My very last interview of press tour came late at ABC's party, when Fienberg and I ran into "Better Off Ted" creator Victor Fresco. At that point, I was a little too delirious from sleep deprivation to be conversant on my own, but with Dan there, we muddled through. I had hoped to write it up myself before ABC airs the final two "Ted"s of the season tonight at 9 & 9:30, but my "Mad Men" season three review got bumped up a day (note the new blog logo), and that's consuming most of my time. Fortunately, Dan already has his own account of the interview up at HitFix, so go over there to read Fresco's take on the summer run, inconsistent scheduling, the strengths of his cast, and the appearance of Rachelle Lefevre (famous to the world from "Twilight," but known to Fresco from "Life on a Stick") in the second of tonight's two episodes.One thing Dan didn't include in his story: when I asked Fresco why all the Veridian Dynamics commercials weren't easily available online, and particularly why they weren't all up on the official Veridian website, he seemed surprised, and said he was going to look into that today.
McPherson said they've tabled a couple of episodes. What is he talking about? Tonight's episodes are 12 & 13 of a 13 episode order.
ReplyDeleteNo mention at Fienberg of the comedic genius that is Phil & Lem??
ReplyDeleteThis whole exchange plus the earlier stuff with MacPherson makes me wonder if the same monkeys who've been running NBC are moonlighting over at ABC.
ReplyDeleteNothing about what ABC is (not) doing makes sense. You have a built-in ratings grab, why are you not going to use that? It really seems like they have no idea what to do with this show. Have budget cuts gotten rid of their entire marketing dept and they're down to interns? Or are they just kind of surprised it hasn't spontaneously combusted or disappeared by their neglect?
I still want to see a Phil and Lem/Lenny and Carl crossover.
ReplyDeleteI was pleasantly shocked that "Ted" was renewed. But the manner in which ABC has handled "Ted" this summer -- treating the unaired Season 1 episodes as a burnoff, abrupt pre-emptions, not promoting the presence of someone from "Twilight" (WTF?) -- makes me wonder why they bothered renewing.
ReplyDeleteOh boy! I am glad you let us know, Alan. Otherwise I might have missed it. You know, I signed up for text updates for Better Off Ted back when it first started. I wanted to make sure I never missed it if they did something weird with the schedule.
ReplyDeleteKnow how many texts I have gotten about the show? Yep, zero. Zip. Zilch.
What would I do without Alan?(and Fienberg, I guess, in this particular case, since he was the one to write the actual interview.)
Rachelle Lefevre was great in Life on a Stick! I loved that show! Plus the little sister of the main guy was hilarious! I'm looking forward to seeing her on Better Off Ted!
ReplyDeleteI was hoping you would have a Better Off Ted post so I had a forum to bitch about the fact that last week I sat down ready to laugh at the hysterical shennanigans going on Veridian Dynanmics but instead, when I played what my DVR assured me was a new episode of BOT, I got the end of a reality show. Admittedly I did laugh quite a bit at that as well, but also I cried.
ReplyDeletePlease, please give us some more of Dr. Bomba.
ReplyDeleteJen beat me to it - ABC's neglect of BOT reminds me of NBC's fumbling of its innovative shows like 30 Rock. To call these Suits promo-monkeys is to denigrate real monkeys.
ReplyDeleteThe only way I knew there might be new episodes of Ted was because I'm a fan on an unofficial Facebook page.
Both of tonight's episodes were still pretty funny, if not as hilarious as some of the earlier episodes.
ReplyDeleteI'm still shocked the show was renewed, but I wouldn't be shocked if it was cancelled after tonight's ratings come in. Many of the summer episodes earned less than 2 million viewers. I doubt hulu or abc.com viewings are pushing it above 3 million, so I'm just happy the first season was able to air fully, even with the interruptions. Has any other show been cancelled while getting a season two renewal but after that renewal and the show finishing out its season later?
According to Jim has been canceled. George Lopez is off the airwaves. That turd of a show with Bob Saget wrapped up last week.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, Better Off Ted was renewed. Scrubs found a new home. Parks and Recreation found its footing at the end. The pilot for "Community" was damn funny. Louis CK just shot a pilot for FX.
Two and a Half Men aside, is it possible we are in a golden age of sitcoms?
Lefevre was also in the completely scrapped original pilot of the revamped "Life on Mars." (Frankly, considering that it wasn't so great with a bunch of big stars in it, maybe they should have kept her around.) She's also been on a dozen other TV shows, not that I happened to notice just because she's incredibly beautiful.
ReplyDeleteOh, and both episodes of "Better Off Ted" were great tonight.
Meanwhile, here in the Harrisburg market the show was preempted for a TimeLife "best of the 50s" cd set infomercial. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI laughed SO HARD at the Veridian "Green" commercial. I really hope they get them up online soon.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read anything days - 1 have to watch all of S4 of Gilmore Girls by Friday and i did not start till 2 days after i took it out - but saw Lefevre and i remember her from Veronica Mars & Whay About Brian. Sp Pretty. Such beautiful hair... Someone must put her in somrthing (I would watch. I watched Tru Calling for Eliza)
ReplyDeletePam - not a vampire girl
Phil's experiment in confidence and Lem and Phil's obsession with pleasing Ted had me rolling.
ReplyDeleteAnd ABC's promotion of show blows. The L.A. Times' TV guide in the Calendar section last night had the two shows listed as the "series finale." If I hadn't already read Alan's blog, I would have been sad seeing that.
Glad to know I was not the only one who was confused about not seeing BOT last week. I thought maybe they aired it a half hour earlier than scheduled or something.
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed both these episodes. I hope ABC gets their act together with this show.
I'm a little late to the "Better off Ted" party. Are there any plans for a first-season marathon, or am I just gonna have to wait for DVD or Netflix?
ReplyDeleteIIRC there are Veridian ads on YouTube that aren't at its "official" site. Check out "When Presidents Talk," which I guess Fresco made after a Pres. Obama appearance pre-empted BOT? (And look for the swipe at GE as well.)
ReplyDeleteI'm never sure if it was Morley Safer or Harry Reasoner who said it, but I agree with the sentiment: Network suits should be nibbled to death by ducks.
ReplyDelete