The Bluths need to raise money to avoid Bob Loblaw's wrath, and decide to hold a donation event. To try and gain sympathy, Lindsay starts working around the house but her inexperience worries George Michael into cleaning after her and making the others suspect he has OCD (or "The OC disorder"), GOB becomes a waiter as a joke that goes nowhere and stays on for the tips, and the family recruit Andy Richter to appear at the event. In repsonse to an expulsion letter, Tobias tries to both spend time AND punish Maeby, and George Michael is put into her academically liberal school (and being taught by one of Richter's quintuplet brothers). Mix-ups, double meanings, and "situations clear cut for comedy" occur, of couse.

The episode was a lot of good and bad and slightly paled in comparison the rest of the series. It was funny, and yet a bit too simple in the jokes. It was satirical of the television industry, and yet didn't go too deep. And, overall, it felt slightly hollow whenever the show wasn't going meta on us. You can tell by the small things that this would've done much better a season or two ago, there's a distinct feeling that, say, Tobias' dialogue would've been written much more tongue-in-cheek. While the plot was a big reference to their seemingly imminent cancellation, and the references kept coming, the episode was different from the cut-order episode in that it never felt as if the plot was really revolving around the meta-reference. Everyone more or less floats around slightly away from the plot between the cold opening and the third act (where the reappearance of Tony Wonder (Ben Stiller) and Phillip Litt (Zach Braff) prove especially dissapointing when you realize they have no lines. Neither do the references to desperation for ratings, as Ron Howard's begging to inform friends of the show, the 3D gags, the death of a character and the Live moment all have a tacked on feeling. Whether that was the point, implying that such ratings grabs on other shows are usually worthless to plot as they are here, is lost, and you just know that GOB just threw a tomato in 3 seconds of 3D, and that was the joke. Nothing comes of it, no twists in the storyline, and you see why it feels that it's all too simple and straight-forward for Arrested Development's style, as if (conspiracy theory!) they really were hoping for higher ratings and didn't want to scare off new audiences by elaboarating on the inside jokes. Same with the Home Builders Organization/show time joke.
"Oh, no, the HBO won't want us. So, what now?"
"Well, I think it's show time."
The joke is funny as it stands on its' own, but again doesn't have the feeling that it's entangled within the show and the events. Who is this HBO? An appearance by the actual Home Builders Organization is the kind of thing you'd expect if this was a season one or two episode. Maybe that's the price of the cut season, sacrificing some development of the show's background. Hopefully there will be more significance and many of these moments will be recalled upon in the last episodes of the season.

Yet, of course, this is all negative criticism on what is still one of the best shows on the air. In the end, it's the missed potential of more tweaked dialogue, of the meta-references feeling more involved in the plot, and that the guests, even Andy Richter, could've brought more than their "This is a joke about TV shows reaching for guest stars" purpose, especially since they've established characters within the show that it would've been great to get some character development from. This missed potential could kill the show if it really matters that much to you...overall, it nagged at me as I wished I could score this above 9.0, where I'd rate most episodes.