It’s official: the Bluths are coming back to television… sort of. In a huge move, the streaming movie rental giant Netflix has stolen Arrested Development away from Fox and even pay TV networks like Showtime who were also trying to land the rights to air the new season of the show. The cult comedy will return in the first half of 2013 with a fourth season, and the new episodes will be exclusively available to Netflix subscribers. The plan, as previously rumoured, is for the fourth season to lead into a feature film, although details are still a bit murky on that front. The new season is expected to be a 10 episode run and will be produced by Imagine Television and 20th Century Fox Television. The folks over at Fox took this opportunity to toot their own horn a little:

Netflix’s bold entrance into original programming presents an exciting new opportunity for our two companies… Bringing a classic show back to production on new episodes exclusively for Netflix customers is a game changer, and illustrates the incredible potential the new digital landscape affords great content providers like 20th Century Fox Television and Imagine.

“We build brands at this studio which are so distinctive that audiences still clamor for them years after they go off the air. Arrested Development is a great example of that—it has stood the test of time. This innovative deal with Netflix represents a new business model that is extremely exciting and opens the door for a wide range of new collaborations.”

I find it funny that they are taking credit for “building the brand” when they are also the ones who canceled the show. For that very reason, it seems only appropriate that Mitch Hurwitz should take Arrested Development to an online streaming service like Netflix, since the internet is where fan interest has fluorished and kept the show alive over the last few years. It’s not the first step Netflix has taken towards original content either; they picked up David Fincher’s House of Cards series earlier this year and they are also pursuing Orange is the New Black, the new series from Weeds creator Jenji Kohan. So what do you think, is this deal really a “game changer” as they have so boldly proclaimed? And more importantly, will Arrested Development be even more successful now than when it originally aired on Fox?