Imagine Television, Katie O'Connell, a senior vice president, and two writers, including Mitchell Hurwitz. In light of recent corporate accounting scandals, such as Enron and Adelphia, Hurwitz suggested a story about a "riches to rags" family. Howard and Imagine were immediately interested in using this idea, and signed Hurwitz on to write the show. The idea was pitched and sold in the fall of 2002. Over the next few months, Hurwitz developed the characters and plot to the series. The pilot script was submitted in January 2003, and filmed in March 2003. It was submitted in late April, and added to the Fox fall schedule in May. Tony Hale, who plays Buster, recalled that "we didn't really improv that much, because we knew [Mitchell Hurwitz] had a specific way he wanted it done". Casting The most difficult part for casting the series involved finding people who would be believable as a family. Alia Shawkat was the first person cast. Michael Cera, Tony Hale, and Jessica Walter were cast from video tapes and flown in to audition for Fox. Jason Bateman and Portia de Rossi both read and auditioned for the network and were immediately chosen. The character of Gob was the most challenging to cast. When Will Arnett auditioned, he depicted the character with a "macho" streak different from expectations; he was chosen immediately. The characters of Tobias and George Sr. were originally going to have minor roles, but David Cross's and Jeffrey Tambor's portrayals mixed well with the rest of the characters, and they were given more significant parts. Ron Howard, the executive producer, provided the narration for the initial pilot but meshed so well with the tone of the program that the decision was made to stick with his voice. Howard also aided in the casting of "Lucille 2"; the producers told him that their dream actress for the role would be Liza Minnelli but assumed nobody of her stature would take the part. However, she agreed when Ron Howard asked her himself, because they were old friends; she had been his babysitter when he was a child and she was a teen. Reception Critical reception The New York Times critic Alessandra Stanley said that comparisons to The Royal Tenenbaums were unfair, noting that Arrested Development dropped the "highbrow precociousness" of that film. She praised the "dry, deadpan tone" and "offbeat satire", saying that the "humor lies in