ABC is desperate to find a top-notch comedy. How else to explain the continued existence of “According to Jim”?
If ABC hadn’t saved the hilarious “Scrubs,” which it produces, after NBC let it go, the network wouldn’t have anything but dramas and reality shows on its schedule.
Its latest sitcom candidate is “Better Off Ted,” which debuts at 8:30 tonight behind “Scrubs” (that’s ABC’s idea of a comedy block).
The series is the story of Ted (played by Jay Harrington), who heads up research and development at the morally questionable Veridan Dynamics. (Each episode starts with an ad send-up of the “better living through chemistry” spots.) He’s also the single dad of a 7-year-old daughter, and the two duties often come in conflict.
At work, Ted answers to the conscience-free Veronica (Portia de Rossi), who thinks nothing of cryogenically freezing one of Veridan’s top researchers as a test or teaching Ted’s daughter Rose (Isabelle Acres) how best to fire people.
Ted finds himself attracted to co-worker Linda (Andrea Anders) and vice versa, but because he previously had a bad office fling with Veronica, he’s hesitant to try again.
Harrington and de Rossi do a great job of delivering their well-written lines with straight faces, and Jonathan Slavin and Malcolm Barrett are amusing as joined-at-the-hip researchers Phil and Lem.
Still, “Better Off Ted” is no threat to that other office comedy on NBC. The corporate peons at “The Office” are three-dimensional characters first, not the stereotypes of the ABC comedy.
“Better Off Ted” is one of ABC’s best comedies. But that’s really damning with faint praise.