The Cabin Show

"The Cabin Show" is the first episode of the third season of the American television satirical sitcom Arrested Development. It is the 41st overall episode of the series, and was written by series creator Mitchell Hurwitz and Jim Vallely, and directed by Paul Feig. It originally aired on Fox on September 19, 2005.^[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, when Michael realizes that Oscar, not George Sr., is serving time in prison, he sets off to find his father while trying to find time to reconnect with his son at the family's cabin, and Gob learns he has a son.

Michael (Jason Bateman) suggests Lucille (Jessica Walter) relax by visiting the cabin before it is relocated, but then offers to take Gob to the cabin. George Michael (Michael Cera) has been sleeping in the stair car to avoid Maeby since their kiss, and Michael decides to take George Michael to the cabin. At the prison, Oscar (Jeffrey Tambor) convinces Michael that he isn't George Sr. (Tambor). Gob has received a letter from a group called S.A.D. that reunites fathers and sons, but has misread it as meaning that his own father is secretly seeking him. Michael calls the family's lawyer, Barry Zuckerkorn (Henry Winkler), to find out if he knows George Sr.'s whereabouts, but finds out he is in Reno. Michael prepares to go to Reno, then realizes he must cancel his plans with his George Michael, and he suggests George Michael and Maeby pitch a tent in the front yard, but they decline.

Gob arrives at the S.A.D. center, sitting on a bench next to Steve Holt (Justin Grant Wade), who is actually Gob's son, but not knowing they are looking for each other, decide to go on a camping trip to the cabin together. When Michael arrives in Reno, he finds Tobias as a waiter, who confesses that he missed out on a Blue Man Group role in Las Vegas, so he came to Reno to audition, and that Kitty (Judy Greer) left him. Tobias says he wants to reunite with Lindsay, which Michael agrees to arrange, so informs Lindsay he has found Tobias. Knowing that she only wants what she cannot have, he convinces her Tobias does not wish to return, and Lindsay decides she will go to Reno to get Tobias herself, dragging George Michael and Maeby along with her. Michael goes to the Blue Man show, looking for George Sr., but finds Barry, who he fires. Lindsay arrives at the hotel in Reno and leaves the kids in the stair car, where they decide to finish the kiss, but Lindsay calls them to the hotel.

Gob arrives in Reno with Steve Holt, hoping to get the key to the cabin from Michael, but tells him that Steve is Gob's son.Thinking his son drove up to Reno to be with him, Michael is determined to be a better father than Gob, and decides to take George Michael to the cabin. Fed up with Buster's snoring, Lucille hits his bed with a tripod, but sees he isn't in bed. Lucille decides to drive out to the cabin, but discovers Buster sleeping in the back seat of her car. In Reno, Tobias tries to find a way to convince Lindsay that he is still a Blue Man and still with Kitty, and Michael and George Michael arrive at the cabin to find the bedrooms have been moved. George Michael, still upset about being separated from Maeby, confesses that he has been sleeping in the stair car because he is in the middle of a girl problem. Michael promises to help figure out his problem the next morning. But when Michael wakes up the next morning, he finds the cabin has been moved from its location, and is being driven on a truck by George Sr., who says that he cannot allow his son to release Oscar.

Lucille arrives at the where the cabin used to be, leading the car, with Buster in it, to drive into a lake. Maeby and Steve Holt make out, and Lindsay tells Tobias she wants a divorce.

"The Cabin Show" was directed by Paul Feig, and written by series creator Mitchell Hurwitz and Jim Vallely. It was Feig's sixth directing credit, Hurwitz's 15th writing credit and Vallely's 11th writing credit.^[2] It was the first episode of the season to be filmed.^[3]

The A.V. Club writer Noel Murray praised the episode, calling it "largely a reintroduction episode, but it’s a funny one, squeezing in classing Arrested Development gags".^[4] Brian Tallerico from Vulture ranked the episode as the eighth best of the whole series, calling it "Another excellent season premiere that doubles as the last truly great Fox episode."^[5] In the United States, the episode was watched by 4.62 million viewers on its original broadcast, a decrease of over 1 million viewers from the previous season's finale, "Righteous Brothers".^[6]

• "The Cabin Show" at IMDb