# Spring Breakout > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Spring_Breakout > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Spring_Breakout.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Breakout > Source revision: 1335856136 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}} {{Infobox television episode | series = [Arrested Development](/source/Arrested_Development) | image = | caption = | season = 2 | episode = 17 | director = [Anthony Russo](/source/Russo_brothers) | writer = * Barbie Adler * [Abraham Higginbotham](/source/Abraham_Higginbotham) | photographer = Greg Harrington | editor = Richard Candib | production = 2AJD16 | airdate = {{Start date|2005|04|10}} | length = 22 minutes | guests = * [Zach Braff](/source/Zach_Braff) as [Phillip Litt](/source/List_of_Arrested_Development_characters) * [Dick Van Patten](/source/Dick_Van_Patten) as Cal Cullen * [Jeff Garlin](/source/Jeff_Garlin) as [Mort Meyers](/source/List_of_Arrested_Development_characters) * [Judy Greer](/source/Judy_Greer) as [Kitty Sanchez](/source/List_of_Arrested_Development_characters) | prev = [Meat the Veals](/source/Meat_the_Veals) | next = [Righteous Brothers](/source/Righteous_Brothers_(Arrested_Development)) | season_article = Arrested Development season 2 | episode_list = List of Arrested Development episodes }} "'''Spring Breakout'''" is the seventeenth episode of the [second season](/source/Arrested_Development_season_2) of the American television [satirical](/source/Satire) [sitcom](/source/sitcom) ''[Arrested Development](/source/Arrested_Development)''. It is the 39th overall episode of the series, and was written by supervising producer Barbie Adler and executive story editor [Abraham Higginbotham](/source/Abraham_Higginbotham), and directed by [Anthony Russo](/source/Russo_brothers). It originally aired on [Fox](/source/Fox_Broadcasting_Company) on April 10, 2005. The series, narrated by [Ron Howard](/source/Ron_Howard), follows the Bluths, a formerly wealthy, [dysfunctional family](/source/dysfunctional_family), who made their money from property development. The Bluth family consists of [Michael](/source/Michael_Bluth), his twin sister [Lindsay](/source/List_of_Arrested_Development_characters), his older brother [Gob](/source/List_of_Arrested_Development_characters), his younger brother [Buster](/source/List_of_Arrested_Development_characters), their mother [Lucille](/source/Lucille_Bluth) and father [George Sr.](/source/List_of_Arrested_Development_characters), as well as Michael's son [George Michael](/source/List_of_Arrested_Development_characters), and Lindsay and her husband [Tobias](/source/List_of_Arrested_Development_characters)' daughter [Maeby](/source/List_of_Arrested_Development_characters). In the episode, Michael checks Lucille into rehab, but she challenges Kitty to a drinking contest with George Sr. as the prize. == Plot == [Michael](/source/Michael_Bluth) ([Jason Bateman](/source/Jason_Bateman)) is leading the company's meeting with landowner Cal Cullen ([Dick Van Patten](/source/Dick_Van_Patten)) when [Lucille](/source/Lucille_Bluth) ([Jessica Walter](/source/Jessica_Walter)) walks in drunk, having taken [Buster](/source/Byron_%22Buster%22_Bluth)'s ([Tony Hale](/source/Tony_Hale)) pain medication for a hangover and then misreading an alcohol warning as an alcohol suggestion. Cullen refuses to do business with the Bluths, so Michael suggests to [Lindsay](/source/Lindsay_F%C3%BCnke) ([Portia de Rossi](/source/Portia_de_Rossi)) that they hold an [intervention](/source/Intervention_(counseling)) for Lucille, but [Gob](/source/Gob_Bluth) suggests [rehab](/source/Drug_rehabilitation) instead. [Tobias](/source/List_of_Arrested_Development_characters) ([David Cross](/source/David_Cross)) shows up to complain about being panned for his performance as George Sr in ''Scandalmakers'', while at the movie studio, [Maeby](/source/Maeby_F%C3%BCnke) ([Alia Shawkat](/source/Alia_Shawkat)) is ordered to find out how teenagers actually talk. Knowing that Lucille won't go to rehab willingly, Michael offers her a trip to a spa, but upon arriving, Lucille realizes that she is actually at a rehab facility and tries to flee, only to be subdued by the guards. [Kitty Sanchez](/source/Kitty_Sanchez) ([Judy Greer](/source/Judy_Greer)) finds [George Sr.](/source/George_Bluth_Sr.) ([Jeffrey Tambor](/source/Jeffrey_Tambor)) in the attic and kidnaps him. Kitty takes George Sr. to a [motel](/source/motel) and screams that he owes her a child, while Buster, unable to sleep, begins to drink from a large box of wine, mistaking it for a giant juicebox. Michael meets with Cal Cullen again and wins him over, but Kitty interrupts, threatening to bring the company down unless Lucille meets her in a bar. Gob uses [Oscar](/source/Oscar_Bluth) (Tambor) to distract the guards so that they can abduct Lucille. Kitty offers to trade her evidence for a sperm sample from George Sr., and Lucille puts it up to a drinking contest. Gob finds a cooler in the banana stand freezer that looks exactly like the evidence cooler, and he and Michael plan to switch it. Maeby is frustrated by the immaturity of the teenagers at the banana stand, while [Phillip Litt](/source/List_of_Arrested_Development_characters) ([Zach Braff](/source/Zach_Braff)), creator of ''Girls With Low Self-Esteem'', accuses Lindsay of being ashamed of her body, so Tobias pulls down Litt's pants, exposing him as a [never nude](/source/Gymnophobia). Gob, excited at the thought of spring break, performs a wolf call in the hotel hallway, which inadvertently sets off a response by George Sr., allowing them to find his room. Gob tries to vomit up the handcuff key, while Michael forges the signature of [Saddam Hussein](/source/Saddam_Hussein) on the decoy cooler, promising to turn it in to the police. George Sr. tells Michael to turn it in, saying that the evidence exonerates him. George Michael finds Maeby talking to a vapid boy, saying that she is like a "delicate flower" and that he doesn't "want her to be plucked by someone who doesn't even care that [she is] blossoming." Maeby says that this is just what she wanted to hear (as dialogue for her movie) and kisses George Michael on the cheek. Unbeknownst to her, this reignites George Michael's feelings for her and he calls up [Ann](/source/Ann_Veal) ([Mae Whitman](/source/Mae_Whitman)), intending to dump her. Lucille wins the drinking contest despite drinking extra between rounds, and Gob regains his self-confidence after the successful rescue of George Sr., but then falls into the pool while holding the cooler, destroying the exonerating evidence. === On the next ''Arrested Development''... === When Michael gets home, he finds out from Lucille that the decoy cooler that they left in Kitty's motel room contained a sperm sample from George Sr. == Production == "Spring Breakout" was directed by [Anthony Russo](/source/Russo_brothers), and written by supervising producer Barbie Adler and executive story editor [Abraham Higginbotham](/source/Abraham_Higginbotham). It was Russo's fifth and final directing credit, Alder's seventh and final writing credit and Higginbotham's fifth and final writing credit.{{Cite web |title=Arrested Development |url=https://directories.wga.org/project/192692/arrested-development/ |access-date=July 8, 2024 |website=directories.wga.org}} It was the fifteenth episode of the [season](/source/Arrested_Development_season_2) to be filmed.{{Cite web |date=October 30, 2011 |title=20th Century Fox - Fox In Flight |url=http://www.foxinflight.com/tv/8/ |access-date=July 8, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111030035137/http://www.foxinflight.com/tv/8/ |archive-date=October 30, 2011 }} According to [Jessica Walter](/source/Jessica_Walter), the chicken dance scene between Gob, Lucille, and George Sr. was not scripted, and there were no directions on how to do the dance. They had to each come up with their own dance, and Walter's first instinct was to flap her arms around, taking note that Lucille might possibly be drunk in the episode while coming up with the dance; adding onto the drunk performance, she added Lucille's "coddle doodle doo" line. To prepare for the scene, Walter practiced her dance in front of her dressing room mirror.{{Cite web |last=Martin |first=Denise |date=March 25, 2021 |title=Jessica Walter on 5 Classic Lucille Bluth GIFs |url=https://www.vulture.com/2013/03/arrested-development-jessica-walter-talks-about-5-classic-lucille-bluth-gifs.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250116030901/https://www.vulture.com/2013/03/arrested-development-jessica-walter-talks-about-5-classic-lucille-bluth-gifs.html |archive-date=January 16, 2025 |access-date=October 3, 2025 |website=[Vulture](/source/Vulture_(website)) |language=en}} == Reception == === Viewers === In the United States, the episode was watched by 5.19 million viewers on its original broadcast.{{Cite web |date=December 21, 2008 |title=ABC Medianet |url=http://abcmedianet.com/web/dnr/dispDNR.aspx?id=041205_05 |access-date=July 21, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081221203540/http://abcmedianet.com/web/dnr/dispDNR.aspx?id=041205_05 |archive-date=December 21, 2008 |url-status=live}} === Critical reception === ''[The A.V. Club](/source/The_A.V._Club)'' writer Noel Murray commented how the episode "continues the meta moves of "[Sword Of Destiny](/source/Sword_of_Destiny_(Arrested_Development))"".{{Cite web |title=Arrested Development: "Spring Breakout"/"Righteous Brothers" |url=https://www.avclub.com/arrested-development-spring-breakout-righteous-brot-1798173947 |access-date=July 21, 2024 |website=AV Club |language=en-US}} Brian Tallerico from ''[Vulture](/source/Vulture_(website))'' ranked the episode 41st out of the whole series, calling it "a funny episode, but a lot of the jokes feel like echoes of funnier ones from a classic season-one installment."{{Cite web |last=Tallerico |first=Brian |date=March 18, 2019 |title=Every Episode of Arrested Development, Ranked |url=https://www.vulture.com/article/arrested-development-every-episode-ranked-worst-to-best.html |access-date=July 7, 2024 |website=Vulture |language=en}} == References == {{Reflist}} == External links == * {{IMDb episode|0515245}} {{Arrested Development}} Category:2005 American television episodes Category:Arrested Development season 2 episodes Category:Television episodes written by Abraham Higginbotham Category:Television episodes directed by Anthony and Joe Russo --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Spring Breakout](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Breakout) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Breakout?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.