The cult classic sitcom Arrested Development ran for three critically acclaimed, but low rated seasons on Fox from 2003 to 2006. Two polarizing seasons have followed on Netflix, and that number increases to three if you count the odd choice to remix the poorly planned out fourth season into something meant to be more enjoyable to the remaining audience.
From its beginning, the series has chronicled the misadventures of the dysfunctional Bluth family. All members of the family are wealthy, spoiled, and unbelievably stupid, but acted with such perfect comedic timing and skill that they’re almost impossible to hate in any way.
Arguably one of the clearest standouts of the entire series, however, is Tony Hale’s Byron “Buster” Bluth. Neurotic to a fault and adorable in his innocence, Buster is the baby of the Bluth family, and the series’ emotional center. He also just so happens to have some of the best lines in the series, too.
“These are my awards, Mother. From army.”
Perhaps the most defining relationship that Buster has is the one with his mother, the overbearing Lucille. In the second season, the struggle of their back and forth relationship results in Buster enlisting in the Army. Of course, it’s all thanks to Lucille’s doing, but it becomes a point of pride for Buster, too, to show that he can make it.
But anyone who knows Buster could predict that this wouldn’t end well. Buster missed out on his ride to basic training because he was too distracted playing a claw machine game, where he won his “awards” from the Army - a seal for marksmanship, and a gorilla for sand racing. Or so he tells Lucille.
“I was made to understand that there would be grilled cheese sandwiches here.”
As the sweetest member of the Bluth family, Buster still manages to be pretty straightforward about his needs. But due to his childlike innocence and naivete, most of his needs can seem pretty simple to any outsiders.
Take, for example, a recurring quote motif that succinctly represents this. On multiple occasions, Buster is lured into relatively compromising situations with the promise of grilled cheese. And if he doesn’t see the grilled cheese he was promised, he has no qualms about complaining until he gets it.
“Now will someone please have the decency to punch me in the face?”
We’ve already talked about how open and honest Buster can be when he wants to be. But sometimes, his level of frankness is surprising - and, even, ill-timed. In the season one episode “Beef Consomme,” Buster’s brothers Michael and G.O.B. are fighting over a girl - a fight that soon turns physical.
Buster, apparently jealous of the opportunity to get in a fight and be a real rough and tumble guy like his brothers, tries his darnedest to get involved, even being so bold as to ask to be punched in the face.
“I don’t want no part of your tight a** country club, ya freak b****!”
On other occasions, Buster’s frank language is totally out of character and even alarming. One of the most surprising instances of this behavior can be found when he assumes the persona of the Bluth family puppet, Franklin Delano Bluth, and confronts his mother very openly.
Making the moment all the more hilarious, and the line resonate even more strongly, is the combination of the jazzy soundtrack used in the scene, and Buster’s own horrified reaction to Franklin Delano “speaking.”
“You lied to me! You said my father was my father, but my uncle is my father! My father is my uncle!”
The Bluth family is arguably one of the most messed up families in all of sitcom history. That’s precisely what makes Arrested Development work, after all. But one of the most hilarious and disturbing storylines that carries on throughout the series is the question of the identity of Buster’s biological father.
As it turns out, his biological father is not George Bluth, Sr., but Oscar George Bluth - George’s identical twin brother. Therefore, the man Buster thought was his uncle, is, in fact, his father.
“The army had half a day.”
Further reinforcing Buster’s lack of understanding of the adult world, and his commitment to the pursuit of training and enlisting in the Army, is his apparent belief that the Army works just like an elementary school would.
But making this innocent belief of his all the more hilarious is the fact that he expects other adults in the family to totally accept his explanation as to why he’s home, and not at basic training. Try as he might, Buster just could never really make it in the real world that way.
“That’s what you do when life hands you a chance to be with someone special.”
While Buster may be defined by his subservient relationship to his mother, Lucille, it turns out that she’s not the only Lucille who has his heart. One of Buster’s other most important relationships is with Lucille Bluth’s rival, Lucille Austero - or Lucille II.
“You just grab that brownish area by its points, and you don’t let go no matter what your mom says.”
Despite the considerable age gap between them, and the fact that Lucille II often treats Buster more like a son than anything else, the two wind up falling for one another, even if their first meeting occurred when Buster was lacking his glasses and unable to see her as anything other than a “brownish area.”
“Mom always taught us to curl up in a ball and remain motionless when confronted.”
As the baby of the Bluth family, it’s only natural that Buster would be less inclined toward the limelight than his other siblings and parents. But not only does Buster hate being the center of attention, he really hates receiving, well, any attention at all, as can be seen when he tries time and again to literally hide and blend in with the Bluth apartment.
But it seems like this may be a case of nurture superseding nature. Even if Buster is mild-mannered to begin with, Lucille’s childhood instructions of caution and confrontation avoidance seem to have really stuck with him.
“We have unlimited juice? This party is going to be off the hook!”
There’s only so many ways you can stress Buster’s childlike personality without outright calling him a child. But one of the traits that certainly makes him seem this way more than any others is his near addiction to juice boxes.
While most things intimidate Buster or upset him in some way, the boy can never get enough juice. Just having plenty of juice is enough to make or break a party for him - and, further, a little too much juice can turn him into a real party animal.
“I’M A MONSTER!”
One of the most defining parts of Buster’s character doesn’t come about until the series’ second season is almost over. After trying to enjoy himself in the ocean for the first time, Buster loses his hand in a freak seal attack, and as a result, he receives a hook for a prosthetic.
The identity crisis that comes about as a result of this change in his body leads to some truly off-color humor, including his assertion that he is now half-machine, likely to become romantically involved with the Bluth family Roomba, and, therefore, a monster.
