List of Arrested Development characters
The series stars Jason Bateman, Portia de Rossi, Will Arnett, Michael Cera, Alia Shawkat, Tony Hale, David Cross, Jeffrey Tambor, and Jessica Walter.
Lindsay never finished college, believing herself to be a dedicated activist, though she is actually vain, greedy, selfish, and materialistic (much like the rest of her family), mainly supporting current trendy causes for the social status and regularly holding extravagant charity drives that waste more money than they make.
These causes have included opposing circumcision, anti-Iraq War protests, the removal of the 10 Commandments from a courthouse, the right to die (specifically regarding her brother Buster), and awareness about graft-versus-host disease (which her husband was afflicted with due to unnecessary hair transplants).
[1] This motif is continued in the series' revival and fourth season, in which Lindsay travels to India in an attempt to connect to her spiritual side and then tumultuously dates Marky Bark, another (albeit a true) liberal activist, while still married to Tobias.
In the fourth (revival) season of the show, Gob prepares to marry his nephew George Michael's ex-girlfriend, Ann, though he escapes the wedding during a botched magic trick.
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 original 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.
In the third season, Maeby actually prospers professionally despite her academic failures, conning her way into a job as a movie executive and maintaining the charade (with astounding and increasing success) for several months.
This possibility is abruptly nullified when Buster's left hand is bitten off by a "loose seal" (pun on "Lucille"), when he impulsively gets the courage to jump into the ocean one day after years of being afraid to swim.
In the Army, Buster is unwittingly made a UAV pilot (thinking he is merely playing a video game), but is "wounded" after falling out of his chair, receiving several commendations and being fitted with an oversized robotic hand that makes more powerful motions than he can control.
After being discharged from the Army, he meets Herbert Love's wife, Ophelia, who takes pity on him and convinces her husband to let him stay with the family, suggesting he could be useful to the campaign as a poster child against wasteful government spending.
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.
Tobias suffers from "never-nude" syndrome (which, as the narrator states, is "exactly what it sounds like") and wears denim cut-off shorts under his underwear (and underneath that, a tube sock) at all times in order to avoid anyone (including himself and his wife) seeing his genitalia.
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.
He was the original 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 or in hiding during the first three seasons of the show.
He tells Michael that he has been set up to build homes in Iraq by a group of British contractors operating out of "Wee Britain" in Orange County, California, but ultimately admits that he may be guilty of "light treason."
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.
Now Annyong has come to the United States, patiently waiting to avenge his grandfather by financially ruining the Bluths: sneaking his way into their family and reporting their corporate misdoings to the SEC.
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.
In addition, he had not caught up with the status of George Sr.'s case and comments that he went on a date with "a woman who works two jobs", cutting to images of his mugshots (implying he attempted to hook up with a prostitute that was actually an undercover cop).
Kitty has the habit of attempting to bribe people with sexual appeal by baring her breasts, 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."
Oscar again plays a larger role in the fourth (revival) season, where he and his brother continually switch identities to defraud wealthy CEOs looking for spiritual enlightenment in the desert between California and Mexico.
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).
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.
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.
It is later revealed that Rita finds a job at a competing movie studio from Maeby's, producing a project called "The Ocean Walker", although the film's development status is arrested.
Debrie Bardeaux (Maria Bamford), introduced in season 4, is a recovering drug addict Tobias meets and falls in love with at a methodone clinic he thinks is an acting class.
In his first on-screen appearance at the end of the final episode of season 3, 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.
Tobias, having moved out of the model home due to his marital problems with Lindsay, returns disguised (poorly) 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.
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.
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.
