new show review: better off ted

Better off Ted is a new half hour ABC comedy on Wednesdays. It's about a company that manufactures products of questionable ethical standards. Basically, they'll make anything.

Here's the cast: Main character and narrator Ted - the research and development director - is played by Jay Harrington (you may recognize him from Private Practice or Desperate Housewives), his boss Veronica is played by the lovely and talented Portia de Rossi, Lem and Phil are research partners played by Malcolm Barrett and Jonathan Slavin, product testing coordinator Linda is played by Andrea Anders (if you had the unfortunate experience of watching Joey, you'll recognize her).

In the first episode, they're making a killer pumpkin mold, itchy office chairs to promote employee productivity called "The Focus Master" and freeze an employee for a year to see if it works (doesn't work out well).

Ted narrates the show both Zack Morris style (looking at the camera) and Meredith Grey style (voiceover), which is working well for the pilot - reminds me a little of Scrubs.

We're introduced to Lem and Phil while they're both on the toilet in the office bathroom - each finding or not finding a way to cope with toilet paper dispensers that have been moved out of arm's reach of the toilets. So far, they're making me laugh the most.

We find out that Ted is a single dad with a young daughter named Rose. She's super cute, but she's got a slight case of talking above her age. I've mentioned before how much this annoys me. And we're set up with some sexual tension between Ted and Linda, a quirky girl who is coping with her struggle to justify working for an ethically-challenged company by stealing large quantities of mini creamers. However, we find out that Ted already used his only allotted office affair last year with Veronica, so he cannot pursue another one with Linda for fear of becoming an office slut. Plus the fact that Veronica has expressed her disapproval due to an apparent continuance of their affair.

Bottom line: I laughed out loud once or twice but wasn't blown away. I do like the cast - Portia de Rossi is way under-rated for her comedic talent, so I'm excited to see her back on TV. Because I don't watch enough comedies right now, I'll continue to watch to see how this one progresses. ABC doesn't have a good history with maintaining successful comedies. So again, we'll see how it goes.