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This requires some setup: Because ABC agreed to provide free air time to President Obama tonight, the season finale of ABC comedy Better Off Ted is no longer airing this evening and being rescheduled for a later date. In response, series creator Victor Fresco made this commercial parody. (FYI, the sitcom is set at a morally bankrupt megacorporation called Veridian Dynamics.) Interestingly, the show comes from Twentieth Century Fox TV, whose sister company FBN became the only broadcast network to turn down Obama's news conference in order to run Lie To Me.
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Hard to get a handle on the POV here. It’s not satirical but rather pedestrian. What’s outrageous to me on the subject is the fact that Fox doesn’t own its airwaves, it licenses them from We The People. A part of that agreement should be the public service aspect of having been granted the right to program our airwaves such that when the president holds a press confrence, the network airs it. But you try telling that to an arrogant Aussie!
I watch “Better off Ted” – it’s funny and great!
And bumping it for the President’s press conference was the right call even if it was made for the wrong reasons.
I watched the pilot for this show and had no f*cking clue what was going on. People are working on plastic. The next second someone’s getting frozen. Too weird for me. Obama is definitely better programming (side note: Is Firefox republican? How come it underlines “Obama” as misspelled? This is our president for God’s sake. Shouldn’t you know the spelling?)
The saddest part of that is that it was more intelligent and far more thought went into it than anything on the Fascist News Channel.
Also it was funnier than even Glenn Beck!
It makes no difference, “Better Off Ted” is already dead, methinks. Bad ratings…
That’s what shooting digital and the AFTRA curse gets you Fox, a big bomb.
What a waste of a good cast and concept, ruined by an inferior format.
“Glee”, which is SAG and shot on film, is going to be a huge hit.
Get over yourself. He’s the President. It’s not all about you. You have a hit show and plenty of money, your finale will be seen. I’m embarrassed for you.
I love BOT. It’s consistently funny, the acting superb – a real breath of fresh air. Let’s hope ABC gives it a chance. Side note to Mr. Fresco: PLEASE lose Ted talking to the camera. The use is inconsistent, awkward and unnecessary.
Excellent! I didn’t pay attention to this show. Fun video and clever calling cards for ignorants like me.
This show is a little gem – I’ve probably laughed harder at this than at 30 Rock in the last few weeks, and I don’t say that to slam 30 Rock.
Such a shame this show probably won’t see a second season.
Season Finale? 12 Episodes in addition to the pilot were shot. Why aren’t they airing all of them?
love the talking to the camera; gives the show a certain rhythm that’s just beautiful and truly effective.(swinging back and forth from viewer/camera to absurdity, taking part in the silliness of business at veridion and then reassuring us everythings just fine:)
Single camera half-hour comedies rarely work. They need to stop making them and focus on QUALITY 3 camera comedies which are also cheaper to make.
Joe Brown… are you kidding me? Show doesn’t work because it’s AFTRA and shooting digital, but Glee will work because it’s shot on film? Your perspective is a first for me. Well done.
It’s too bad the show isn’t as funny as the ads. In fact this one is funnier than most of the fake ads.
A station should have the right to cover the news as it sees fit; it shouldn’t be forced to air a press conference unless it was some sort of an emergency. The networks would often skip many of Bush’s conferences, (usually choosing instead to let their news channel carry it) so it shouldn’t be any different than with Obama.
And not everyone is interested in the US President. Some of us are Canadian.
To Exasperated,
In tough economic times people want to escape. Using a hyper-real format like digital, doesn’t allow the viewer to escape his troubles. Its too much like the real World.
Film is the “story telling medium”. The public is used to watching film. Digital has sterile look. Film has an organic look.
Its a shame when so much effort is put into writing, directing, acting, etc. To have a show sabotaged by some ignorant geeks, obsessed with pixels resolution and instant high def playback. Part of the reason for switching to digital, is also the shortsighted desire of the conglomerates to switch the actors union, to AFTRA from SAG, in TV.
How many hit broadcast prime time TV dramas are shot digitally? Hardly ANY. Though there is a effort now, to switch already established shows, from film, to digital high def. It will probably be detrimental to their ratings.
Sitcoms and reality are another story. Digital can work in those areas.
What happened to the rest of the episodes? They shot 12 this past fall and that is not including the pilot. Based on my count they’ve only aired 6….and this Wednesday they repeated a previously aired episode (here on the West Coast). So what the hell…..? What’s up?
Dear “The Real Truth”,
Since you state that “the public owns the airways”, does that mean that all of the networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, etc.) have to air my video whenever I want them to? Why does Obama have more right to have his speech broadcast than I do?