Versatile said:
It's really hard to know where Arrested Development was going. The third season was a mess, but it also was hilarious. Of course it was built on the premise of the show ending, so who knows where they would have gone otherwise. The first season spent a lot of time developing the characters and wasn't that funny, though I know we agree that most comedies struggle in the first season. The second season was brilliant. That's probably more along the line of what they would have done over the course of a full run.
I still think Seinfeld is funnier than anything ever, though. But I'm exceedingly neurotic.
Have you watched the third season twice? Because I thought it was a mess the first time, and now I think it's ****ing brilliant. Yeah, it got a little to meta at times, but that's part of its brilliance. MR F and The Ocean Walker are two of my favorite episodes of comedy. Not-A-***** is great. Family Ties (with Justine Bateman) is so ******* hilarious in the way that real life Bateman brother and sister almost bone, paralleling George Michael's forbidden lust for Maeby. It even has Bob Loblaw's Law Blog. I mean, C'mon!
Barry Zuckerkorn and I object that Season 1 isn't as funny. I think it's one of the best debut seasons of any comedy ever. In Season 1, you get Key Decisions, Pier Pressure (probably the perfect AD episode), Carl Weathers' episode, Justice is Blind, Zuckercorn jumping the shark, the Hermano episode, etc.