Arrested Development/Making a Stand

Making a Stand
Season 3, Episode 8
Airdate	December 19, 2005
Production Number	#3AJD07
Written by	Chuck Tatham, Mitchell Hurwitz
Directed by	Peter Lauer
← 3x07 Prison Break-In	3x09 → S.O.B.s
Arrested Development — Season Three

Making a Stand is the eighth episode of the third season of Arrested Development, and the forty-eighth episode overall.

Guest Stars: Scott Baio (Bob Loblaw), Joe Camareno (Rolando), Jason Jurman (Treat), Alan Marco (Memo), Steve Ryan (J. Walter Weatherman), Lobo Sebastian (Eblin), Josh Shada (Young Gob), Justin Grant Wade (Steve Holt), Jeff Garlin (Mort Meyers)

Plot Overview

George Sr., constantly setting up GOB and Michael to compete against each other, drives his sons to teach him a lesson.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• The Divorce: Tobias and Lindsay have started divorce proceedings. These proceedings are slanted towards Tobias as Lindsay has made it her mission to sleep with Bob Loblaw, Tobias' lawyer.

Characters

• Tobias: Tobias had the hairplugs removed and is no longer suffering from graft vs. host.

Referbacks

• Pier Pressure: J. Walter Weatherman, George Sr.'s assistant in constructing intricate ways of scaring the children into bending to his will, makes another appearance. There are several flashbacks to both scenes in Pier Pressure as well as flashbacks from when the Bluths were children. Also from the episode, The Big Yellow Joint is heard during the one-up sequence.

Buster: J. Walter Weatherman. You're the man who used to scare us as children and one time as an adult!

• Forget Me Now: The scene in which Tobias mistook Bob Loblaw's request to "be explicit" is a parody of the same scene between Bob and Lindsay.

Tobias: You want me to be explicit?

Trivia

The Show

• Ratings: The original broadcast of this episode was watched by 3.79 million people.
• Timeline: One of the Boyfights tapes was subtitled "The Trip To Uncle Jack's 70th," which places the flashback about 20 years prior to Ready, Aim, Marry Me where Uncle Jack was 90.

Behind the Scenes

• Awards: For his role as Bob Loblaw in this episode, Scott Baio was nominated for an IVy Award for the 2005-06 season for Best Guest Actor or Actress in a Comedy Series.

Allusions and References

• Boy Fights: George Sr's series of videos featuring his sons fighting is likely a reference to Bumfights, a controversial video featuring homeless people fighting for money.

• FAO al-Jubaaly Muhammed a-Abat: The toy store where Buster gets a job is a more Iraqi-sounding version of the toy store FAO Schwartz. FAO Schwarz is a chain of toy stores founded in 1870 by a German immigrant named Frederick August Otto Schwarz, originally under the name "Toy Bazaar."

• ALF: The monster from Maeby's movie supposedly looks like ALF, the title character of 1986 sitcom about an alien who comes to Earth named Gordon Shumway after his planet was ravaged by a nuclear catastrophe. He crash lands on the planet and winds up attempting to live life as normally as an alien adopted by a suburban family could. The alien also had a penchant for eating cats, hence the laughter at the "this must have been the creature that ate her cat" line.

Mort: That's the bloodsucker? It looks like ALF.

• Yellow Submarine: The Beatles' song Yellow Submarine was a single first released in 1967 as the a-side to Eleanor Rigby. Because Beatles songs are notoriously expensive to license, the narrator makes a commnt about not being able to afford it. Later on in the second photo montage, a similar sounding song called Yellow Boat is played.

Announcer: It was kind of funny to Yellow Submarine, but who could afford it?

• The Groundlings: The Groundlings are an LA-based improvisational comedy group founded in 1974. This group was home to many improvisational and comedic actors like Phil Hartman, Conan O'Brien and Paul Reubens. Additionally, alumni of the group have gone on to write and act in shows like Reno 911! and Saturday Night Live.

Painter: Rolando was in the Groundlings.

• Curb Your Enthusiasm: "Curb" is the often used name for Curb Your Enthusiasm, a retroscripted series with an outline of script but no details leaving dialogue up to the actors for improvisation. Jeff Garlin stars in the series and also appears in this episode as Mort Meyers.

Rolando: Is it going to be unscripted like Curb?