Sasso

Introduction
 The “wired world” has created new possibilities for authors, readers, and text and makes it ea sie r for people to voice their opinions and allow almost anyone to read it. Before the age of the Inte rnet, there wer e few ways to get in contact with others to voice your opinion. Your options were by phone, letters or in-person pro t ests, among others. The opinion you voiced was also limited to the individual who received it and was not easily shared to the masses like today. The shift since the Internet has closed the

gap between the author and the reader. Forums and blogs that have arisen online help make a stronger case because those forms of media show multiple individual's views listed together one right after the other. This shift in availabil  ity, however, no longer limits texts as books, but also as movies, TV shows, and music to name a few. Similarly, the adjustment of text, also changes what is regarded as the author. An author can be the writer, director, producer or many other roles. With many fans able to publish their love for the show on the Internet for everyone to read, many could easily get their message across to the creator and eventually persuade him to come back with more episodes.

 Throughout the course of the semester, the class has read about themes pertaining to the Internet and online communities. A prime example of this is the reading we did Henry Kenkins: "Spoiling Survivor: The Anatomy of a Knowledge Culture” and how knowledge communities brought people together and linked different rumors they had heard about the upcoming season of Survivor. This can be compared to Arrested Development because all the



 communities came together when the show was cancelled to try and get the show back on the air. Those same communities also came together for the movie announcement to verify if the announcement was in fact real. Henry Jenkins writes, “The knowledge of a thinking community is no longer a shared knowledge for it is now impossible for a single human being, to master all the knowledge skills.” Jenkins is saying knowledge communities allow people to bring all their information together and inform people with a lot of information that would not be able to come together in another way. Knowledge communities helped the show Arrested Development return because fans of the show explained to others how the show got cancelled and spread the word to try and get the show back on the air.

 For my project I have decided to look at blogs and forums from the announcement date of the Arrested Development Movie and see how this brought the beloved series back for more episodes. Arrested Development was first on the air in 2003 and received great reviews from critics. The problem was, in the three seasons it was on the air, it never had high enough ratings. When the show got cancelled, the online following grew substantially to try and get the show back on the air. Many blogs, forums, and websites protested the cancellation and asked for more episodes or a movie. Six years after the show was cancelled in 2006, the creators finally announced that they were producing a mini-series leading up to a movie. Now the fans that once protested the return of the show, are posting that they cannot wait for the return of Arrested Development.

Activism
When Arrested Development announced their intentions for a movie and mini series, everyone from the original cast signed on to do the filming. However, the actor Justin Grant Wade, who played Steve Holt, did not get asked to sign a contract. When viewers found out that their beloved, and in some cases favorite, character was not going to be in the movie they decided to take action. Currently, there is a website called http://savesteveholt.blogspot.com/ , with the purpose to make people aware that Wade did not get signed on for the movie or mini series. The fans who set up the site want to help protest and fight for Wade to get asked to be in both. On the site there is a tab for viewers to tweet or post on their Facebook about bringing back Steve Holt. There is also an article section with eighteen different links to published articles about the website as well as t-shirts and posters about the website and its mission.

Before fans of Arrested Development came together to bring back Steve Holt, they were trying to bring back the show. The action to bring back Arrested Development grew so large, people were even asking Obama to bring back the show . The title of the article is, Did Obama Bring Back Arrested Development. Enough people are following the Arrested Developments return, that some believe Obama brought back the show to help his re-election. This shows the cult following for Arrested Development has grown so large that this number of people is nothing to ignore. When the news came out that Arrested Development was finally moving forward with a movie and a mini series, many fans were extremely excited. After more then six years the cult of fans, bloggers, and website activists that had been fighting for the shows return, finally felt like their protests did not fall on deaf ears. To those active fans, they succeeded.

In October 2011 when the facts about the movie were officially announced, many forums arose that had links to articles about the plans for Arrested Development as well as official details.  Today, many of the fan sites are geared toward the upcoming movie and mini series. One individual writes, “ This news is excellent. I had heard about the movie--I think it was actually in the works before the show was first cancelled, but the new season...consider me titillated.” This is one of many similar comments of fans getting excited for the upcoming movie. Others have commented their favorite scenes from the show or their favorite character but overall, people are excited for the shows return. 

<span style="font-family:"TimesNewRoman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";color:black;background:#F5F5FF">While on the air, Arrested Development was not that well known, so the movie announcement came as a bit of a shock to some individuals. <span style="font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman"; background:white;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> It was the release of the show onto DVD that led to the cult-like following and fan base for the show. Many online forums popped up to try and fight for the shows return after experiencing it on DVD. Many came together to make a stand and the impact seemed to make a difference. After the blog posts, high DVD sales, persuasion and commitment from the fans and viewers, the show is finally coming back. Although online protesting and fan blogging worked for the production of a movie, will it work to bring back Wade? The big question people are asking on the Steve Holt blog is if all the publicity about bringing back Steve Holt will actually work. In the coming months fans will find out if their website and social media protests worked. In the meantime the online call to action will continue.

Remediation
With the cult-like fan base forming around Arrested Development, it was only a matter of time before the fans began making their own Arrested Development interpretations. While researching I came across somebody who created an Arrested Development themed Clue and Monopoly game. They were creative and took major themes, places, and objects from the show to create these games. For fans of the show, this would be humorous to play, because they would understand the references. However, people who do not know the show or have not watched it enough to know all the scenes may not find it as funny.

<p style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:"TimesNewRoman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";background:white;mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">When the makers of the board games put the games together, they were doing it for fun because they are big fans of the show. However, once they added links so anyone can print out the board, properties, money and cards and actually play either g <span style="font-family:"TimesNewRoman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";background:white;mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">ame, this opened up a discussion about the show. <span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";background:white; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">. The link to these board games has created an entire discussion about the show. People have said how they cannot wait for the movie or posting theirfavorite scenes that made them laugh. Maybe Parker Brothers and Hasbro will make an actual Arrested Development board games to sell in stores. Although many other TV shows have games already for sale like The Simpsons, it takes a larger following of people who really care about the show to create their own game from scratch for fans of Arrested Development to enjoy.

<p style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:"TimesNewRoman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";background:white;mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Right after the movie was announced, many people started posting their favorite fan artwork for Arrested Development. On this site http://www.buzzfeed.com/fjelstud/the-best-of-arrested-development-fan-art, there is one drawing that shows all the Blush’s on the stair car drawn like Peanuts or Charlie Brown characters. Fans of the show understand that Arrested Development make many jokes or references about Charlie Brown. Also the Bluth company is known for their Frozen Banana stand on the pier so another drawing is all the Bluth’s drawn as monkeys outside of the frozen banana stand. This also portrays their characteristics to be a little childish and ridiculous because as a group they have been known to act like monkeys. Overall, the fan art is for people who like the show and know all of the inside jokes. It may be of a recurring joke that the creator brings up or a favorite quote that a character is known for; fans of the show will try to bring it up in their own way. The more remediation types you can find for a show is based on how many viewers of the show are large fans of the show.

Knowledge Communities
The knowledge communities that arose around Arrested Development were necessary for the shows return. It created a place for people to protest against the shows cancellation as well as share in their love of the series.However, not enough people would have followed the show after the cancellation if it were not for the DVDs of all three seasons. Fox even stated that DVD sales were strong but would not release any exact numbers. Many people saw the DVD set for sale when they went on Amazon because the show was in the top DVD seller list for a while and the reviews from other customers

were so high. Currently, the complete series of Arrested Development DVDs has 1,088 customer reviews even though it only had three seasons. Friends, a comedy sitcom show that ran for ten seasons, has just over 400 reviews and averages out to four stars. Of the 1,088 for Arrested Development, 1,019 of the reviews give it five stars. That’s 93.5% of people. The review section on Amazon that typically critiques the products and gives potential buyers a place to look at what others have said, has turned more into a knowledge community. Many people talk about their favorite characters or give their own overview of the show. Many ask why fox cancelled this show but kept on others. Overall, the general theme of the comments are that people love the show and acclaim the characters to be among the best in TV

<p style="line-height:200%"> Knowledge communities are used by groups of people who want to discuss the same topic and it may or may not be something the individual likes. It is a place online where people come together and post about the topic, in this case Arrested Development. Although these people have never met, they can instantly connect because there is a common theme they are talking about. It does not matter their age, gender or ethnicity because it is solely about the mutual topic they are discussing. Such a range is a large chunk of the population, yet a wide range of ages can enjoy the show and have a conversation in a forum about it. Once the movie was announced many forums arose <span style="font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman"; background:white;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">. The thread has more than fifty post with people talking about the announcement of the movie. Although unknown whether the online following, is what motivated the actors and creators of the show to go ahead on the movie and mini-series, the fan base do believe they are in part what motivated the return and.

<p style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:"TimesNewRoman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-font-family:"TimesNewRoman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi">The Arrested Development Wikia page <span style="font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi"> is still being edited, updated and added to even though there has not been a new episode in more then six years. Recently, a tab has been added under Episodes for a season four as well as a movie tab. Under these tabs are all the announcement details. The tabs include when the movie and series may be released and any other rumors or articles people could find to confirm the announcements. I believe the best tab is called Funny Stuff, where people have added a section for recurring jokes, favorite quotes, and Gob’s magic. In the comment section of the season 4 announcement tab, someone wrote, <span style="font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-font-family:"TimesNewRoman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi">is it too much to hope that this leads to even more episodes after the movie's release?” I believe that these fans have pushed so long to get back the show, that even after the new season airs, they will still be coming back asking for more.