'Better Off Ted' Is Much Better Than Its Title

by Linda Holmes

Quirky network comedies are uphill battles. Networks are not, after all, natural habitats for what's genuinely weird, which is part of what made, say, Arrested Development so striking. ABC's Better Off Ted -- premiering tonight at 8:30 -- isn't Arrested Development, by any means, but there are moments in which the same kind of enthusiastically cockeyed comedy is achieved.

A strong pedigree, a high batting average, and the sobering truth about smart, weird comedy, after the jump...

The show, created by Victor Fresco (who also made the well-regarded Andy Richter Controls The Universe), follows Ted (Jay Harrington), a research and development executive at Veridian Dynamics. Veridian Dynamics is the sort of company that develops products both capital-E Evil (weaponized pumpkins) and little-e evil (uncomfortable chairs to increase productivity).

Big boss Veronica (Portia de Rossi -- hey, from Arrested Development!) has a never-ending list of dark-sounding tasks for Ted, who's the kind of loyal soldier who does what he's asked but sort of wonders whether, say, freezing a guy just to prove you can is a good idea.

It's one of those fast-moving joke-joke-joke shows where not everything works, but not everything has to. I specifically chose not to lead off with a three-minute trailer that's widely available online, because of the number of good jokes it gives away. "I don't want to give away that...or that...or that," I thought. The sheer number of gags, both spoken and visual, that seemed worth not spoiling in a half-hour premiere speaks to the show's solid batting average.

There are certainly elements of Better Off Ted that are satirical and timely, taking shots not only at business ethics but at the sheer immensity and enormity of companies that seem to simultaneously do everything and nothing. But it bears repeating as often as possible that the primary job of a comedy is to be funny, and what makes Ted successful is that everybody's eye is on the ball. They'll go for the smart joke; they'll go for the silly joke. For a show with such a stylized tone, it's admirably unpretentious and likable.

Having said all this, I encourage you to enjoy Ted while it's on, because I'm not optimistic about its chances for success -- the uphill battle continues, after all. My cynical and oft-disappointed heart thought, "This is pretty funny and pretty smart. I give it three weeks." It would probably fare better on basic cable where the expectations would be lower -- maybe on FX or TBS. But perhaps -- perhaps -- as the world becomes more accustomed to 30 Rock and so forth, good, weird little shows will stop dying so reliably.