| "Good Grief" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Arrested Development episode | |||
| Episodeno. | Season 2 Episode 4 | ||
| Directed by | Jeff Melman | ||
| Written by | John Levenstein | ||
| Cinematography by | Greg Harrington | ||
| Editing by | Richard Candib | ||
| Production code | 2AJD04 | ||
| Original air date | December 5, 2004 (2004-12-05) | ||
| Running time | 22 minutes | ||
| Guest appearances | |||
| Episode chronology | |||
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| Arrested Developmentseason 2 | |||
| List of episodes | |||
"Good Grief" is the fourth episode of thesecond season of the American televisionsatiricalsitcomArrested Development. Written by consulting producer John Levenstein and directed byJeff Melman, it first aired onFox on December 5, 2004. The episode has received critical acclaim, with series creatorMitchell Hurwitz calling it his third favorite episode of the series.Rolling Stone ranked the episode as the 29th best television episode of all time in 2024.
The series, narrated byRon Howard, follows the Bluths, a formerly wealthy,dysfunctional family, who made their money from property development. The Bluth family consists ofMichael, his twin sisterLindsay, his older brotherGob, his younger brotherBuster, their motherLucille and fatherGeorge Sr., as well as Michael's sonGeorge Michael, and Lindsay and her husbandTobias' daughterMaeby. In the episode, after Ice reveals that George Sr. has been executed in Mexico, the family holds a wake. Gob attempts an illusion in which he is buried in place of his father's body, which upsets Buster, who was told that it was a birthday party. George Michael discovers George Sr. alive in an underground bunker and hides him in the attic.
Ice (Malik Yoba), the bounty hunter thatMichael (Jason Bateman) hired, discovers thatGeorge Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor) has supposedly died in Mexico, whileAnn (Mae Whitman) breaks up withGeorge Michael (Michael Cera).Maeby (Alia Shawkat) seeks advice fromBarry Zuckerkorn (Henry Winkler) on divorcing her parents. The family discusses a wake for George Sr., and Gob plans to turn the event into an illusion.
Buster is not told the truth about his father's death out of fear of him overreacting. George Michael finds George Sr., who had faked his death and came back to win Lucille back from his brotherOscar (Tambor), alive and hiding in aspider hole, so George Michael hides him in the attic of the model home. The wake begins, with George Sr. watching through a vent and sending George Michael to bring himhors d'oeuvres. Michael intercepts his son, reuniting him with Ann and telling him that he wants them to be happy and honest with each other.
Buster arrives, and Lucille asks Gob to get him out of the house before he realizes it's a wake. Outside, Gob begins his illusion, but ends up getting himself buried alive when Buster realizes that the event is his father's wake. Michael finds his father in the attic and tells everyone else, but when they arrive at the attic, George Sr. has apparently fled. When they leave, George Sr. emerges from a hiding spot, and Michael keeps his secret.
Buster finds out about the death ofCaptain Kangaroo and trashes Lucille's apartment, Michael gets annoyed with looking after George Sr., and Gob is put on the cover ofPoof, a magazine for magicians.
"Good Grief" was directed byJeff Melman and written by consulting producer John Levenstein. It was Melman's first and only directing credit and Levenstein's sixth and final writing credit.[1] It was the fourth episode of theseason to be filmed.[2]
The scene of Buster throwing a vacuum towards a bus proved difficult to shot, and required six takes before it was finished. Tinero later said that, during his time on the show, the scene was his favorite, but noted how hard it was to get the scene right. The bus moved at a regular pace, and Tinero was required to throw it while in motion; however, his aim was not accurate enough, and the bus had to be slowed down so he could move closer and have a more precise throw.[3] Arrested Development had previously made several references to thePeanuts franchise—particularly by using character names to refer to body parts—and so they were granted permission to do the episode by the estate ofCharles M. Schulz.[4]
In the United States, the episode was watched by 6.66 million viewers on its original broadcast.[5]
"Good Grief" received critical acclaim.The A.V. Club writer Noel Murray praised the episode, calling it a "stunningly well-constructed piece of farce".[6] The episode was labeled as one of the best of the 2004 season byVariety's Neal Justin, who highlighted the multiplePeanuts references and the ironic use of them as highlights.[7]
In 2019, Brian Tallerico fromVulture ranked the episode as the 20th best of the whole series.[8] In 2015, Megan Walsh fromScreen Rant ranked the episode as one of the top ten best of the series.[9] Series creatorMitchell Hurwitz ranked "Good Grief" as his third favorite episode of the show.[10] In 2024,Alan Sepinwall fromRolling Stone ranked the episode as the 29th best television episode of all time, calling it "a standout from the series’ initial three-year run".[11]
Richard Candib was nominated forOutstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series at the57th Primetime Emmy Awards for "Good Grief".[12]