Credit: Alamy
Mon 3 August 2026 5:00, UK
Jason Bateman has become one of television’s most consistent actors, having starred in and developed several prestige shows and miniseries over the last two decades, but his ability to turn in his most iconic performance was once significantly doubted.
In addition to being the face of some of HBO’s most acclaimed programming, Bateman also picked up a Primetime Emmy Award for his work directing the second season of the Netflix crime thriller Ozark, which he also starred in, but his beginnings were as a child actor working since the 1980s, who only became a breakout comedy leading man when he starred in Arrested Development in 2003.
The series was not a ratings smash hit at the time, but it developed a strong following because of its running gags, eccentric humour, and memorable characters, and nearly all of the primary cast members went on to have robust careers, which included Will Arnett, Michael Cera, Alia Shawhat, Tony Hale, and David Cross.
Arrested Development was created by Mitchell Hurwitz, but a majority of the first season was directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, the filmmaking brothers who would go on to helm many of the most significant instalments within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and according to Joe, Hurwitz was sceptical about casting Bateman as Michael Bluth because of his track record until that point.
“We literally had to bring him into the studio four times to get him cast because he had been in a bunch of failed pilots, so he was viewed as baggage at that time,” Russo said, “Mitch was very nervous. He was like, ‘This could be bad luck if we cast him’.”
While this may have made Bateman seem like a liability, it also ensured that audiences would find his sense of humour refreshing, as he had yet to be overexposed, and he was a proven success, landing more film roles in the aftermath of Arrested Development. However, the show sadly only ran for three seasons before it was prematurely cancelled by Fox for low ratings, and was later revived by Netflix, who aired two more controversial seasons over a decade after it was initially taken off the air.
The show’s cancellation is among the biggest blunders within contemporary television history, given that it became one of the most influential comedy shows of its time, with its humour styled on callbacks and running gags, only making the series more endearing. Especially now that it is available on streaming, viewers don’t have to wait weeks at a time for the payoffs, and its intelligent, strategised writing has allowed it to age better than many of the other sitcoms of the same era.
Further reading: Cutting Room Floor
Arrested Development is the rare comedy show in which there isn’t a ‘scene-stealer’, given that the cast is uniformly excellent, but Bateman was critical to its success because Michael is as close as the show has to a ‘straight man’, who is forced to take over for his ridiculous father (played by Jeffrey Tambor) and deal with his selfish siblings.
The straight-laced persona is one that would come to Bateman’s advantage when he starred in comedy films like Horrible Bosses and Game Night, and it also gave him the footing to take on more dramatic roles.
