-character Frank Wrench are played by Rob Corddry.