There's always money in the...cookie stand?
Long before it toured the world, was burnt to the ground, or was George Michael's summer bummer, the Bluth Frozen Banana Stand served as a cathartic expression of Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz's childhood frustration. In a new interview with Los Angeles Magazine, he revealed that he became a slave to his own early attempts at entrepreneurship.
When he was 12 years old and his brother was 15, the two decided to start a little business selling cookies from a table in their front yard. Instead, their dad handed them the cash to build a small stand on Balboa Boulevard, a big roadway in Los Angeles. Business started out slow, but a feature about their venture in the L.A. Times turned them into a veritable bakery, with 6,000 cookies sold the day after the story's publication.
"It created so much discord in the family. There was a divorce scenario playing out; it was a loaded time," Hurwitz said. In fact, his dad even suggested that the young Mitch write about the tumult, which, of course, would one day come to pass.
"My brother and I ended up slaves to that place," he remembered. "The idea of wearing a silly little outfit and standing inside a very cramped space and having to work while all your friends are at the beach all summer, that inspired the frozen banana stand on the show. One guy actually threatened to firebomb [the Chipyard]. I remember my brother saying, 'If you feel strongly, maybe you should explore that.' Really. We wanted out."
Looks like the flamer was really a product of their own long-repressed desires. And who knew it would become a real rallying point for celebrities and nevernudes alike?