The anticipation surrounding the upcoming fourth season of Arrested Development is at fever pitch and yesterday (April 4) the good people at Netflix attempted to ease our hyperactive excitement by announcing the airing date of the long-awaited return of the Bluths, on Sunday, 26 May. Just like they did with their first attempt at original programming with House of Cards, the online movie and TV show provider will make all 15 episodes of the show available to stream on May 26, so you can watch them all in one marathon sitting, that is, unless you're chicken of course.

The show will be made available to watch simultaneously across each of Netflix regional platforms, so Australian fans can watch the show as soon as the show becomes available to their American counterparts. Executive producer and show creator Mitchell Hurwitz also announced on Thursday that their will be bonus episode also being released at some point to go with the initially promised 14, with Hurwitz joking in his press release that Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos would be "immensely disappointed" with the show.

Jason Bateman
Jason Bateman and co. will return on May 26th!

If all this information hasn't made you do this already, you may find that you just blue yourself after finding out all the confirmed guests for the show. As well as the return of hapless attorney Barry Zuckerkorn (Henry Winkler) and the much more dependable Bob Loblaw (Scott Baio) as well as the rumoured return of Lucille Austero (Liza Minnelli), Kristen Wiig, Seth Rogen and Mad Men's John Slattery have all been confirmed as special guests for the upcoming series.

Hurwitz has repeatedly said that the episodes are to act as a prequel to a movie, although no deal for an Arrested Development film has been announced as of yet. Also, he recently told New York magazine that he would be open to making several more seasons of the show. Let's hope he doesn't make a huge mistake by taking the show past it's sell-by.