By now you’ve heard the great news: Arrested Development is coming back. We have Netflix to thank for the returin of one of the funniest shows to grace our TV screens in a long time and that day of return is fast approaching.

To get things started off on the right foot, there’s a brand new teaser for the new, 15-episode, season of the show. In it you’ll see the entire Bluth family is back (as well as a host of other famous faces) and still, thank goodness, just as quirky and funny as ever.

As with House of Cards, Netflix will release all of the new episodes simultaneously on May 26. In the meantime, check out the teaser after the break.

Many TV series deserve to be canceled. Some don’t resonate with audiences or have unappealing characters or a ridiculous premise. Or, they just plain suck. Arrested Development is not one of those series.

Fortunately, even though it was initially canceled by Fox, the series has found a new lease on life at Netflix. And now, that lease is about to pay off for fans as Netflix has official announced the premiere date of Sunday, May 26th for all-new episodes of the show.

But wait, there’s more. Not only has the official premiere date been announced, Netflix has also decided to increase the number of episodes (which had started at 10 and was raised to 14 in January) to a new number: 15. All episodes of the new season will be available simultaneously on launch day, which is the same thing Netflix did with House of Cards.

“Arrested Development is now widely viewed as one of the top TV comedies of all time and Mitch Hurwitz is bringing it to Netflix in a brand new way, crafted for the on-demand generation that has come to discover the show in the years since it last appeared on TV,” said Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer for Netflix. “The highly anticipated return of this show is sure to make history all over again.”

Said Hurwitz, “Ted said that? Wow. Well don’t print this obviously, but he’s going to be immensely disappointed”. He then added that “in truth we are doing something very ambitious that can only be done with Netflix as partners and on their platform. Finally my simple wish for the show is coming true: that it be broadcast every second around the clock to every television, computer or mobile device in existence.”

I sense an Arrested Development binge session coming soon. Can’t Wait.

There is new Arrested Development coming, it is safe to say the world has moved past jubilant bewilderment and now are fully engaged in eager anticipation. With the new season debuting on Netflix in the spring we are starting to enter the advanced promotion corridor that gives us gems like this.

Entertainment Weekly has a couple of cast photos to promote the upcoming season and they are at least two-thirds as funny as the show itself, which is a complement if you know the hilarity the show reaches. The publicity pics are of the family Bluth decked out in some very dapper duds. With the popularity of shows like The Tudors and The Borgias, maybe they producers are hedging their bets and leaving open the possibility of resurrecting the show back in time should the next season under perform*.

The cast looks great, and it is great to see them all together again in a context that is not lamenting its premature cancellation. You can take a look at the full images after the jump.

Arrested Development is one of those series not really appreciated in its time. When it was on the air originally, it had rather low ratings and was cancelled by Fox after three seasons. It was a great show but sadly, a lot of people just didn’t “get it.”

Since its original run, the show has enjoyed newfound success in reruns as well as on DVD and Netflix and has attained cult status among those who appreciate great TV. There’s also been talk of a movie version of the series for years as well and now it seems those plans are finally coming to fruition.

But wait, there’s more. According to reports the show’s creator, Mitch Hurtwitz, plans to bring the Emmy-winning series back to television for 9 or 10 episodes before making movie. That’s right, a new series and a movie. Awesome.

Hurwitz didn’t say where the potential series would air but reportedly the two front runners are Netflix, which is looking for original programming, and Showtime, whose new entertainment president David Nevins used to work at Imagine TV and served as an executive producer on the original series.

Original series star Jason Bateman also confirmed the news on Twitter. “It’s true,” he posted. “We will do 10 episodes and the movie. Probably shoot them all together next summer for a release in early ’13. VERY excited!”

Pretty sure he’s not the only one.

In the first installment of TV Digest: Canceled, I talked about shows such as Moonlight, Jerico and Studio 60 that were gone too soon. This time I’ve got more shows that were canceled way before their time, and are a testament to both how amazing television can be but also how nearsighted executives can be when making the decision to cancel a show.

While these shows may no longer grace our television sets with shiny, fresh new episodes, they live on in our hearts and on our DVD shelves. These are what I consider to be the most beloved canceled TV shows of our time.

Arrested Development

Produced by brilliant filmmaker Ron Howard and starring a slew of incredible actors, Arrested Development ran for three seasons from 2003-2006. Shot in a documentary style fashion, like The Office, the show is about the wealthy but seriously crazy Bluth family after their father gets arrested and their company faces bankruptcy.

Oldest son Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) is the glue that holds everyone together while siblings Gob (Will Arnett), Lindsay (Portia de Rossi) and her husband Tobias (David Cross), and Buster (Tony Hale) do their best to make a mess of things. I really can’t say enough about how good this show was.

Other than the incredible casting, this show has some of the best writing and comedic timing I’ve ever seen on television. I have watched all three seasons multiple times and I can watch an episode now and still find something brand new to laugh about, because of how well the writers reference old jokes and spin new ones in their wake.

But the show also can have these incredibly heartfelt moments, in between the insanity, that remind us how important it is to be a family despite how much money you have in the bank. And as the economy continues its slump, this crazy family in the midst of financial turmoil is looking far less eccentric and just plain average. As this show ages it becomes more and more relevant, and it becomes clearer and clearer just how great it is.

Despite all that, as well as numerous Emmy nominations and wins, the show was canceled. Luckily we’ll see more of the Bluth family soon, in a feature length movie that begins shooting this year.