Herman Cain. Ron Howard In addition to voicing The Narrator, Ron Howard has appeared on the show as himself several times. Howard is among the individuals in Maeby's contact list to whom George Michael sends an invitation to her birthday. In his first on-screen appearance at the end of the final episode of season 3, Howard informs Maeby, with a hint of irony, that her life story would be better off being made into a movie as opposed to a TV series. Howard has a more substantial role in season four, in which he hires Michael to help produce a fictional movie based on the Bluths' story. Dr. Norman, China Garden and Heartfire Dr. Norman, China Garden and Heartfire, introduced in season 4, are friends of Oscar Bluth's who live with him on a commune at the U.S./Mexico border. George Sr. meets them while running his "sweat and squeeze" scam with Oscar. Dr. Norman (John Slattery) is a disgraced anesthesiologist who often gives advice under the influence of ether. Trying to help George Sr. with his impotence, he advises him to get on an MRI machine and "ride it to climax", which George interprets to mean masturbate. Norman later denies ever giving such advice, saying it's something he'd say "with my thinking cap on." China Garden (Karen Maruyama) is Dr. Norman's girlfriend, whom he met via a prison pen-pal program. She is loud and has a heavy accent. Her mother, Olive Garden, is in prison with Lucille. Heartfire (Mary Lynn Rajskub) is a mute spiritualist who communicates telepathically through her thoughts, though no one ever interprets her thoughts correctly or hears her. Her thoughts are seen as floating subtitles. Fictional characters within Arrested Development Franklin Delano Bluth Franklin Delano Bluth is Gob's black puppet. The character is first introduced in the season 2 episode "Meat the Veals", in a flashback to a Bluth family gathering years before. In an effort to hip-up his act, Gob briefly introduced the puppet in a poorly executed ventriloquist act (Gob's mouth moves every time Franklin speaks, even when Gob abandons actual ventriloquism in favor of an audio recorder hidden in Franklin's mouth). Franklin is a fiery-tempered, adulterous, obscenity-spewing, street-wise puppet. Gob discarded Franklin up in the attic, most likely due to the severe beating Gob received in a night club in Torrance after performing a show with Franklin. During "Meat the Veals", Gob digs