nprfreshair:

Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz tells Terry Gross about casting Ron Howard as the show’s narrator:

If I had one brilliant idea on the show it was casting Ron Howard as the narrator, because at the time I think he wanted to shepherd the show and move on with his life and I wanted to keep him around. He’s such a brilliant guy. He fights for things he believes in. He was the star, in a way, going in. I wasn’t doing a show with a big known quantity, like Michael J. Fox, for instance. I was doing a show where the producer was the star, so I wanted to keep him around. I suddenly realized that this is the most American, trustworthy voice that I could possibly think of. This voice, these rhythms have been in our heads for 40 years. He speaks in this Midwestern, trustworthy [voice]. … You suddenly believe what the narrator says. He kept saying, ‘I’ll do it for the pilot but you’ll find somebody else.’ And I kept saying, ‘I don’t understand why you’re not the voice of Honda, or something else that wants credibility.’