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needs a break and some help. In that same episode, George Michael tells Michael that he’d like to work more hours at the banana stand. George Michael wants to work more because his attraction to Maeby is dominating his thoughts, and he thinks some time away from her will quell his incestuous desires. Unfortunately for George Michael, his father makes Maeby join him in the banana stand so that she can learn the value of work—something she can’t learn from her unemployed parents. Michael makes George Michael the manager (Mr. Manager, but we just say, “manager” . . .) of the banana stand and offers his son the following advice for managing his new employee: “You stay on top of her, buddy. Do not be afraid to ride her. Hard.”

Besides the fact that working in the banana stand with Maeby makes George Michael uncomfortable, there’s a problem with having children work there at all. Both Michael and Maeby are under sixteen years old, and U.S. child labor laws place significant restrictions on the number of hours they can work.4 The Bluth Company probably violates child labor laws again in “Staff Infection” when Lucille says Annyong—whose “work ethic is unbelievable”—is heading off to work a ten-hour shift at the banana stand. I say “probably” here because no one really knows how old Annyong is. Lucille does call him a “young boy,” however. Perhaps using so much child labor is the reason why at the end of “Top Banana” Michael realizes that the banana stand is the only profitable part of the Bluth Company. And if you’re going to break the law so that the family can make some money, why not put family—especially young family—to work first?

The banana stand isn’t the only money-making venture in which the Bluth Company exploits children, though. In “Making a Stand” we learn that George Sr. provoked his sons to fight one another and then taped these fights—which were popular in Latin America—and sold copies under the name Boyfights. The Boyfights series included the titles “Boyfights: A Day in the Life of American Boys,” with bonus footage of Baby Buster in “I Don’t Want to Go to Bed”; “Boyfights 2: Boys Will Be Boys,” with bonus footage of Baby Buster in “Too Old to Breastfeed”; “A Boyfights Cookout,” featuring “Run for Your Life!” with bonus footage of Baby Buster in “A Fifth Grader Wets His Bed”; and “Backseat Boyfights: The Trip to Uncle Jack’s 70th,” with bonus footage of Crybaby Buster in “I Don’t Want to Be on This Tape!”

Treatment of Employees: The Office and the Construction Site

The Bluth Company’s poor treatment of employees using the “Family First” motto isn’t limited to the banana stand—it permeates every aspect of the company, including the office and the construction site. In the realm of the office, consider Gob at the company Christmas party in “Afternoon Delight,” in which he alienates employees by constantly referring to his expensive suit, which, he tells different people at various points in the episode, is valued at $3,000, $4,000, $5,000, $6,300, and finally $3,600 (for the pants alone). Then, at the Christmas party, Gob fires all of the employees for laughing when Tom—whom George Sr. had once fired at a previous Christmas party for joking that the company’s numbers haven’t been adding up because “George has been into the kitty” (an obvious reference to George’s Sr. affair with his secretary Kitty)—toasts Gob by reluctantly saying that “Gob seems like he’d be a really smart boss” and that “he’s a great magician.” As some consolation, the next day Michael throws another Christmas party for the employees at the banana stand to assure them that they have not really been fired.

The Bluth Company motto of “Family First” is also illustrated in “Staff Infection” when Michael wants construction site workers to work without pay. The company is behind on payroll and won’t have any money to pay its employees until the zoning committee gives its approval to the Bluth Company’s plans for a new subdivision. It’s a Saturday, and Michael advises the foreman to “keep [his] head down, power through, you know, and