Pinned to the end of a lousy review for Fox's Sons of Tucson, San Francisco Chronicle TV columnists proposes a "save the show" campaign for Better Off Ted that doesn't involve writing ABC. Write Fox!
Goodman doesn't actually suggest writing Fox. And he's not giving fans any false hope about "Ted" either. Ok, he might he might sugar coated how dire the situation for "Ted" is at ABC a bit, but rather than any fan-based "save our show" campaign, he has been on a one man crusade lobbying executives at Fox's network to pick up "Ted," should ABC pass (I told you he sugar coated a little).
His reasoning is that since Fox (the network) has been on such a creative roll with its sitcoms ('Til Death, Brothers, and now Sons of Tucson) it might as well pick up "Ted," since it's both good and produced in the Fox family at 20th Century Fox Television.
In theory I love Goodman's thinking. In practice, I don't think Fox the studio is going to cut Fox the network the tremendous deal (we hear practically free) that Sony is giving Fox on 'Til Death. And I don't see Fox the network rolling the dice on ABC's lowest-rated show unless it got it for pennies on the dollar. It's not like "Ted" was some middle of the pack show on the ratings bubble. And that's unfortunate, but there's no getting around it. I'd like to see Goodman get his wish though. It would be a pretty cool story.
There are numerous ways to make a case that ABC bungled how it handled "Ted," and it needs its own special square on the Fan Excuse Bingo cards of being "screwed by Obama." But one thing fans can't really do is suggest ABC screwed "Ted" over just because it wasn't produced by ABC Studios.
ABC's darling, Modern Family is also produced by 20th Century Fox Television.
That's interesting about Modern Family being a 20th Century Fox Television production. Does this mean that Fox network passed on the show before taking it to ABC? Or how does that work?
Better off DEAD
grr- i think they sort of auction off scripts and sell them to the highest bidding network
There is always the option of News Corp-owned MyNetworkTV too. 'Better Off Ted' out-rates their last sitcom 'Under One Roof' about 4:1 in demo, and 3:1 in viewership.
I also believe 'Better Off Ted' would be a nice sitcom mate for either 'It's Always Sunny…' or 'Archer' on F/X too.
what's the story with Sony? who's dog did they run over and now they're trying to make up for it?
Test comment.
That's an interesting idea to move it to Fox, but what do you pair it with? The only half-hour shows that Fox has right now that are commercially viable are its Sunday night cartoons. Til Death and Brothers are gone after this year, and that would force Ted to be paired with an untested comedy. Not really the sunniest option for a show that had a hard time growing a fanbase.
The F/X idea has some merit, but can F/X produce Ted without budget cuts?
Fox has plenty of comedy pilots in development that would have a better chance at garnering an audience than BOT, even though I adore it.
One can only hope. I'd rather see Ted than til death or Sons of Tuscon or Brothers.
Why isn't my gravatar showing up?
New comment system, though if you register for disqus with the same e-mail you used for gravatar, I think there is a way to pull in the same graphic.
I registered but It keeps telling me I'm signing in as a guest.
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nope, doesn't work like that. the sister studio-networks have what's called a first look deal for all studio content to go to network first. can't confirm if that happened to modern family, but that's generally how it works
Question for everyone, assuming that Better Off Ted does get a 3rd season…
Isn't Andrea Anders (Linda) going to be the love interest on Matthew Perry's new ABC sitcom for the Fall season, Mr Sunshine? Also, I understand one of Mr Perry's conditions for being the lead in this sitcom, which he's written, is that it got automatically greenlit.
So if Better Off Ted does return, wouldn't they have to recast Ms Anders character because she's already committed to Mr Sunshine?
I finally watched the “acclaimed” MODERN FAMILY for the first time this week, and it was completely lame. Clearly, BETTER OFF TED was too good for the mouthbreathers at the network.
Not only is Anders committed to the ABC pilot, but Jay Harrington is committed to an NBC comedy pilot and Malcolm Barrett got cast in a FOX comedy pilot.
However, those contracts are conditional – meaning, if Ted does get a third season, they would be contractually obligated to go back and do Ted while the new sitcoms would have to look for new actors to fill their parts.
And even though I love Ted, I think it's time for ABC to air the remaining two episodes, release the 2nd season DVD and call it a day. It's time to be realistic.
I'm happy I got 2 seasons. It's not a mainstream show.
Better Off Ted is such a witty and original sitcom, but its ratings definitely warrant cancellation. On January 12th (going up against the Idol season premiere), the new episode that aired at 8:30 tied a REPEAT Scrubs at 8pm in the demo (0.8/3) but managed to lose some viewers. While Scrubs' ratings aren't good enough for renewal, they're barely acceptable for burn-off at 8pm on Wednesday during the regular season. ABC should wait for the beginning of the summer season to start to burn off the remaining episodes of Ted as it would probably kill a new episode of The Middle with its horrifyingly low ratings.
As for the talk about FOX picking up Ted, why should they? I can see a mid-season scenario where Ted is scheduled for 7:30 on Sunday in between a Simpsons repeat and a new Simpsons, but gets pulled after a few weeks because it consistently falls below the Simpsons repeat at 7pm. Again, I have loved Ted since the pilot episode, but fans need to accept the fact that it won't get a third season because of its low ratings.
Seeing it once was enough for me and that was 2 years ago.