Apparently, the group wasn’t sure you’d remember. Or at least, your memory would be so fuzzy that you might mistake a sitcom about a dysfunctional, formerly wealthy white family in Newport Beach for an Atlanta-based, alternative hip-hop group full of Black musicians.
It didn’t matter to the music group’s leader, Speech, that the common phrase “arrested development” goes back more than 200 years, used to describe stunted physical and/or mental health. “The use of our name by Fox is not only confusing to the public, but also has the potential to significantly dilute what the ‘Arrested Development’ name means to our fans,” he argued.
Surprisingly, Fox gave in -- or at least decided that paying off the group was cheaper than going to court. The network settled for a measly 10 grand, or as it’s known in the business, “lawyer lunch money.” And in typical Arrested Development (the TV show, the TV show!) fashion, narrator Ron Howard made in-jokes clarifying that a fictional Motherboy event was not named after (the fictional band) Motherboy.