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At the end of each episode of Arrested Development, there is always a segment which is introduced by the narrator as "in the next episode of Arrested Development...", however the scenes shown during this segment very rarely actually appear in the next episode.

At first I thought that perhaps some of these scenes were cut out of the next episode during subsequent editing, but as the seasons progress it becomes apparent that very few of the scenes shown in this segment actually appear in the next episode.

What is going on? What is the purpose of introducing these plot elements in this way if they're not actually shown in the next episode?

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  • +1 Always wondered about these as well. Once got in a fight about it with a friend, actually!
    – stevvve
    Commented May 30, 2013 at 18:53
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    They're supposed to be humorous. That's all there is to it.
    – FredH
    Commented May 30, 2013 at 18:59

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It's part of the show's 4th-wall breaking. In pretty much every TV show, they'll show what will happen in the next episode as a teaser to get you to tune in during the next episode. Arrested Development subverts this by instead showing some absurd additional development of the plot lines in the current episode during the 'In the next episode' segment. They're purposefully not showing what will happen on the next episode, and instead using that time to tell additional jokes.

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  • There were one or two that actually did happen in the next episode (one that springs to mind is George Sr's line "doing the time of my life").
    – DisgruntledGoat
    Commented May 31, 2013 at 9:13
  • And Maggie Lizer "sniffing out" Tobias in her home.
    – Michael Itzoe
    Commented Jun 14, 2013 at 18:04
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    It's not only jokes, but these part inlcude some very important plot as well (e.g. when Buster "meets" the seal)
    – Markus Klein
    Commented Feb 9, 2014 at 9:47

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