Development Arrested by Fox. Again.

So I find myself both confused and depressed.

For those of you playing along at home... back in February, Fox abruptly suspended production on Arrested Development, cutting its second season order from 22 to 18 episodes, indicating it was toast. Then, in May after a regime change at Fox, it was happily reported that the series would be renewed for both a third and fourth season.

But last Thursday, Variety reported Fox was cutting its third season order from 22 to 13 episodes, putting the show on hiatus for the rest of November sweeps. And then on Friday, The Hollywood Reporter reported the show was dead (with a small caveat: "There is a possibility that the show will be shopped around, but its high cost is expected to be prohibitive for a cable network.") Anyway, I remained in denial over the weekend, but finally had to face facts today when Kristin confirmed the show's demise on E News. (There's more from Kristin about all this in her weekly column from last Friday, and yesterday's online chat transcript.)

The final five episodes of Arrested Development will start airing on December 5. (And both Season One and Season Two are available on DVD.)