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Faced with the prospect that none of the shows that they're currently working on for their sweeps-yanked, reduced-order critical darling may ever air, the Arrested Development gang is coping by getting self-referential. Variety reports that an upcoming show (subtly named for the online campaign to rescue the series from cancellation) goes balls-out-of-the-bottom-of-Tobias'-Daisy-Dukes for the meta:

Seg, dubbed "S.O.B.s" — for "Save Our Bluths" — finds the show's Bluth family fighting to save their fictional construction company. They decide to mount a big event — "Some kind of 'Save Our Bluths' type thing," as George Bluth Sr. says in the script for the episode. [...]

In one scene, Jason Bateman's character, Michael, notes, "Our backs are against the wall. ... It's just hard for me to accept that it's really come to begging."

There's also a conversation about whether the Home Builders Organization — HBO — might be willing to save the Bluths. When that idea is nixed, George Sr. says, "I guess it's Showtime. We'll put on some kind of show at the dinner." [...]

"We've had plenty of chances," Bateman's character says. "Maybe the Bluths just aren't worth saving. Maybe we're just not that likeable. Who'd want to spend a half-hour with us if they didn't have to?"

Hopefully, the "Home Builders Organization" will reverse its aversion to picking up someone else's sloppy seconds, because ever since the profound psychic scars carved into our brains by Fat Actress, we don't think we can subscribe to Showtime without triggering a paralyzing vomiting fit. Otherwise, all we're going to get are those "Bonus Unaired Episodes!" inevitably trumpeted on the third season DVD box.