When “Arrested Development” creator Mitch Hurwitz first had the idea to involve the Blue Man Group in his show, he had only George Bluth Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor) in mind. In a 2013 interview with Vulture, Hurwitz recalled hearing from the show’s composer about a Blue Man Group audition ad. “And I said, ‘That would be a funny way for George Sr. to escape something. Because he kind of looks like a Blue Man, if you paint him blue. That got a big laugh in the room,” Hurwitz said. He made the comment during the production of Season 1, which ended with George Sr. breaking out of prison.
Although George Sr. indeed disguises himself as a Blue Man while on the run again in the Season 2 finale, most of the show’s Blue Man Group jokes revolve around Tobias (David Cross). “By the time we came back from hiatus I transformed [the storyline] into Tobias’ pathetic effort at becoming a known actor,” Hurwitz said. Tobias spends much of Season 2 painting his whole body blue, unaware that the Blue Man Group actors only paint their faces and use a blue unitard to cover the rest of their bodies. “Arrested Development” was famous for its sheer number of great running gags, and Tobias leaving tracks of blue paint everywhere he went was one of fans’ favorites.
The real Blue Man Group performers helped shape the storyline
“We worked with the guys in Blue Man Group, too, and they were great,” Mitch Hurwitz revealed in the same Vulture interview. “They did say to us, ‘The only thing is, we don’t really want people to know that Blue Men are people.’ And they said it with a laugh, but they also added, ‘We don’t want people to just think we’re actors.'” Honoring that wish, “Arrested Development” characterized the members of the Blue Man Group as people who remain mute even when they’re not performing.
For Hurwitz, this depiction helped emphasize how much of a “misguided” career choice joining the troupe is for Tobias, who always tries to act in a boisterous, self-aggrandizing way. While Tobias wants this gig to be the first step on his journey to Hollywood stardom, the Blue Men simply “want it to be anonymous,” Hurwitz said.
The career of struggling actor Tobias never takes off, not even in the show’s Netflix revival seasons, and his season-long attempt to join a Blue Man Group is a fan-favorite, oft-quoted storyline. It was also the Blue Man Group members’ idea that Tobias be repeatedly rejected by the troupe. “They asked, ‘What if Tobias just wants to be one? What if he just auditions?'” Hurwitz recalled. “And I thought that was even funnier. … That worked for them and it was actually better for us.”
