Bringing Up Buster

"Bringing Up Buster"
Arrested Development episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 3
Directed by	Joe Russo
Written by	Mitchell Hurwitz Richard Rosenstock
Production code	1AJD02
Original air date	November 16, 2003
Guest stars
Leonor Varela as Marta Estrella Justin Grant Wade as Steve Holt Richard Simmons as Himself
Season 1 episodes
November 2003 – June 2004 Pilot Top Banana Bringing Up Buster Key Decisions Visiting Ours Charity Drive My Mother, the Car In God We Trust Storming the Castle Pier Pressure Public Relations Marta Complex Beef Consommé Shock and Aww Staff Infection Missing Kitty Altar Egos Justice Is Blind Best Man for the Gob Whistler's Mother Not Without My Daughter Let 'Em Eat Cake
All Arrested Development episodes

"Bringing Up Buster" is the third episode of the American television series Arrested Development.

Plot

Michael is making cornballs for breakfast (a Bluth family tradition) in preparation for another tradition: the Sunday bike ride. However, George Michael is ambivalent about the plan. Gob comes in and announces he's had another fight with his girlfriend Marta; he asks if he can stay with Michael, but Michael declines.

When Tobias finds out that his daughter Maeby is auditioning for the school play, he assumes it is to get closer to him. In fact, Maeby hopes to be cast as the romantic lead alongside a boy named Steve Holt. George Michael is also auditioning for the play in the hopes of starring alongside his cousin Maeby. Maeby and Steve Holt get the lead roles, and George Michael, cast as the stand-in, is ready to quit, until he learns that on the days Steve Holt has football practice, George Michael as stand-in will be kissing Maeby during rehearsals.

Since Buster's post-graduate studies are on permanent hiatus due to reduced family funds, Lucille begins to resent her son's constant presence. She chides Michael for not spending more time with Buster, and drops Buster off to spend the rest of the day with him. Michael tries to adjust to less time with George Michael by spending more time with Buster, who begins to join in the family's venting about their mother. Maeby is startled when Tobias arrives at school: he is the play's new director. Tobias immediately criticizes the apparent lack of chemistry between George Michael (standing in for the play's lead, Steve Holt) and Maeby, but he won't let the scene continue long enough for them to kiss. Frustrated by her father's interference, Maeby quits. Tobias sees George Michael talking to Steve Holt, and concludes that George Michael is gay. Tobias gives George Michael Steve's role, and casts Steve in Maeby's former role. Frustrated by Tobias's direction and worried by the thought of kissing Steve Holt, George Michael quits the play; Tobias then casts Maeby as the lead male opposite Steve Holt as the lead female.

Over at Bluth Co., Lucille hears from Lindsay that Buster has been talking disparagingly about his mother. Lucille barges into the office to take Buster back home. She then advises Michael to hold tight to his son like she does with Buster; when Michael returns home, he finds a contrite George Michael ready to make cornballs with his father.

Episode notes

• The first three episodes in general earned the show a Red Light from the Parents Television Council (PTC), who took objections to the incest theme between George Michael and Maeby, the innuendos used such as "cornholing," "flamer," or Tobias's homosexual comments, and the common usage of "censoring" expletives with a bleep. However, many fans argue that the innuendos used on the show are fairly vague, and would not be understood by children who didn't already know those terms. Additionally, while the PTC acknowledges that "'bleeps' are scripted into the program," it referred to Buster's speech in this episode as being "censored by the network." In reality, the two times Buster cursed, he was actually reciting the alphabet.^{[citation needed]}
• On the next...: "Tobias gets a review of his Shakespeare play, and Buster is back where he belongs."

Cultural references

• The high school is putting on a production of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.
• Gob briefly plays a bit from Foreigner's "Cold as Ice" on the piano.
• The title, Bringing Up Buster, alludes to Bringing Up Baby, the 1938 screwball comedy starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant.

Callbacks/running jokes

• Cornballer - This is the first appearance of the Cornballer, which reappears several times throughout the series in both dialog and set dressing.
• Tobias trying to connect with Maeby - This is one of many instances where Tobias makes a misguided attempt to connect with his daughter.
• Tobias failing to get an acting job - At the beginning of the episode, Tobias says "When I was a psychiatrist, and this is before I became an actor..." Lindsay interrupts him with "Still not an actor," making it clear that Tobias doesn't qualify as an actor as he hasn't yet landed a gig.
• Steve Holt! - This is the first appearance of the character Steve Holt and his signature way of shouting his name while pumping both fists in the air.
• Tobias being gay - Tobias' sexuality is alluded to several times in this episode. (He tells George Michael and Maeby that they are "playing adults with fully formed libidos, not two young men playing grab-ass in the shower.")
• Tobias crying in the shower - In the "On The Next" clip, Tobias is shown crying in the shower after receiving a poor review in the school newspaper.
• Tobias giggle - Tobias giggles when he announces that he is the director of the school play, in the pilot episode he giggled after announcing his intention to become an actor.
• Buster's distractions - like in the pilot (when he was playing a drum that sounded like a dramatic score to the show), an off-screen noise interrupts Michael. The camera pans to Buster taking part in an activity that isn't quite appropriate for the context (here, he is building a bike as Michael holds a business conference).

Goofs

• The line "I would kiss before I spoke," which is used in the audition scene by George Michael and Steve Holt, is from As You Like It, not Much Ado About Nothing, the play they're supposed to be performing.

External links

• "Bringing Up Buster" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Bringing Up Buster" at TV.com
• "Bringing Up Buster" at The-OP.com