Staff Infection

"Staff Infection" is the fifteenth episode of the first season of the American television satirical sitcom Arrested Development. It was written by co-producer Brad Copeland and directed by John Fortenberry. It originally aired on Fox on March 14, 2004.^[1]

The series, narrated by Ron Howard, follows the Bluths, a formerly wealthy, dysfunctional family, who made their money from property development. The Bluth family consists of Michael, his twin-sister Lindsay, his older brother Gob, his younger brother Buster, their mother Lucille and father George Sr., as well as Michael's son George Michael, and Lindsay and her husband Tobias' daughter Maeby. In the episode, Michael discovers that the family had all been on the company payroll for doing nothing, so he forces them to work. Gob and Buster join a construction crew. Lindsay becomes Michael's receptionist. Annyong works at the banana stand. Tobias joins George Sr.'s prison to research an acting role.

Michael (Jason Bateman) receives an emergency call from Lucille (Jessica Walter), who is prepping Annyong (Justin Lee) to work at the banana stand, and tells Michael she needs money, saying she has not received her latest paycheck from the Bluth Company. Michael announces that the unearned paychecks will end, making Buster (Tony Hale) come to the office to help out. Lindsay (Portia de Rossi) awakes to find the house deserted, as Tobias (David Cross) has gone to the prison to research his new movie role of "Frightened Inmate #2". Lindsay goes to the Bluth Company office to inquire about her missing paycheck, and Michael says she must work for it, assigning her to answer the phones while Kitty is gone. Lindsay immediately begins criticizing Michael's management style, while Buster struggles with his responsibilities in the copy room.

George Michael (Michael Cera) and Maeby (Alia Shawkat) work at the banana stand, and she teases him about his father choosing work over him. Tobias arranges with the new prison warden, Stefan Gentles (James Lipton), to share a cell with George Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor), while Michael takes Buster to a construction site. Gob (Will Arnett) arrives to ask Michael why he hasn't received his paycheck, and Michael puts him to work. Lindsay has the fluorescent lights replaced with softer lighting at the office and offers to take the staff out for lunch. The employees mistakenly board the wrong bus, and are taken to a ferry for Catalina Island, where they spend the rest of the day wandering around. Annyong arrives at the banana stand for his first day of work, and Maeby convinces George Michael to take some time off, so he heads to the office to find his father.

Michael stops by the banana stand to find George Michael, and at the construction site, Gob convinces the workers to strike, but Buster, who is enjoying the work, disagrees. The other workers convince the brothers to settle their disagreement with a game of "chicken" using bulldozers. Lindsay finds out about the work stoppage just as George Michael arrives, and she puts him in charge. Michael discovers the solution to a zoning problem by building a sand castle at the beach, and George Michael finds a file in his father's desk containing George Michael's school work, including some primary school art projects. He finally has proof that his father loves him as federal investigators enter the office they thought was empty. Their cover is blown, and they grab the file with the schoolwork and run out. Michael arrives at the work site to tell everyone he is changing the building plan, and Lucille arrives with her car full of shopping bags. Michael throws a party, and he and George Michael finally spend some time together.

George Sr. sells Tobias' bunking location to another inmate for a pack of cigarettes, and the lostBluth Company employees get driven back into town.

"Staff Infection" was directed by John Fortenberry and written by co-producer Brad Copeland.^[1] It was Fortenberry's first directing credit and Copeland's third writing credit.^[2] It was the fourteenth episode of the season to be filmed after the pilot,^[3] and the second of Fox's second episode order for the season.^[4]

The A.V. Club writer Noel Murray wrote that the episode "doesn’t entirely work," but "there’s still a lot of intricacy and well-sprung jokes in".^[5] In 2019, Brian Tallerico from Vulture ranked the episode as the 17th best of the whole series.^[6] In the United States, the episode was watched by 5.37 million viewers on its original broadcast, a decrease of almost 1 million viewers from the previous episode, "Shock and Aww".^[7]

• "Staff Infection" at IMDb