[Televisionary]

I have to give ABC credit: they've definitely gone the distance in investing in comedy this season. Besides for their Wednesday comedy programming block (which houses the extraordinary Modern Family ), ABC has also carved out a small niche on Tuesday evenings, which tonight sees the second season return of workplace comedy Better Off Ted . I'm extremely pleased that ABC saw fit to renew Better Off Ted , especially after it burned off many of its freshman season episodes over the summer. And while I'd love it if it could somehow shift over to Wednesdays, I'm happy to have Ted , created by Victor Fresco, back where it belongs: on the airwaves. Season Two of Better Off Ted continues the winning formula of the first season, offering its audience a deliciously acidic take on the workplace comedy. Better Off Ted isn't just a standard-issue workplace comedy but rather subverts the form, setting its characters in a duplicitous and often dangerous multi-national corporation...

Every now and then a comedy series comes along that's so wickedly inspired and so incisive that it's a shame that so few viewers are actually tuning in. This past season, that series was ABC's little gem of a single-camera comedy, Better Off Ted . Created by Victor Fresco (who also gave birth to the way undervalued comedy Andy Richter Controls the Universe ), Better Off Ted is an wittily acidic workplace comedy revolving around shady multinational corporation Veridian Dynamics and its employees. Specifically, we're taken inside the head of the company's self-appointed moral compass Ted Crisp (Jay Harrington), a single dad who is the head of Veridian's R&D department and who (sometimes) draws the line at creating products that are outright designed to make people's lives worse. Sometimes, anyway. Ted has a crush on his researcher Linda (Andrea Anders) but he used up his "office affair" on their terrifyingly icy boss Veronica (Portia de Rossi). ...

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Good news for Chuck fans: NBC has opted to order six additional episodes of Chuck , bringing the episodic total for Season Three to 19 installments. (Huzzah!) While NBC has yet to announce an official launch date for Chuck 's third season, the order of the additional episodes points to a potential January launch for the Warner Bros. Television-produced series, as does NBC's decision to cancel low-rated medical drama Trauma , which failed to garner a back nine pickup. Given the Peacock's cancellation of both Trauma and Southland , it now seems more likely that Chuck will return to the schedule before March. ( The Wrap's TVMoJoe , Hollywood Reporter , Variety ) E! Online's Jennifer Godwin gets Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof to answer a few choice questions about Season Six of Lost while at a signing for the hardcover collection of Lindelof's Wolverine Vs. Hulk . Asked about whether fan questions have helpe...

I'm going to miss Better Off Ted . Despite this being the second "season finale" for the comedy series' first season in the last few months, I'm sad that we'll have to be without the gang at Veridian Dynamics for the next few months... until the Victor Fresco-created series returns with its second season in November. Last night's back-to-back episodes of Better Off Ted made the separation even more painful. Despite the lack of Will Arnett as lousy magician GOB Bluth (we had to do with a better looking clone named Mordor), I thought that the two episodes were pitch perfect. Besides for the gorgeousness of Jaberwocky's bio-luminescent roof garden (and its fire squirrel), the episodes featured Ted and Veronica giving one of the most hilarious presentations ever created (complete with flash pots) and introduced a new love interest for Ted in the form of Rachelle Lefevre's Rebecca. I've been a fan of Lefevre's since I first saw her way back whe...

I can't tell you how incredibly excited I am about the return of ABC's fantastic comedy series Better Off Ted this summer. It's especially true this summer when the season seems to be positively overflowing with network castoffs as the broadcasters burn off remaining unaired installments of their sadly canceled series. (Just take a look at Saturday nights to see what I mean.) But despite its place on the schedule this summer, ABC's winsome Better Off Ted isn't canceled; in fact, it earned a slot on the network's midseason lineup thanks to some goodwill from Steve McPherson and the programmers at the Alphabet. But there's still a handful of unaired episodes from the series' first season, which means that Ted fans will be getting a fresh batch of Veridian goodness over the next few weeks. Tonight's episode ("You Are the Boss of Me"), written by Dan O'Shannon, is a fantastic reminder of just how quirky and lovable this series is. I had t...

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. ABC is set to bring back Better Off Ted earlier than expected as the network has announced that it will air six unaired episodes from Ted 's first season this summer before kicking off a second season of thirteen episodes in early 2010. Better Off Ted will return to ABC's schedule on June 23rd at 9 pm ET/PT, airing behind new reality competition series The Superstars . [Editor: that gleeful squealing sound you're hearing? It's me.] Meanwhile, ABC also announced that it had pulled comedy Surviving Suburbia from its lineup, instead airing back-to-back episodes of The Goode Family this week. ( Variety ) Mykelti Williamson ( Kidnapped ) has joined the cast of Day Eight of FOX drama 24 , where he will play the head of CTU New York, Brian Hastings, described as having "a razor-sharp intellect." Williamson, who will be a series regular next season, joins the recently announced Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Westfe...

A few days ahead of its upfront presentation to advertisers on Tuesday, ABC indicated several early pickups and renewals, creating a diverse slate of programming that includes six new dramas and two new comedies (in addition to several already previously announced) and a slew of surprising renewals. ABC has gone ahead and reportedly handed out series orders to dramas The Forgotten, Happy Town , The Associates (which is also being referring to by some outlets as The Deep End ), and Eastwick and comedies Cougar Town , Hank (a.k.a. Awesome Hank ), and The Middle . An updated version of sci-fi cult hit V , from The 4400 creator Scott Peters, is said to be on tap for midseason, though as of press time discussions are still ongoing between the network and studio Warner Bros. Television about the episodic order, with ABC said to have offered six episodes in a limited series format and the studio pushing for a larger episodic count. The series pickups come on the heels of ABC's announc...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. CBS has announced that it will move struggling freshman drama series Harper's Island to Saturday nights at 9 pm ET/PT, beginning May 2nd. What saved the series from outright cancellation are its strong DVR numbers and the fact that all thirteen episodes of Harper's Island 's limited run were already in the can, making it much easier for the Eye to just burn off the episodes. "This move gives us an opportunity to improve the time period on Thursday while experimenting with more original programming on Saturday," said CBS senior exec VP Kelly Kahl of the network's decision. Harper's Island won't be alone on Saturday nights, which the networks have been increasingly using as a dumping ground for series with small but loyal viewers; Kings, Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone , and Dirty Sexy Money will all air episodes on Saturdays this summer. ( Variety ) J.J. Abrams is confident that freshman drama series Fr...

It's rare when a comedy series comes along and makes me fall under its spell. I'm typically pretty averse to the weak charms of most sitcoms and it takes quite a lot for me to invest my time in brand-new comedy series, given their relatively short shelf lives these days. So imagine my surprise when I fell head over heels in love with not just one but three comedy series over the last few weeks. All three air on very different networks, ranging from broadcast to cable to premium, but all three have managed to win me over with their loopy, goofy charms. I reviewed ABC's Better Off Ted a few weeks back, before it premiered, and reviewed the first few episodes of Party Down , airing on Starz, but I've been far too quiet about the strengths of both of these innovative series. Likewise, I'm currently obsessed with British import The Mighty Boosh , which launched its third season over on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block. Three very different series inde...

Anyone who's ever worked for a soulless multi-national corporation can tell you that the company ethos is kill or be killed. In some cases, like at Better Off Ted 's Veridian Dynamics, that's quite literal: the company makes nuclear weapons (they also weaponize pumpkins), diet foods, and office chairs. They pretty much make everything we consume, making our lives better every day. (Or in the case of those aforementioned weapons, much, much worse.) Created by Victor Fresco ( Andy Richter Controls the Universe ), ABC's smart and sophisticated comedy Better Off Ted , which premieres tomorrow, follows the employees of the insidious Veridian Dynamics, a company much like Fringe 's Massive Dynamic... but much scarier. In clever company ads, the audience gets to see just what this company is all about, from its desire to reanimate the dead and copy them (so you'll never lose them again) to its corporate work ethic about workers being like family... and family should al...

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Samantha Who? 's Jennifer Esposito has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on USA's Burn Notice , where she will play Michelle Paxon, "a Miami PD detective who becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth about Michael." Esposito is expected to first turn up at the start of Season Three of Burn Notice , scheduled to debut in June. ( Entertainment Weekly' s Ausiello Files ) Chevy Chase, who'll be seen later this season on NBC's Chuck , has been cast as one of the leads in NBC's comedy pilot Community , where he will play a community college student who has been married five times, opposite Joel McHale. Pilot will be directed by Joe and Anthony Russo ( Arrested Development ). ( Hollywood Reporter ) Richard Dreyfuss ( Tin Man ) and Jason Biggs ( The Pleasure of Your Company ) will star in CBS comedy pilot Happiness Isn't Everything , about adult siblings and their parents who are "overinvolv...