Welcome to a new Wildcard Wednesday, on a Tuesday! My coverage of Community will begin next week. In the meantime, I’m spotlighting a short-lived sitcom from the end of the 2000s —
BETTER OFF TED (March 2009 – January 2010, ABC)
Premise: A single father struggles with the ethics of the mega-corporation for which he works.
Cast: Jay Harrington, Portia de Rossi, Andrea Anders, Jonathan Slavin, Malcolm Barrett, Isabella Acres
Writers: Victor Fresco, Michael A. Ross, Mike Teverbaugh, Justin Adler, Michael Glouberman, Dan O’Shannon, Elijah Aaron & Jordan Young, Becky Mann & Audra Sielaff, Tim Doyle, Michael Shipley, John Hoberg & Kat Likkel, Ingrid Escajeda, Marc Buckland
Thoughts: A quirky workplace single-cam that managed to produce a handful of great episodes in its two-season run, Better Off Ted is a smarter take on creator Victor Fresco’s earlier cult classic, Andy Richter Controls The Universe. That series, which ran on FOX for two seasons from 2002 to 2003, had also enjoyed elements of business-related satire, thanks to its premise of an aspiring writer stuck in an unsatisfying corporate job. Though never a major hit, the show was well-regarded for its comedic abandon and inventive use of narrative gimmicks, all of which were allowed by its then-sexy single-cam setup. We’re talking cinematic devices like voice-over, comedic cutaways, and nonlinear storytelling — all ways to represent the rich imagination of Andy Richter’s character. Better Off Ted has a lot of the same but is a noted improvement over Andy Richter, for it takes that same basic concept — a nice guy at a not-nice company — and commits to it more completely, refining its comic sensibility in accordance with this better-defined, more focused situation. Not only is the company now the series’ primary setting (unlike on Richter’s show, which basically followed him wherever), Ted accentuates its satirical bent by making this corporate palace, Veridian Dynamics, an even more malevolent and dystopian place, where the show is able to spoof everything from the basic tensions of corporate life (low concept), the money-over-people attitude of big-business capitalists (higher concept), to the very human fears and costs of technological advancement (even higher concept). It’s that higher concept fare that truly makes Better Off Ted a memorable short-lived sitcom — enabling comic ideas that are specific to the series and supportive of all those no-longer-unusual single-cam gimmicks — i.e., narration, fourth-wall-breaking asides, fake Veridian Dynamics commercials running in between scenes — which now also feel less gratuitous and more at home in the grandness of an explicitly stylized semi-futuristic lampoon, whose situation invites these devices as an extension of self. And it’s all steeped in the kind of comic risk-taking necessary to leave an impression inside the media-expanding landscape of the late 2000s/early 2010s.
However, what I most appreciate about Better Off Ted is that its high-concept elements are supported well by everything we would classify as low — meaning, the characters. In particular, Fresco begins with a focus on Ted’s inner struggle over the company’s more sinister practices and his role (as the well-liked Senior VP of Research and Development) within it. And everything around him supports that idea. The better angels on his shoulder, encouraging him to stand up to injustice, are his daughter — a kid who fortunately never devolves into cutesy and instead only recurs for the comedic satisfaction of this premise-backed conflict — and familiar sitcom face Andrea Anders as Linda, a warm but excitable underling who also feels unease inside this corporation. Linda is expressly contrasted against Ted’s boss Veronica, played by the icy Portia de Rossi, who personifies the anti-humanistic critique of capitalism that’s foundational to the series’ situation. Also adding regular laughs is the duo of Jonathan Slavin (an Andy Richter alum) and Malcolm Barrett as Phil and Lem, two bumbling scientists in Research and Development who are always working on something absurd while also being subjugated to the uncaring policies foisted on them by upper management. All together, this is a well-crafted ensemble — with room for peripheral players as well — serving the basic premise of the show anchored by Ted, a nice guy in a place that challenges him. And while the high-concept bigness inside this notion certainly generates its own appeal and provides comic hooks for stories, I’m thrilled that the characters are not merely designed to uphold it, but they’re really what’s being explored in the process. That is, Better Off Ted is not about Veridian Dynamics; it’s about the dynamics at Veridian: these relationships. And that’s what allows me to believe this show could have had a longer life beyond two half-seasons of 13 episodes each. Oh, sure, the extremeness of the initial premise does get progressively tempered (probably by the squeamish network) — as the company goes from cartoonishly evil to more clumsy and self-interested. And, honestly, I do think the second season struggles to navigate its identity, with more subplots that are silly and unique to the genre but not as stylistically aligned with the initial situation.
But, again, this isn’t surprising. In order to continue on for a long run, the show would have had to create a status quo that could be viably sustained by these characters. I wouldn’t expect the extremes of the pilot to maintain, not without some loosening. The key, as always, is to be Goldilocks and find the right balance. And with only two seasons of 26 episodes to study, it becomes relative — the pilot exists on one end of the spectrum, the finale of the second season on the other. In that regard, we see the happiest medium in Season One, where most of the series’ best episodes reside. And this trajectory, from a nevertheless too-brief selection, speaks to one of the truisms we’ve discovered here about idea-driven sitcoms (including those well-aided by their regulars): they thrive on novelty, for shows that are designed around specific ideas can only be at their best when those ideas are both fresh and explicit within story. Even in a two-season run, we can already see this show’s grip on its premise starting to weaken. The characters — who remain funny and helpful — then have to pick up the slack… which they generally do… even though it’s less comprehensively ideal on premised terms. Of course, I note all this only to celebrate the first season as particularly ideal; it has a handful of classic episodes that acquit Better Off Ted as, frankly, a candidate for one of the five best sitcoms on television during the 2008-2009 season. That’s rare for a short-lived show. And yet, with funny writing that can play beautifully into a well-designed situation, it’s also basic sitcommery. So, I’m delighted to be spotlighting it here as one of the best, underrated sitcoms from the 2000s decade.
Episode Count: 26 (13 + 13), the last two of which were not broadcast.
Key Eps: #1: “Pilot” (03/18/09) – CLASSIC, see below
#2: “Heroes” (03/25/09) – continues from pilot with bold ideas
#3: “Through Rose-Colored HAZMAT Suits” (4/1/09) – CLASSIC, see below
#4: “Racial Sensitivity” (04/08/09) – CLASSIC, see below
#9: “Bioshuffle” (06/30/09) – interoffice conflicts, plus Lem dating subplot
#10: “Trust And Consequence” (07/14/09) – premised on compromised ideals
#12: “Jabberwocky” (08/11/09) – CLASSIC, see below
#14: “Love Blurts” (12/08/09) – CLASSIC, see below
#17: “Battle Of The Bulbs” (12/22/09) – funny logline with Lem’s mom
#18: “The Great Repression” (01/01/10) – CLASSIC, see below
#21: “The Impertence Of Communicationizing” (01/12/10) – Victory in Premise
#23: “Lust In Translation” (01/19/10) – sheer silliness of gaudy translation device
01) Episode 1: “Pilot” (Aired: 03/18/09)
Ted struggles with the ethics when his company decides to freeze a coworker.
Written by Victor Fresco | Directed by Michael Fresco
The series’ pilot does a terrific job of establishing the premise via the characters and their world at Veridian Dynamics. Of course, the version of this company that’s presented here is more cartoonishly evil than it’ll soon become, but that boldness is striking — particularly in a bit of physical comedy where Phil, who’s been convinced by the company to be cryogenically frozen, is unthawed due to an accident. He emerges with a strange verbal tic — it’s very funny, and exactly the kind of big idea-driven comedy that Better Off Ted handles well.
02) Episode 3: “Through Rose-Colored HAZMAT Suits” (Aired: 04/01/09)
Ted is forced to bring his daughter to work, leaving her in the care of Veronica.
Written by Justin Adler | Directed by Michael Fresco
With an A-story about Ted’s daughter coming to work and hanging out with Veronica, the latter of whom is Ted’s primary embodiment of the cynical corporatism it’s inherently spoofing, this entry is naturally engaging its premise — contrasting good versus bad. Additionally, the show’s futuristic dystopian ethos is on display in several subplots that converge when the alarm goes off in the lab and everyone down there is forced into HAZMAT suits — including the feuding Phil and Lem, plus Linda and Ted, who have a romantic moment that’s actually funny as well.
03) Episode 4: “Racial Sensitivity” (Aired: 04/08/09)
The company faces a crisis when its new sensors only recognize white faces.
Written by Michael Glouberman | Directed by Paul Lazarus
Without a doubt, the funniest sample of the entire series, “Racial Sensitivity” is a Victory in Premise — as trouble erupts at Veridian Dynamics when the company’s new sensors only recognize white faces. That means, all the Black people have trouble using anything automated — like the elevators and, most notably, the water fountains (which temporarily leads to separate ones). It’s a riotous lampoon of both technology but also slow-moving bureaucracy, as the depiction of Veridian Dynamics is becoming more inept than actually evil. The whole thing is also a delectable satire of awkward social politics in the office, with the company deciding to hire more white people to help the Black people get by the sensors, but then the company’s HR policies demanding more Black people be hired in response to all the whites. It’s hysterical — a higher-concept take on the kind of interoffice social dynamics generally explored in more low-concept, everyday ways on The Office — and thus a brilliant example of Better Off Ted‘s premised boldness. This one’s a list-maker, folks — among the best of 2008-2009.
04) Episode 12: “Jabberwocky” (Aired: 08/11/09)
Ted is forced to keep up the charade after inventing a fake project to pacify Linda.
Written by Michael A. Ross | Directed by Michael Fresco
This outing is another example of bureaucratic ineptitude, as Ted invents a fake project to pacify Linda, all in an attempt to cover up lies made by the company of which he is aware but wants to shield her. That’s deliciously tied to the central premise, and the character dynamics that uphold it, and the plotting feels very Nat Hiken — where a small scheme snowballs into something big. And that’s another perfect encapsulation of Better Off Ted’s unique and situation-backed sense of humor. This is the series’ second-most memorable half hour.
05) Episode 14: “Love Blurts” (Aired: 12/08/09)
The company decides to match its employees based on genetic compatibility.
Written by John Hoberg & Kat Likkel | Directed by Michael Fresco
Season Two’s premiere sees a bit of a tonal shift, as both the show and Veridian Dynamics are becoming wackier — with the company still clinically treating human beings like objects, but with a wide-eyed broadness that tempers the cynicism. And this allows the series to embrace bolder comic ideas as well — like Taye Diggs as a Furry fetishist, the fun of Veronica trying to convince Lem to freeze his sperm for her, and the notion of Ted lying to a woman about being part Native American to cover for the fact that he embarrassingly said “I love you” after they were sexually intimate. A collection of funny ideas in this very funny workplace.
06) Episode 18: “The Great Repression” (Aired: 01/01/10)
Misunderstandings lead to Ted and Linda being reported for sexual harassment.
Written by Becky Mann & Audra Sielaff | Directed by Reginald Hudlin
Better Off Ted offers more choice corporate satire in this outing that takes on sexual harassment in a high-concept way that, again, helps contrast the series against more low-concept fare like The Office, thereby proving its individuality and accordant value as a sitcom. Here, the fun comes when Veronica decides that, following misunderstandings with both Ted and Linda that would warrant them being reported to HR, she has their sexual harassment classified as a disease — like an addiction, which then gives them carte blanche and preferential treatment in the workplace. Meanwhile, there’s a great subplot where Phil and Lem are sad when a cleaning job formerly done by a robot is replaced by a human — this reverse of the norm is very funny.
Come back next week for another Wildcard and the official start of Community!