Characters / Arrested Development - One-Shot Characters

Tropes pertaining to the various One-Shot Characters of Arrested Development. Click here to return to the main index.

The Bluths | Recurring Characters | One-Shot Characters

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Appearing in Season 1

Johnny Bark

Johnny Bark ("Key Decisions"^note and a cameo in "Colony Collapse")

Played by: Clint Howard

Johnny Bark is a protestor who appears in "Key Decisions", protecting a tree that the Bluth family were to cut down. He is the father of Marky Bark, an important character in Season 4.

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• Celebrity Paradox: With Clint’s brother Ron Howard appearing in season 4 and 5. Ron does mentions that he and his brother watched the fake moon landing, though possibly because of this trope, he’s never mentioned by name. Clint also is absent from the Howard family barbecue in season 5.
• Killed Offscreen: Ambiguous. According to Marky, he died of "natural causes": being attacked by bees and then falling out of a tree. However, we later see him, "very much alive", in "Colony Collapse". Whether this chronologically took place before "Indian Takers", or whether Marky was mistaken or joking is not specified.

Jessie Bowers

Jessie Bowers ("Public Relations")

Played by: Jill Ritchie

"Race you to the top of the hill!"

A publicist whom Michael hires to work for the Bluth company, and starts dating at the same time. ^{Spoiler Information} When Michael asks her to take their relationship slowly to protect George Michael, she quits and goes on to manipulate George Michael and criticised Lindsay and Lucille in her newspaper article.

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• Best Served Cold: After Michael inadvertently breaks up with her, she enacts revenge by telling George Michael that he's preventing his father's happiness and portraying Lindsay and Lucille negatively in her article.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She tries to get revenge on the Bluth family just because Michael suggested taking things slowly. This involved telling George Michael that he was getting in the way of his father's life, and writing Lindsay off as a "combative, entitled princess" in the newspaper.
• Girl of the Week: She's Michael's crush in "Public Relations", and a relationship that doesn't last longer than that episode. She ends up revealing herself as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing and the episode's Monster of the Week.
• Monster of the Week: Of "Public Relations", after she reveals herself to be a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Lindsay and Lucille attempt to do this to her after reading her article, but Michael stops them. That is, until he hears what she did to George Michael, upon which he tells her that she's on her own.

Earl Milford

Earl Milford ("Public Relations")

Played by: Don Perry

"Children should be neither seen, nor heard."

The founder of the prestigious Milford school. ^{Spoiler Information} He appears in person later in "Public Relations", when he goes missing after participating in GOB's Aztec Tomb illusion, which leads to GOB being suspected for his possible kidnapping and/or murder. He later shows up in GOB's trunk, and promises GOB that he will be known as a hero for freeing him from the violent nursing home. However, The Stinger implies that he died before GOB could hold the press conference.

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• Big Sleep: According to GOB, "He's resting."
• Chekhov's Gunman: He's mentioned early on in the episode, only to becomes important later on.
• Child Hater: A firm believer that children should neither be seen nor heard.
• Faking the Dead: He used GOB's magic trick as an opportunity to escape the retirement home.
• Killed Off for Real: The Stinger implies that he passed away while in GOB's trunk.

Ira Gilligan

Ira Gilligan ("Best Man for the GOB")

Played by: Michael Hitchcock

"Let it ring."

Ira Gilligan is the Bluths' accountant who causes trouble for the business when he refuses to lie about a large sum of money he found was missing were he asked to testify. To stop this from becoming a problem, George plans to use GOB's supposed bachelor party to get him drunk and convince him that he has killed a stripper and force him to flee the country with GOB's honeymoon tickets. ^{Spoiler Information} The plan doesn't work due to Bix (one of the hot cops) making him the designated driver, and Buster drinking the fake blood, and he declares the he will testify against the Bluths. It later turns out that he was signatory to the accounts, making him the one to steal the money in the first place, and he uses it to flee to a tropical island with the stripper.

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• Accidental Misnaming: While he prefers to be called "Ira" over "Gilligan", both GOB and George ignore this fact.
  George: Gilligan has promised me that all this money will be safe in IRAs.
  Ira Gilligan: It’s Ira, sir.
  George: Oh, I’m sorry, Gilligan. Will be safe in Iras.
• Affably Evil: He is generally polite and is only seen as a threat to the business because he refuses to lie about money that went missing, and yet he has been stealing money from the Bluths for years.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: He was behind the missing money from the accounts.
• Karma Houdini: He gets away with stealing money from the Bluths for years, and ends up getting a Tropical Epilogue.
• Last-Name Basis: Much to his chagrin, both George and GOB refuse to address him by his first name.
• Sophisticated as Hell: "Well, the hell with you, sir."
• Tropical Epilogue: The last shot of him in the episode is him relaxing in a pool chair at a tropical island after fleeing the country with the stolen money.

Appearing in Season 2

Michael Moore

Michael Moore Lookalike ("The One Where Michael Leaves")

Played by: Mike Randalman

"Oh yeah. Would you enlist your son or daughter in the army?"

Showing up in the first episode of Season 2, Michael Moore sets in motion a major Season 2 storyline when his comment inspires Lucille to enlist Buster for the army. ^{Spoiler Information} In "Out on a Limb", it is revealed that it wasn't even Michael Moore at all, but a lookalike filming a sketch for Jimmy Kimmel Live!

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• Identical Stranger: To Michael Moore, as it turns out.
  Michael: First of all, it wasn't Michael Moore, it was a Michael Moore lookalike, and it wasn't in front of the whole country, it was for a bit... on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Doctor Stein

Doctor Frank Stein ("Sword of Destiny")

Played by: Dan Castellaneta

GOB: My middle finger and index finger are...
Dr. Stein: Switched! For the first time ever!

An overambitious doctor who is assigned to Michael's case when he lands himself in hospital in "Sword of Destiny". ^{Spoiler Information} He also operates on GOB's fingers, which he reattaches, but not without switching them around.

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• Mad Doctor: Seriously, the things he does to Michael and GOB... how was he not fired long ago?
• Meaningful Name: One of his trainees calls him Frank in The Stinger, revealing his full name to be Frank Stein.

Appearing in Season 3

Nellie

Nellie ("Family Ties")

Played by: Justine Bateman

Narrator: It wasn't a great story. Nellie was just a great listener. Most prostitutes are.

Nellie is a woman Michael believes is his long-lost older sister, Nellie Bluth, whose company account ("N. Bluth") George has been using for stashing away illegal money. She turns out to be a prostitute whom George was involved with back in the day, working for a mysterious pimp named "Frank".

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• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Subverted near the end of "Family Ties", when George realises that the money from the N. Bluth account, access to which Michael had granted to Nellie, was drained, and the two are convinced that she stole the money and ran.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: She ended up using the money in the "N. Bluth" account to pay the Bluth employees their overdue paychecks and get them new computers and equipment.
• Mistaken for Prostitute: Inverted: Michael doesn't realise that she's a prostitute for most of the episode.
• Really Gets Around: As a prostitute, this is her job. In the episode, she sleeps with GOB, George (in a flashback), and all of the Bluth company employees. In a subversion, however, they are all sequentially revealed to not have had sex with her at all, instead just ending up crying on the floor.
• Older Than They Look: Michael thinks she is his older sister, which would mean she was just a little older than him when they were growing up. However, it turns out she was his father's prostitute, so unless the flashback to George crying on the floor in front of her was much more recent than it is implied, it would seem she is much older than Michael.
• Red Herring: She isn't N. Bluth, nor is she related to the Bluths at all.
• Walking Spoiler: Knowing that Michael suspects she is his long lost sister spoils the fact that N. Bluth isn't Michael (or Nichael as it turns out), but another family member named Nellie, the main twist of "Fakin' It" (the episode preceding Nellie's first, and only, appearance).

Saddam Hussein Lookalikes

The Saddam Hussein Lookalikes ("Exit Strategy")

Al No' Mani, David Kavandi, James Evans and Larry Thomas

Several Saddam Hussein lookalikes found by Michael, GOB and Buster in the Iraq model home. ^{Spoiler Information} It's revealed in The Stinger of "Exit Strategy" that Achmed, the only named lookalike and the one with a distinctive scar, actually is the real Saddam Hussein, while a lookalike was tried for his crimes instead.

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• Affably Evil: Although they're working for Saddam Hussein, they seem like nice guys, with the exception of Achmed.
• Call-Back: In "For British Eyes Only", George claimed that he met Saddam Hussein under false pretences, and that he thought the man in the photo was the Soup Nazi. Come "Exit Strategy", and Achmed, one of the Saddam lookalikes, is played by Larry Thomas, the Soup Nazi's actor. What's more, the ending of the episode implies that he actually is the real Saddam Hussein.
• Distinguishing Mark: Achmed has a distinctive scar across his face, which is seen as a problem if he is to be impersonating Saddam Hussein.
  Saddam Hussein (Lookalike?): I'm NoScar! ...dot com!
• Foreshadowing: Throughout their appearance, there are many hints to Achmed being the real Saddam Hussein. When seen, Achmed is focussed intently on the trial being played on television, and Achmed also claims that he could do a better impression of Saddam than any of the others.
• Walking Spoilers: Their appearance is quite the shock, and their mere existence spoils a much earlier twist. The Reveal that Achmed is the real Saddam Hussein makes it even worse.

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