Better Off Ted | |
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Better Off Ted's logo
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Genre |
Satire Science fiction Sitcom Dark Comedy |
Created by | Victor Fresco |
Starring |
Jay Harrington Portia de Rossi Andrea Anders Jonathan Slavin Malcolm Barrett Isabella Acres |
Narrated by | Jay Harrington |
Composer(s) | Chris Alan Lee Scott Clausen |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 2 |
No. of episodes | 26 (2 unaired) (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) | Victor Fresco |
Producer(s) | Marc Solakian Skip Beaudine |
Location(s) | Los Angeles, California |
Editor(s) | Lisa Bromwell Robert Bramwell Peter Beyt |
Camera setup | Single-camera |
Running time | 21 minutes |
Production company(s) | Garfield Grove Productions 20th Century Fox Television |
Distributor | 20th Television |
Release | |
Original network | ABC |
Picture format | HDCAM-SR |
Audio format | 5.1 Surround sound |
Original release | March 18, 2009 | – January 26, 2010
Website |
Better Off Ted is an American satirical sitcom series, created by Victor Fresco (known for his other television series Andy Richter Controls the Universe and the short-lived show Life on a Stick), who also served as the show's executive producer. The series ran on the ABC network from March 18, 2009 to January 26, 2010.
Better Off Ted focuses on the protagonist, Ted Crisp (Jay Harrington), a single father and the well-respected and beloved head of a research and development department at the fictional, soulless conglomerate of Veridian Dynamics. Ted narrates the series' events by regularly breaking the fourth wall and directly addressing the audience as the show's on-camera narrator. Supporting characters include Ted's supervisor Veronica Palmer (Portia de Rossi), co-worker and love interest Linda Zwordling (Andrea Anders), his daughter Rose (Isabella Acres), and laboratory scientists Phillip Myman (Jonathan Slavin) and Lem Hewitt (Malcolm Barrett).
The series received critical acclaim, with particular praise going towards its witty and satirical humor. Its second season holds a score of 84 out of 100 on Metacritic. However, despite such positive feedback, the show's debut only drew in 5.64 million viewers and continued to have extremely low ratings. Although many expressed skepticism that it would return, it was renewed for a second season. On May 13, 2010, ABC officially canceled the series due to low viewing figures. Two episodes were unaired in the United States, but are available to view on Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand, Xbox Live Marketplace, and iTunes.