For Better or Werts : TV Worth Watching

WATCH THIS: 'Arrested Development' marathon

So now we hear there'll be an Arrested Development feature film. Which only makes us want to revisit the fun of Fox' dysfunctional family-com more than ever. Which we get the chance to do on G4 all Thanksgiving Day.

Arrested Development kicks off its 11-hour marathon Thursday at 9 a.m. ET on G4 with the 2003 pilot, setting up the crazed Bluth family -- level-headed son Jason Bateman, loopy brothers Will Arnett and Tony Hale, simple-minded sis Portia de Rossi, dorkoid brother-in-law David Cross, scheming dad Jeffrey Tambor, alcohol-fueled mom Jessica Walter, and assorted hangers-on. Over three unfortunately low-rated seasons, their ranks would swell to include Liza Minnelli, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Henry Winkler, Charlize Theron and many others.

And let's not forget producer Ron Howard's uncredited narration, which helped bridge all the cutaways, flashbacks and sudden shifts in perspective that made this comedy all the more effective, but seemed to confuse viewers who might have arrived expecting a conventional sitcom.

Conventional was definitely not the word for creator Mitch Hurwitz' playful concoction, which even made fun of its time slot competition and its own product placement. Watch and wallow, too, online with Hulu or via extras-crammed DVDs.

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Diane Werts has been glued to the tube since she can remember, growing up in a household where the TV came on first thing in the morning and stayed on till bedtime and beyond. She worked for the USA Film Festival, then for The Dallas Morning News writing about everything from Shakespeare to macrame art to rock music (and has the hearing loss to prove it). She moved to New York's Newsday to edit their glossy TV magazine, then returned to writing about television, specializing in its stranger permutations. She's a past president of the Television Critics Association.

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