The Office with a geeky twist.

Better Off Ted is a single-camera satirical comedy that premiered on March 2009. It follows Ted (Jay Harrington), the head of Research and Development at a multinational company called Veridian Dynamics.

Ted gave the viewers a running tour of the place on the pilot, including what happens on an average day.  We meet his minions, Lem and Phil, played by Malcolm Barrett and Jonathan Slavin respectively, who are always working on some zany experiments that included the likes of pumpkin weapons and edible steel.

The other characters include the big boss Victoria, played by Portia de Rossi, and his love interest, product tester Linda, who is played by Andrea Anders. On its first offering, Ted was caught in the middle when the company decided to freeze Phil in its new cryogenics chamber.

In Veridian Dynamics, it was said, “no achievement is too far-fetched and no invention too unorthodox,” including cow-less meat grown in a test tube and pumpkins that double as weapons of mass destruction.  As a single dad to a seven-year-old girl, Ted knows he loves his job, but he’s starting to realize that, like most multinational companies, his company values profits over morals with its extremely dubious practices.

To make matters worse, Ted is also fighting an attraction to Linda, who’s secretly stealing and hoarding some office supplies, because he has a self-imposed “one-office affair” with Veronica.

The show premiered to humble ratings despite being generally well-received by critics. As it enjoys generally positive reviews, Entertainment Weekly warns that Better Off Ted’s “bouncy make-believe world” and “pathos-free characters” that resembled Pushing Daisies and Eli Stone, both of which canceled earlier than generally hoped.

Better Off Ted was created by Victor Fresco, who’s helmed My Name Is Earl and Andy Richter Controls the Universe.


- Glenn Diaz, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: ABC
(Image courtesy of ABC)