Better off Ted

Status

Ran from 2009 to 2010. Cancelled.

Quick Opinion

Watch it. Now. You should have watched it yesterday. The acting is good, the show is deeply funny (even to me, who has never worked in this sort of environment)

Premise

Veridian Dynamics is every super-villain's dream, and perhaps, every corporation's dream. It's the Wal-Mart of the science world. Omni-present, constantly cutting corners to save money, rich-as-all-get-out,  but for the most part, full of decent, ordinary people. For the most part. 

Story

Ted desperately seeks approval from the company he works for, almost viewing them as his father. However, they aren't a loving parent. He runs into a woman named Linda, one of the few people there considered 'normal.' She isn't a genius, she doesn't have a silver-tongue. She's just supposed to test the products the company comes up with.

She is most frustrated with the company and its policies. Every time their obsession with efficiency interrupts her life, she steals coffee creamer and hoards it in her desk. She acts like an prisoner. 

Just as Ted is about to share his interest in Linda with Linda, she admits she wants to run away. Ted decides that he can't put his daughter--and himself--through another flighty mother/wife figure, and decides against it. 

Major Characters

Veronica: Carl.

Ted: (correcting her to the side) Gordon.

Veronica: Carl Gordon.

Ted: Jenkins.

Veronica: Carl Gordon Jenkins.

Ted: Gordon Jenkins!

Veronica: Carl Gordon Jenkins Gordon Jenkins. (aside:) Are you sure that's right?

Ted: (giving up) That's fine.

Ted Crisp: Ted is a good person at heart, though he can easily get swept away in all of the chaos and wonder of the company. He is probably the weakest character, as little more than a center point for all the other people around him to be focused on.

Lawyer: Can you describe your job?

Veronica: Yes.

Lawyer: * pause* How would you describe your job?

Veronica: Cleverly.

Veronica Palmer: She is a high-powered executive whose job is to spew bullshit. She's extremely good at it. Unfortunately, her character shines brightest in an episode that was unaired by cable, but is still available online: It's My Party and I'll Lie if I Want To. She's one of the funniest female characters I've ever seen.

Ted: You stole a baby?
Linda: Only for a few seconds. Turns out, just because you write your name on something doesn't mean you get to keep it.
Ted: Yeah, I think babies have to be notarized.

Linda: Linda loves Ted, though doesn't want to be the first to admit it. Her standout feature is the great lengths she goes to to make sure that Veridian Dynamics's attempts at saving money with employees go to waste.

Lem: Ted, we need your help.

Phil: We were working really hard in the lab...

Lem: And we had this pinata...

Ted: Pinata? That doesn't sound like really hard work.

Phil: It was stuffed with science.

Phil and Lem: The 'evil scientist' duo. They don't truly realize what they are doing is evil until an episode where they go through their lab and realize everything they have invented was used to kill someone.

Ted: Did you do your math homework?

Rose: Yes.

Ted: Six times eight?

Rose: Yes, that was one of them.

Rose: Ted's daughter. She is taken in by both Linda and Veronica. Veronica tends to use her for the Scheme of the Day, after discovering that people took being fired a lot better from a little girl than her. She acts as Ted's conscience, when she isn't Veronica's pawn.

Standout Episode: 

Racial Sensitivity

Ted: And so, if the company keeps hiring white people to follow black people to follow white people to follow black people, by...

Lem: Thursday, June 27, 2013.

Ted: ...every person on Earth will be working for us. And we don't have the parking for that.

Veridian Dynamics sets up a new automated system for everything, but there is one major oversight: It can't see black people. The intend to ignore it until it goes away. Hilarity ensues. 

I know it's weird to pick so early of an episode as the standout one. It isn't to say that this is as good as the show got, but it's a very good starting point to introduce people to the show.