Today in TV History: Liza Minnelli Made Her Unsteady Debut on ‘Arrested Development’

Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone. 

IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: November 23, 2003

PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Arrested Development, “Key Decisions” (Season 1, Episode 4). [Watch on Netflix]

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT:  Arrested Development is one of the great examples of TV shows that emerged from the womb fully formed. The show that existed in its pilot episode is the show as it was intended to be. The family dynamics of the Bluths were all there from the break, and no character had to evolve in order to become what we best remember. Which isn’t to say that the show had nowhere to grow from its pilot. And so, in episode 4, we got the debut of arguably the show’s most brilliant side character: Lucille Austero, played by Oscar-winner and entertainer extraordinaire Liza Minnelli.

Lucille Austero — of Lucille 2 as she’d become known — was set up as Lucille Bluth’s (Jessica Walter) bête noire. The two shared a frenemy relationship that was almost entirely enemy, with a very thin veneer of rich-lady propriety that insisted they keep up the barest glimmer of appearances. The Lucille’s shared animosity is best seen in their very first meeting.

By the time AD brought her on, Minnelli was far from the regularly working actress she’d once been. But there’s no rust on her in this episode. Far more than just a celebrity cameo, Minelli was doing superb work, both verbally and with Lucille 2’s debilitating bouts of vertigo.

[You can watch the “Key Decisions” episode of Arrested Development on Netflix]

Joe Reid (@joereid) is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn. You can find him leaving flowers for Mrs. Landingham at the corner of 18th and Potomac.